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Fairmont Orchid Hawai'i Review
Read our Big Island hotel reviews. Or post your own.
Fairmont Orchid Hawai'i 
$$$-$$$$, Kohala Coast
User Rating: *** 3.4
Fodor's Review:
Fairmont Orchid Hawai'i. The Fairmont is an elegant, old-school hotel -- rooms are tasteful, if a bit flowery for those with more modern sensibilities, the lobby is enormous with lots of marble and sweeping ocean views, service is impeccable, and the restaurants are all top-notch. The grounds are expansive, lush, and well maintained. This is one of the island's largest resorts, and its romantic botanical gardens and waterfall ponds stretch along 32 beachfront acres. A $40 activity pass good for your entire stay gets you access to all sorts of classes, equipment rentals, and various other amenities. The resort also offers 2 1/2-hour voyages aboard an authentic Polynesian double-hull sailing canoe, the Hahalua Lele, or "Flying Manta Ray." The "Gold Floor" includes free breakfast and a daily wine and hors d'oeuvres hour. This can be especially useful for breakfast, as there's nearly always a wait for a table at the restaurant.
User Reviews & Ratings:
Nice Grounds, Good Food, but Poor Service and Rooms
Posted by JoniC from San Diego, CA, USA on 5/7/07
I usually find Fodorites to be accurate and truthful, and despite their bad comments regarding this hotel, for some reason I chose to ignore them. What a mistake. The hotel grounds were beautiful, and the Brown's Restaurant was fantastic, but this did not make up for the incredibly poor service from the disgruntled staff and the decrepid shape of the rooms. (eg., Leaking toilet, clogged shower which overflowed into the bathroom when you tried to use it, peeling wallpaper, etc). You definitely do not get what you pay for at this hotel. The new owners seem interested in charging as much as possible to get as much money out of their customers before they go running off to the bank. You know its bad when you overhear several of the staff complaining about what an awful place it is to work. Stay away from here!RATING: 2.2
am I in tucson?
Posted by hullo from New York City on 1/25/07
If a 450 room hotel with ethan allen furniture is your thing, this is the place to go and spend $1200 a night -- the cost of a one bedroom suite. Breakfast was good, the staff was unfailingly nice but it's a huge impersonal hotel swarming with people. It's one of those places where the chairs by the pool or on their tiny "beach" are all taken by 8am. We could have been in Florida or the Caribbean or Arizona. The service in all of the restaurants was ridiculously slow and the food while edible was nothing special. This is the place for the McMansion people.RATING: 2.8
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Derek from LA on 10/21/06
I had an awesome time with great service, amenities and clean spacious rooms.RATING: 4.8
Dream Vacation
Posted by Teresa from East Texas on 10/3/06
Hubby & I stayed here Sept. 18-23. Cannot say enough good things about it. Had booked a garden view room, but were upgraded to North Tower Lounge Level. I have never had such good treatment at a resort. The grounds were beautiful. Food, of course, pricey, but wonderful and you get a lot of it. Pool and beach was just gorgeous. Everyone was so nice and friendly. I can't wait to go back and take our whole family.RATING: 5.0
No ocean view in ocean view room
Posted by Rachel from Tulsa on 1/19/06
Overall this is a beautiful hotel. Our room was very nice (it used to be a Ritz-Carlton and the room looked standard Ritz-Carlton);however, we paid extra for a full ocean view--we could only see a small strip of ocean if we stood in the corner of the room or on the lanai. Not worth the extra money. And the lanai is very uncomfortable-think cement pillars totally obstruct any view except that of the sky when you are sitting down. Usually I am a big lanai sitter, but not here. All the restaurants are extremely expensive (and the Grill is the only one that comes anywhere near worth it). Since you are kind of in the middle of nowhere, you have to drive a ways to eat elsewhere. The beach is ok. Grounds are beautiful. Good gym and spa. The staff were very nice and friendly to us. Fresh cold bottles of water in the car anytime we had the valet pull it up.RATING: 3.8
Wouldn't return
Posted by Candy from New Jersey on 10/24/05
We stayed here in August 2005. This hotel is located in the middle of a vast barren lavaland.The room was run down with chipped paint, and crappy for the amount of money spent on an ocean view room(quite a far view). The service was horrible & most of the staff were miserable & not friendly at all.The pool area was very crowded & didn't have enough chairs for guests. The beach was very small & very crowded.The staff was obnoxious at the breakfast buffet(repeatedly checking up to see who we were & which room we were staying in-sometimes 3xs during a meal)(the buffet was included in our package). We had a short stay.It wasn't worth it & we wouldn't recommend it to anyone.RATING: 1.6
INFO
- Address: 1 N. Kaniku Dr., Kohala Coast, HI, 96743
- Phone: 808/885-2000; 800/845-9905
- Fax: 808/885-8886
- Web site
- Hotel Details: 486 rooms, 54 suites
- In-room: safe, ethernet.
- In-hotel: 4 restaurants, golf courses, tennis courts, bars, children's programs (ages 5-12), pool, gym, spa, beachfront, water sports, no-smoking rooms. A/C, minibar.
- Credit Cards: AE, D, DC, MC, V
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