Eden Beach Hotel is a family owned business that felt like a bed and breakfast. It's a small resort with about 6 bungalows that were in use. The bungalows in the back were under renovation during our visit.

Positives:
- Picturesque Location. This hotel is situated on a motu with a beautiful view of Mount Otemanu and the Bora Bora lagoon. It is very scenic, private, and quiet. I loved the view we had just sitting out on the beach. The view is really unbeatable. They also have a cute little pool facing the mountain and the lagoon. Hotel grounds are well landscaped and well kept.

- Access to both the lagoon and the Pacific Ocean. We like to explore on foot and we only had to walk a few minutes to the back side of the motu to see the Pacific Ocean and its roaring waves. I don't think we would've been able to see the ocean if we stayed at the other resorts on the main island.

- Warm welcome and thorough orientation to the hotel. The owner Vlad poured us juice and provided us with a lot of info about his hotel and its services (free kayaking, free ride to go snorkeling). They put out mosquito repellents at the front desk which guests can use.

- Owner and his wife spoke English in addition to French. So we got along fine there even though we don't speak French.

- Good food for dinner and generally with their warm plates. Food prices seem comparable to the big hotels on the island. However, alcohol prices seem expensive.

Negatives:
- Inconsistent Service. Given that this is a small family-run resort, you're dealing with the same people for your entire stay. The quality of our service seems to correlate with our spending at the resort. Service wasn't so great when we weren't spending money there. The owner checks in with you multiple times a day to see if you want something to eat/drink. I can see how some would appreciate that service, but it felt too in-the-face for us. We prefer to be left alone and approach the staff when we need something. There were also times where I felt like I was imposing on the owner, having to go to him for everything (bookings, rides to the main island). Although the owner expresses willingness to help us with our bookings, we had to keep checking back with him to make sure it was taken care of. When he made a mistake with one of our reservations, he was reluctant to call back to rebook. Other times he was apologetic for things. So service was unpredictable. At times we felt like a bother or an inconvenience to the owner, which was unpleasant.

- Service costs add up quickly. We booked this hotel as a "budget hotel" in Bora Bora. However at the time of the booking, we weren't aware that it would cost us extra for transport from the airport to the hotel. I see that the major resorts have boats that pick up the guests directly at the airport. Eden Beach Hotel charges 3000CFP/person for a one way ride to/from the airport. The other option is to ride the free shuttle from the airport to Vaitape, take a taxi to Anau (3000CPF for the ride), and arrange for free hotel pickup from the Anau public dock. The hotel also offers free shuttles to Anau at set times each day. Other than that, you have to pay per ride to get to Vaitape, Matira, or Anau if it is after 6pm. So at the end, it's hard to tell if we saved money staying here or if we ended up spending more on the extra costs. The hotel website lists rates for all their services.

- As beautiful as the hotel grounds are, this hotel is also far away from town. It can be a hassle having to arrange for a ride to the main island each time. While many restaurants offer free pick-up and drop-off, they only do so on the main island. So you'll have to make arrangements and pay for a ride to/back from the hotel if you go out for dinner.

- While our bungalow looked clean, we found a cockroach looking bug in our bed sheets upon our arrival. There were also some ants in the room, but we've learned to co-exist with ants when we visit the South Pacific Islands, so that wasn't a big deal.

- Low water pressure in the shower. Bathroom only came with a soap bar, so be sure to bring your own shampoo, conditioner, and other toiletries.

Beautiful beaches, amazing surroundings. However the hotel could be a bit better. Service is fine, good French, good English.

Out of the 5 places we stayed on 5 islands, this was the 5th best. I feel they are not putting money into maintenance and improvements for their property so at best its average and some parts are poor.

The only 5 is that it had a beautiful view of the island of Bora Bora to look at and a nice sunset. The 2 dinners we had were very good and I don't think our dinnners were overpriced compared to dinnners we had on Bora Bora itself or other islands.


The water in front of the hotel in the lagoon and on the ocean side was not pleasant or usable recreationally.

One of the owners, Vlad, was personable, however, his wife, Donna, left much to be desired. She was brusque from the start. Then, a mask I received from Vlad in the morning fogged up continually and then the strap broke rendering it useless. When I brought it back in the afternoon, Donna said I broke it and that I would pay for it. I was very upset by her attitude. Eventually, she finally provided me with a replacement mask, but she left me with a bad taste in my mouth that stays with me influences this review to some extent.

While Vlad worked to set up our enjoyable paid excursions, I had trouble with believing Vlad at times. They were late picking us up after dropping us off on the pacific side for snorkeling and they did not coordinate with a land taxi to meet us at the public dock they dropped us at. The taxi was at the Le Meridien dock 100 feet away but we could not see them.

Vlad warned us about all dogs but his and said where they dropped us off on the pacific side to snorkel there were no dogs, but there were homes and plenty of dogs. However, none were inclined to bite us as Vlad led us to believe when we first arrived. Other guests told us they walked from Eden Beach to the pacific side without apparent problems with the dogs that Vlad warned us of.

