Hotels near Rarotonga International Airport - RAR, Avarua

Avarua is pretty small with a Mall and few shops, supermarket, pharmacy, hardware stores etc. lots of take away and restaurant and a bit of night life, quiet, little traffic, nice people. Prices for clothing and souvenirs are high, I did not buy anything... The Saturday market is quite big with produce, clothing, etc. In Rarotonga on Sunday everything is closed (you cannot buy alcohol) although you can get take away and there are minimarkets open 24 hours ! Also hotels restaurants are open. It is cheaper to eat out compare to buy food and cook in. Food is good, wine prices acceptable. Not a big selection of food thou depending on the ships who bring the food in. It is a small island you must remember.

We loved everything about our trip, our second to Rarotonga. We had three different accommodations all offered something different, all exceptional. Te Ara Villas, a home for all 7 of our family. New, comfortable in a great location and everything you could need. Then just the two of us so in the fabulous Studio Varia, also near new with amazing amenities, a little further out so our car was useful, then some time at Edgewater resort which as a different vibe, the rooms are a little dated but resort life is fun. Recommend Rarotonga great people, weather and plenty to do.

Some lovely snorkeling, the turtle tour with Aqua Oz Turtle Man was a huge highlight for us. Saw a lot of Green Turtles and this was superb with the whole family. Shame the reef seems to be damaged and the local hotels don't even stock reef safe suncream, we did find some in Muri but disappointing to see that locals are not promoting reef care. People are standing all over the reef. Cook Islands should invest in providing more reef care information to tourists. Also quite a lot of litter around, which is a shame as it is a beautiful island. We stayed for 10 days with kids this was probably 3 days too long. As adults alone we would have found some extra activities like cycling around the whole island and the cross island hike.

Staying on the island is a memory il never forget iv waited 19 years to finally be able to travel an this was first on my bucket list my accomodation was immaculate the people amazing the culture is very alive there an it’s beautiful my husband was so happy to visit his mother land visit his grandads grave an home some of his dads family half brothers an cousins, made this trip worth waiting for ❤️Doing activities the Ariki adventure tours koka eating at amazing places those are all added bonuses we loved seeing the turtles eagle rays giant travelly the clamps those are my highlights But seeing the cousin climb the coconut tree an get us fresh coconuts 🥥 that was the best having an abundance of different varieties of fruits water melon mango pineapple coconuts papaya I can’t wait to come back 💜

We LOVED Raratonga. This Island was laid back and very relaxing. A lovely slow pace. No polution. No peak traffic. Not over populated. Lush tropical greenery with tropical flowers. The crystal clear waters of much of the reefs around the island, was a mix of 50 shades of blue 50 shades of aqua. 50 shades of turquiose. A absolute pleasure to swim in. No seaweed or rubbish washed up on the beach. Stunning snorkling. A perfect temperature of 25 to 26 degrees balmy. We found the cook Islanders warm and friendly. They seemed to take pride in their beautiful Island. And it was lovely to see. The food offered all around the Island was excellent. at reasonalble prices. Something for everyone. Id go back in a heartbeat. The many different Lagoon trips on offer were fun to do. Plus the Saturday Market up in the township was well worth attending. Everyone we spoke to that had gone there for the first time ALL said why didnt we book for longer. We stayed for about 14 days, plus a few days of travel to get there and back from Melbourne. I could easliy stay for 3 weeks. The land of a 1000 coconuts, wild chooks, black pearls, big smiles, happy people, divine scented leis, tropical balmy weather, Polonesian Island feast, dance, and musical nights, and a chill mind set.

We had a great stay here. We had a car, which meant that we could make the most of the whole island of Rarotonga, which was great. It was better to go about 5 minutes drive down the road to go snorkeling, so we drove every day and if we hadn't had a vehicle it would have been a bit more restrictive. We got around the