My husband and I are spending 7 days on the Big Island. We are considering 3 hotels: Mauna Kea, Mauna Lani Bay and the Orchid at Mauna Lani.
We would greatly appreciate some insight as to a comparison of rooms, ambience, amenities and activities to help us decide between these three?

I haven't stayed at any of the three but was planning our Big Island trip last week and found out that there is construction going on at the property between the Orchid and Mauna Lani. I called the Orchid (where we had hoped to stay) and was told some guests complained but others were ok with it. I was also told that construction was to the point that building was about to start (all the site preparation had been going on) so there is no real way to judge how noisy it's going to be. For that reason we decided to stay at the Mauna Kea.

If noise doesn't bother you I'd vote for the Orchid based on what I've read about it.

Good luck!

Dear Anita, My husband and I have stayed at the Orchid on numerous occassions and LOVE it. We were there about a year ago when they were doing the excavation on the site next door and it really didn't bother us. You could occassionally hear something off in the distance from the pool area but it really wasn't bad at all. Ask for a room on the other side from the construction and you shouldn't hear a thing from your room. The Orchid is one of my favorite places on earth. It's luxurious, relatively small, set up well, and extremely proffessional,and wonderful service. You can snorkel with the sea turtles right there at their beach, kyak, canoe,etc. And the guided heirogliph walk was terribly fascinating, if you're interested in that sort of thing. (bring water...it gets hot!) Be sure to go down to the Hilton Waikaloa and sign up for the dolphin lottery. It's worth every penny! Have a wonderful time! Our daughter stayed at the Mauna Kea and loved it, as well. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any other questions.

I "topped" an earlier discussion of some of these hotels... in case it doesn't work, below is some of my feedback re: the Mauna Kea, which we really loved. FYI, lots of Hapuna Prince supporters jumped onto the forum to defend my describing it as "cold" so it must have loyal fans, too!

Message: I can't speak for the Mauna Lani, but we just returned from a stay at the Mauna Kea on the Big Island. A friend had her wedding there, and described it accurately: "The rooms are average, the beach is spectacular. It was very quiet, very spaced out, very peaceful - and the beach was wide, gorgeous, not too crowded. The
service was very country club in nature - i.e. they were very personable and attentive. For example, I'm guessing
that the staff was briefed on all the wedding guests - the Mauna Kea attendant at the airport greeted us and knew we were there for the wedding - and also knew my parents were due in a few hours and that they would need a shuttle, etc. They greeted us by name repeatedly throughout our stay.

Even more impressive, the bride and groom left a critical bag on the sidewalk in LA (it was never checked in). The staff at the Mauna Kea said, "We've never lost a bag yet - we will find this one!" They astonished everyone
by pulling strings with friends at the airlines and eventually located the bag in New Zealand and had it delivered to the bride - who was incredibly thankful. By the way, they told the bride they would handle everything, so she didn't have to worry about it. Anyway, if that doesn't speak to great service, what will?

On the "con" side, I would say the Mauna Kea was definitely family-friendly - which was great for our big group, but we probably would have done the Mauna Lani if it had just been a romantic getaway for the two of us. (That is where the bride, a Hawaii native, and the groom spent their first night together after the reception.)

The Hapuna Prince was very modern, and colder in my opinion - seemed to cater much more to a Japanese clientele. I thought the Mauna Kea, although modern, was much warmer and more inviting. Hope that helps!

BTW, everything is so spread out on the Kohala coast, I'm guessing the construction by the Mauna Lani can't be too too close by - someone else may be able to comment on that...

Check out the Four Seasons resort. It is by far one of the best run hotels on the island. The service is excellent and everyone on the staff greets you with a smile and hello, right down to the gardeners! I would recommend the quad units that face the pool or beach. My second choice would be the Mauna Lani Bay which also has very good service.