Why I chose the Cook Islands for a South Pacific honeymoon

My wonderful husband Phill and I are lucky to have travelled a lot (though I don’t believe it’s about luck, for most people, it’s about priorities, but that’s a topic for another post), and our current wishlist is filled with fascinating but challenging places, like Tibet and Mongolia.

For a honeymoon though? Where on earth do you begin? We wanted an adventure, but a comfy one with some luxury. We’re not so unconventional that we don’t love a pretty beach. Plus, islands are romantic. That’s just a fact.

We also wanted it to feel far. Living in Europe, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean feel a bit too accessible – OK, the Maldives are amazing, but we could go there anytime, we said – so we started researching the South Pacific.

French Polynesia vs the Cook Islands

At first glance, French Polynesia is the honeymoon fantasy. Bora Bora looks like a dream, Tahiti sounds impressive (it’s where you’d fly into, as the transport hub), and there are dozens of tempting luxury spots on tiny islands (Ninamu on the atoll of Tikehau is now on the wishlist!) but it’s just. So. Expensive. I asked a travel agent, who said to expect to spend £9,000 for two weeks, for two people, or £14,000 for three weeks.

I ignored them and did my own calculations, assuming a mix of high-end and basic accommodation (in fairness to Bora Bora, there are some great-looking Airbnbs) for 18 nights, a moderate food and drink budget, internal flights with an Air Tahiti pass and international flights from London, and it came to £8,500. Much better, but that doesn’t account for activities, local transport, or the odd fancy meal. And we didn’t want to be out there rationing beer.

Plus, while we’re generally happy to stumble along with our semi-competent grasp of broken French, for a honeymoon you want things to be easy.

Fiji vs the Cook Islands

Fiji? Still sounds impressive, it’s English-speaking, and it fared better in my cost estimate. There are more ‘7 nights for the price of 5’-type deals, there’s more budget accommodation and food is generally cheaper. At the higher end, friends recommended hotels like Royal Davui Island Resort and Namale Resort in Savusavu, respectively around £700 and £850 per night, but that includes all food and drink. But it all just felt a little touristy… we didn’t like that many of the resorts are isolated; we want to venture out, try different restaurants and see what the locals are up to.

I also looked into Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and Easter Island, but flights were either too expensive or awkwardly routed from the UK.

beach at etu moana in Aitutaki, Cook Islands — The beach outside our bungalow at Etu Moana in Aitutaki, the Cook Islands

The Cook Islands!

Something clicked about the Cook Islands. The perfect balance of comfortable and exotic – safe, friendly, English-speaking, not cheap but manageable, just developed enough to have great coffee but no chain hotels or huge resorts. There’s a strong sense of Polynesian culture and the food looks great. The most populated island, Rarotonga, has gorgeous mountain scenery and the island of Aitutaki has a lagoon that’s consistently ranked alongside Bora Bora’s as the world’s most beautiful.

Even better, looking at flights from the UK (yes, I spent many hours on Skyscanner), the possibilities it opened up were very interesting. We flew Heathrow–LA–Rarotonga–Auckland–Singapore–Heathrow with Air New Zealand, which allowed us to add time in LA and Auckland – we spent a full day in LA and a week in New Zealand – for not much extra in flight costs. (Incidentally, that LA–Rarotonga flight is weekly – if you can’t find it, try a Saturday night.)

To that, we added return flights between Rarotonga and Aitutaki with Air Rarotonga.

Itinerary and budget

It’s a long trip, unless you’re one of the lucky southern hemisphere-dwellers who can pop over for a long weekend. We took three weeks off work in total, which gave us one night in LA, 12 nights in the Cooks and seven nights in New Zealand.

Any less in the Cook Islands would have been a bit of a shame, unless you’re planning to come back. We spent five nights in Aitutaki and seven in Rarotonga, which was enough to relax, eat and drink too much, see and do what we’d wanted to, and catch a lot of sunsets. Our time in Rarotonga was split between a boutique resort in quiet Titikaveka and a cheaper villa in touristy Muri Beach, which gave us different perspectives.

If we’d had more time, we would have added Atiu – the third most popular island for tourists, it’s still tiny and looks more rugged.

So, how much did we end up spending? A bit more than I’d estimated for French Polynesia. Ha. But that was for three weeks in two countries, not holding back when it came to food, drink and activities, including skydiving in New Zealand.

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Any regrets?

Well, no 😀 We had an amazing time and will always have happy honeymoon memories. If anything I’d have worried less about the weather – it’s unpredictable, and while October in the Cooks is generally warm and dry, it was also annoyingly windy while we were there. There might be better honeymoon destinations if you want guaranteed sunshine, and if you dream of overwater bungalows, go for Bora Bora or the Maldives. We’ll do the overwater thing one day; hey, that’s what anniversaries are for!

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