We swam with sharks in Bora Bora. In Fiji, a boat took us to a sandbar and then to the island where Cast Away was filmed. Both were bucket-list South Pacific trips, but they were very different vacations. If you’re weighing Fiji vs French Polynesia, here’s the comparison we can honestly make: the Viti Levu coast and Mamanuca Islands, where we traveled in Fiji, versus Bora Bora, where we stayed at the Conrad. Here’s what each was like for beaches, budgets, getting around and filling your days—and which one we’d choose.
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Fiji or Bora Bora? The short answer
Choose Bora Bora if the dream is an overwater bungalow, a polished resort beach and a lagoon where you might see rays and reef sharks. Choose Fiji if you want more freedom to explore, more kinds of places to stay and a trip that can cost considerably less. Even the Fiji resort meals we bought were less expensive than the resort food we found in Bora Bora.
When we tried to name a favorite, we leaned toward Bora Bora—but Fiji made it a close call. The overwater villa and shark snorkeling were hard to top; so was the freedom of having a car in Fiji and taking one of our coolest boat trips ever.
Getting there and choosing your dates
From the US West Coast, Fiji and Tahiti are a similar effort to reach. Bora Bora added another flight after Tahiti on our trip, so don’t treat arrival in Tahiti as arrival at your resort. Tahiti has more flights from North America, while Fiji has more from Australia and New Zealand.
The two destinations sit at similar latitudes and have similar weather, so neither gets an automatic win for when to go. For current flights, seasonal conditions, transfers and tours, check directly with your airline, resort and tour operator.
Food and culture: Fiji surprised us
French Polynesia was colonized by France and Fiji by Britain, so you find more French influence in Bora Bora and more British influence in Fiji. What surprised us in Fiji was the Indian influence, which came from workers brought in to work the sugarcane plantations; it reminded us more of the Maldives than of Polynesia. If you like Indian food, that’s a point in Fiji’s favor. Fijians also like their spicy peppers, and a pepper popped in without thinking was an emergency for about ten minutes. Neither of us would do well on Hot Ones.
Both places have raw-fish dishes with coconut milk, but where you eat makes a bigger difference to your budget. On Viti Levu, we could eat at local restaurants as well as at our hotels. At our Bora Bora resort, eating usually meant staying on the resort’s island, and we found its food much more expensive. You might get to the main island for a meal, but that means a boat back and forth.
Where you stay: one dream room or a lot more choice
Bora Bora’s lagoon is ringed by small islands, or motu, where many of the luxury resorts sit. There are smaller places to stay on the main island, but the overwater bungalow is a big part of Bora Bora’s appeal. We booked a standard garden room at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui and the concierge took us by golf cart to the room, which turned out to be a king deluxe overwater villa, ours for four nights. We could jump off the back of our deck straight into the water.
Fiji gave us room to mix things up. Our Fiji stays ranged from a budget seafront hotel on the Coral Coast to the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa, which we booked with points, and the Sheraton Tokoriki, which we paid for outright. Fiji also has guesthouses and other smaller accommodations alongside its big resorts. If you’re choosing a trip around a particular hotel experience, Bora Bora has the edge for us; if you want flexibility in where you sleep and what you spend, Fiji wins.
Getting around: boats in Bora Bora, more independence in Fiji
Bora Bora introduced us to its boat logistics immediately. After flying from Tahiti, we took the Air Tahiti shuttle boat from the airport island to Bora Bora’s main island, then caught the Conrad’s boat to the resort. It worked, but it is a very different way of arriving than picking up a rental car.
That’s what we did in Fiji: we rented a car to explore Viti Levu, including the Coral Coast’s wild beaches and local restaurants, then took a ferry to the Mamanuca Islands. Taxis and buses gave us other ways to reach the port. The ferry was still a substantial expense for us, so Fiji’s freedom to move around doesn’t mean every island hop is cheap. For independent exploring, though, Fiji was the clear winner.
Beaches and snorkeling: Bora Bora lived up to the postcard
Bora Bora’s bright blue, clear water and carefully maintained resort beaches met our very high expectations. Fiji had beautiful blue water too, but we found that picture-perfect beach harder to come by on Viti Levu. The InterContinental sits on Natadola Beach, which is said to be the best beach on Viti Levu, and it was beautiful, but it wasn’t the same as the beaches in Bora Bora. Fiji’s beaches are public, including the one at the InterContinental, while the Bora Bora resort beaches we saw were private. If you want that white-sand postcard beach in Fiji, consider a day at a beach club on an island off the main island; Malamala is one of the popular ones.
Snorkeling was an even clearer win for Bora Bora. We could spot fish, rays and reef sharks from the beach, and on a boat tour we snorkeled at three different spots. Most of the sharks we saw were blacktip reef sharks; an occasional larger lemon shark swimming underneath made us a little nervous. Fiji’s snorkeling was very good, but it didn’t give us the same encounters with larger animals. Bora Bora was the best snorkeling we’ve done.
What you’ll do besides lie on the beach
Fiji won on variety. We found possibilities ranging from surfing and scuba diving to ATV outings, mud bathing and even whitewater rafting on some islands. Our own standout was a boat day in the Mamanucas: clear blue water at Mana Sandbar, swimming and snorkeling stops, and Monuriki, where Cast Away was filmed. The tour included snorkel gear and lunch on Monuriki. We found Wilson there, and it was hard to leave.
Bora Bora offered plenty to do in the water, but it made us want to stay close to the resort. We swam off our villa, used the Conrad’s kayaks and spent time at the pool; the shark-and-ray snorkeling tour was the big excursion. If you like making your own itinerary and changing scenery, pick Fiji. If a resort and its lagoon sound like more than enough, Bora Bora does that exceptionally well.
Our verdict: which trip should you pick?
Pick Fiji for a wider choice of budgets, meals and activities—and for the pleasure of going off to see what’s around the next bend. Pick Bora Bora if your priority is the overwater-resort experience, those beaches and swimming with sharks, and you’re comfortable with the higher costs we encountered there.
We’d return to either in a heartbeat. Bora Bora edged it for us, but Fiji made it surprisingly hard to say so.
Image credits: the photo of red kayaks in a Bora Bora lagoon used as the featured image is by Athos33320, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (source). That photo was not taken on our trips. The other photos are stills from our own videos of Fiji and Bora Bora.
