Hotels near Rarotonga International Airport - RAR, Avarua

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.

You need at least 10 nights to make the most out of this visit and do some activities but give yourself some down time days as well. The Island is absolutely beautiful, and we will definitely be back.

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 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

The weather was not warm enough for swimming and snorkeling every day (which we had hoped for) as the lagoon is very beautiful. Thankfully we had no rain so we walked a few of the very beautiful (but hard) walks on the island. The groceries on the island are very expensive but the restaurant prices are on par with Sydney prices so we ate out every night although we booked self contained accommodation. The restaurants are excellent and most have beautiful views. Read reviews on Tripadvisor. There is a bus service on the island but for convenience and to save time we hired a car. People are really lovely and the day trip to Aitutaki an absolute must! Book that one early. A week was just right.

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 💜