Air Tahiti: Brilliant blues of Bora Bora, a bird’s eye view!

Bora Bora is like walking into a blue rainbow with millions of shades of blue as far as the eye can see, it is a Postcard-perfect destination and is even more gorgeous from the plane.  What makes it so unique from the other islands is that Bora Bora is an atoll, the reef around it is what makes the water so shallow and a Turquoise blue juxtaposed against the Prussian blue of the deep ocean. Reef-building corals will thrive only in warm tropical and subtropical waters of oceans and seas, and therefore atolls are only found in the tropics and subtropics. Here are a few brilliant blue birds-eye view photos while flying Air Tahiti to Bora Bora.

Air Tahiti

What is an Atoll?

Atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef or a string of closely spaced small coral islands, enclosing or nearly enclosing a shallow lagoon. They are especially common in the western and central Pacific Ocean and are believed to form along the fringes of underwater volcanoes. It has its roots in French atollon: a word used in early descriptions of the Maldive Island atolls, said to be Divehi (Indo-Aryan language of the Maldives) atoḷu.

Wiki says – “The distribution of atolls around the globe is instructive: most of the world’s atolls are in the Pacific Ocean (with concentrations in the Tuamotu Islands, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Coral Sea Islands, and the island groups of Kiribati, Tuvalu and Tokelau) and Indian Ocean (the Atolls of the Maldives, the Lakshadweep Islands, the Chagos Archipelago and the Outer Islands of the Seychelles). The Atlantic Ocean has no large groups of atolls, other than eight atolls east of Nicaragua that belong to the Colombian department of San Andres and Providencia in the Caribbean.” 

Air Tahiti to Bora Bora

After a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Papeete on Air Tahiti Nui, we took Air Tahiti to Motu Mute – BOB airport in Bora Bora. Just setting foot into the beautiful interiors of the Air Tahiti Nui (back in LAX) with its turquoise blue seats and paintings of Paul Gauguin on the wall, already set the island vibe. We were offered a Tiare flower by the smiling flight attendant.

We landed in Papeete spent the night at Intercontinental Tahiti Resort and took the flight to Bora Bora the next day. Once we boarded the AirTahiti flight and the flight took off, we kept our eyes on the windows as we crossed one tiny island after the other.  Each a tiny little speck on the bright blue ocean with a ring of turquoise waters around it. When we landed at the tiniest airport we have ever seen, the sound of ukulele welcomed us. We were given a traditional Maeva, the Tahitian word for the welcome as we made our way to find the boat that will take us to our resort in paradise.

Air Tahiti Nui Interior
A warm welcome

The photos here were taken from our plane ride on Air Tahiti from Tahiti to Bora Bora, I did not alter the images, it was really this spectacular!

Air Tahiti
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Tahiti (Resort you see here is the Intercontinental Tahiti)

Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Mountains of Tahiti and the coast lined with boats
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Mountains of Moorea
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
I think this was Tahaa, not 100% sure
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Bora Bora Blues start here
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Four seasons and St.Regis overwater villas in view
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
The private islet of Motu Tapu – we had a picnic forbidden private island one day and had the whole place to ourselves.
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Outside Suburbia - Bora Bora Blues
Arrived at the tiniest and prettiest airport ever!

Check here for rates and routes on AirTahiti, the airline that links Tahiti and her islands. And see Air Tahiti Nui website for flights to Tahiti.

You might also like: 
ATV ride in Moorea 
Secret & Private Island in Bora Bora
A drive around the heart-shaped island of Moorea
20 photos that will make you pack your bags to Bora Bora
Family Guide to Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora
Bucketlist Worthy Overwater villas around the World

PIN IT FOR LATER

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, partnership or sponsored content. If you purchase an item via one of these links, we may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. But as always images and opinions are our own. For more information on our affiliates and privacy policy at Outside Suburbia see here.

CONNECT WITH US

17 thoughts on “Air Tahiti: Brilliant blues of Bora Bora, a bird’s eye view!”

  1. This post and the beautiful photos bring back such great memories. Loved Bora Bora and we can’t wait to return. Wasn’t that just the most beautiful airport and the best scenic plane ride? I’m so glad you had a fantastic vacation too.

  2. Oh mega mega travel envy!!! I want to go to French Polynesia so much, but I just can’t see it happening. Your photos are too beautiful for words, thank you for linking up to #AllAboutFrance, please come back with some more at the next linky in a couple of days’ time so I can continue to dream!!

  3. Wow!These are amazing views.The blues of the sea is wonderful and cant resist looking at the pictures again and again.I am sure,you had a great time there…

  4. Wow wow and wow! These places look incredible. I’ve always wanted to stay in an over-water villa – but I don’t think my budget will stretch to that anytime soon! Thank you for inspiring my wanderlust for today!

    1. Thanks Vicki, they have great fares to Tahiti if you go off season, Hope you get to go sometime. Always happy to inspire!

  5. Those blues really are beautiful. I’ve always wanted to go to Bora Bora, but it’s super far from the UK so incredibly expensive to get to. In fact, I’ve never been to any atoll so that’s one for the bucket list!

  6. WOW! Love the views from up there! For our honeymoon, we were considering Bora Bora (but ended up choosing Philippines instead because it is closer). After looking at your photos, I am dazzled by how turquoise the water is! I will need to check that out in person. Thanks for linking up via #WeekendWanderlust 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *