Aitutaki holidays

Tour the Aitutaki lagoon by kayak or water taxi, swim among the marine life making a home among the reef, or sail to deeper seas where whales break between the waves. Climb Maunga Pu for panoramic views of the ocean and its islands from its plateau peak. Wander by harbourside craft stores and see sunlight stream through stained glass at the 200-year-old Cook Islands Christian Church. Find an empty beach and paddle along the shoreline with nothing but scuttling crabs at your feet and the sun above your head.

Take a 4WD tour of the island’s forest interior. Taste Polynesian dishes in village restaurants. Try kitesurfing, bone fishing, or golf. Relax with a luxury spa treatment, see a spectacular sunset, and feel the night come alive with dancing and drums at an Island Night cultural show and feast.

When you visit Aitutaki, you visit more than a dozen islands. Enjoy castaway days as you sail the lagoon between the empty islets, or motu, of this barely inhabited “almost atoll”. Kayak from Ootu Beach to Akitua and Angarai. Snorkel in the clear waters of Maina. Take a tour of Tapuaetai - also known as One Foot Island - where hermit crabs shuffle between coconut palms and the water's edge.

Get your passport stamped at the tiniest post office, laze on the beach, or paddle to the Slice of Heaven sandbar. See coconut crabs among the jungles and coral of Akaiami. Swim in the rock pools of Ee and Manger. Take a water taxi to Rapota and Moturakau - once the location of ITV’s “Survivor” - where pigs roam among inland flora and shoreline sands. Or hit the beach bar and take it easy with the surfers at Honeymoon Island sandbar.

Sail, swim, or snorkel in the clear turquoise lagoon between Aitutaki’s islands. Share the gentle waters with marine life from tiny reef fish skitting about to giant trevallies lurking for fishing boat leftovers. Float over giant clams, drift among yellow-tinted Napoleon fish, or follow baby turtles diving from the beaches.

Arrive between July and October to spot the most majestic of them all as humpback whales pass the Cook Island shores in their annual migration. Back on land, share the sands with coconut crabs, hermit crabs, snuffling pigs, and birds fluttering between the islet trees.

Aitutaki is a destination you can visit all year round. Winter, from April to November, offers ideal conditions, dry days, and temperatures averaging 24°C to 28°C. The combination of whale watching season and holiday periods for nations around the world make July and August the closest Aitutaki ever gets to crowded which, thanks to its remoteness, is hardly at all.

 For quieter days, the shoulder seasons of April to June and September to November are ideal times to visit before the summer rains begin to fall. Summer, from December to March, experiences the hottest days, often 30°C or more and the highest rainfall. Even at this time, heavy showers are more common and most rain dries up within a few hours meaning visitors can still enjoy Aitutaki’s desert island attractions.