Our 2nd Honeymoon in Paradise – Is Food Expensive in Bora Bora?

December 26, 2012 By Million Mile Secrets

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Eating In Hotels

I reviewed the dining options at the InterContinental Thalasso in this post and at the Hilton Bora Bora in this post. Eating in the hotel is expensive, but you can save ~$32 per person for breakfast at the Hilton in Bora Bora if you have Hilton Gold elite status. You can get Hilton Gold status with a virtual move to Australia or with the Citi Hilton Reserve card.

Both hotels had an electric kettle to heat water.

So you could bring soup or noodles with you and make it in your room to save money.

Supermarkets

Perhaps the best way to save money would be to go to the supermarket and buy food and bring it back to your hotel and eat sandwiches, cold cuts, etc.

We went into both large supermarkets while biking around Bora Bora. We love seeing what the local stores sell when we travel!

Both Chin Lee and Super U are walking distance from the Viatape dock. The Hilton charges ~$7 for a boat ride to Viatape. If you stay at the InterContinental Thalasso, you can take the free boat from the Thalasso to the La Moana and then take a cab from the InterContinental La Moana to get to the supermarkets.

The first supermarket was Chin Lee.

They had a mixture of European and American groceries and products.

The next grocery store was Super U which was further up.

Super U was much larger than Chin Lees and seemed less busy than Chin Lees.

We got a kick out of seeing Cheesburger Lays chips, but didn’t have the courage to try them!

A liter of water was only ~$1 in the supermarkets! I had the tap water at the hotels, but Emily preferred the bottled water.

If you stay at the InterContinental Thalasso, you can take the free boat to the InterContinental La Moana and walk to Tiare Market and stock up on provisions.

Stalls

There are fruit and produce stalls just off the road in Bora Bora.

I tried the banana bread which was yummy!

Roulettes

In the evening outside the main dock of Viatape, there are roulettes or food trucks.

The prices are more reasonable than elsewhere and it is ~$10 for a dish.

Restaurants

There are restaurants in Bora Bora. Our favorite was Villa Manaha which had great atmosphere and food, but it was expensive.

Around the corner from the InterContinental La Moana (which you can get to for free from the InterContinental Thallaso) is Snack Matira.

We didn’t eat there, but the prices seemed more reasonable, by Bora Bora standards. About $6 for a hamburger and about $10 to $20 for a meat or fish main dish.

We also visited restaurant St. James which had a great view, but the food was okay.

Salads were about $17…

And main courses were about $25+, though you could get pasta for ~$17.

I had the fish with vanilla.

Emily had a fish allergy so just had dessert and the safe snacks which she brought from the US.

Some say that the popular restaurant Bloody Mary’s is a tourist trap, some say it is worth visiting. It was closed when we biked past so we couldn’t check it out.

Here’s a list of other restaurants in Bora Bora from Frommer’s.

Bottom Line

Food at the hotels in Bora Bora is expensive, but you can save money by either bringing snacks with you, shopping at a local supermarket, or eating outside the hotel.