The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium
Murienua, Aroa Beach Cook Islands
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US$134
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About
#10 of 10 resorts in Rarotonga
Location
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Slip off your watch, your shoes, your cares and immerse yourself in paradise at the renowned Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium. Hand feed the friendly reef fish or snorkel straight off the white sands of Aroa Beach in the crystal clear blue waters of Aroa Lagoon Marine Reserve and enjoy Rarotonga’s best snorkeling (the resort’s guided Night Snorkeling Tours are a special treat!). The all-tide lagoon is also perfect for stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking, included as part of The Rarotongan’s extensive FREE Daily Activities Programme. The Rarotongan is located directly on Rarotonga’s best white sandy beach, Aroa Beach, on the island’s sunshine southwest coast. The Rarotongan is also Rarotonga’s most family-friendly resort and offers FREE Moko’s Kids Club, Little Dolphin’s Mini Waterpark and Teen Zone. Kids & Teens Stay & Play FREE (aged to 16 years)! Kids aged 4-11 years Play Free @ Moko’s Kids Club, and teens aged 12-16 years Play Free in Teen Zone.
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Property amenities
Free parking
Wifi
Pool
Fitness Centre with Gym / Workout Room
Free breakfast
Beach
Canoeing
Babysitting
Parking
Paid wifi
Outdoor pool
Bar / lounge
Restaurant
Breakfast available
Breakfast buffet
Complimentary welcome drink
Happy hour
Kids' meals
Outdoor dining area
Snack bar
Special diet menus
Poolside bar
Diving
Game room
Snorkelling
Tennis court
Billiards
Canoeing offsite
Entertainment staff
Evening entertainment
Fishing
Karaoke
Patio
Table tennis
Walking tours
Waterslide
Board games / puzzles
Children's playground
Children's television networks
Indoor play area for children
Children Activities (Kid / Family Friendly)
Kids club
Kids' outdoor play equipment
Highchairs available
Airport transportation
Shuttle bus service
Taxi service
Business Centre with Internet Access
Conference facilities
Banquet room
Meeting rooms
Spa
Body wrap
Couples massage
Facial treatments
Foot bath
Foot massage
Full body massage
Hand massage
Head massage
Makeup services
Manicure
Massage
Neck massage
Pedicure
Salon
Waxing services
Baggage storage
Concierge
Gift shop
Outdoor furniture
Picnic area
Sun deck
Sun loungers / beach chairs
Sun terrace
First aid kit
Umbrella
24-hour check-in
24-hour front desk
Clothes dryer
Laundry service
Self-serve laundry
Washing machine
Ironing service
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Room features
Blackout curtains
Air conditioning
Private beach
Dining area
Coffee / tea maker
Cable / satellite TV
Extra long beds
Walk-in shower
Housekeeping
Interconnected rooms available
Private balcony
Room service
Safe
Seating area
Telephone
Wardrobe / wardrobe
Iron
Private bathrooms
Tile / marble floor
Wake-up service / alarm clock
Kitchenette
Microwave
Oven
Refrigerator
Stovetop
Electric kettle
Flatscreen TV
Bath / shower
Complimentary toiletries
Hair dryer
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Room types
Ocean view
Landmark view
Non-smoking rooms
Suites
Family rooms
Good to know
HOTEL CLASS
HOTEL STYLE
Bay View
Languages Spoken
English
Location
58Somewhat walkable
Grade: 58 out of 100
70Restaurantswithin 10 km
33Attractionswithin 10 km
Murienua, Aroa Beach Cook Islands
Getting there
Car HireSee all Aroa Beach car hire
1540Reviews30Q+A100Room tips
ReviewsWe perform checks on reviews.Tripadvisor’s approach to reviewsBefore posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
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We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
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The Rarotongan Restaurant hosted our small function of 40 adults and children. They gave us a private area and provided great food, service and activities for the children. The menu offers a good variety and caters for vegans too! Very reasonably priced children menu too. Soft drinks well priced at $6 and a fantastic cake, more than enough for everyone at just $155. Also a smaller vegan cake at $66. Plenty for the children to do, we didn't see them all day other than when they came to eat and drink. A great day out.
