The bus circles the island clockwise and anti-clockwise every hour. It leaves town clockwise on the hour, and anti-clockwise at 25 minutes past the hour, and takes around 55 minutes for the trip. The locals all own scooters, so it is usually visitors using the bus service. The anti-clockwise buses break for lunch, and don't run Saturday afternoons, Sundays, early mornings or in the evenings. The sign on the front of the bus states its direction. If you're going to use it regularly, you can buy a day pass or a book of 10 tickets. Both buses don't run on Sunday evenings.
The bus has designated stops on the map, and there are a few bus shelters around to wait in. However the bus will pick up and drop off almost anywhere on the round island route, although the drivers prefer spots where they can pull off the road to let traffic pass. Single trips are $4, return trips are $7, day pass is $16. All day family pass $26, for two adults and an unlimited amount of children in the one family (children are 15 and under). A pass for 10 one-way trips is $25.
Some buses have buttons to request a stop, but these are just for show. Pressing them will probably see you doing another lap of the island. Simply stand up and tell the driver when you want to get off.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Rarotonga
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Rarotonga Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
