Happy birthday to everyone's bucket-list favourite
The overwater bungalow, the ultimate in dreamy rooms, turns 50 this year, writes Elizabeth Sleith
This year marks a special anniversary in the history of travel: 50 years since the first over-sea, stilted bungalows opened their doors.
Overwater houses originated as fishermen's huts in French Polynesia, made of more than 100 islands in the South Pacific. But it was three Californians who'd settled in Tahiti during the '60s - Don McCullum, Jay Carlisle and Hugh Kelley - who first adapted them for tourism.
Known as the "Bali Hai Boys", the trio opened hotels on the islands of Moorea and Raiatea in 1967. The former had sandy beaches but Raiatea had none, so they built bungalows over the water for easy access to the lagoon.
As a bonus, they threw in those Plexiglass floors that turned living rooms into aquariums - a feature that quickly became known as "Tahitian TV". The rest, as they say, is honeymooner history.
Today, there are about 9,000 overwater bungalows in locations as far flung as the Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Seychelles - and a stay in one is on the bucket list of every self-respecting traveller.
As for the originals, Carlisle, now in his 70s, still oversees the sole survivor, the Club Bali Hai Moorea Hotel...
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