| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
How many days on each island?Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Cook Islands | ||
I've got 20 days to spend on the Cook Islands and my plan is to visit Mauke, Mangaia, Atiu and Aitutaki. I've been to Rarotonga for three days before, so I have already covered the "basic" things to do, so I don't feel I need to spend too much time there. I know that having a scooter on Aitutaki and Atiu could be very helpful, so my plan is to get a drivers license before I go to those islands. I read that you can rent scooters on Mangaia, but it doesn't seem like it's available on Mauke? How many days would you recommend for each island? I've checked the schedules on Air Rarotonga's web site and made an excel sheet with all flights, trying to figure out a good route. Here's a couple of possible routes: Alt 1 (4 days on Mauke, 4 days on Mangaia, 3 days on Atiu, 4 days on Aiututaki): Week 2 Week 3 I could also move the travel from Atiu to Aitutaki to Monday of week 3 and return on Thursday that week, giving me two more days on Atiu and one day less on Aitutaki. Alt 2 (4 days on Mauke, 4 days on Atiu, 2 days on Aiututaki, 4 days on Mangaia): Week 2 Week 3 Alt 3 (2 days on Mangaia, 3 days on Mauke, 3 days on Aitutaki, 4 days on Atiu): Week 2 Week 3 | ||
First of all, you certainly have done your homework. A couple of things to consider, one being that inter-island flights are cancelled on occasions, so you may want to maintain some flexibility in your planning. You can get a drivers license on Aitutaki as well as Rarotonga. Scooter rentals are available on all the islands that you plan to visit. On Mauke contact Tiare Holiday Cottages, they have rental scooters. You give no travel dates, but assuming you are not traveling over the Christmas season you should have no problems with availability of lodgings and flights. As to how many days to spend on a specific island, I probably lean towards your alternate #2. I think you will enjoy Mauke, Atiu and Mangaia because they are smaller more intimate locations, besides the gorgeous lagoon, I find Aitutaki to be rather slow paced and tourist oriented. Let me know if I can help you with other information. Papa Mike | 1 | |
Traveling Swede...Looks like you've caught the Cook Islands fever, the Cooks hooked my wife and I in 2003. I just purchased Air Raro tickets for a trip similar to yours in Nov-Dec this year. It will be our fourth Cook Islands adventure. We like to spend a week or so on each island. We've already been to Aitutaki, Atiu and Mangaia. This time we're going to Mauke, Aitutaki, Atiu and Mitiaro. We don't spend much time on Raro. Air Raro has an adequate online booking system with up-to-date information for available seats. But I use the on-line system just to check availability. Then, when I have the itinerary I want and I'm ready to purchase tickets, I call their sales office and have them book them for me. That way I'm not bumped by someone booking while I'm trying to book five or six inter-connected flights. I usually get Y or B fares. You can change or cancel up to one hour before departure time with no penalty with these tickets. I gives you lots of flexibility f your plans change. One note of caution if you're planning on going in December. The Air Raro flights get very tight in December when all of the Cook Islanders come home for the Christmas holidays. The same goes for the ANZ flights into Raro. Sometimes Air Raro will add flights if the demand warrants it. I ran into a scheduling problem this year because the CI government had a big meeting on Mauke and all the seats were gone for our first choice dates. The nice thing about going in December is that it's the social high season for locals and the low season for tourists. That makes it easy to get lodging and a great time to share island life with the locals. You'll want to stay at fellow a Swede's place on Mangaia, the Ara Moana. It's in the village of Ivirua on the eastern side of the island. You'll find Jan very knowledgeable about the island and his wife Tu serves great meals. Don't pass up the cave tour by Tere. His stories about the old days of island life are absolutely captivating. On Atiu try fishing with TK and tell him "Ray the fisherman" sent you. If you like I'll fill you in on the fishing details and what lures TK likes to use. The Atiu Villa, Kopeka Lodge and Marshall French's place are all good places to stay. And if you go with Birdman George on a Sunday he makes a great meal on the beach, complete food baskets hand-woven on the spot. I don't think people on the outer islands care if you have a CI driver's license. In Raro it probably is a good idea. I got one in 2003 it takes a couple of hours and you have to rent a motorcycle for the test. But it makes a nice souvenir. A word of caution about driving around at night on a motorcycle. Go slow and watch out for coconuts. A few years ago a friend of mine hit one and did a face-plant on the pavement. He spends every summer there and won't ride a motorcycle on Rarotonga any more. | 2 | |
