We arrived at the Four Seasons in Wailea for 3 nights in June 2004. The location is on Wailea Beach, which is maybe 20 minutes from the main Maui airport. Wailea is not a real town, it is more a collection of resorts, a very high end shopping center, golf courses, and restaurants. It is the complete opposite of the Kanapali area. Wailea in general is more relaxed, less crowded, and maybe a bit more boring.

Location
The hotel sits on the beach. It shares a common beach front path that connects the area resorts. Next door is the Grand Wailea to one side and a condo development to the other. The actual beach is large enough to support the guests, in excellent condition, but suffers from being a bit windy resulting in rough waves for children. Within walking distance is the Shops At Wailea, an outdoor shopping center that has expensive boutiques. The golf course is across the street, and a free shuttle bus takes you to the courses and shopping every 20 minutes.

The Four Seasons does not charge any additional resort fees, parking fees, valet charges, etc. The only extras you will be charged are for use of the spa, however the workout center is free. At arrival you are asked your name and escorted to reception. Baggage and your car are taken care of. As there is no fee, valet parking is your only real option. Unlike some busy resorts such as the Hyatt, valet was nearly instant. During the brief wait for your car the staff would ask where you are going, offer directions, and add chilled bottled water to the car if you were heading out for the day.

Check in was fairly quick. The time it took for our luggage to be placed on a cart and brought to reception was the length of the check in. You are brought to your room, given an overview of the hotel as you walk, and your luggage set up for you in the room. This was the first time I noticed a trend that would continue through out the stay, the staff didn't seem to expect a tip. The guy was already leaving by the time you even thought about a tip, there was no lingering about waiting for a tip. The valet was the only tip I would give, and that usually was only because they held the door open for my wife and I had to walk past them.

The Room
The room was the "cheapest" room available, which is a mountain view. It also may overlook the parking area. The parking area is tarped off and made to look somewhat presentable. The view isn't great, but it wasn't ugly. Other than suites, the rooms are the same. Each room has a large bed, good closet space, a large TV and DVD player, a sitting area, and a large bathroom area. The bathroom has two sinks, a shower and a separate tub, and the toilet is in a separate smaller room. Two people can get ready with a lot of stuff spread out and not get in each others way. Heavy robes are provided, which seems useless in the high humidity of Hawaii. The tub was not a whirlpool tub, but a larger corner tub with a detachable spray. The bathroom also has a radio system with 8 preset channels of music. There is a balcony with chairs and table.

The maid service was good, with the room getting twice daily service. Our only complaint was that one day we left early in the morning and the room wasn't made up when we returned 10 hours later. A call to house keeping corrected the problem. The room walls seemed thin. I heard the kids next door much more often than I would have wanted on my honeymoon. A choice of daily newspapers are also delivered in the morning to your room. It is worth pointing out that you actually get a full bar of soap for the shower!

Pool
The pool is a rectangle with a hot tub at each end. A decorative fountain is in the middle, but not on during the day. The pool closes at 5pm each day. The pool is not impressive. Compared to water park next door at the Grand Wailea, it is almost laughable for this type of resort. But the pool area does offer an elevated view of the ocean below and is surrounded by cabanas. Each cabana holds two padded lounge chairs and is shaded from the sun. A cabana is obtained by asking an attendant. On our way to breakfast each morning we would get a cabana for the day. This took a minute or two to select the one you wanted and you left as the staff setup the towels. The only requirement was you had to return by 10am or risked losing the cabana. After 10am, if you left for more than 2 hours, you also risked losing the cabana. We did not rush down first thing each morning, there are plenty of cabanas. If I strolled down at noon and expected a cabana, I would be out of luck.

Sun bathing was available around the pool, and a small lawn held overflow lounge chairs that could be fashioned with a personal shade for the top 1/3 of the chair. These chairs are also available on a much more limited basis on the beach. Again, all free of charge. A few times each day a chilled towel was offered, popsicles and small pieces of fruit were also offered. Nothing worth getting excited over, but nice none the less. Pool side service consists of the same drink and food menu as the restaurant which is also located pool side. Water was available whenever you wanted it. It was an ideal place to sit and read a book, take an occasional lap around the pool, and drink fruity drinks. Cell phones are asked to be kept off and quiet, but we found one or two times where the noise got loud enough to be distracting.

Restaurants
There are three restaurants, all surrounding the pool area. Spagos is open for dinner only. It is the "main" restaurant at the resort. Service was very good, the meal also very good. It was maybe a bit more expensive than other restaurants and not quite as good. But given the local competition, that isn't a bad thing. It was still a great meal, but near the bottom of our favorites for the trip. The other two restaurants are also open for dinner. One is an Italian restaurant and you dine under the stars overlooking the beach. The other is a more classical fish and steak place. One is open for lunch, the other for breakfast. Lunch has a small menu, but is very good. Splitting a dish for lunch was more than enough. If we had stayed longer we would have had to venture somewhere else for lunch. Breakfast is a warm or cold buffet. You are given the option as you eat, and based on what items you pick the server will bill you. I guess this is to prevent buyers remorse when you select one option and see that the other buffet you would have preferred.

The breakfast buffet was the best we had on the island. Each day has a specialty item, plus your standard choices of fruit, pastries, eggs, and custom omelet and waffle stations. The birds will join you for breakfast, as they do at most resort breakfast locations. The Four Seasons will cover your meal if you step away, while at other places such as the Hyatt only one person could leave at a time as the other had to keep the birds away. It is not cheap, about $60 for two people. But at other resorts we visited, paying almost as much, and did not have nearly the selection and quality of this buffet. Breakfast was the one meal the Four Seasons excelled at. The other two meals weren't as impressive.

There is a lobby bar with evening entertainment also.

Extras
There is a workout facility that is semi open air. Each machine has a TV and headphone jacks. There is a game room of billiards, a Playstation, ping pong, and assorted table games. It also featured a large couch and big screen TV. There is a free kids camp, which was dark each time we passed it. We sometimes wished parents took advantage of it as a few kids we found to be annoying. There is an intro scuba class and water aerobics class each day. As it was our honeymoon a bottle of champagne was delivered to the room, but then each resort we visited on Hawaii also did this.

Service
Some people throw around the word pamper to describe the Four Seasons. I can't agree. The staff does however provide excellent service. They do seem to want to make sure you are having a great time, and I saw a few individuals go the extra step to make a guest happy. Quality service seems to be the goal of everyone. While a meal might have been better, or a room cleaned faster, it wasn't because the staff wasn't trying. Any missteps seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.

Overall
The resort is not big. A week would be too much time, but a few days is just about right. If you have kids, the pool will bore them. It is a beautiful resort, understated elegance. Nothing is over the top or seems out of place. The location in general is best suited for those who want to relax. It is also the most expensive area in Maui, so plan accordingly. I would consider this resort a soft 5. 4 star would be too low of a rating, but 5 star might be too high. In the end I rated it a 5.


Recommended: Yes