Hotel Bora Bora is located on Bora Bora, a French Polynesian island about 260 kilometers northwest of Tahiti. The resort opened in 1961 with 18 thatched-roof huts on a peninsula uncommonly favored by nature. In the beginning, you floated in by seaplane. And when you splashed down on what more than a few writers -- James Michener included -- have called “the most beautiful lagoon in the world," a canoe was there to ferry you to the newly opened hotel. A few things have changed since then, including a recent refurbishment to the resort’s classic over water accommodations. But Hotel Bora Bora, an Amanresort since 1989, remains the quintessential symbol of French Polynesia.