HAWAII TO COOK ISLANDS IN JUNE

Greetings,

I will be a few weeks in Hawaii in June and am contemplating extending my South Pacific visit with a trip to the Cook Islands roundtrip from HNL. What airlines have direct flights to the CI and are there any days of the week better to travel than others? Does anyone offer any kind of Circle Tour Fares where you island hop additional South Pacific islands from HNL? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

The other posts on the Cook Islands here in the forum sound amazing. Thanks for all the great insight and information!

GP

If you're departing the US I'd recommend routing your HI trip through LAX. Then you can take advantage of Air New Zealand's special deals for the Cooks out of LA. I know it doesn't sound logical, but you'll spend less time traveling and less money doing it that way.

Is this your first trip to Hawaii? If you've already seen Hawaii, my recommendation would be to chuck HI altogether and head for the Cooks. Unless you like high prices, lots of American tourists and glitzy (ie staged) attractions, you'll enjoy the Cook Islands a lot more.

If you haven't been to Hawaii, I guess you'll probably want to go. I've been to both multiple times. For me it's no contest, I'll take the Cooks over Hawaii any day any time any budget.

Air NZ provides a weekly direct service from LAX to RAR arriving Rarotonga at dawn on Monday morning with good connections to Aitutaki aboard domestic airline Air Rarotonga. There is a weekly flight from Aitutaki to Atiu; sometimes 2 flights depending on demand. Air Raro flies regularly to other outer islands in the Southern Group, except Palmerston atoll, including Mauke, Mangaia and Mitiaro. There is a weekly (on demand) flight from Rarotonga via Aitutaki to Manihiki return.

Air Rarotonga has a code share arrangement with Air Tahiti between Papeete and Rarotonga return, once week (Thursday). I understand that Hawaiin Airlines operates a service between HNL and PPT.

There is no longer an airline island hopping between Fiji and Samoa to Rarotonga like there was in the '80s and '90s. Too unprofitable. And Air NZ ceased the weekly link between Nadi and Rarotonga some years ago. There were discussions to recommence this a year back, but nothing eventuated.

Air NZ flies near daily flights (sometimes 2) between Auckland and Rarotonga. Additionally there is a weekly flight between Sydney and Rarotonga.

There are no airlines flying direct from Hawaii to Rarotonga. You can fly Hawaiian Airlines from Hawaii to Tahiti, and then Air Rarotonga from Tahiti to Rarotonga.