[suzer]

We're starting to plan out our honeymoon/marriage---thinking Cook Islands or thereabout. I'm having a really hard time finding travel agencies that will arrange all of this (other than Air New Zealand vacations). Flight Centre and STA are useless---I was thinking there might be some smaller agencies that specialise or destination wedding specialists around??

Help:)

Suz

[DMcG]

Many resorts in the Cook Islands will arrange most things for you (for a price of course!). A lot of places on Rarotonga are on the web, so it's relatively easy to track them down for yourself and it's much easier to organise when you're speaking to people directly - rather than through an agent. If I can get some spare time, I'll upload some shots from Raro we took when we were there in 2005.

Dougie

[Park City Partner]

We just got back from Raro and stayed at a small place called Castaway Villas (www.castawayvillas.com). They have 12 rooms and a pretty good chef there. They also have a nice deck out at the beach where they do dinner one night a week...would be a nice place for a small wedding. And the people are just lovely.

Good luck.

[Nienke]

Just booked a holiday to Samoa with a travel agency called Itchyfeet. So far so good, they were very friendly and competent on the phone.
their website is http://www.itchyfeet.co.nz

[urban78]

We're starting to plan out our honeymoon/marriage---thinking Cook Islands or thereabout. I'm having a really hard time finding travel agencies that will arrange all of this (other than Air New Zealand vacations). Flight Centre and STA are useless---I was thinking there might be some smaller agencies that specialise or destination wedding specialists around??

Help:)

Suz

There are a few out there like House of Travel or even Go Holidays. Agree with you about Flight Centre...my partner's nephew booked his honeymoon to go to Raro last April with Flight Centre and they ended up messing the dates up so the newlyweds had to work something around and leave a day earlier than planned :roll Things worked out ok in the end but needless to say they were not impressed by it all.

One tip though is that if you are going to Raro on your honeymoon a lot of places will offer a freebie for newlyweds such as a welcome hamper or a massage treatment, so make sure you ask around what resorts can offer ;)

Jen :)

[suzer]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I think part of the reason some of the travel agencies aren't 'all that' are due to the fact that they are large chains and use a lot of temp workers. I used to be a travel agent, and it makes all the difference in the world when they specialise and/or have agents that have been around a while and have a variety of travel experiences.

We have started making contact with a few resorts and it does seem we may be able to sort things just fine on our own. Will see how it goes and look to an agent if we need to. We're not looking to do anything too luxurious as we're budget conscious at the moment (new to NZ, looking for longer term temp work etc)...but want to enjoy some warm weather and nice sights!

Suz