Tropical Retreat Rarotonga

Location, privacy, pool and air conditioner. Helpful and friendly family owners plus an excellent coffee shop next door 😉

We spent the week here for valentines a very welcoming accommodation the pool was amazing and the air con was great it’s very close to beaches and good restaurants

We liked everything. The host, Angela is sooo awesome! Very hospitable and bubbly. We felt right at home and comfortable staying at her beautiful accommodation. She's also kind and understanding. Loved having their dogs around. They're awesome security guards😁 and friendly. I highly recommend this place.

Nothing to dislike.

Great location being just down the lane and between Crown Beach (great happy hour) and Edgewater (not recommended). Close also to a dairy and bakery and a few restaurants - cannot recommend Alberto’s enough! 
The villa had everything that we needed, and was good that we had a supply of drinking water, milk and the initial welcoming fruit bowl. WiFi was brilliant, really appreciated that, Netflix was available, but we weren’t interested in TV whilst holidaying. It was great to have a pool for sole use, though it wasn’t really warm enough (or long enough) to have a swim - for me at any rate :) The dogs have also popped up in lots of other reviews, and whilst we are dog lovers, we can see that these three large dogs could be a problem for some, they spend a lot of time around the pool and bark loudly at the end of the lane when you are approaching. Clean bedding is delivered to the doorstep every four days (every three days would have been better). The pick up and drop off to the airport is a great service. The only written information we received upon arrival was a letter stating the cost to be paid in cash within the first three days. All other information was left over leaflets and booklets from previous guests. We could instantly see that a welcoming compendium would be much better suited to this property and align better with the cost. It would also help with any confusion as to what to expect during your stay, ie, we didn’t know how often we would get clean bedding and towels, was there a service included or did we take care of the place ourselves? It’s really great that Angela is taking on board feedback, as there is now a bedside lamp and a net for skimming of the bugs in the pool. Washing machine is a bonus! Tips: Take a torch! The lane to the villa is very dark (as is most of Raro). And mosquito repellant is a must. Purchase a 10 trip ticket for the bus - don't bother renting a car, you can see everything and get everywhere there is to go by bus.

Several reviews have mentioned the water pressure, but there is not much that can be done about that, no fault of the hosts. Ants were a huge problem, they were crawling everywhere in every room. The main disappointment for us was the homemade wood sun loungers. They were so uncomfortable and no cushions - we really wanted to make the most of the privacy of our own place and pool, but it was just too uncomfortable to enjoy the sunshine and relax horizontally. 
The bedding seemed to become poorer as the fortnight rolled on (3 changes in 2 weeks) we were quite insulted on the last change over to be given sheets which were ripped, dyed and had male stains on the bottom sheet. We took them back to Angela and she did change them for us. The overall cleanliness could have been much better.