Bora Bora · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Bora Bora has almost no budget bed — the cheap route runs through Tahiti, Mo'orea and Huahine.
Pensions rather than bungalows
Bora Bora's handful of pensions de famille sit at Vaitape and along Matira point, at XPF 10,000–20,000 a room. Tahiti and Huahine cost noticeably less.
What a day costs
There is no dorm scene. Budget XPF 12,000–22,000 a day for a pension bed, roulotte food and a hired bike — roughly $110–200.
Ferries and Air Tahiti passes
The Apetahi Express and cargo ships link Papeete, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora Bora for a fraction of a flight; Air Tahiti sells multi-island passes.
Free by day
Matira is the one long public beach, the ring road is thirty-two kilometres of free cycling, and American coastal guns from the war sit above Anau.
Matira and the Vaitape roulottes
The public end of Matira beach and the food trucks on Vaitape quay are the only places travellers reliably run into one another.