Bora Bora Yacht Charter

No island has been photographed more often, and few survive the comparison as well. Bora Bora is the emblem of French Polynesia for reasons that become obvious the moment the lagoon opens ahead of the bow: a dark volcanic core, the twin summits of Otemanu and Pahia rising almost vertically above it, and all around them a ring of water in a blue that photographs have never quite managed to reproduce honestly.

The lagoon is the point. Enclosed by an unbroken barrier reef and studded with white-sand motu, it is shallow, luminous and remarkably calm, which makes it as suited to a superyacht at anchor as to a tender exploring at walking pace. Crossing it early in the morning, with the mountain turning gold behind you, is one of those Polynesian clichés that turns out to be entirely justified.

Beneath the surface the reef delivers. Manta rays feed at the cleaning stations near the northern motu. Blacktip reef sharks patrol shallows barely deeper than your waist. The coral gardens on the eastern side are healthy, easy to reach and endlessly diverting for guests who have never put on a mask before.

Ashore, Vaitape is a working village rather than a resort, and the interior holds jungle tracks, wartime gun emplacements from the American occupation and viewpoints that reward an early start. The overwater bungalow was invented in these islands, and some of the finest hotels in the Pacific line this reef, but a yacht offers what they cannot: the freedom to move, to anchor wherever the light is best, and to have the lagoon almost to yourself once the day boats have gone home.