“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Bora Bora is a volcanic island of French Polynesia located in the southern Pacific, about 260 km northwest of Tahiti (45 minutes with Air Tahiti).
Discovered by Roggeveen (Dutch navigator) in 1722, Cook arrived in Bora Bora in 1769 and named it Bora Bora (from the Tahitian “Pora Pora”), name which means “First born”, allusion to the fact that the Taaroa god would have immediately created it after Raiatea.
The history of Bora Bora is marked by the wars between the various clans of the island or against the close islands.
In 1820, the Protestant missionaries arrive on the island and the first temple is open in 1822. In1888, Bora Bora and all Leeward Islands were annexed by France.
An important fact in the contemporary history of Bora Bora is the presence between 1942 and 1946 of the American troops during the Bobcat operation. It left on the island many vestiges like anti-aircraft batteries, blockhouses, but especially the landing strip which was a long time the longest of French Polynesia.
Since the opening of the first hotel in 1961, the island did not cease developing with constructions of hotels and their famous Overwater bungalows. In spite of this development, the island kept its pleasant and very quiet atmosphere.
We hope you’ll have a chance to see one day this little paradise 😉