Staying in an overwater bungalow had been on my bucket list for years and the Hilton Moorea Lagoon resort didn’t just meet that dream but surpassed it. Simply put, it was extraordinary.
It was Tuesday, September 22, and we arrived around noon. Our bags were quickly tagged and taken care of and we were welcomed with beautiful flowered and leaf leis. Check-in was at 3:00 pm so our rooms wouldn’t be ready for another couple of hours but everyone at reception was extremely friendly, helpful and accommodating and gave us plenty of options for spending our time. We were welcome to use the whole property: the pool, restaurant, the lush grounds. Waiting was hardly an imposition. That’s in direct contrast to what usually happens at some hotels when it is check in time and the room isn’t ready. They take it as a given, offer a light apology, send you off and tell you to check back later.
We headed toward the beach, crossing a small bridge over a pond filled with unbelievably beautiful, large koi. We found a lovely lounge area with chairs and a table by the lagoon, overlooking the beach. We settled in by the lagoon and made it our home base, intermittently heading out to explore the grounds until our room was ready.
We were able to get into our room by 2:00 pm and in no way, shape or form was I prepared for this bungalow that would be our home for the next three days. It sat at the very end of the dock which gave us wonderful privacy .
The first thing that caught my eye was the glass panel in the floor looking straight down into the turquoise lagoon below. Over the next days it became our very own “Fish TV Channel” and we caught ourselves glancing down at it every time we walked by. A king bed was dressed in crisp white linens and tropical print pillows with towel sculptures topped with red hibiscus blossoms. There was even a bottle of champagne on ice, though as a non-drinker, I was far more excited about the fact that I soon would be jumping into the lagoon.
But the real show stopper was the view! A wall of sliding glass doors opened onto our private deck, shaded by a thatched roof and furnished with lounge chairs and a table and chair, set facing nothing but open water. A short set of steps led down to a lower platform with a ladder from there straight into the lagoon. We could slip into the water whenever we wanted to right from our room.
After a quick bit of organizing we grabbed our snorkel gear and were in the water by 3:00. The reef here was different from what we experienced in Fiji. Instead of a long continuous stretches of coral, the lagoon was dotted with clusters of coral heads scattered across the sandy bottom, almost like little islands under the water. Snorkeling felt like hopping from one to the next, each clump its own small neighborhood of fish darting in and out of the crevices. With the sand so white and the water so clear between them, we could easily spot the next coral head and swim over to explore who lived there.
The day only kept getting better. After a wonderful afternoon of snorkeling, we watched an incredible sunset from our deck. I spent time observing a and white-spotted puffer hanging out on our ladder. Once it got dark, we discovered our bungalow had lights underneath that we could switch on to illuminate the water below. Suddenly the lagoon beneath us came alive. The most exciting show on Fish TV was the spotted eagle ray and the juvenile blacktip reef sharks. The baby blacktips seemed to be on a never-ending loop swirling around each other than vanishing into the dark, then reappearing as if they couldn’t resist checking back in on their adoring fans. We finished the evening with a very good dinner at the resorts Rotui Grill and Bar. We headed back down the dock to our bungalow and even when back indoors the show went on with our fish TV channel playing beneath our feet. I knew a blissful nights sleep was waiting for me.
