We had the pleasure of staying at Sea Change in May. We spent three nights in a Plantation Villa (number 4). It was gorgeous with a very private yard complete with our own pool. The vegetation surrounding the villa is lush and beautiful. We then went to Aitutaki for five nights and returned to Sea Change for another four nights. This time, we were in an oceanfront villa (number 2). It literally took our breath away! We were so close to the ocean that at high tide, we were right on the water. Our patio was wrapped around our villa with a private pool on one side. We had amazing views and the patio doors/windows literally opened up completely.

The villas are beautiful like something out of Architectural Digest. The beds are really comfortable with mosquito netting all around so even if you leave your windows open, bugs are not a problem. The kitchens are well appointed with a large dining room. There is even a dishwasher. The bathrooms are huge. The living rooms have a large TV with DVD player. Movies can be borrowed from the office. There is also a common laundry room.

Charlie and Deb, the owners/managers, are always very pleasant and helpful. They organized a car rental for us at a reasonable rate and gave us advice about restaurants and various points of interest. Deb even gave me a delicious recipe for cooking tuna with coconut cream, curry, onions and chopped banana. After my husband mentioned that he loved to cycle, Charlie let him use a brand new bicycle for the duration of our stay.

Sea Change is located at the half way point of Rarotonga so you can choose either direction to go into town. The Saturday morning market in Avarua should not be missed. It is an ideal place to purchase black pearls at a good price or to buy a sarong.

We did most of our own cooking though we did enjoy the Waterline Cafe one evening. The best place to buy fresh fish is Ocean Fresh. To buy fresh local produce, there is a stand to the right of Sea Change (about 1 km) when you face the office. They sold passion fruit, citrus fruit, bananas, papayas (pawpaws), radishes, herbs, etc. Wigmore (to the left when you face the Sea Change office) sold various groceries but also fresh bread, desserts and vegetables. For homemade jams and chutneys, don't miss Fruits of Rarotonga. It is also a very good coffee shop.

We highly recommend Sea Change!

Sea Change sets a standard that you will not find anywhere else! We spent our May honeymoon in one of the new plantation executive villas. It was beautiful, spacious, private, well maintained, well appointed, and air-conditioned. The two person shower made a great touch! The backyard area is gorgeous, as are the views of the ocean and lush greenery that surrounds the villa. Charlie and Deb were so hospitable! They guided us to the right activities for our interests and budget. We could not have been more well taken care of! Sea Change definitely made our honeymoon the best it could have been.

We stayed at the beautiful Sea Change Villas for our Honeymoon in March 08.

On our afternoon arival we were picked up and taken to our luxury villa. To our surprise we had been upgraded to beachfront villa #1. What an amazing way this was to spend our first day as husband and wife! We were breathtaken with the view and the quality our room

The villa was everything we expected it to be, and perfect for our honeymoon. The rooms were clean and well equiped with everything we needed. The air con and ceiling fans kept us nice and cool.

Deb and Charlie were fantastic in the months leading up to our stay and the duration of our trip. They helped us find great places to eat and things to do.

Restaurants we can recommend are Paw Paw patch (sunday BBQ), Pacific Resort (Oceans), Sails, and Tamarind House (our favourite for value, service, location and most importantly the food). Our recommended spots for lunch were, Cafe Salsa (great breakfast), The cafe and Cafe Deli-licious, barefoot bar was also good. I am a very fussy non-seafood eater, and I did not have any problem finding something on the menu. I enjoyed all the food.

We went Horse riding, Pa's walk and the Aitutaki day trip. All a great experience and well worth the price.

As our stay was during Easter most of the islands restaurants were closed, but we did not have any trouble finding things to do. We made great use of the kitchen in our villa and ate in a few nights. Rarotonga is a very cultural place, we went to a Good Friday free outdoor Church youth performance by the local children. The show was amazing with singing and dancing (the island night was not as great as this traditional show) they even invited us to stay for supper. On Sunday we went to the oldest church in Rarotonga for the Easter Sunday service. The chior was breathtaking.

The Sea Change Villas have bikes for the guests use. We rode into the town centre for breakfast at Cafe salsa 1/2 way point, then continuied around back to our villa for a swim. The bike ride was 56km and only took 4 hours including many stops for photos and food :) was great fun.

The only negative thing apart form having to leave beatuiful Rarotonga, was getting a driving licence. The morning of our first day we had to go to the police station and wait for a licence, most people were waiting for up to 4 hours. We discovered that they were all waiting for a photo to be taken. We decided to just get a paper licence for the beginning and go back for the photo on a quiet day (no wait). So we only had to wait a total of 40 mins.

Everything was amazing at Sea change Villas and at Rarotonga. We will definatly be going back!!

If anyone has any questions about Rarotonga or the Sea Change Villas I am more than happy to help.

Thanks again Charlie and Deb!
Renee & Steve Armstrong.

My husband and I just got back from a 12 day honeymoon in the Cook Islands. After spending 5 nights in Aitutaki, we travelled back to Rarotonga for the 2nd leg of our trip. For this part, we stayed at the beautiful Sea Change Villas. We had an absolutely wonderful time there. The hosts, Deb and Charlie, were the nicest people in the world. They were always so helpful and made reservations for us whenever they could. They had so many great tips on everything from great restaurants on the island to where was the best place to rent a car. We had such a great time with them also on the island's weekly fun run through the scenic backroads. The room was great with every amenity you could imagine; dishwasher, fridge, 4-poster bed, tv/cable/dvd, huge shower and your own private pool. The only complaint was that their WiFi was not fully working yet so we couldn't get internet in our room but if we went down to the reception we could get it. We would definitely go back to this hotel but we would book a beachfront villa instead of a plantation villa. The only difference with the beachfront villas was the view, which was very beautiful. Overall, fantastic place to stay!!