Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Rarotonga - end of Feb, 4 nights and 5 days.

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Cook Islands

Hi Guys,

Well, we're departing from sunny (at the moment) Auckland for Rarotonga at the end of Feb - we picked up some of the Pacific Blue special airfares and really excited about the break away from reality.... and work.

I've read teh differnet reports and really excited about the time away - but hoping you can help us make the trip a little more organised adn special.

1) Mangos - Pawpaw. It looks like we're going to get lucky with these being ins eason, am I correct?
2) Accommodation - we're pretty limited with budget I'm afriad, around $100nz per night. Would anyone have some where to recommend for us? Our main priorities would be:
- Own room and preferably shower/bathroom etc
- Comfort is important but being a young couple, so is the social life. We'd love a place where we can meet the locals and other tourists - is there anything which you can think of which tickes this box? It might be as simple as a Thursday BBQ with the owners etc... but we're wanting to meet/see people vs have a nice place but away from everyone/anything (we're not the romantic couple like that!)
3) Fishing. I'd love to go out fishing for a few hours but don't want to go game fishing all day. Does anyone know of anyone that does small fish fishing or game fishing but only goes out for a couple of hours?

I appreciate you taking your time to read this and look forward to hearing back

Edited by: Leonnz

Hi,

We stayed with the Rarotonga Backpackers. They have a lovely cottage a bith further on with beach frontage and your own facilitites. We paid around a hundred nz dollars for 2 adults 2 kids.
Bus stops at the end of the drive.

Enjoy!

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You might try and get a double room at Aremango, near Muri Beach (100m from the beach). You'll share a bathroom, etc., but it is a good place to meet others. In town, try the Paradise Inn.

Check out the Staircase Bar in town if you want to meet locals.

Papayas ("pawpaws") are year around. Mangos start in Nov/Dec and go through about Feb. so, you may see some at the end of Feb, maybe not.

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