Photo and video by Josh Meister Photo.
Watch our recap video below and read about how we pulled off the ultimate travel hack of a week in a luxury overwater bungalow and our experiences there.
• Flights from Bali to Sydney to Tahiti: $0 + 166,336 Ultimate Rewards points
• Flights from Tahiti to Bora Bora and back: $726
• Flights from Tahiti to Los Angeles: $128 + 80,000 Alaska Airlines miles
• Airbnbs/hotels (8 nights): $311
• Transit (taxis, boat taxis, rental car): $329
• Food/drinks/groceries: $748, which comes out to $41.50 pp per day
• Extras (tours, wildlife excursions, etc.): $300
TOTAL: $2,542
Ugh, this might be our worst stint yet! I had high hopes for not spending too much money on this portion of the trip since so much of the costs were covered with points. The flights between Tahiti and Bora Bora (all 110 minutes of them roundtrip) were crazy expensive, which contributed a lot to the overage, but even without those, we were still well over budget. In a little over one week, we used up two and a half weeks of our cash. Why and how? Other than that one set of pricey plane tickets, it most came down to food and drinks, which is kind of insane. And we barely drank. Or ate that much to be honest. It was grocery-store food for breakfast and lunch most days. Our second biggest expense was transit-other-than-flights, a large portion of that being the boat taxi to and from our fancy shmancy hotel, the Le Meridien. Also crazy – if someone is paying an inordinate sum of money to stay at your property (and, to be fair, we weren’t – but pretty much everyone else there most likely was!), how can you justify charging $100 for a 15 minute boat ride from the airport to the hotel (and back)? Shouldn’t that be included in a $750+/night room?? BUT, all that being said, our overwater bungalow in Bora Bora was at the top of my list for this trip, and it was an amazing truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m not sad we did it. Our bank account is, but I’m not.
All images TM & © 2017 Josh Meister Photo and Shari Margolin (unless otherwise stated). Please don’t steal or “borrow” – just be cool, be cool.
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