We arrived here from the sister resort in Rarotonga to celebrate a 60th birthday. It is a very romantic resort. The grounds are lush and beautiful. The rooms are great with a beautiful bedspread unique to the Cook Islands. The pool is spectacular along with the overlooking restaurant. The restaurant has delicious food. The breakfast was included in the resort room fee. They have an Island Night with dancing girls and guys in the Cook Island attire.The beach is fun to walk and has lots of hermit crabs in almost every shell. The lagoon water contains a lot of sea cucumbers near the shoreline. Highly recommend some reef shoes. The water is difficult to swim in because it is shallow. You can take a kayak out to deeper water in order to swim. The snorkeling is so so for experienced snorkelers or scuba divers. The resort can arrange for motor scooters on site. They are a lot of fun. The lagoon cruise can also be arranged from them and would highly recommend it. They stop at a great snorkeling spot which has giant clams. The cruise also takes you to One Foot Island which has very pretty water and also to the site of the Survivor series on US television.

My wife & I stayed for 7 nights in October 2006. The resort is beautiful and even when it is full you really don't see too many other people. Most of the food on the A-La Carte menu was great (5 Star).. but if you are a foodie, avoid the resort restaurant on the "Island Night".. it is a very average, over-priced buffet.
Make sure that you ask for a Bungalow to the right of the pool area (if you facing out to sea)... the beach is much nicer than in front of the rooms to the left of the pool area.
Lots of people have mentioned the mosquitos in Aitutaki. My wife is very prone to bites but she was only slightly affected. The outer islands in Fiji are much worse.
It seems that constant wind is a bit of a feature in Aitutaki, but this was not a problem at all.... in fact it was quite refreshing.
It is easy to carry a few bottles of wine or champagne with you to Aitutaki (in your hand luggage), and you can keep these in the refrigerator in your room. The bar staff were more than happy to provide an ice bucket and glasses for us to use beside the pool.
We will definitely return.

I drove into the hotel grounds (We stayed at Sunny Beach Lodge 200 meters down the road) and booked the evening dinner/show. At first I was told it was fully booked! I argued! I won! At $NZ65 per head, we were to be there at 7:00 pm. We arrived - no table or place setting! I told them to check - Ah, yes! Your booking. A table was added at the back, near the buffet. I had cameras for making a documentary (I had informed them earlier at time of booking). 15 minutes for table to be set. We sat. Manager was slightly aloof, but asked if all was OK. I nodded and smiled. I started to take film. Manager became more friendly and more so throught the evening, as did all staff, to the point that we had personal service for any small thing served with big smiles! We stayed until 10:30 after all had left, and then drove back on our scooter.
An evening which started out cold turned into an enjoyable time, again, meeting many other people on holiday.

Expensive, but worth one nights buffet!

Bruce & Marina Grant

We stayed at Pacific Resort for 6 days during our honeymoon trip to the Cooks. We were pleased with our beachfront bungalow which was clean, spacious, and had amazing views. The king-sized bed was comfortable and the snorkeling was also decent -we found five huge clams about 30 meters out from the bungalow. Housekeeping and turndown service was good. Part of why we loved the Cooks so much is because the people were so welcoming and easy to get to know. The friendliness was contagious, as we quickly learned in our 16 day overall stay. Strangely, we felt a cold reception from much of the staff here (but not all of them). I know it was their place of employment but attempts to make conversation by us were at times brushed off as if it were completely off limits - which was not the case at our accommodation in Raro.

Mainly, we were truly disappointed with the food selection and quality. I regret to have to report that the dinner selections were monotonous with no originality for what the rate was. We tried to keep an open mind considering where we chose to stay and also that most ingredients/food items are imported. But for our average price of lunch ($NZ70 - food and one drink each) and dinner ($NZ120-160 - food and wine), we really expected to enjoy the cuisine more, as we were led to believe that this was the ultimate in terms of island dining. We also attended Island Night, which was mediocre at best - and in our opinion, again not worth the price. When we did dine at the resort, we found the atmosphere to be somewhat stuffy and not representative of the warmth we felt everywhere else in the islands. To end on a good note: our absolute favorite place was Samade for drinks and Cafe' Tapuna for dinner...we would eat there again and again!

From the moment we arrived we were treated like special friends. Sue the lady in charge is absolutely fantastic and runs around the hotel at a trot all day making sure you have everything you could possibly need or want. The resort is only about 4 years old and so is very clean and tidy. All the staff look at you and say hello and are very friendly. The rooms are fantastic and the food is great. I would recommend anyone to stay here. They would thoroughly enjoy it. When we left to go to airport the lady that welcomes you at the airport also sees you off!!