Thank you for your quick and helpful replies. My Cook Islands trip is scheduled for May next year (had to book early so that I could use frequent flier miles for a free ticket), so there's plenty of time for planning :) Papa Mike, I also like alternative #2, but it would be too bad if the flight from Mauke to Rarotonga the last week was canceled and I would miss my flight home, so I'll see if I can come up with a way to spend 4-5 each days on Mauke, Mangaia and Atiu and finish off with Aitutaki. H2ooh, thanks for the tips on accomodation and activities. | 3 | |
Great advice from Papa Mike and H200h. Let me just add a few things. Even though it's May you will probably need the DEET (I use 99 or 100%) on both Atiu and Mauke, as most places to stay are inland, and there will eb some mozzies all year. On Mangaia defintiely stay at Jan's place in Ivirua. It's an island where it helps to have someone fluent in English, and familair with showing tourists where to go, and finding guides to get them there. Also, Ivirua gets the easterly breezes, and thus a lot less mozzies than the places in the main village of Oneroa, which gets very lfew breezes as it's on the west. He can also help you find a rental scooter. It will probably be an informal rental of someone's scooter, unless he has one of his own to rent to you. On Mauke, stay at the Tiare Holiday Cottages. He has one self-contained unti with it's own toilet and shower. It's a few bucks more, but it saves a trip across the lawn at night to the toilet block. They can also arrange scooter rental, and even better, arrange a personal tour of every place worth seeing. On Atiu, Atiu Villa is more costly, but it has hot water. Nice place. But the other places, more backpacker types, are fine. How many days on each? I don't think Air Raro would strand you on Mauke if that Wed flight was cancelled, but I agree that ending on Aitutaki is probably the safest bet. I'd schedule the last three or four days on Aitutaki, and plan to return back to RAR on Friday. If you like it, you can probably stay on Aitutaki for their Fri night, which is a lot of fun. If you get bored after two days, you can easily get back to RAR as well. Atiu and Mauke are probably the most similar. More "official" tourist type things to see on Atiu, with the kopeka cave, coffee plantation, and of course a tumunu or two or three. Mauke is even more laid back, and less-visited, but I find it friendlier and easier to meet locals because of that. Mangaia is the most interesting from an historic and cultural viewpoint, anthropologicallyy speaking, etc. And lots of caves etc. It's a huge island compared to the others. But three days would suffice. Yes, if you can use that Atiu to Aitutaki flight it would save a trip back to RAR. So, maybe do Atiu third and Aitutaki fourth. That leaves Mauke or Mangaia first and second. Might as well go to Mangaia first, it has the least flights. Well, it's off on its own, so if a flight is cancelled, it would be good to have that flexibility at the beginning of your trip. (If a Mauke flight were cancelled, a flight to Mitiaro or Atiu could also hit Mauke in a pinch if Air Raro needed to do that, those three islands are near each other (Atiu/Mauke/Mitiaro). I would NOT try to get a motorbike license that morning you arrive if you are going directly to an outer island that day. You would need to first rent a motorbike to take the test, which would be waste of money, as you wouldn't use it that day. On Mangaia and Mauke they won't care if you have a license or not. On Aitutaki you can get one at the Police Station pretty easily and quickly, just check to see when they'll be open. Yuo can use that license when you return to RAR. When you do return to RAR, consider staying at the Paradise Inn at the east end of town, or Aquarius across from the airport. If you find yuo have extra things you picked up on Mangaia, Mauke etc., or want to lighten your load, the Paradise will usually let you store some stuff if you will be staying there later on. Check to be sure. For the airfare---contact Air Raro by e-mail and see if you can get a package deal on all those flights. They used to have a basic fare to one island, for example, then each extra island was one price per island, etc. If not, then you might save a little by returning from Aitutaki to RAR on the first flight back on whatever day you are coming back. Sounds like a fun trip! | 4 | |
Thanks for the advice, Raro. | 5 | |
TravelingSwede.... Did you hear back from Air Raro about the package deal? | 6 | |
No package deals anymore, just the fares available online. | 7 | |