83. From Points to Paradise: Planning your Bora Bora Getaway with Dr. Chandani DeZure

Welcome to Point Me to First Class, the only show for employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are looking to optimize their higher-than-average expenses to travel the world. I'm your host, Devon Gimbel, and I believe that your expenses are your greatest untapped asset if you know how to leverage them. Ready to dive into the world of credit card points and miles so you can travel more, travel better, and travel often? Let's get started.

Devon: Welcome back to the Point Me to First Class podcast everybody. Today, we are diving into a tropical dream destination that tops many travelers' wish list, Bora Bora. I've got a fantastic guest joining me today who just returned from an incredible trip to this iconic paradise, and she's here to spill all the details.

We're going to talk about everything from overwater bungalows and stunning sunsets to the best ways to book, budget, and plan your own getaway to Bora Bora. Whether you're already planning your own trip here or just dreaming about relaxing on the white sand beaches of French Polynesia, this episode is packed with tips and inspiration. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into all things Bora Bora.

Joining me today to talk about her recent trip here is Dr. Chandani DeZure, a board-certified pediatrician living in California who's been maximizing points for travel since 2014. Welcome back to the show, Chandani. I cannot wait to hear all about your recent adventure in paradise.

Chandani: Thank you so much for having me, Devon. It's great to be back. 

Devon: Absolutely. But before we dive into the details of your trip, can you just start us off by telling us all a little bit about who you are, what you do, and how did you get interested in using points and miles for travel? 

Chandani: Yeah, so I'm a pediatrician by training and a mother of two, and I got started in points when I got married back in 2014 at a Hyatt. We used the points from our wedding to book the Park Hyatt Maldives all on points for our honeymoon. That kind of gave us like a taste of it. We also, it was, I think it was 2016 or so when the original Chase Sapphire Reserve came out and that came with a lot of points. So ever since then, it's just been like this, we love to travel. How can we do it in a way that's affordable for us or changes how we experience travel? So that's how I got into it.

Devon: Absolutely. You started off with an absolute bang using your points for one of your first trips at the Park Hyatt Maldives. Now you're here today to talk about traveling to Bora Bora. So can you tell us a little bit about why you chose Bora Bora for this trip and what drew you to that destination? 

Chandani: So I mean, Bora Bora, everybody talks about, right, it's beautiful. It's tropical. So we did the Maldives for our honeymoon. So this was our 10 year anniversary. So we were trying to kind of duplicate that on some level. The Maldives was also in the running to kind of go back to where we started it. But Bora Bora, I mean, you've seen the postcards, right? The waters are beautiful, the sand is beautiful. We just we wanted something a little different.

We do live on the West Coast. So it's easier to get to from here. there are direct flights out of LAX, which is we live in San Diego. So getting to LAX and finding flights straight to Tahiti was very doable for us.

Devon: So talking about planning those flights and planning this trip, let's begin with kind of a background of your planning process. I'm curious, how far in advance did you start planning this trip? Did you have any non-negotiables, like very specific travel dates that you couldn't move around or a sort of aspirational airline or hotel that you didn't want to compromise on? 

Chandani: Yes, so I had kind of done a little bit of research. The one thing that  was nice about booking this trip was I did have some flexibility. There wasn't a have to. We didn't actually even go on our anniversary. So we wanted it, but we know we wanted it this, you know, in the year of our anniversary. I had looked up kind of peak times to travel to Bora Bora because they do have a rainy season and a cold season. August of July, August, September in general tends to be a nice time to travel there.

September, I know overall is not as expensive because kids go in terms of traveling. So I know kids go back to school. People have just finished their summer travel. So if you're trying to kind of figure out a nice price point, that was kind of what was guiding me.

Then when I looked at places to stay, the St. Regis about like kind of jumped out to me as a very good option for us and what we were looking for. People did rave about it. But we were open to other options based on just based on availability. We did look at hotels on points or even just the cash price. I love a good deal. Like I will spend a little bit more money if I can get a good deal out of it than paying like face value or something. So there wasn't this have tos, which is what made it easier.

The way this kind of happened is I found the deal for the St. Regis like I want to say almost nine, 10 months before we traveled. So then I was like, oh, can I find flights that will also work? So I don't usually get this intense with my trip booking, but I looked up the points I wanted and which dates. I made a little Excel sheet of like dates I could go, like fly out, dates I could return, and which one had four nights in a row at the St. Regis for that price. The stars aligned to the dates we ended up picking, which was in early September.

