Rarotonga - A beautiful place to visit
Written: May 18 '04 (Updated May 19 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful, laid back, friendly, great snorkeling, good food
Cons: Long flight, not much to do at night, don't drink water from the tap
The Bottom Line: A great vacation. Wish I was still there, and can't wait to go back. We liked it better than Tahiti/Moorea
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| kostrin's Full Review: Rarotonga |
Rarotonga is the largest of the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific, about two hours west of Tahiti. The Cook Islands have about 13,000 residents living in the islands, and about 10,000 of those live on Rarotonga. The island is a little over 20 miles all the way around. The Cook Islands are a New Zealand protectorate, and as such, everyone speaks English. The currency is the New Zealand dollar. The Cook Islands can be reached by air on Air New Zealand from Auckland or Los Angeles. Aloha Airlines also flies there via Hawaii, but the route stops at other islands in the Pacific and may not be as direct as the Air New Zealand route.
There are many types of accommodation on Rarotonga, from backpacker type hostels, to individual rental homes, all the way up to luxury hotel and bungalow type units. Most properties are quite small however, with the largest hotel offering around 200 rooms.
Hotel
We stayed at the Rarotonga Beach Bungalows, on the south shore of the island (www.rarobeachbungalows.com). This property has five bungalows, three which are right on the beach, and two which are behind the beachfront units. The bungalows are very luxurious with beautiful hardwood furniture and a very nice garden shower. The shower is fully enclosed, and very private, but has tropical plants growing inside, and the walls are translucent, which allow lots of light inside.
The bungalows are large, with a very generous front porch, which is nicely shaded and looks directly at the lagoon. The main living area has a kitchen, dining table, sofa, chairs, and a futon style couch which will sleep one extra person.
The bedroom is large, and has air conditioning. The bathroom is nice sized and contains a dedicated shaver outlet and a hairdryer.
The best feature of this hotel, other than its location, is the staff. Tom is an American and he runs the show. When he is there, he is very friendly and helpful. He offered us a ride into town our first day, before we had made it to the bank to get local currency. He also offered us bus fare, and just asked that we repaid him before we left. Upon arrival, he also gave us a bottle of champagne. Lucky and Popo are local Cook Islanders who keep the place running. Lucky sets out breakfast every morning in the common area, and she is very friendly, and talkative. You can spend half your day just chatting with her. Popo was also very nice, although we didn’t spend as much time talking with her.
The beach at this hotel is excellent. It was never crowded. We never saw more than six people on the beach at any time. More often, we were the only people out there. The snorkeling is excellent here, as it is part of the Raui, or protected zone. The lagoon gets pretty deep here as well, so the fish can get quite large. The coral is not all that colorful, but the fish are abundant, and colorful and the snorkeling was very enjoyable.
There are many dogs on Rarotonga, and as many as ten were on the beach on this part of the island. The dogs are friendly, but they are basically begging for food, so don’t give them anything. The don’t need the encouragement.
The hotel is right next door to the Moana Sands hotel, which has an excellent restaurant called the PawPaw patch onsite. This restaurant does a beach bbq on Sundays, and has excellent meals the rest of the week. The staff is friendly and the food was very tasty. The night we went, they were overloaded by a large group who had not made a reservation, so service was a bit slow, but the staff managed, and the food was worth it.
The hotel qualifies as self-catering, meaning it has cooking facilities. There is a two burner stovetop, and a full refrigerator/freezer. We made a few meals and it was quite convenient having these facilities at our disposal. The tap water is not necessarily recommended for drinking, so we boiled it, or drank bottled water while we were here.
Groceries are in short supply on the island. The markets are all small, with a very limited selection, and relatively high prices. However, there is enough to make several types of meals, with some interesting curries and sauces in the stores.
Restaurants
There are quite a few restaurants on Rarotonga, and many of them are quite good. Most restaurants are quite small, so make a reservation in advance. If the restaurants don’t get any reservations for the day, they just might not open up for dinner.
Blue Note Café (Avarua) – we had lunch here. The food was good but not the highlight of the trip.
Sails (Muri Beach) – Sails has a great location, right on Muri beach, overlooking the lagoon and the motus. The seafood was fresh and quite good. We ate on the deck. Service was good, the fancy cocktails were a bit expensive, although comparable to other places on the island.
Trader Jack’s (Avarua) – Trader Jack’s is a happening night spot on Friday nights, when most of the country goes out for “pub crawl” night. Everything sounded great on the menu, but didn’t really live up to our expectations. The mussels on the appetizer menu were a bit too fishy, and the dishes just didn’t taste as good as they sounded. That said, their location can’t be beat, and the drinks were good.
Pacific Resort Rarotonga (Muri Beach) – We had lunch in the bar at the Pacific. The burger was really tasty, with an unusual sauce. We also had the chef salad, which had lots of meat and cheese, and very little greens, but was tasty. We had already eaten a lot of fish, so some meaty dishes really hit the spot at the time. The prices are a bit high compared to other places on the island.
Paw Paw Patch (Titikaveka, South Shore) – The Paw Paw patch is a relatively new restaurant and is attached to the Moana Sands hotel. They have a nice menu with lots of fresh fish items, and I had a very nice steak here as well. This was our second favorite restaurant on the island.
