Second Life Hotel, Maeva Bora Bora — The SL Hotel Inspector

All photo credits - Caitlin Tobias
*This resort has. now closed*

This guest review of MAEVA Bora Bora comes from Caitlin Tobias. Caitlin is the blogger manager for Dutchie Designs, as well as maintaining an excellent blog in her own right, which you can find here. You can also find her on Flickr

Just before the holidays really started, my friend Huckleberry Hax and I went away for a weekend trip in Second Life to a tropical and sunny destination, Maeva Bora Bora, for the SL Hotel Inspector.

Bora Bora is one of those destinations in Second Life you cannot visit without having booked first. This means you have to rely on their website and photographs, rather than having a look around first - though you can book a L$500 day-pass if you just want to spend one day.

I admit this is not my preferred way of booking a holiday and spending a rather large amount of L$, but there has to be a first time for everything!

We booked the Mahana Villa, of which there are six, for the price of L$ 2.000 per night. Not cheap, but not even the most expensive villa at the resort. We also booked the Spa RP Experience & Sauna.

Once booked and paid we had got the confirmation by the General Manager, who was so kind to make it possible for us Europeans to check in at 3 PM SLT, their normal check-in time is catered to the US residents at 5 PM SLT.

An hour before check-in she IMmed us and told us she would teleport us over to the reception to help us get settled and give us a tour.

Quite exciting!

At 3 PM SLT we got the necessary group invitation and a TP to the reception desk, where she welcomed us and gave us the key to our villa (a folder with a landmark) and a welcome pack (a folder with contact information, general information and landmarks directly to all amenities and locations of interest the resort has to offer).

The manager took us on a boat tour around the resort, showing us where to find activities, spots of interest, the Spa, the restaurant and the other villas, ending with settling us in our Mahana Villa for the coming 3 nights.

We decided we would start our vacation with the Spa RP Experience and Sauna on the first night, so she arranged for our masseuse to be ready for us in a few hours, leaving us time to explore the resort.

The Mahana Villa is really lovely decorated with quality furniture and decorations. In the stilted villa there is a master bedroom with a double bed (adult), a small indoor bathroom with hot tub, an outdoor shower on the terrace, a lounge area, a small well-stocked pantry/kitchen and dining table. The terrace over the water is perfect to sit and watch the sun go down.

We explored the resort by jet skis on our first evening and found a climbing wall that kept us busy, a bungee jump tower and we even tried the hang gliding which was awesome.

After having a drink in one of the bars we got an IM from our masseuse that she was expecting us for our Spa RP Experience.

The Spa is as you would expect in a high-end resort, with massage tables, bathtubs and terraces to relax, it all looked wonderful and classy.

The masseuse asked me to get on the table first and asked Huck to take place in the tub. I think she did her best, but to be honest, this was not an RP Experience.

The masseuse, who was very friendly, was wearing the longest nails I have ever seen in Second Life and the long sleeves of her sexy, short cocktail dress covered her hands. Her standing on very high heels made it all look a bit odd for a Spa.

As for RP experience, we did not experience any RP as she mainly talked about Second Life as you would when you tell someone about it, she did not RP as a masseuse at all.

Perhaps it was lack of experience, she told us she was in Second Life since 7 months only and mainly loved to shop.

After an hour of chatting about what we do in Second Life….the ‘experience’ was done and we went to the sauna.

I would not recommend booking this ‘RP Experience’ as an extra to a stay in MAEVA Bora Bora.

The rest of our stay we enjoyed very much. It was very quiet, most of the time we were the only ones in the resort, this could be due to time zones, and the activities offered are fun! We went kayaking, checked out the sharks (there are safe cages underwater to see them) and swam with dolphins.

MAEVA Bora Bora is a family-friendly resort, so you are expected to keep your adult activities in your villa and keep your clothes on when exploring, but there are also some very nice secluded areas to be found, some of those adult-rated, to chill and relax.

Overall a great destination for those who love to stay in a luxury villa, enjoying sun, water and fun activities. Not just for couples, but I can imagine this is great for groups of friends or families.

The General Manager is very friendly and kept in touch, explaining to us what to expect before check-in and also told us about the check-out procedure.