We did book it early, but we only had to put a deposit. So it was like 45 or 50 days before that the final payment was due. So I had pretty open availability to cancel or get my deposit. It was a small deposit. So just a reschedule. 

Devon: All right. So you kind of had your eyes on the specific hotel. Then you talked about being able to figure out your airline route around that. But talking about what are some of the logistics that people should be aware of if they are interested specifically in flying to Bora Bora. What types of things should people keep in mind when they first start looking for flights or award flights to plan that trip? 

Chandani: So I think if you've done the Maldives, it's not too dissimilar is that there are no direct flights to Bora Bora from the U.S. You have to land in their capital, Papeete, in Tahiti, and then you take a domestic flight or a pedal jumper to wherever you're kind of, to Bora Bora. So I think overall, you just like where are you coming from? The West Coast is the easiest way to get direct flights to Papeete. But again, it ends up could be two flights and maybe a boat to get to where you're going or two to three flights.

So we are on the West Coast. So LAX and SFO were the two big airports we were looking at. So United flies out of SFO to Papeete directly. Then Air France flies out of LAX and so does Air Tahiti Nui out of LAX. Those were the three big ones. I did look at Hawaiian as well because they fly out of Honolulu. So if you wanted to kind of pair it with a Hawaii trip or break it up or if you had, you know, if you're coming from the East Coast, maybe you could do a couple nights in Hawaii in Honolulu or somewhere in Hawaii. But for us, that would add like an extra flight to get to Hawaii. So I didn't really look at Hawaii as an option.

Although now that Alaska is a partner, or is going to be a partner, you can also use that to get to Hawaii to Papeete. So given that we're in San Diego, our plan was to drive up to LAX and then fly over. United points has been really challenging for me to find kind of good deals on in saver fares and things like that. But Air France and Flying Blue has quite a few deals. So did Air Tahiti Nui. 

So when I look, I didn't get the cheapest fares available, but I think for Air France, the cheapest you can get is about 73,000 miles per person one way direct to Tahiti. Then Air Tahiti Nui, I think you can get as low as like 60,000. It might be even a little lower. So we took Air France there and Air Tahiti Nui back. Honestly, both airlines were amazing. Air France flies a newer plane there. It's the A350-900, which is a very nice hard product and soft product.

We flew business class because we wanted that experience. With the points being what they were, we felt we could afford it. It's a one-two-one herringbone layout. So they didn't have the honeymoon suites if you're going for like a romantic getaway. But I think it's probably, in recent memory, it’s one of the nicest kind of planes I've been on.

Air Tahiti Nui flew their Dreamliner back. They've upgraded to the Dreamliner. so that coming back was also very wonderful. Both of them were red eyes. So something to keep in mind. If it doesn't matter to you to be in business or maybe it matters more because you want to lay down to sleep, that might change your trajectory. Then Air Tahiti Nui flies a two-two-two layout in business. So a little bit more couple oriented.

So what we paid Flying Blue for Air France was 215,000 points total for the two of us plus fees. Then Air Tahiti Nui, I actually booked on Qantas. So I don't know if people just don't talk about it or people just don't go to Bora Bora as often, but they have quite a few deals on Air Tahiti Nui in their search engine is actually, you can see the calendar view and like for quite a few days to kind of figure out if you want the saver fare. So that cost us 137,000 points for two in business class. 

Devon: Yeah. I think this is such a great reminder about one of the fundamental differences, and I think, benefits of using points versus using cash. I mean, not only are you saving cash, which is always amazing, but that with points, you do have this flexibility where if you find flights on one carrier for one direction of your trip, you can book an entirely different carrier for the other direction of your trip. You're not going to, almost all the time, end up paying functionally anymore. 

Whereas with cash flights, most of the time, you're going to save a great deal of money booking a round trip cash flight versus trying to break that up into two one-way flights. But I love the flexibility of points where you are not then locked in to being forced to having to find availability on your outbound and your return trip all on the same airline using points.

So like using Air France to get there and then using Air Tahiti Nui, not only are those, clearly, two different airlines that you can take advantage of, but this can also be really helpful too if you have multiple different points currencies. Where maybe in one example, you don't even have enough points to book yourself round trip using points for an award flight, but you can access one airline with a certain points currency and another airline with a different points currency.