Vlad also said there was no good snorkeling on Bora Bora itself, only on the pacific side of their motu where they had taken us. Not true. We rented bicycles on Bora Bora and found nice spots to snorkel, including near the old bora bora hotel.

Not being able to rely on Vlad was uunpleasant.

We had no power or water to bush our teeth or for the toilet or hot water for the shower 3 of the 4 nights because the equipment was old and broke down and the winds. Vlad and Donna did not seem inclined to repair or rennovate their generator to provide power to the huts or keep the pilot lights lit for hot water. Instead, they just gave us bottles of water for brushing our teeth and the toilet.

The huts were nice, the bed was comfortable, and we made do with what they provided, but we did not get use of the facilities we paid for or that were described on their website.

We felt they took advantage of their remoteness to over charge for drinks.

Bugs biting us outside our room and by the pool remained a significant problem as they have apparently since 2008. Go out on the dock where the boat is tied up to enjoy sitting outside bug free as they have chairs out there for that purpose.

Their boat should have a cover or siding in the event of rain or siginficant wind or choppy waters.


Unfortunately, I cannot recommed the Eden Beach Hotel. I would upgrade to one of the larger hotels on the Motu suggest staying on the Main island of Bora Bora to have better access to snorkeling and excursions.

The owners!!! They were absolutely awful. The man, Vlad, is a generally stressed out and miserable person. Everything was a problem for him, but at least he tried to be nice at times, or would apologize for things. His wife, however, was the rudest nastiest tempered person I have ever met in my travels around the world. She was absolutely terrible. We felt like we were spoiling every minute of her day there, and she was so rude to our kids all the time. She made mean comments and gave us dirty looks, and constantly rolled her eyes. It was almost unbelievable. We thought that maybe it was just that she did not like us because we had young children with us. But then we talked to other couples and they felt the same way. In fact two other couples ended up forfeiting their money and leaving early because they could not stand it any more. This actually made us feel much better because we felt so imposing.

And on our final day, a British couple actually ended up going off on Vlad's wife because they were so sick of her rude condescending attitude. The woman actually cussed her out and told her she was screwing with the wrong people and the man said he felt like he was in prison there, which was so funny because my wife said the same thing the night before.

At one time at dinner, we stood in the restaurant for 15 minutes with our two small children waiting to be seated, and since there was nobody else there, except Vlad's wife who was ignoring us for some reason, we finally seated ourselves, and when we did, my 3-year-old son picked up his fork and spoon, and instantly the woman ran over to our table, snatched the silverware out of his hands, slapped him on the wrist, and said these are not for you, and then took the silverware from our table and took it to another table and then returned later with some more that was exactly the same. It was all I could do to keep my wife from pushing her in the pool for hitting our kid for no reason. I could not believe it. I begged my wife not to get into a fight with the lady, so my wife just left the table and went back to our bungalow without eating dinner that night.

Also, they have cockroaches and tons of mosquitoes, but no mosquito nets. It is stifling hot with no breeze in the restaurant area and the shallow lagoon is so bright you can barely see there. The water cuts off every night about 7pm and stays off all night. The electricity continuously cut out during dinner and they did not even think to have candles as backups even though this problem occurred every night.

After a couple days we decided we wanted to catch a transfer boat to the main island to get some supplies for us and the kids. They made it as hard as possible for us to leave. I guess they wanted us to continue paying over $6 for every bottle of water that we needed to keep the four of us hydrated. He told me that the transfer to Matira was not possible because the boat had to go all the way to the airport, but then I found out a boat was leaving for Anau town before that trip, so I asked if I could go on that, but he told me that if I did that I would have to catch a taxi from his friend from there, and I said that was fine. So I took the boat out there, then took a taxi all the way to Tiare Market, and then when I was done and walking the rest of the way to Matira to catch a transfer back, I saw the boat already waiting there, and when I walked in to the Maitai Hotel to say hello to the friendly people who worked at that hotel and whom we had met when we stayed there earlier and really got along with, I saw the couple that had been sitting by the dock when I left back at Eden Beach. We both looked at each other and said "What are you doing here?" They asked why I did not just go with them since Vlad knew they were coming to Matira as soon as the boat returned from dropping me off at Anau. They were shocked that he had lied to me. I guess he had not counted on me stopping by the MaiTai Hotel and running into them.

So if you like incredibly rude snotty people, then Eden Beach is for you. And their prices are ridiculous. It is $6.50 for a can of coke and $10 for a bottle of beer, and all the stuff on the menu is about $40. Also, when we first got there, they told us that the kids would eat free. Then when we checked out they charged us for all of the kids' meals, and told us that they had changed their mind since they had to prepared separate meals for them.

Also, according to our contract at Booking.com, they would provide free baby cots for kids under 2, and when we got there, they told us that was not correct and we would have to pay an extra $50 per night for the cot. Really??? Horrible place. Unbelievably rude owners.