Hotels near Rarotonga International Airport - RAR, Avarua

great location close to the beach simple units perfect for no frills stay, Pool is perfect. the Crown restort is the best for happy hour cocktails the flying turtle in perfect for breakfast and the best smoothies free wifi across the road is a fun Umu and local entertainment night at Tumutoa, a local character "Ngame" guides you through prepping an umu teaches local dance, coconut husking and grating, the band members you will also meet throughout your stay especially if you go on a "Koka lagoon tour" in Muri - highly recommended. Awsome Japanese menu at the castaway- Jugs of island Lager is the way to drink beer

If relaxation, friendly locals or exhilarating experiences is what you are looking for in a holiday then Rarotonga is the place to go. Had the best time ever and didn't want to leave. We swam with the turtles, rode on the mud buggies and did a Koka Lagoon Cruise and every event exceeded our expectations. Rarotonga is exceptionally clean every where you go. The locals are sooo friendly and just can't seem to do enough to help you. 23 degrees in the middle of winter is an added bonus. I loved every minute of my 8 days.

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.

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.

The warmth of both the Rarotongan people, the sun and water. We thoroughly recommend the self drive mud buggy adventure, lagoon cruise (we went with Captain Tamas) and visit to both the Muri night markets and the Punanga Nui market. t

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 💜