So I love your tip about not forgetting about Air Tahiti Nui. I agree because it's not an airline that really services a lot of the mainland U.S. People may not automatically think about that as an option, but you're right. They operate, I think, out of actually several different West Coast airports.

While Air Tahiti Nui itself is not a direct transfer partner of any of the points currencies, when they release award space to their partners, you can get really amazing deals specifically to Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui using your points and miles to book them either through Alaska Airlines or, like you said, through Qantas. So I think that's an amazing tip for people who may not, again, think of that as sort of their go-to airline for looking for award availability.

Now talking a little bit more about logistics because you mentioned that this is a little bit more of a trek than maybe flying direct from the U.S. to someplace like Hawaii, for example. How much time in general should people expect it to take from when they leave one of these major West Coast airports until they actually arrive to their resort in Bora Bora? 

Chandani: So I guess it depends on which resort you're going to, although it's a small island. So most of them are pretty close to each other. So the flight out of L.A. I mean, if you come from San Diego, there's a two hour drive from San Diego to LAX. I know this will be a very small number of people that it might affect, but the cheapest way to get to San Diego from San Diego to LAX is to actually rent a one-way car rental, which sounds crazy. But a one-way car rental was about $80.

Then so you get to LAX and the flight West was like about nine-ish hours. Then we landed around, it was a red-eye. So, we landed around 5:00 in the morning Tahiti time, which is the same as Hawaii time, by the way. It's three hours back from West Coast. You then have to take a domestic flight. Ours was booked about an hour and a half to two hours later. So we landed around 5:00. Like nine hours to get there, two hours. Very easy. It's a small airport waiting for the next flight. That flight to Bora Bora is only 50 minutes. Then the St. Regis os where we stayed. Then you take a boat to Bora Bora, basically. It's about a 10 minute boat ride. 

So it's all in all, not that, I mean, maybe 15 hours, 12, 15 hours including travel time to and from the airports. So it's a long day, but it's not the worst, I guess. Comparing when I went to Maldives, that was like a 24 hour trek over there. I will say there's almost like hourly flights out of Papeete to Bora Bora. So it's just really getting there. There isn't this like, you're going to have this long layover in Tahiti. 

The one exception to that would be if you did take a day flight and you land in the evening, then you might have to stay the night in the capital or by the airport and then fly out the next morning.

Devon: Yeah, that's so great to know. So for people who are trying to plan one of these trips, just understanding that once you do make it to that main airport in Tahiti, you still do have to separately book the, like you said, the puddle jumper flight that gets you from Tahiti airport into the more local airport for the next step of your journey.

So I think that can be a surprise if you're used to traveling where once you get to your destination airport, then you just rent a car or you hire an Uber to drive you where you're going. It's not the case with some of these more remote islands. So it's great to keep in mind that for that main long haul flight, if you do land in Tahiti towards the afternoon or evening that you may not have the option to do your last kind of local connecting flight same day. 

Now, when you are going ahead and looking for your award flights and planning for your flights, I'm curious kind of what your process was for that. Did you run into any challenges in terms of just finding award flights that worked for you, or did you feel like it was pretty straightforward? 

Chandani: If they existed, they were there. I don't think like once you were looking, I mean, I narrowed it down by the airlines that fly there and their travel partners. So United, Air France, Air Tahiti Nui were kind of the three and their co-chair partners is what I was looking at. So once I got there, it wasn't hard to kind of search since I do award searches often, but it's important to keep in mind that most of these airlines don't fly every. Air Tahiti Nui does, but most of them don't have daily routes there.

So one of the things to consider, and we did book in quite a bit in advance, is that your flight schedule might change. They might cancel it or they might delay it. If there isn't a flight the next day, then you might get stuck. Like if you're taking a week-long trip and your flight’s now canceled, that might be a three day delay.

So it's just something to be aware of is that the number of flight options you have overall is low. That then the number, if you then filter down to like the number of saver fares or cheaper business or economy award seats that are available, it's even less than that. So I think that was the reason I wanted to book early is that to, if I need. Like I wanted to pick the dates I wanted because I know that they don't go every day. Even every day there's probably one flight, or one to two max that go out there from the West Coast.

