Cook Islands, Rarotonga and Aitutaki

Ten nights in the Cook Islands, divided evenly between two islands: a villa with its own pool on Rarotonga's Muri Lagoon, and a beachfront bungalow on the wide lagoon of Aitutaki.

Length: 10 nights
Pace: Two stays
Style: Lagoon, beach, island culture
Route: Rarotonga to Aitutaki

RarotongaFive nights
AitutakiFive nights

Days 1 to 6 · five nights

Rarotonga

Met on arrival in Rarotonga and taken to a villa that backs onto the lagoon and the beach. The days are slow and coastal: a morning at Muri Beach, snorkelling off Rutaki Beach, and sunset at Aro'a Beach with a drink at Jim's Bar. In Avarua the markets sell local food such as ika mata, raw fish marinated in citrus and coconut, and coconut rolls. One evening is given to an umukai, a traditional feast of pork and fish cooked in an earth oven, with song, dance and haupia, a coconut pudding, to finish.

Where you stay

Rumours Rarotonga

Rumours Rarotonga is a collection of private beachfront villas on Muri Lagoon, each with its own pool. It has a spa, and it is for adults only.

A beach with palm trees beside a calm lagoon. — Photo: Brooke Staz / Unsplash

Days 6 to 11 · five nights

Aitutaki

A move across to Aitutaki, an island set in a vast lagoon. There is time to walk through villages with old coral lime churches and to visit the historic sites of Te-Poaki-O-Rae and Are-O-Te-Mango with a guide. A day on the lagoon ends with a picnic lunch on One Foot Island, where a passport stamp is on offer. The rest is beach, swimming and seafood, before the return journey on day 11.

Where you stay

Pacific Resort Aitutaki

Pacific Resort Aitutaki sits right on the beach, on the edge of Aitutaki Lagoon, among tropical gardens. It has 29 beachfront bungalows and villas, each with a private sundeck looking over the lagoon, and the Tiare Spa. Aitutaki is about 45 minutes by air from Rarotonga.

Ways to make it yours

Arrival on Rarotonga by private jet
International flights arranged on request

This is a sample. The hotels, the pace and the order are where we start, not where we finish: every journey is designed around the people taking it.

Made around you

Most travel is bought. This is designed.

Before anything is booked, we talk: who is travelling, how you like to spend a morning, and the hotel preferences below the obvious, from the kind of bath you like to the time you wake and how much daylight you need in a room. You see options where options matter and clean recommendations where they don't.

The same person remains your point of contact from the first reply to the trip after next. No handovers. No team.