Cheapest Overwater Bungalows in Bora Bora and French Polynesia: 2026 Prices

The cheapest overwater bungalow in French Polynesia, ten minutes from the airport, with Moorea across the channel.

This is the former Sofitel Ia Ora, rebuilt and reopened in 2026 under its own name, and it has the only overwater bungalows on Tahiti that face Moorea. The twelve bungalows have glass floor panels and the water under them is clear enough to count fish from bed, which is not something I can say about every lagoon on this list. The resort is on the main island, so you get restaurants and the market in Papeete within half an hour, and you lose the castaway feeling. For a first or last night before an island hop it is the best money you will spend in Polynesia.

Transfer: taxi or hotel shuttle, about US$30.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• price
• airport in ten minutes
• Moorea view
• The honest drawback
• Tahiti is not Bora Bora
• road noise reaches the beach bungalows
• only twelve overwater units, so book early

The cheapest overwater bungalow on Bora Bora, on the main island with Matira Beach a short walk away.

The Maitai is a three star hotel with overwater bungalows that cost a third of the motu resorts, and it knows exactly what it is. The eighteen bungalows are about thirty square metres, have a glass coffee table over the water and no pool, and they sit on the lagoon side of the coast road at Matira, the best public beach on the island. You can walk to Bloody Mary's and to the food trucks, which saves the US$100 dinners the motu resorts charge. The view is of the lagoon and Raiatea rather than Mount Otemanu, and the premium bungalows at the end of the jetty are the ones to ask for.

Rack rate US$1,206. Free half board on three night stays until 31 March 2027.

Transfer: free airport boat to Vaitape then the hotel shuttle, or the public ferry.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• cheapest Bora Bora overwater
• walk to restaurants and the beach
• the half board offer
• The honest drawback
• small rooms
• no pool
• no Otemanu view

The best value lagoon in Polynesia: 28 overwater bungalows on Moorea's north coast from about US$1,080.

Moorea is the island I would send a first timer to if they could only afford one, and Manava is the resort I would book. It is a four star, the bungalows are plainer than the Hilton's down the road, and the lagoon off the deck is as good, with coral heads a few metres out and the mountains behind. The resort has a reef pool, a reliable restaurant and the ferry means no internal flight.

Transfer: 30 minute ferry from Papeete then a 20 minute drive, about US$40 per person.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• price for the lagoon
• no flight
• good snorkelling from the deck
• The honest drawback
• plainer finishes
• smaller bungalows
• the north coast road is close

Ten overwater bungalows on the second largest atoll in the world, for divers and people who want nobody else around.

Rangiroa is the Tuamotus, which means an atoll with no mountain, a lagoon the size of Tahiti and some of the best drift diving on earth at the Tiputa pass. Kia Ora is the only resort with overwater bungalows here, and they sit over a lagoon that is shallow, warm and almost empty of other people.

The resort closed for renovation on 1 November 2026. Its revised notice provides for a phased reopening but does not give a spring 2027 reopening date. This is a future stay, not an open resort to book for November 2026.

Transfer: one hour flight from Papeete, then a ten minute drive.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• price
• the diving
• solitude
• The honest drawback
• closed for renovation
• a flat island with no mountain views
• the restaurant is the only one for miles

A full five star resort five minutes from the airport with 24 overwater bungalows and the best sunset in Papeete.

The InterContinental is where Air Tahiti Nui crews and half the honeymooners in Polynesia spend their first night, and the overwater bungalows are better than that suggests: solid, wide decked, facing Moorea, with a lagoonarium you can snorkel in. It is a hotel rather than a hideaway, with weddings and conferences, but as a base for the island hop or a last night it is the dependable choice.

Transfer: five minutes by taxi, about US$20.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• five minutes from the airport
• proper five star service
• the Moorea sunset
• The honest drawback
• busy
• aircraft noise on the beach side
• the lagoon is not Bora Bora's

The cheapest Bora Bora overwater bungalow with a beach you can walk out of the room onto, at Matira Point.

Le Moana is on the main island at the tip of Matira Point, which puts the best beach in Bora Bora on one side of the bungalow jetty and the open lagoon on the other. The bungalows are older than the motu resorts' but have glass floors and a proper Polynesian roof, and the lagoon colour here is the one on the postcards. You can walk to restaurants, which matters when the resort charges US$60 for a main course.

Transfer: free airport boat to Vaitape then the hotel shuttle.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• Matira Beach
• walkable
• the lagoon colour
• The honest drawback
• dated rooms
• no Otemanu view from most bungalows
• compulsory dinners on 24 and 31 December

A nine bungalow private island with three overwater bungalows and the best restaurant in the Leeward Islands, from about US$1,700.

Vahine is the opposite of a resort: nine bungalows, a family who run it, a cook who trained in France and a motu with Bora Bora on the horizon. The three overwater bungalows are the ones to book and they sell out months ahead. There is nothing to do but snorkel the coral garden, visit the vanilla farms on Taha'a and eat, which is the point.

Transfer: flight to Raiatea then a 35 minute boat, about US$120 per person for the boat.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• the food
• the privacy
• Bora Bora on the horizon for half the price
• The honest drawback
• three overwater units
• two transfers
• no pool, no spa

Moorea's five star, with overwater bungalows that face the mountains and a lagoon full of rays.

The Hilton is the best overwater resort on Moorea and it charges accordingly, though still a thousand dollars a night less than the Bora Bora motus. The bungalows have a Polynesian roof, a large deck with a ladder into a lagoon where stingrays come to the jetty, and the view back to the island is Moorea's spiky skyline rather than a flat horizon. The coral under the jetties has bleached in recent years, so snorkel from the boat trips rather than the deck.

Transfer: 30 minute ferry then 25 minute drive, about US$40 per person.

The verdict

• Worth it for
• the mountain view
• rays at the jetty
• a real spa and pool
• The honest drawback
• price for Moorea
• bleached coral under the bungalows
• the resort is large