Devon: Yeah. That's great to remember. So you mentioned that you all stayed at the St. Regis in Bora Bora. How did you pick that hotel and tell us more about what the experience of staying there was like? 

Chandani: Yeah. So it was magical. I highly do recommend it. It lived up to every expectation that we had. So just so you know, we didn't use points for the hotel. We did end up paying, we got a deal. I went through a travel agency, and we got a great deal on it. So that's what we use, and we paid cash for it, but I was considering points and what were my options. 

So when I looked at Bora Bora, there were four kinds of hotel options that you could book on points. So the St. Regis, which is a Marriott property, the Conrad Bora Bora, which is a Hilton property. I knew it was happening, but I didn't know if it was going to work out for me. So the Westin actually opened the week before we went. This was formerly Le Meridien, but if you were traveling. It may have been closed or being renovated or things like that. So I didn't want to mess with it. But so that's also now a Marriott property that just opened.

Then there's two InterContinentals, and I'm not a big IHG person, so I can't speak too much to that. But one of the things about the IHG hotels for Bora Bora is that they don't release award space until like 120 days before. So if you're trying to plan ahead, it may be a little tricky. So that also pulled it off my list.

So, for me, I was looking primarily at the St. Regis and Conrad. It was a little bit of a toss-up. I think the Conrad wasn't available. So, Conrad's a Hilton, and they do the stay fifth night free on points. I couldn't find a good stretch of five nights that worked for with the airline, with the flights. So then I kind of pivoted to St. Regis where we were paying cash and there were more options. 

But I think the Conrad Bora Bora is a great option. For Hilton, the transfer, if you're doing Amex, the transfer is one to two, right. The number of points you need. The cheapest room there is 120K a night. So you could, 120K times four nights is 480. So for five nights, you could stay for 240 points. It may not be like an overwater bungalow, but it's a room at the Conrad Bora Bora. That to me was like a very great option, but the dates just didn't align.

So I will say personally, no offense to the Conrad Bora Bora. I did actually, we did like a little tour around the island, and you can see the different hotels. They all look amazing, but I do think the St. Regis like wins out over the Conrad in terms of views and stylistic, like the ambience a little bit more, but I didn't experience it. So I can't tell you in detail. 

So then that left the St. Regis, and we used a travel agency called Pacific for Less. So it's a travel agency that primarily serves French Polynesia and Hawaii kind of. We got a three night. It was like pay three, stay four. That included the domestic flights. It included all the transfers. It had included a couple excursions, included breakfast. So all of that and all like for a value that seemed like a good price for us. That's why we went with it.

We really wanted the overwater bungalow. We wanted the overwater bungalow. that was important to us. Like I said, for Conrad, the price point was for the one of their like more, I think they call them a villa or more of their mountain top kind of rooms or villas. So their overwater bungalows were much more than that if they were even available.

I found that true to be for the St. Regis as well. So St. Regis, you can do on points too. It's a Marriott property. Fifth night is also free. About the cheapest is 120,000 points a night for a villa. But if you get to the overwater bungalow, it's almost like one to 2 million for a five night stay points. So that felt too much.

Devon: So talk to me a little bit more about this overwater bungalow. I feel like this is sort of the iconic experience in French Polynesia. You mentioned that was important to you. So can you just walk us through a little bit about what it's like staying in an overwater bungalow? Did it live up to your expectations? And what was so unique about it? 

Chandani: Oh my God, it was magical. So to be honest, we actually stayed in one for our honeymoon 10 years ago in the Maldives. So we had a little bit of experience with that, but it's different. We're 10 years later. We have kids. This was more of like a vacation we needed as opposed to your honeymoon.

But it is, you walk in the door, there's like a little hallway. There's a separate bedroom on the right. You go straight. There's the kind of like a living space area. There's a coffee table, and it's a rectangular coffee table. Under the coffee table is glass. So you can look straight down into the water and see fish and turtle. We even saw some stingrays just like floating under us.

Then you go out, there's like a little kind of a patio sort of thing where there's chaise lounges, chairs to lay out. There's a little table that's covered like a little hut so that you could eat outside. Then you have this little ladder that you can go down, just kind of jump into the water. It's deep enough that you can jump off and do snorkeling right under you. Then you just climb that ladder up and eat breakfast. Then that was amazing.

