Although Bora Bora is beautiful, it is a journey to get there. From Tahiti or Moorea it is an additional one hour flight to Bora Bora. If you are lucky enough to have good weather during your flight, you can enjoy seeing all the different islands from above. If not, hold on and prepare yourself for a bumpy ride.

A snapshot from the airplane as we were leaving Moorea in the distance. The sign of a good vacation is never wanting to come home. Admittedly, the sign of a really good vacation is I may shed a few tears when we do. On Moorea, we enjoyed an indoor/outdoor shower, thirty steps to the ocean, delicious room service and sand covered floors in the finest restaurants.

Flying into Bora Bora is both exhilarating and breathtaking as every image you have ever seen. The turquoise water and over water bungalows are simply unreal. The airport is located on an island, which means as you are landing for a moment you think you might drop into the ocean. Each resort has a private boat which comes to pick you up from the airport. We were staying at the Sofitel Bora Bora Private Island, which meant our hotel was located on a private island.

When we arrived at the Sofitel we were greeted by music, clapping, singing and dancing. I literally felt like the most important person on the planet. They were genuinely so happy and excited to see us, the happiness was contagious and from our first step onto the dock I knew it was going to be an experience of a lifetime.

In Moorea, we stayed in a beach bungalow, but on Bora Bora we splurged for the overwater bungalow. A few things you don't realize until you are there is just how close the overwater bungalows are to each other and how the glass floor of your bungalow is more like a porthole. Although these two tidbits were a tad disappointing, the overall experience of being able to jump in the water from your back deck is a total luxury and worth every penny.

When you think tropical vacations usually your thoughts turn to sunshine. Bora Bora had been experiencing a drought for several months, so once we got there the water faucet was literally turned on. Although the rain and lightning deterred us from doing some things, we were still able to thoroughly enjoy our surroundings.

One of the biggest perks of the rain was all the glorious rainbows we witnessed that week.

After spending time on both Moorea and Bora Bora we could not help but feel like we were happy we visited Hawaii before coming here. I imagine Moorea is what Hawaii was like before tourism took over and spoiled much of its natural beauty.

Another storm on the horizon. All these gloomy skies reminded us of Seattle.

My biggest advice to any traveler is no matter how posh or divine your accommodations are, make certain to leave them and really experience a place for yourself. We walked several miles to a public beach, a little ice cream shack and to a couple restaurants. We also took a taxi to the other side of the island to shop at a local market and enjoyed a 4 x 4 adventure of the island.

Although we paid a premium to stay at our hotel we like to make certain the people who really work hard are receiving our money directly. We like to give tips to the boat drivers, the cleaning ladies or anyone else who went out of our way to make our stay pleasurable.

We decided to come to French Polynesia to experience the natural beauty and spent a majority of our time either kayaking or snorkeling. One time I was snorkeling and a ten foot shark cruised by me, another time I found myself swimming with an entire school of fish. These two memories will forever be engrained in my mind more than any fishing tour or jet ski tour could have provided.