“The Brando” Hotel of Tetiaroa

“The Brando” Hotel Tetiaroa

The Brando is a unique luxury resort on French Polynesia’s breathtakingly beautiful private island of Tetiaroa – an atoll composed of a dozen small islands surrounding a sparkling lagoon 30 miles northeast of Tahiti.

In 1969, after he acquired Tetiaroa atoll, Marlo Brando built an airstrip and a small rustic hotel with a few rooms, the Tetiaora Village. Today, with the consent of his heirs, an important hotel project is born: The Brando, a green luxury hotel located on the same island where the actor had chosen to live, Onetahi motu, which is one of twelve motu that make up the private atoll. The hotel consists of 35 luxury villas, each with a private beach and swimming pool.

The Brando was planned from the start as a pilot project, which according to its developers, S.A. Pacific Beachcomber, aims to “balance the preservation of the environment, customer expectations, the respect of the people and the local community, and its financial viability for capital investors.” All technical systems and residences will primarily use renewable energy. As such, coconut oil will replace fuel and 2800 solar panels installed along the airstrip will provide 50% of the production of electricity. Finally, just as it did with its hotel on Bora Bora, Pacific Beachcomber has installed a SWAC; an air conditioning system with cold sea water collected from a depth of 900 m (3000 ft), thus using renewable energy with a very appealing carbon footprint.

The site also includes private homes as well as a non-profit environmental research center called the Tetiaroa Society. This laboratory is already attracting donations and research topics from all over the world to study coral, insects, and fish pertinent to the scientific world. These reports will expand over several studies of wildlife, flora and archaeological sites led under the auspices of DIREN, the Department of the Environment of French Polynesia. Moreover, conciliation missions between representatives of Brando’s family, the hotel project, and fishermen using the lagoon, involve creating human activities on the atoll that respect the environment while preserving the island’s biodiversity.