The one other thing that St. Regis offered, I don't know if other places do, but the St. Regis sits on a separate island from Bora Bora. So if you want to go to the mainland, you have to take like a little shuttle boat, maybe five minutes or so. But it's physically separate than the mainland of Bora Bora and where the other hotels are.

The resort itself is kind of spread out between the main hotel. It has five or six restaurants. It has a spa. It has a tennis court or whatever. Each villa has its own bicycle. So, you can ride your bicycle all over and just leave it where you get there. Then you pick it up and you like bike to breakfast and you eat breakfast, bike back to your villa or wherever you want to go. So that's a really, I mean, for some, it can be tiring because that might be like a deterrent for doing something or going somewhere on the island. It's an easy way, simple way to kind of maneuver around the resort itself that is kind of widespread. 

Devon: Now, can you tell us a little bit about how did you spend your time when you were there? Was this purely a relaxation vacation? Were you guys really active? What are the opportunities available for people once they do make it all the way to Bora Bora? 

Chandani: Oh, yes. So it's a little bit of both. We love sitting and doing nothing and relaxing with like a drink by the pool or beach. But that's not the only thing we like to do. So we did a little bit of mix and match. Some of the activities we did is we did go to the mainland Bora Bora. We did some ATVing. We did some jet skiing all around the island. We did some snorkeling. They take you. I mean, it's beautiful.

There's these beautiful coral gardens with gorgeous fish. They also take, you can like swim with blacktip sharks just like swimming around you. It's in shallow water where you could just be standing and they're swimming around you. Then stingrays and eagle rays and giant manta rays. It was just a lot of fun. Then we got some massages.

We did a photo shoot, and I fit into my wedding dress from 10 years ago. so we did it in that. The food there is expensive, but phenomenal. We did a lot of good eating. I probably put on a few pounds and can no longer fit into that same dress coming after I came back. But so it was a combination of both. We stayed five nights total. So I think we were active on two, three of those days. 

Oh, and then like the resort itself has free activities that you can do paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking. So we did some of that. You can kayak to the beach from your villa, from your overwater bungalow. Then you can like to breakfast. So if you don't want to take a bike, and you can kayak back if you want. So things like that.

Then I read a bunch of books, fiction books for the first time in I don't even know how long just sitting next to the beach, you know, while they refresh your drinks and kind of laying out doing nothing. So a little bit of both. We did get a couple's massage that was included in part of the package that we got. The one thing I really enjoyed, and maybe it's just a me thing, is that sometimes when I travel for me, I get I get anxiety, I think, over like, do I tip? How much do I tip? Are they going to do this only if I tip?

I mean, it's French Polynesia. So it's a territory of France. In Europe, tipping isn't big, but it was very clear that there would be like no tipping at all anywhere on the resort. So it was just like if they got you, it just felt like there was this it's like something off the table that you don't have to worry about at the beach. If they're bringing you towels, if they're bringing you drinks, do I need to tip them? Do I tip them every drink? How does that work? It's really expensive.

Stuff is really expensive there. So it makes sense. But I felt not having to worry about that anywhere in Bora Bora took this like let me relax a little bit more and not have enough cash on you and things like that too.

Devon: Yeah, that's really great to know for folks who are planning a similar trip. Now, you had mentioned that you stayed for five nights. Do you feel like that was an ideal amount of time, or would you have planned differently in terms of your length of stay knowing what you know now? 

Chandani: Yes, I think five nights in Bora Bora or St. Regis is perfect. I think that's the right amount of time. If you did more, is it like terrible? No. One of the other things we looked at was Costco actually sells packages to Bora Bora that we actually found also kind of had good value to them. The typical trip is Morea, which is another island in Tahiti for a couple of nights paired with four to five nights in Bora Bora. I think if you ask travel agents, they say like at least five nights, five to seven, but I think five nights was fine.

We ran into a few people that had done the Costco trip and had come from Morea to the St. Regis. This was the second half of there. The handful that we met, we met like three different couples. They all said that Morea was not that nice and that they would have rather spent that time in Bora Bora. They did say the snorkeling was phenomenal in Morea, but that overall they would have rather spent more time in Bora Bora. So if for whatever that's worth anecdotally.

