Friendly English speaking people, clean villages, nice accommodations, great food, plenty of beaches, easy to rent a car or scooter and drive around the island, and only 9 hrs from LAX! November should have been the dry season in Cook Islands, however, that was not the case when we got there. Weather was a big disappointment. It was overcast and rainy on the first day, cloudy and windy on the second and extra windy on the third. We booked a tour of Aitutaki island, where we were supposed to see an out of this world lagoon, but it was not meant to happen. Despite the weather, we liked the island.

Food on the island was delicious. We had lots of fish and seafood.

On the second day, we rented a car and drove around the island. It takes 45 min to make a full circle. There are only 32 km! We stopped at different beaches and other points of interest. A local guy is known for his banana wine, all kinds of weird hard alcohol and vanilla concentrate. We went to his house for a tasting and bought some fresh vanilla bean strings. Now I have figure out what to do with them. The majority of tourists were from NZ since it less than 4 hr flight. However, during a local brewery tour half of the people were from Southern California.

Finally, on the third day, instead of exploring the Aitutaki island, we had to make different plans. We rented a car from the airport, which is twice as much as renting from the city by the way, and drove around the island and spent some time at the beach.

I guess we’ll have to come back to Raro to spend a day on Aitutaki island 🙂