After more than 45 hours of travel, we were a bit down but higlhy excited to discover a nice resort far from everything ; and it was the case.
Aitutaki is located at 50 min of flight from the main island where international flights arrives.
The airport was of course very small although 1 big and renovated runway was available.
The resort is not far from the village (downtown) by scooter or car but very calm.
No more than 27 villas and this is perfect to reach a deserved quiet and relaxing time.
The lobby is large and open to the pool aera and the see, you can find there the reception, a small shop with local crafts and all you need to bite mosquitos and sand flies but also a room of heaven : the spa. I had the opportunity to go for a massage of 1 hour and it was really good and professionnal : a must.
The villas are very large with a nice marble bathroom (no bath - only shower in ours) and a big room with view on the lagoon (check the pictures).
Every night a different theme and different menu was served at the main restaurant and the breakfast is simply georgous and very 'nutritive'.
The staff and the general manager are highly motivated to give you the best experience you may have on the island and they are very kind like all the habitants of the island.
You must rent a scooter or a car or just walk through the island to discover the habits and the life of the cook islanders and especially from Aitutaki.
One spot to discover to : the top of the island from where you can have a global view on all the colours of the islands ; like when you fly over the island.
The only negative point I have is the mosquitos but moreover the 'sand flies', please protect yourself from them ; they are quiet agrressive.
The Cook Islands are a paradise, please visit them but protect them too.

What an amazing time that I had at the Pacific Resort. I spent 60 hours researching for the perfect place for a holiday and this place exceded my expectations which rarely if ever happens. Greg, the Ceo, has paid very close attention to detail and taught his staff well. Ross, the manager, was always available to make our stay even better. Ross was very attentive to our needs and was genuinely concerned about many details of our visit from the accomodations to the food to arrangements. Ben is an outstanding chef who changes the menu every evening. Food was not overly priced and even if it were would still be worth every penny. Never have I eaten at the same resort, night after night, and never had a so-so meal. The dinners were some of the best cusine in the world.

The entire front staff (Rose and Ann) was extremely helpful in scheduling various off-site activities. I highly recommend Lawton for fishing, snorkeling and lagoon cruise as well as Quinton for diving, spear fishing and outer reef fishing.

The grounds are immaculate. The view is breathtaking. The lagoon is placid with the waves crashing at the barrier reef that protects this beautiful atoll. Unspoiled private beaches are right out your back door. The accomodations are fancy with glass showers, marble bathrooms and double vanity sinks. Your own private verandad area on the back of each bungalow. The villas and suites are even nicer. I just can't say enough about this place.

If you are planning a trip to the South Pacific continue past Bora Bora (too much toursim has spoiled this tiny isle) and fly to Aitutaki. This is THE pearl of the South Pacific. If you are planning a honeymoon or a holiday with your significant other then book the Pacific Resort NOW!!! You need to get there soon because Survivor is currently being filmed on the Motus that outling the main isle. Once the world gets a chance to see this incredible place you will have to make your reservations years in advance!

We loved this hotel and this island. While the hotel itself is not that personal, there is plenty to do, and it was great to be so close to the beach from our rooms. Food was good, especially the copious breakfasts, and the lagoon is truly amazing. Make sure you take a lagoon cruise - it's something special. Also rent a bike and cycle around the island - it's perfectly safe and nothing is too far. Don't expect a lot of shopping but you can go to the grocery store/supermarket and pick up a few snacks easily. If the world were not such a big place with so many other places to visit, we would have returned here again, and one day we surely will.

After a long journey through Dubai and Sydney we arrived at Aitutaki. Even before you land you gain a sense of why people call the island paradise. The view from the Air Rarotonga flight as you come into land is breathtaking. In the arrivals hall (which is litterally a shed) we were greeted by a senior member of the Pacific resort staff whom looked after everything from that point onwards, the refreshing ice cold towels were a pleasent and neccessary surprise.
The room itself was beautful (we only stayed in a beach front bungalow - the only difference is size, as all the rooms have the most breathtaking views). Being only 27 bungalows it is also so peaceful (no mobile phone reception unless you pay for a local sim card, which was something we DIDNT do).
We couldnt have asked for any better service either - from breakfast to dinner we were treated to personal, 5 star treatment. All the team seemed to have been trained perfectly which we didnt seem to notice at the other resorts we visited while on the island. Ross especially bent over backwards to ensure our stay was perfect. A few extras - Try the spa - we were lucky enough to have a one hour body massage included - that was quite litterally heaven. And the romantic dinner at a location of your / their choice around the pool or beach is amazing, very romantic. We will be going back!

My husband and I chose this resort by the reviews and we must agree with all the praise! We checked out the Aitutaki Lagoon Resort and Spa when we were therea and were relieved with our choice...Pacific Resort is so much nicer! To be an SLH it has to be good. I am a travel snob and extremely fussy on cleanliness, so for me to aprove, its got to be good. The resort has a beautiful polynesian feel to it with all the comforts of home. We had one of the big units with a private courtyard shower and a private patio overlooking the beach. The units are soooo private, we felt like we were in our own little jungle house. The bathroom was very large with two sinks, window and large glass walled shower overlooking the private courtyard & shower.

The staff were very friendly, polite and accommodating. The food was good (I'm a veg, my husband isn't). They mixed up our breakfasts a couple of times, but quickly corrected the order. The bar and pool area are small, but very nice and never busy. The beach isn't as nice as the Lagoon resort, but the best thing to do is to take an Island Cruise and see the other little islands that are on miles of white sand in shallow, turquoise water.