Half board or alacarte for Rangoria and Bora Bora

[tmt185]

Hello All,

I was wondering if I should go with the Half Board or Alacarte for my meals. I am not familiar with resturants the islands and any help on what resturants to go to on those island would greatly be appreciated. We will be staying at Le Maitai on both islands.

Thank-you very for your help

 

[Wingy]

There are only two restaurants as such on Rangi near the Pier at Tipuata..Lili Cafe and the other snack directly opposite it. Rangi is pretty basic. I stay with Pension Teina and Marie at $60 a night with breakfast and dinner (lobster, lobster, so many lobster) included.
Id suggest Lili Cafe for Mahe Mahe in Vanilla and Coconut sauce and the snack opposite (have forgotten the name sorry but you cant miss it) for Poisson Cru.

Rangiroa is not like Bora Bora. There is very very little on Rangi which is why its so charming. Bora Bora is the touristy island. I did not get breakfast or a meal package because every review I read or person I spoke to who had gone and paid the exorbidant fees for meals inclusive were disappointed. Bora Bora's restaurants are either within the hotels, and you will pay a pretty penny for every meal (order water with your meal and you will recieve a one litre bottle for $8) - (refill the bottle) or a few roulottes on the main road - or take a walk to one of the Marches (I like the one up the road from the Sofitel and near the public beach) and grab yourself some baguettes and brie and fruit and make breakfast in your room..why else do you take your dive knife with you :blinking:. Do Not try and shop at Changs in Viatape (the main port/town) as it once made the guiness book of records as the most expensive grocery store in the world.

THE place to eat on Bora Bora is Bloody Marys - your hotel will organise a taxi pick up and drop off - its an Icon and a BB must do....try the tuna carpaccio/polynesian platter. Lunch it is quiet, dinner it is busy and of course, extremely expensive. If you are in BB when cruise ships are in you will need to get your hotel to make you a reservation at Bloody Marys but once you see it you will understand why. Enjoy.

 

[tmt185]

Wow, $8 for water, I thought Los Angeles was expensive. I will take your advice and save the bottle for sure. The Mahi Mahi sounds great.

Thank-you for your advice and input on food and water.

 

[Shasta_man]

Yes, very little choice in Rangiroa. There wasn't a lot of choice in BB either but more than Rangiroa. Part of the Rangiroa problem is that it's not real big but everything isn't just across the street either, depending on where you stay, so it takes effort and time. Since it's quite expensive to stay there, consider where your time is best spent: saving a few bucks or enjoying your time. The prices that hit me at the time were $15 for a mixed drink and $25 for buffet breakfast. I also found they aren't used to meat, after usually cooking fast cooking fish. I had to send a hamburger back 3 times to cook more. The bacon looked like it was right out of the package. This trip will ruin your value system for hotels in the future. After staying in overwater bungalows for $500 a night (painful but worth every cent to us), all other hotels pale in comparison and their prices (you know the ones here in CA) are completely ridiculous for what you get in comparison.

 

[jusug]

As the others have mentioned depending on where you live the options for going out at night may be limited, as it gets dark and street lights are limited and not everything is nearby. So you probably will end up eating in your hotel quite a lot, but even so the meal package may easily be overpriced.


if you are going out there for the diving and anyhow are in Rangiroa I would try to build in a few days on Fakarava - possibly even more remote than Rangiroa, but you can see this:


[video=youtube;rgmfYvwuvMM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgmfYvwuvMM[/video]


which for me beat even the great diving and Dolphins on Rangiroa, although both places were truly amazing. There is a couple of Rangiroa videos on my youtube channel. Enjoy - given time and budget I would not hesitate to go back, even if there are many other great places to dive.