One other island I looked at kind of pairing with this was Rangiroa, which has some really nice scuba diving. Also Bora Bora had some great scuba diving. We just didn't do it. So I think that also is another option. It doesn't have as high end resorts, but I think it's more affordable and it's a different experience than the lux Bora Bora. 

Devon: Overall of everything that you experienced on your trip, I'm curious to hear what was the highlight of this trip for you, or is there one really memorable moment that stands out from everything else? 

Chandani: Oh, my gosh, one moment. I can't. They were all amazing. I will say the color of the water is indescribable. It is better than the postcards look. You know, sometimes you plan these trips and the postcards always look pretty and then you get there, and it's not quite as billed. This was not only exactly as billed, but even like surpassed it. So the beauty of the island itself, and I would say just like the kindness of everybody there was, it was just. I can't pinpoint one moment. It was all so amazing. Sorry.

Devon: I think that's in some ways a very unfair question to try to reduce an entire trip and an entire experience down to like one single or one best moment. But I think it's always interesting to hear if there was something that really stood out to you or really exceeded your expectations in any way. Just sounding like the natural beauty was even far, and it really met and exceeded your expectations. 

Chandani: I mean, I love sharks. I know people get freaked out. So like swimming with sharks is pretty cool to me as an activity. But I don't know if other people have that same feeling when they're around sharks though.

Devon: I think that probably a very wide range of opinions about swimming with sharks. Now that you return from this trip, knowing what you know now, is there anything that you would do differently if you were planning this trip again? 

Chandani: So, yes, I think if I could get it for the same price, I don't think I would have gone through a travel agency. There was a lot on my plate and we were trying to celebrate. I usually plan everything, and I wanted to take a step back and relax on our anniversary trip. So I had gone through a travel agency. But having gone there and seeing how it works, I don't think you need to have a third party involved if you don't want to. It's very doable. 

The airports there are very manageable. Everybody kind of understands how it works. So people come here as like a place to relax. There's not a lot of like high pressure, high stress sort of situations there. But I don't know if like the travel agency had a specific rate that they could book that I couldn't get. But if you like, I think Costco would be very reasonable to do and things like that. 

I would say at the St. Regis, a couple other resorts that don't have points related are the Four Seasons and the Brando. They're very high end. I mean, St. Regis is. But if you're looking from a points perspective, like I think St. Regis is the best out of all the options. You don't need to have the best if you go to Bora Bora, I think. But if you wanted to, I think that from a points perspective, the St. Regis from Marriott would probably be your best option. There's always the option to book the smallest room on points and then upgrade with cash too if that is what people are interested. 

Having done the overwater bungalow, I think to me I would not be so. It's gorgeous, and I would love to have it. I think the experience was just so nice there that if I could get back there on points alone in a villa that isn't over water, I would still do that because it is worth it in so many ways. So I think like going back, I would definitely go back, and I could definitely do it all on points. I would definitely do it, I guess. 

Devon: Well, those are some great tips. Now, having been to both Maldives and Bora Bora, if someone is listening to this episode and they have both of these locations on their travel wish list. Let's say that they're based in North America. How would you advise someone to pick between the two if they could only go to one of those destinations? 

Chandani: Oh, my God, this is such a hard question. It's funny somebody asked us that on the trip. Somebody was on their honeymoon. They're like should we go to the Maldives? So I will say that context matters when you're picking one of these places because we went on our honeymoon. No kids. Right? The Maldives is an amazing destination. We stayed at a great hotel, the Park Hyatt. I think at the time we were young, and I had never experienced that level of luxury before either.

Here, it was like I needed this so much more than I needed the Maldives. Then temporally, it's just so fresh in my mind that I think like right now for me, Bora Bora wins in the sense that it was a trip away from my kids. It was amazing. It had everything I wanted for, and it surpassed all expectations. I think the expectations were lower in the Maldives when we went. So, it doesn't mean that if you had high expectations like this, the Maldives wouldn't be a good option.

For us, I think from the West Coast, the flights like time wise, it's Bora Bora is also a little bit easier to get to. I think there are points options in both, like both the Maldives and here. So I think that would be equal. One of the critiques of the St. Regis, which we don't feel was important to us, is that it's a little outdated for what it is like. It's a little older. I mean, the Westin is newer. I don't know what it looks like. Maybe the Four Seasons is newer. It is.

