Cubicle Dreamin' :: Chopping It to Vahine Island

October 9, 2008 at 4:05 PM | by annie0007 | 0 Comments

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way. In this episode, Hotel Maven Annie0007 is taking a trip to an exotic island only accessible by helicopter or boat. Enjoy.

Bid me Bon Voyage, folks. No more presidential debates, crappy economy, gargantuan workload, traffic horns blaring, and gas prices. Yep, I'm outta here. Goodbye, New York City! My husband and I just gave ourselves a week off, cubicle-dreamin'-style, and we're headed to Vahine Island.

Vahine is a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific's Society Islands. You can only get there by boat or helicopter. Tough, huh? This is, after all, dreaming -- let's take the helicopter.

There are only three over-water bungalows on this private ten-acre resort. Since this is my cubie dream, I've booked us into one of those babies so we can sunbathe on its massive private deck overlooking the lagoon, with a prime view of the nearby mountains of Bora Bora. The king-size bed faces the water -- but during the day, we'll be getting some serious use out of that deck hammock. At night we'll hang out at the tiny hotel restaurant and bar along the beach, sampling local fish, poultry, and frothy drinks made from fresh fruit and island coconuts.

When we grow relaxed from all that relaxation, we might visit a pearl farm, a historic Maori temple, or the waterfalls in nearby Raiatea.

We could opt for a lagoon picnic chaperoned by the rower of a dugout canoe. Or we might rent a little boat with a packed lunch included in the fee, and check out the nearby islands on our own - another hotel offering.

Conde Nast Traveler voted this Number One in a roundup of Top 25 Best Escapes, and it's also part of the Small Hotels of the World collection. Tripadvisor reviews are heavy with well-deserved superlatives. Guess I'll have to check it out myself...in my head...

[Photo: E. Pinel for Vahine Island]

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Tags: Cubicle Dreamin' / Overwater Bungalows / Island Hotels / → All Tags