I'm looking for a small luxury hotel with a GREAT beach, beautiful rooms, and the quietest atmosphere I can find on the Big Island. We're allergic to attitude, however, and want to avoid stuffy staff.

The 4S is sold out the days we'll be there and, based on previous posts, I'm deciding between the Orchid, Mauna Kea, Hapuna Beach, or the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel.

I've never been to the Big Island, so I'm hoping for some of the great advice I frequently see in this forum!

We went to the orchid last year, and had a fabulous time. It was not stuffy at all, and had a nice pool. The beach is nice, but it is small. But, it is a bay so very calm, snorkeling and kayaking are good with resident sea turtles that come right up to you. It was wonderful! There is a post I'll bump for you on a similar topic. Read it.
Good luck!

Thanks so much, mag!

All of these are wonderful hotels, but I prefer Mauna Lani. The staff are friendly and welcoming, and the property is just beautiful, classic Hawaii.

ttt

Mauna Lani, hands down...
lived on the Big Island for 10 years, nothing compares to Mauna Lani...lots of nice places to choose from, but the beach at Mauna Lani is much better than 4S..however the best beach is Mauna Kea, which is very easy to visit. If I were at Mauna Lani, tho, I wouldn't bother!
Aloha, Linda

We spent a week at the Mauna Lani in late May and loved everything about it. Our room was large with a big balcony and good view. The grounds are beautiful, with restored ancient fish ponds, one with sharks. We visited the other hotels you mentioned during our trip and were glad we stayed where we stayed. The Orchid looked overly elegant to us -- all marble. We liked the beach at the Mauna Lani a lot, but I will admit that if you must have a long golden sand beach, the Hapuna or Mauna Kea would be better. Some of the best snorkeling I've ever experienced was at the Beach Club, which is a short walk from the Mauna Lani.

Maybe I'm biased, having only stayed
at the Hapuna before, but that was an A-1 hotel! The rooms are huge, the bathrooms are huge, the place is located on THE best beach. They give you lounge chairs on the beach, with umbrella, for FREE, as opposed to many places that try to charge for chairs on the beach. And although the Mauna Lani
gets great reviews, and although I've walked around the property and it is very pretty, I think that I would have been disappointed staying there as the beach was not a nice soft, sandy beach, but kind of rough, like lava rock everywhere. It's a man made beach.
But if the beach part doesn't really matter to you, then disregard the above comment.
Also, I think the Orchid looks nice too.
However, I know someone who stayed there recently, and they checked out and went to the Hapuna. Evidently
it was very stuffy or something.
Hapuna staff were very friendly and helpful. The only drawback was the food was terribly expensive.
That can be remedied though by driving two miles north to Kawaihae and eating
at Cafe Pesto which is a lot cheaper,
and very good too. A local told us about it.

I've already writte about how I loved the Orchid, but I want to second that, no matter where you stay, DEFINITELY eat at Cafe Pesto! It was sooo good and so inexpensive! We really didn't feel it was at all stuffy...we were 24, on our honeymoon, and didn't feel like people were snobby or stuffy at all.

Thanks everybody - I''ve booked the Orchid and will definitely check out Cafe Pesto while we're there!

Jim

Jim,

See if you can get yourself on the waitlist at the FS. Trust me, it'll be worth it if space should open up.

Agree that you should really try for 4S--it is perfection!! Much nicer than the one in Mauii. I'm not generally a 4S fan, but this one is just amazing. We cleared a wait-list in March and got a ground floor room with a fabulous outdoor shower. We loved the food, the protected beach, the low key, understated ambience. I've stayed all over the world and this hotel is my favorite to date. Go!

Just returned from a week at the Mauna Kea - I can't say enough wonderful things about this hotel!!!!!! The beach, the snorkeling, the rooms/views, the open-air feel, the manta rays feeding at night.... It was such understated luxury - heaven. We had dinner at the Canoe Club at the Mauna Lani - best meal of the week. A close second was Merriman's in Waimea. THe Batik at the Manua Kea was excellent as well. Took a day to sight-see - Apaka Falls, Waipio Valley, etc, - fabulous. You will love this island!! I can't wait to go back!!