But like in that vibe, like you're staying in like a little hut. Like I don't need modern lighting in a hut, I guess. But that is a valid kind of critique.  So I do feel the Maldives where we stayed was much more modern. I think the aesthetic was a little bit more modern at the Park Hyatt, at least.

So I think you can't go wrong with either. If you can, you should experience both. I think for me, Bora Bora wins right now because I just got back from there and it's easier to get to for me. But I think if you're on the East Coast, there's a lot of deals going east and then you can get Q-Suites to Maldives. I've seen a lot more deals to the Maldives than I have for Bora Bora. So that was a non answer to your answer.

Devon: It sounds like I mean, truly, I don't think you can ever go wrong when you're planning a trip about a destination, I think there's something incredible about every single destination. But knowing that people oftentimes do have Maldives, Bora Bora, Hawaii, like really beautiful tropical destinations on top of their wish list can be hard to choose sometimes.

Some of these destinations, I think, are typically thought of as really romantic vacations, like you said. An anniversary or a honeymoon or something like that. But what's your opinion about Bora Bora as a destination for family travel or for bringing kids? Is that something that you would consider or recommend to anybody else after having taken this trip? 

Chandani: So you definitely could. I don't think I would. I think just the vibe is very adult heavy. I mean, kids are definitely allowed. I saw no kids at the St. Regis in my entire stay. On the mainland, I saw some teenagers kind of like age. I didn't see young kids. I'm sure the people who live there have young kids. So it's not that you can't. I just don't know that it caters to that. It's not like there's kids menus and things like. Maybe there was, and I just didn't see it. The food was phenomenal, but also a little bit more higher end, like a little bit more. 

I mean, if you have a foodie kid, I think that'd be great. But I don't think there were a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches going around. Oh, sorry. They had in-room dining and that did have a kid's menu. So that's possible. 

I will say when we went to the Maldives there, we saw a ton of kids there, actually, even toddlers. A lot of them come from like Asia or like the getaway. It's an easier distance, I think, from Asia to get to. So we saw a lot of people from Asia or Eastern Europe that were doing like a quick. Like it was almost like their Hawaii, the way we treat Hawaii. So, at least for the hotel we stayed at, we saw, and this was 10 years ago, too, but I saw multiple toddlers on our honeymoon and families and that sort of vibe. 

So I would like not to I don't know. I mean, I could be wrong, but I would say no kids to Bora Bora, at least not young kids, even though they probably love the water there. Then Maldives, yeah, I felt it was very doable with kids. 

Devon: That's so great to know, because I would think just because it is a little bit easier to get to Bora Bora, especially from the West Coast of the states. I actually would have expected for you to have seen more kids there versus Maldives. Again, if we're talking about a North American sort of clientele in terms of the distance traveled. But it's great to know kind of what to expect and what to plan for.

Now, before we wrap up today, I just have one more question for you. I'm curious if you have just one top piece of advice for someone who's planning their first trip to Bora Bora.

Chandani: Stay at the St. Regis. Stay at the St. Regis, and if you don't need the overwater bungalow, take the points deal with the fifth night free, stay the five nights. I'm telling you it might be outdated, but the level of service was unmatched to anything I have prior seen. It's not like I'm going on all these luxury trips all the time. So I don't know. Maybe there are. But I think there's only a handful of resorts that can outdo the service there. I mean, so I don't know. I would say do the St. Regis.

The one other thing that was not. Yeah, I think that's the one thing I'd say, like flight hotel. Air France was great. Air Tahiti Nui was great, but like they were red eyes. I mean any of those flight options are going to be fine, I think. Stay at the St. Regis.

Devon: All right, everybody. You have heard it. First, last piece of advice. Don't forget the St. Regis if you're planning a trip to Bora Bora. Chandani, thank you so much for joining me today, for telling us all about your trip, how you booked it, offering so many great tips and pieces of advice for people who are thinking about planning the same thing or now after hearing this conversation, are more interested in planning a trip to Bora Bora. Thank you, everybody, for tuning in. Thank you, Chandani, for joining us this week. I hope you all have a fantastic week, everyone. 

Chandani: Thank you. Thanks for having me. 

Thank you for joining me for this week's episode of Point Me to First Class. If you want more tips on turning your expenses into travel, visit pointmetofirstclass.com to learn more. See you next week.