Manuia Beach Resort

My partner and I went to Rarotonga for our belated honeymoon. We stayed at Manuia for 3 nights in a garden suite and enjoyed the quiet times and swimming in the pool beside the onsite restaurant. The staff were accommodating and helpful for queries regarding our activities. I thoroughly recommend them if you are wanting adult only accommodation and to watch the sun set in the evenings.

We stayed here for 5 nights for our honeymoon. We found the bed and pillows comfortable. The rooms were clean and pretty quiet, with air con and a fan. Soft fluffy towels. They presented the room beautifully and with a complimentary bottle of bubbles due to it being our honeymoon. The outside shower was a nice novelty. The pool by the beach was awesome. The only downfall was the associated restaurant OTB, which provided the free breakfast. They also pencilled us in for dinner on the first night and we agreed to a booking there, but found it over priced and the worst food on the island that we had. A short walk down to Waterline Restaurant is a better option. I would definitely recommend staying at Manuia, but eat elsewhere! Manuia staff were friendly and helpful, especially Ricky at the front desk. Great value for money at Manuia.

Great location on a beautiful beachfront. Large comfortable rooms, clean and well serviced. Great location, close to scooter and car hire. Fun bars and restaurants a short walk away. Beautifully maintained garden an beach surrounds, helpful and friendly staff.

This place is heaven on earth…the grounds, the rooms, the service, the pool, the beach is incredible. The gardens , the flowers make this place a slice of heaven. This is my second stay here and I will be back. It’s an adult only resort with a marvellous restaurant, OTB

Lovely beachfront resort. We had a room with pool and sea views. Room was clean, spacious and airy. Resort was peaceful. We only had breakfast in the restaurant as there is plenty of choice nearby for dinner. We felt the hotel restaurant closed quite early, so for us other venues suited. We loved our relaxing stay here in gorgeous Rarotonga.

My Uncle & I visited the Cook Islands for the very first time and we stayed at this resort for 4 nights. All guests of this resort will receive complimentary 2-way airport transfers, we were greeted by Victor on the day that we arrived in Rarotonga. This resort is a 10-minute drive from the airport, but it is not in the flight path of the aircraft. During our entire stay, we didn't hear any sound of aircraft landing or taking off. This adults-only resort has only 25 rooms, sits right on the beach and has the most beautiful garden setting that we have seen in a long time. We stayed in Garden Villa 10, which is located 1 row behind the beachfront villas. We are Malaysians, and we have never seen so many variations of the hibiscus flower! Besides hibiscus plants, there are many other species of tropical plants and flowers around the resort, the moment you step out of your villa, you will be walking through the lush tropical garden with sand paths. We also saw chickens wandering around the resort each day. When you spend time on the beach, friendly dogs will approach you, begging to be cuddled and given a belly scratch. The following is a breakdown of my review of this resort: 1) Accommodation: The room was well-appointed with all the basic amenities of a 4-star establishment. It has a digital safe, small refrigerator, hair dryer, electric kettle, coffee machine, a few cups, plates, cutlery, bath soap, liquid bath gel, shampoo and conditioner. They didn't provide bedroom slippers, in-room television and telephone. The only television in this resort is found in the Guest Lounge, next to the front office, but the available channels are mostly local channels. There is an air-conditioner and a ceiling fan, but the weather in Rarotonga was rather wet and chilly during our stay, so we didn't need to use either during the night. Each villa has a covered verandah with a day bed and 2 chairs. We tied our travel washing line in between 2 columns and hung our washing out to dry each day. The room was quiet except for the occasional erratic rooster which started crowing at weird hours of the night, but we weren't bothered by this. This was few and far between, so it is not a big deal. 2) Meals: Each villa includes a complimentary continental breakfast at the on-site restaurant called OTB, which has a sand floor. Guests are welcome to walk in here bare-foot at anytime of the day. Breakfast is served from 8am to 10am daily. The complimentary options are really basic, it includes fresh local tropical fruits, cereals, toast, pastries, pancakes and tea and coffee. Eggs, hot food items and specialty coffees cost extra. This OTB restaurant caters to only in-house guests for breakfast but it is open to outsiders for lunch and dinner. We had dinner here 1 night and it was fabulous(I wrote a separate review for OTB)! If you wish to dine here for dinner, please make your reservation a few days in advance, because this restaurant is usually fully booked for dinner! On th

We loved our 3 night stay here…. The staff were all friendly, helpful and always had a ready smile. Our room was beautiful and nicely set out - king bed, bar fridge, writing desk, lounge inside and also outside, bathroom and outdoor shower. The resort had a lovely pool, snorkelling equipment, kayaks, sun-loungers, etc. The gardens and grounds were beautiful. OTB Restaurant is located here and is rated as one of the best restaurants on Rarotonga. We had a continental breakfast here every day which was included in the cost of our room. We also had a dinner here on our first night - the best value for money is the great the 3 course special - usually around $60.

Our original 2020 trip was postponed to 2023 and many things in our Cook Island itinerary have changed since then... many except for Manuia Beach Resort - and I can now speak from experience after spending here 6 days that it was an excellent choice - nice location facing west for direct sunsets (a huge bonus was whales during October), fairly small and intimate, clean, modern, and with nice restaurant on the spot - if you want more read the rets: Location: the hotel provides a complimentary pick and drop off to/from the RAR airport - which is about 10minutes easy circular drive (the same road that goes around the entire island) - as I said you face west and you are basically on the opposite side of the islands where the Muri lagoon is - so here there is not that much swimming but we had seen couple people here and there snorkeling among the coral reef. Literally across from the hotel is a grocery store that doesnt close until 11 or 12PM even on Sundays! There is a car rental company as well, and plenty of restaurants in walking distance. Room: I believe we had, or received, the VIP Premium Garden Suite - our room was #14 and it was perfectly situated, it didn't have ocean view but it was literally behind the row of the ocean views' ones but yet not in directly towards the lobby - less foot traffic, which further added to the serenity of the experience. The rooms themselves are super cozy huts with outside shower - modern, clean, convenient. Unlimited, not too fast, WiFi is included in the stay of the room. There is no TV in the room so with patchy internet and late evenings it can be a problem for some, but for us it was a great detox from the city life, exactly what we came here for from the concrete jungle Chicago. There is a safe, mini fridge, good A/C (unfortunately directly above the face/top of the bed - during October we relied mostly on the ceiling fan and only put A/C on twice or three times so that helped with the issue). There are no USB ports anywhere in the walls so if you are coming from non NZ/AU countries, like us from USA, you will need a plug converter - otherwise you won't be able to charge anything at all, so plan for that accordingly. There is a lovely patio/veranda in the front with some extra seats and a big bed - the first day I fell asleep on it - it was awesome. Hotel Grounds: the hotel is pretty compact, the lobby/parking is a fairly small area, then the huts/rooms and the biggest area is the open space by the beach/swimming pool where the OTB is placed - which feels great, especially when you walk between the huts and the lush tropical vegetation bumping into hermit crabs :) there is sooooo many of them in the area and they leave super cool marks over night on the beach/sand - check it out next time, you would be amazed how many of them must have passed to leave such an "art" on the sand :) next to the lobby there is a lounge, for those who have a late flight home (there is a TV inside too). Pool/Beach: the beach