Tamarind House (East shore, between Muri Beach and Avarua) – this is the newest restaurant on the island. It’s only been open since early 2004. However, this is the premier restaurant on the island. The food is incredibly good here. The location is an old house which has been expanded and it has a bit of a plantation feel. They have a great view of the ocean, and we caught a fabulous sunset here. The garden looks like it was made for weddings. This was our favorite restaurant on Rarotonga, and was a great place to have our last meal before heading home. The service is outstanding as well.
Activites
Island Night – several hotels put on an Island Night exhibition which can include dinner, or you can just see the show, usually for a small fee. We saw the show at the Rarotongan Beach Resort and it was incredible! The dancing was excellent, and was by far the best “cultural” show we’ve seen. The show was geared for the tourist crowd, but the group definitely took pride in their singing, dancing, and music. The island buffet was quite good as well, although a bit on the pricey side at NZ$65 (including the show)
Cultural Village – This is about a 3 hour exhibition of local culture, including weaving, local medicine, fishing techniques, music, dance, and food. The food was good, and the demonstrations were very interesting.
Snorkeling – the snorkeling is very good on the south shore of the island. The water is very clear here. The fish are colorful, but perhaps not as colorful as other islands in the South Pacific. The water was not quite as warm as I expected, but that could have been due to the fact that we had a couple of days of rainy, cloudy weather. The coral was not particularly colorful, but the variety of fish was very good.
Beachcombing – there are lots of hermit crabs, and clam shells, and other interesting things to find on the beaches of Rarotonga. There are also lots of coconuts. For the adventurous types, you can try cracking them open (I opened a few. They were delicious!)
Hiking – We tried to do the cross-island hike with Pa, but we got rained out. We’ll have to do this on our next visit.
Shopping – the Saturday market in Avarua was interesting. The prices for souvenir type items was definitely better than in most stores on the island. If you are looking for fresh produce or fish, you’d better get there early. They were pretty cleaned out by 10:30am or so we when arrived. There are many black pearl shops, so shop around for the pearl you most like. The prices are pretty comparable at the nicer shops. The cheaper pearls are generally of poorer quality, with spots, defects, or of generally irregular shape.
Pub Crawl – Friday night is supposed to be the big night out on the island. The island was pretty slow when we visited (mid May), so perhaps the crowds were just not there. However, each spot we went to was really slow, with the exception of Trader Jack’s.
Getting Around
The bus runs on a regular schedule, and will pick you up or drop you off anyplace on the island. The fare cost NZ$2.50 for a one-way trip, or NZ$4.00 for a round trip.
We rented a scooter. This was the first time I had driven one, so we requested a fully automatic one. It was quite easy to drive and was great for getting anywhere we wanted to go. The speed limit is 40km/h, so you are never going very fast. You need to get a Cook Islands driver’s license, which is a very each process. You can get this at the Police station in Avarua. The cost was NZ$25 per day, but Avis had a deal where you paid for 3 days and got one extra day for free.
General Impressions
We really enjoyed Rarotonga. Everyone was very friendly. Everything is very laid back on the island. The weather could have been a bit better while we were there. We had a couple of days of solid rain. However, when the sun finally came out, it was wonderfully warm and beautiful.
Other Hotels
We either drove by our walked through a few other properties during our stay. We did not see inside any of the rooms, these are just our impressions based on the exteriors:
- Rarotongan Beach Resort and Spa – this is the Disneyland hotel of Rarotonga. There were kids running around everywhere. This hotel has around 200 rooms, only a few of which have beach views. The grounds are clean and nicely kept, but this definitely feels like a larger hotel, which was not what we wanted out of our visit. This is probably the most kid friendly location on the island though, as they have a kids’ club with activities.
- Edgewater Resort – only drove through the parking lot on the bus. The back buildings are pretty close to the road, and didn’t look very nice. Again, this is a larger resort and not very intimate
- Sea Change Villas – this looks like a very expensive and luxurious property on the south shore of the island. The exterior looks very nice, but the bungalows appear to be really close together. It doesn’t seem like there would be a lot of privacy there.
- Palm Grove – the beach front units are on a nice stretch of beach. The rest of the units are across the road. Looked nice, but didn’t get to see the interior
- Pacific Resort Rarotonga – of the “resort” type properties, this one looked the nicest. The grounds were beautiful, with a great location on Muri beach, but only a few units actually face the lagoon. This is much smaller than Edgewater or Rarotongan with only around 60 rooms
- Shangri-La – nice property with a swimming pool and individual units. Good location down at the end of Muri Beach. The units don’t appear to be as luxurious as some of the others on the island, but then the price is lower as well.
- Moana Sands – right on the beach on the south shore. The units on the third floor are the newest and probably the nicest. This is still a small hotel with less than 20 rooms, all of which face the beach. The PawPaw Patch restaurant is on site.
We also visited Aitutaki. See the review for Aitutaki: http://www.epinions.com/content_140566826628
You can also view a few pictures from the trip here: http://community.webshots.com/album/144181069bIWGzc
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
kostrin
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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