Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora

Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora opened in September 2008 on Motu Tehotu, a slip of sand and palm on the reef that rings Bora Bora's lagoon. That location is the whole point. You are out on the water, looking back across the lagoon toward the island and its volcanic peaks, with nothing between you and that view but a wooden deck and a ladder into the shallows.

The resort is built as a village of 100 overwater bungalow suites, with seven beachfront villas for couples who would rather have sand than a ladder. The overwater suites are the reason most people come. Each one stands on stilts above the lagoon, so the day starts with light coming up through the water and ends with that same water going dark and loud with fish. For a honeymoon this is the version of Bora Bora people picture long before they have seen a single photograph of it.

What lifts the property above the postcard is the lagoon itself. The resort keeps the Ruahatu Lagoon Sanctuary, a working research facility that is home to more than 100 species of marine life. A resident marine biologist runs it, leads conservation tours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and grafts coral to help the reef recover, in partnership with the Pacific Eco-World Initiative. You can snorkel over eagle rays, clownfish, parrotfish and butterflyfish without leaving the property, and the fact that a scientist is on site every day tells you the reef is being cared for rather than just looked at.

Dining is spread across four restaurants, which is the right number for a stay of a week or more. It means dinner does not become the same table and the same view every night, and it gives a honeymoon a little rhythm, somewhere for the quiet evening in and somewhere for the night you both make an effort.

The spa is a full-service one, and Conde Nast Traveller has named it the best in French Polynesia. On a honeymoon that is not a detail you skip. An hour in an overwater treatment room, with the lagoon moving under the floor, is the kind of thing couples talk about long after the tan has faded.

None of it would count for much without the service, and the service is the quiet reason the resort keeps winning. TripAdvisor has ranked it the number one hotel for romance in the world, an honour that comes from thousands of guest reviews rather than a press release. What that translates to on the ground is staff who read the mood of a couple and adjust, privacy when you want it, and a sense that the whole place is quietly organised around the two of you.

The one honest caveat is getting there and what it costs. Reaching the resort means a flight into Papeete, a hop across to Bora Bora, and a boat over the lagoon, and the room rate sits at the very top of the market even for French Polynesia. Neither is a reason to look elsewhere. For most couples this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and Four Seasons Bora Bora is exactly the kind of place that once-in-a-lifetime budget is meant for.