cook islands december

hi

what's the weather like early december? what are the beaches like at raratonga? we'll have a 8mth old baby - ok or should we wait a year?

The weather in early December can be very hot and humid, or wet and windy. It can be glorious or terrible - and it really is just luck of the draw. It's officially the cyclone season, so you could throw in a cyclone or two, and sometimes you can experience all these conditions in one day!

The beaches are lovely and very safe for bubs, especially around the Muri area where the lagoon is quite still. We first brought our daughter to Rarotonga when she was only 4 months old. Often the younger the baby is, the easier it is to travel with them.

"Avarua is the best place to stay on the island". You have to be joking #2. No beaches there. Have you been there? Best beaches are at Titikaveka and Muri.

Avarua is the 'capital' of Rarotonga - the big smoke, ha ha. But where most of the shops and supermarkets are.

As for your comments about cyclones - YEEs, but not that often.

Heh aging, I told CookIslandsTraveler (aka TahitiTraveler and FijiTraveler) that there were no white sand beaches in Avarua in this thread.

He, in his other guises, has suggested Papeete as a great getaway with spas and resorts and world class shopping. While I have not been to Fiji, I suspect that his advice to base yourself in Nadi might not be the best.

#4 silvanocat - am beginning to wonder if CookIslandsTraveler (& others) is a reincarnation of someone who popped up a few months back purporting to be part of some great new travel organisation or something. Started to answer almost every post with mostly rubbish, much from guide books. Eventually disappeared after lots of criticism.

He uses an old (2000?) Lonely Planet. Would love to know where the website info comes from. The sites are new but the info is outdated (AOM which he says flys to Tahiti went out of business in 2001, Aloha Airlines hasn't flown to the Cooks for several years).