Why Hollywood Flocks to French Polynesia: “The Most Magical Place” – Hollywood Reporter

When we went to the perfect destination of French Polynesia — just an eight-hour flight from Los Angeles — Sienna India, CEO of the ultra-luxury travel concierge. Charles of Sienarecommends going “to the smaller islands, such as Taha’a, where” [Tahitian] vanilla from “.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello did it by staying. Le Taha’a Island Resort & Spa (from $895 a night). Guests of the resort’s overwater and beach resorts can swim with sharks, take helicopter or sailboat tours, and swim through a crystal-clear coral reef tank, especially through a crystal-clear garden tank with a rainbow of tropical fish. Confronting the recent sustainability agenda, which dramatically reduces plastic waste, has completed renovations of two of its $2,886-per-night Royal Pool Beach Villas, with plunge pools and not one but two bathrooms and showers.

Island hopping is a popular activity in French Polynesia’s 118 Pacific atolls and islands – as Diane von Furstenberg did, gathering Bradley Cooper, Irina Shayk, Andy Cohen, Anderson Cooper and Allison Williams for spins on her yacht.

The first time Chelsea Handler visited the islands (she has a new Netflix special; revolution) CHARTERED BOAT — “which is certainly very reported,” he jokes — for a scuba diving trip with nine friends to the islands of Rangiroa, Fakarava, Nuku Hiva and Tetiaroa, diving twice a day at different sites, often white and blacktip reef sites. “They’ll take us to cool places, like one where it’s like four o’clock and all the places are passing by. The same with the dolphins, where they all swim through this channel at a certain time of day. It was one case after another,” Handler says. THR.

Handler later returned to French Polynesia for the World Surf League competition in Teahupo’o, where she and her friend, then-WSL CEO Sophie Goldschmidt, hung out on the beach. “Then we go to Four Seasons Resort Bora Boraand that was probably the best vacation of my life,” he said. “It was just the most magical place I’ve ever been. I picked it up the day I left.” One possible reason: “ridiculous” service. “They would give us births and we would go to another island, have lunch, swim around and come back, and as soon as we pulled out, we could have the last drink, which in my case was always a frozen mango margarita,” he said.

The Concourse’s Three-Bedroom Beachfront Villa Estate (from $15,945 a night) is especially popular with entertainment industry figures who over the years have included Jimmy Kimmel (who has written about the most stylish tsunami survivors ever). huffpost), and Jennifer Aniston with Justin Theroux, who is wearing pals including Courteney Cox and Jason Bateman.

Handl says the water around Bora Bora “seven colors coming out of the light, aquamarine light to this deep, deep turquoise and then to navy blue. My girlfriend and I went snorkeling, although we were in the food, but we didn’t go up in the air for two and a half hours because it’s so beautiful ” He is already planning an opportunity to return. “For all I could think, “I need everyone who loves me to be in this place and to see and experience this place.

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have reportedly taken over the 13,000-square-foot Royal Estate Villa The St. King’s Bora Bora Resort (from $931 per night), the same resort where Kristen Bell, Vince Vaughn and Bateman starred in the 2009 film Married Couples Retreat. Justin Bieber vacations at Overwater Royal Otemanu with a huge hanging pool. The latest Bora Bora Reset is a $20,000-a-night package including accommodations at the Royal Estate Villa, daily private yoga, personal chef, spa consultation, private Polynesian performance, complete with wellness program, coral planting and sunset on a catamaran. with champagne sabering. The iconic carbuncle also occupied the gap; Conrad Bora Bora Nuiwhere Paris and Kathy Hilton in 2022. It has floating helipads, decorated new French executive chefs, and a Manta Trust partnership with a resident marine biologist.

They are also true private islands, such as they are nukutepipiowned by Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil, and an ultra-exclusive spot of privacy that Marlon Brando inherited, violently sustainable and loved by the A-list. Brando (from $3,625 a night). Located in the private atoll of Tetiaroa, it is surrounded at various times by manta rays, sea turtles and even a humpback whale. Where is Barack Obama after the presidency to write his commentary, and the likes of DiCaprio, Jay Z and Beyonce, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen DeGeneres and Winfrey are on holiday. Kim Kardashian spent $1 million on her 40th birthday there in the middle of the pandemic.

Brando’s 35 villas have serious eco credentials, such as a zero-air conditioning system that cools deep sea water, an organic garden, a marine scientific research lab, and even a deep cold water bath experience. In 2021, Rebel Wilson celebrated her birthday at the resort, which was the filming location of 1962’s Rebellion for giving. She hung out at Rebel Island that week, hanging out with friends including Anna Kendrick, Britannia Snow, and Arielle Kebbel. The group had a dinner party, an ’80s-style lake party and swam on a secret boat, explored remote islands and snorkeled. She he said page six At the time: “Rebel Island was something I dreamed about years ago and Brando is making all my dreams come true. Above the heroic and meritorious. This place is absolute heaven – no wonder Marlon Brando worshiped it.”

A version of this story first appeared in the March 29 issue of Hollywood magazine. Click here to subscribe.