OK – not the worst – the location was spectacular and the facility was lovely. But it had the worst value for the money, the worst service, and the nastiest attitudes we've yet encountered (and we really do travel A LOT!). When you are trapped on a motu with a boat ride to the main island, followed by a 20 minute ($50 US) taxi ride into town, the staff attitudes are critical for an enjoyable vacation, no matter how lovely the facility is. The staff at Le Meridien Bora Bora were awful - everyone from the "hostess" who greeted us at the plane and then promptly ignored us (the only guests she was there to "greet"), to the staff driving golf carts on narrow walkways and pushing guests off onto sand or side walkways, to the hostess at the restaurant who refused to give us a decent table at an early seating in an empty restaurant. For $1000 US per day, we expect better service than this.

Most of the staff are young French men and women who appear to think they're on a vacation - which guests continue to intrude on. Particular jeers to the woman at the front desk who snickered at us (in French, of course) when we complained. By the way - just because a guest chooses not to speak French doesn't mean she doesn't understand every nasty word you're saying to your friend behind the counter (I AM French). Have we said enough bad things about this place? I doubt it.

OK - Enough grousing. Sort of. But we do want to make the point that the opinions of customers should matter. Particularly to an upscale hotel chain like Le Meridien. When our requests and, later, complaints were ridiculed by the staff, we mentioned that we'd let our travel agent know and post a review on the web. The front desk manager laughed at us.

 I sincerely hope that at least one person who reads this stays somewhere else - we hear that the new Pearl Beach resort in Bora Bora is lovely. We also hope that someone higher up in Le Meridien chain finds this review less amusing than we found our stay.

For our pictures and comments on Bora Bora itself, please click on the lovely lagoon below.