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Date of stay: December 2023Trip type: Travelled with friends
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
The resort feels like a faithful old motel from the seventies, friendly but a little run down. It’s beautifully situated on Aro'a beach, a marine sanctuary. Here, the fringing reef is more distant to the beaches, which makes this part of the lagoon ideal for kayaking and snorkelling among coral right off the beach. Children are amply catered for, with a good-sized swimming pool, water slides, a trampoline, games tables, a library of books, and a playroom with a supervised kid’s club and plenty of daily activities, toys and movies. For adults, there are plenty of kayaks available on the beach, as well as fins and masks. There’s a good-sized restaurant and bar, with a view of the waves crashing on the reef and west-facing for sunset. The complimentary breakfast is fairly basic if filling, and the dinners reasonable, but nothing special. While the coral is very close to the beach and fun for young snorkellers, if you want something more you’ll need to go out on one of the tours to see turtles and bigger fish. One fun thing is the mass of bluefin trevally and yellowstripe goatfish that linger below the seaside balcony to fight for food scraps that children throw over the rail. Our room was fairly basic with a small balcony and bathroom. But it had a comfortable big bed and a view of the lagoon which made it good enough. One problem – the TV reception was poor, with no streaming services in evidence. Staff were very friendly, courteous and helpful. I would say that as accommodation for a family with little ones in tow, the Rarotongan was more than adequate.…
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Date of stay: November 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip: Kids will love the pool, water slides, games room, and wide beach
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Terrible food and very dated resort, unfortunately really poor for the amount that you pay to stay here. Beautiful setting if only the service and restaurant would be better and the rooms updated. Wouldn’t recommend staying here. Staff are lovely though
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Date of stay: November 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Resort is in a wonderful location. The views are amazing. The pool is great for the kids. Breakfast is very average and not at all worth the cost so I would recommend not including it in your booking. However there are no facilities to make breakfast in your room if staying in one of the Beachside units. Also note beachside is not necessarily on the side of the beach, it could be at the back of the resort. For great views book beach front. Staff are nice enough. The decor is tiring and needs a revamp. If you look around the resort is becoming run down. We stayed 8 nights and it was fine for us. $16 to complete a wash and dry cycle. Extra for powder. Bar refused us a glass of water saying it’s not safe to drink however was deemed safe to drink in the rooms. They instead charged $6 for a 600ml bottle of water produced in Rarotonga.…
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Date of stay: October 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Room Tip: Parking is plentiful. Long way to walk anywhere from this resort but bus stop is just outside.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Extremely overpriced. Great snorkelling. Average food. Beautiful grounds. Poor service. Nice rooms. Awesome cultural show. Dissapointing breakfast. Poor communication. Limited activities No other catering options nearby.
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Date of stay: October 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
+1
We absolutely LOVED our stay at the Rarotongan Lagoonarium. We had a beachside room and you could literally hop out of bed, walk a couple of metres and you were on the beach! The room was cosy, the huge 4 poster bed was comfy and we had all the amenities we needed including sun beds. We had snorkelled at a few places around the island (Muri, Titikaveka, Black Rock) but Aro’a lagoon is the best by miles! I swam with a turtle, loads of fish, big, small. brightly coloured and in schools. The water is really clear and the free use of snorkelling gear, SUPs and kayaks makes it really accessible too. I wasn’t overly impressed with the food sadly. We ate dinner and had breakfast at the hotel and I’d had far better at cafe’s and at the night markets. The staff were all chilled and super friendly and I’d 100% stay again. It’s a really lovely place to be. …
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Date of stay: October 2023Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Value
Location
Service
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Visited the resort for dinner on Wednesday night .. the services was ok with bar services only available for the restaurant. The food not so smart . ..should not order wayghu in the islands I guess …. The food service is more like a FIFO kitchen than a resort restaurant.
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Date of stay: October 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
We had the best experience of our trip at The Rarotongan as we got a private lesson on making our own Ei Katu (Flower Crowns). We ordered 10 fresh versions for our netball team but wanted a keepsake to take back to NZ. The lovely ladies at the Activities Centre sent us off to the supermarket in town where we purchased some plastic flowers to work with (approx $30 worth). The cocktails were flowing and we had a masterclass from the professionals who spent a LOT of time fixing our mistakes. We're coming back again in December 2023 and it's one of the things i'm looking forward to the most. You have the option to make a fresh or fake version.
