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The Cook Islands is a collection of 15 islands in the heart of the South Pacific. As a holiday destination, only two of these have a developed tourist infrastructure with beach resorts, shops, restaurants and day tours. The majority of holiday-makers stay on delightful Rarotonga with its international airport, happy-go-lucky atmosphere and great beaches, whilst a smaller percentage holiday on Aitutaki, with some tourists visiting purely on day tours from Rarotonga to cruise around the beautiful lagoon and sunbath on an uninhabited sand caye. The remaining islands offer traditional fishing villages, some interesting eco touring opportunities and half a dozen extremely remote atoll islands in the north where black pearls are farmed in the lagoons.
Rarotonga Holiday Guide
Rarotonga is the main island in the Cook Islands and where almost 90% of tourists spend their entire holiday. Rarotonga has lush tropical mountains, pretty coastal scenes, lots of picturesque sandy beaches and a very slow pace of life with mopeds being the most popular way of getting around the island. Whilst the Polynesian inhabitants have lost much of their traditional culture and heritage, the islanders retain a very laid back lifestyle mixed with an inherited business sense from its protectorate, New Zealand, and hence there is a healthy social infrastructure, lots of small local enterprises, and locally owned tourist accommodations - the most common style of accommodation on rarotonga is for self catering holidays, with many properties having just a handful of beach bungalows ensuring intimacy. Rarotonga also has a good selection of holiday homes for even better affordability. There are only a couple of fully serviced resorts on the island, the largest having just over 200 rooms - . English is widely spoken and the weather is absolutely bliss - not too hot, never cold. The Cook Islanders are also famed for their impressive hip swirling and high tempo dance performances and these can be seen at bars or resorts most nights of the week. All in all, Rarotonga is one of the safest and most relaxing tourist destinations in the world.
Rarotonga Accommodation Guide
Muri Beach Accommodation, Rarotonga
Aitutaki Holiday Guide
Aitutaki is one of the most exquisite lagoons in the world. The lagoon itself is large and can comfortable fit the main island of Rarotonga within it, measuring 12 km across its base and 15km from top to bottom. The lagoon is fringed by islands, only one being of significant size and populated - Aitutaki is a flat island on the north section of the lagoon and has most of the tourist accommodation with pleasant beaches. There are another 20 small uninhabited islands (motu) along the edge of the lagoon, most on the east fringe, and these are the destination of day cruises for its glorious picture postcard beaches and fine snorkelling in the lagoon.
Aitutaki Accommodation Guide
The Cook Islands is one of the safest holiday destinations in the world and for those looking for a laid-back, stress-free beach break, a stay on Rarotonga and Aitutaki is hard to beat. There's little to experience in cultutral activities, and not a great deal to do other than lie on the beach with a book, sip a cocktail at sunset and enjoy a good meal at one of the islands great indendent restaurants and perhaps take in the local nightlife (Friday & Saturday) or watch Cook islands dance performances at one of the resorts restaurants. The more energetic may want to hire a moped for a day or two and whizz around the island taking in the sites or join a buggy, walking or 4WD tour of the tropical rainforest. The cross island hike (4 hours) is popular for thse looking to stretch their legs.
The main island of Rarotonga is small, well developed and decidedly geared towards tourism with an almost continuous parade of self catering beach bungalows, holiday homes and exclusive boutique beach resorts around the island.
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Aitutaki is a 45-minute flight north of Rarotonga (up to six daily flights) and offers a stunning lagoon setting with lots of small uninhabited islets and sand bars to explore. The island is even more laid back than Rarotonga with just a handful of accommodation and basic grocery shops in the main villages. Lagoon cruises are the highligh with good snorkelling and decent scuba diving.
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