My wife and I stayed for 19 nights at Sanctuary on the Beach (the adults only sister resort to the adjacent Rarotongan) with a beachfront cabin, on our first ever trip to the Cook Islands. We had a rough start but eventually things settled down to become what was for us a very pleasant stay. After a lovely greeting at the airport, we had to wait in the transfer van in the heat for nearly an hour til they filled the bus up. The transfer company had one driver servicing 2 buses, so we didn’t move til she had come back from trip no. 1. No doubt this was partly due to our arriving on a Sunday (note to self: never repeat that, on Sunday in Raro many locals take the day off, there is just less of everything available). It didn’t help that the driver also kept making sarcastic wisecracks and reminding us that they were still the cheapest on the island.
When we got to it cabin, the air con was broken, the wifi in the room poor and the last straw was that although there is no smoking in the rooms, guests can smoke on their balconies (unlike, say the Edgewater resort) , meaning that with the door open to let in the wonderful sea breeze, we frequently got very unwelcome second hand smoke. Within a day however, the air con was fixed (though I had to ask 3 times). The promised “visit from Vodaphone” to check the wifi never eventuated. We learnt to cope without it, or go to the bar or reception if we wanted hi bandwidth. It was basically only good for email in our room, so we had to forget streaming services or gaming online. Water pressure in the shower was great, which was nice.
We learnt that There is a general staff shortage on Raro and this affects everything across all tourism sectors, as many of the locals went to NZ during Covid for work when tourism shut down, and a lot haven’t returned yet ( and it’s a small population servicing an intensive tourism sector), so we adjusted our expectations a bit. Eventually the smokers moved on, and our plea for non smoking neighbours worked out, whether by design or luck we don’t know. The location was great, the adjacent (30m walk) lagoon wonderful, if a bit windy on the SW side of the island.
The resort offers lots of free use gear (kayaks, paddle board, snorkeling gear etc) which is great and many people take advantage of it. The fish life in the lagoon is amazing and the water great to swim in, a real highlight and reason to stay here. The local walks into the hills were great also, very scenic (note: bring VAST amounts of sunscreen and bug spray with you to Raro, especially sunscreen as the local shops either don’t have stock at all or sell tiny tubes at vast prices!)
The bar and restaurant was usually busy but the hard working and pleasant staff were lovely. A big shout out goes to Akuila, Gwen, Estherlina and Va who were stalwart and welcoming. The meals were what we would call “decent pub quality” on average, but with some real highlights like the sticky pork ribs, the seafood chowder and the Ike Mata.
The resort could be 4 star with not a lot more effort and better (i.e more) staffing. There were some staff here who were clearly still learners, and sometimes the experienced staff coped by themselves with double and triple duties. We learnt to cut them some slack rather than get grumpy and just complain. It was “island time” after all! We heard from some neighbours that some accomodation locations on Raro have actually limited their visitor numbers to match the staff they actually have available, so as to keep standards up. The lack of staff and over worked staff did impact some aspects of our stay. We noticed (for example) that sometimes rubbish would be in corners uncollected for a day or 2, something that would not occur in the 4-4.5 star resorts we have stayed in, in Fiji and elsewhere. Sometimes housekeeping didn’t happen when meant to in our rooms, though this picked up over the stay. Also, not all the things advertised in the daily activity schedule seem to occur, and restaurant suggestions were listed that are not actually on the menu. Most staff were friendly and courteous and some were exceptional. The separate reception in the Sanctuary part of the resort did not operate the whole time we were here, so sometimes the queues in the main (sister resort) Rarotongan reception were very long. We learnt to go away and come back, and avoid the peaks.
The reception staff were always helpful in booking tours, providing advice on local transport etc.
The resort is not near any cafes, and we were surprised that the bar or restaurant doesn’t do real coffees. With a decent barista, they could make a mint…we would all be willing to pay! There is a coffee machine in the little gift shop but it seemed to either put out watery, poor tasting coffee or be out of order. Not worth the $4 charge when it did work (sorry, need to be honest here).
So, would we come back? Yes. However, I would expect the resort to lift their game over time, as they recover from Covid. They also need to ensure that the activities promoted on the daily schedule (and online) all actually occur, or stop offering them. Lastly, push all the smokers into the easternmost block so their smoke doesn’t affect anyone else, or like other some resorts, set up designated smoking areas or just ban it. It is very unappreciated by other patrons.
In summary, at present it was a 3 star genuine experience and I thought I had booked a 4 star resort. I hope it can get back up there.