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Date of stay: December 2022Trip type: Travelled with friends
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Went here for the Cultural Night - Dinner and Show. Would highly recommend, book ahead if you can, we booked day of and were lucky to get a table. The food was great, the staff were so comforting and always made sure we ate plenty (buffet). Another day I was on the island, we came here for lunch, swimming and to watch a Sports Game, and the food and atmosphere was great.
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Date of stay: September 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
The staff are very friendly and try to accommodate as much as their ability allows them but the hotel is very unorganised when catering for food and drink. We are part of a wedding party and have waited upto 3 hours for food to be prepared. Most days when ordering you need to wait an average of an hour for the food to be placed up on the counter and it’s not very hot. We found the staff are more interested in playing with their phones than doing their jobs, this includes the cleaning staff taking a full day to change towels in our section of 20 rooms. Not taking away that the staff are always smiling and friendly. I wouldn’t advise paying the extra for breakfast as you can order from the menu and it will cost around the same as your daily rate for mainly toast and fruit, this might suit families with small children but after 2 days becomes bland and the quality is not worth the 25 to 30 dollars each. The resort is lovely and the beach and fish life is in abundance. We are currently waiting over an hour for a granola bowl which we have now been told is off the menu which we had paid for and no one told the front of staff it was not available. Bar staff are friendly too but are in no hurry often leaving the bar unmanned leaving you asking other staff members to help then waiting a further 15 mins for them to find the bar staff. The masks in the hotel hire desk are not great you need to test them before going into the water as most of them leak and be warned they only dip the masks and snorkels into water to rinse and do not clean and sanitise then between guests so make sure you have something to clean them or buy your own from one of the shops in the town. We have enjoyed our stay and during the wedding the staff did a fantastic job and joined in with the after party the meals are good. Be warned that island time should not mean waiting hours for cold served food. This is definitely something they need to improve on. …
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Date of stay: October 2023Trip type: Travelled with family
Value
Location
Service
Room Tip: Have lots of patience, you are on island time.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Helpful
Response from Haimona Browne, General Manager at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium
Responded 5 Oct 2023
Kia Orana, Thank you for taking the time post a review and provide some constructive feedback of your stay with us. Obviously I am disappointed to hear you experienced some service shortfalls throughout your stay. We take all guests feedback seriously and all your concerns will be addressed with the managers responsible for these areas. I am happy that the wedding and party went well and everyone had a great time. Thank you again. Kind Regards, Haimona Browne Resort Manager
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
PRICE RANGE
US$116 - US$213 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
the rarotongan beach hotel aroa beach, the rarotongan beach resort and spa, rarotongan beach resort spa
LOCATION
Cook IslandsSouthern Cook IslandsRarotongaAroa Beach
NUMBER OF ROOMS
104
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Claim Your ListingTHE RAROTONGAN BEACH RESORT & LAGOONARIUM - Now $300 (Was $̶5̶3̶4̶) - UPDATED 2023 Reviews & Price Comparison (Aroa Beach, Cook Islands) - Tripadvisor
Frequently Asked Questions about The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium
Which popular attractions are close to The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Nearby attractions include Tik-e Tours (4.3 km), Aroa Marine Reserve (0.2 km), and Cook Island Christian Church (CICC) (3.1 km).
What are some of the property amenities at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Some of the more popular amenities offered include free breakfast, a pool, and an on-site restaurant.
Which room amenities are available at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Top room amenities include a kitchenette, air conditioning, and a flat screen TV.
What food & drink options are available at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Guests can enjoy free breakfast, an on-site restaurant, and a lounge during their stay.
Is parking available at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Yes, free parking is available to guests.
What are some restaurants close to The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Conveniently located restaurants include Beluga, The Waffle Shack, and Wilson's Beach Bar & Restaurant - Castaway Resort.
Are there opportunities to exercise at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Yes, guests have access to a pool and a fitness centre during their stay.
Does The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium have an airport shuttle?
Yes, The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium offers an airport shuttle for guests. We recommend calling ahead to confirm details.
Does The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium have airport transportation?
Yes, The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium offers airport transportation for guests. We recommend calling ahead to confirm details.
Are any cleaning services offered at The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium?
Yes, laundry service and self serve laundry are offered to guests.
Does The Rarotongan Beach Resort & Lagoonarium offer any business services?
Yes, it conveniently offers a business centre, meeting rooms, and a banquet room.