Last minute plans for a week on the Big Island. Any advice for hotels on the west coast. Price range $300-400. Beach,good pool,gardens a plus. Any advice for good restaurants nearby..we will have car. Thank you.

Here are some sites that might help you:

www.gohawaii.com Free brochure

www.bigisland.org Free brochure

www.hawaiiweb.com

www.alternative-hawaii.com Good driving tours & restaurant reviews. Also lodging.

www.driveguidemagazines.com Good maps & restaurant reviews

www.thisweek.com This Week on Big Island XXX

www.spotlighthawaii.com Big Island Gold XXX

www.101thingstodo.com 101 Things to do on Big Island XXX

XXX - These also have free hard copy brochures you can pick up many places on Big Island

http://www.hawaiidiner.com/

In that price range you should be able to get into any of the Kohala resorts, except maybe the Four Seasons and a few others. The Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel has one of the two best white sand beaches on the island and a very nice pool. The Mauna Lani and Orchid have smaller beaches, but rooms are very nice (the Orchid has some of the biggest/nicest bathrooms on the island).

As for restaurants, "nearby" is a very relative word on the BI. Driving distances between good restaurants on the west coast range from 10 to 45 minutes. For good, inexpensive food try Cafe Pesto in Kawaihae, or for finer dining try:

Brown's Beach House at The Orchid
Canoe House at Mauna Lani
Pahu i'a at the Four Seasons
Roy's Waikoloa at King's Shops
Merriman's in Waimea (not their Cafe in Kings' Shops)

The hotels are all very different and it depends on what atmosphere you are looking for. We went to the Hilton which is HUGE and we loved it!Lots of pools, lagoon with turtles, many restaurants to choose from,etc.... Some may want a smaller resort.
There is a Marriott next to the Hilton and we also visited a very nice Fairmont nearby. Both were smaller and quieter.
I would return to the Hilton in a heartbeat, but we liked the large resort with lots to do.

We stayed at Hapuna Beach Prince in October and loved it, but now that the Mauna Kea is closed, it may be hard to get a room at HP. Call and ask. Beach was wonderful and grounds beautiful.

I prefer the Hapuna Prince to the Waikola area hotels. The beach there is just superb. The other beaches are much smaller, or manmade. I thought the Hilton was too much like Disneyland- lots of kids.

Thanks all. We decided on the Hapuna Beach. Having just returned from Disney...the Hilton was out...so thank you for the info. The restaurants are in my file and I will look at the websites later this week. Thanks again.