Royal Kona Resort on The Big Island, Hawaii
Written: Jul 22 '02 (Updated Apr 01 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: A great price in a great location. It has a lot to offer.
Cons: It is old and in need of many updates and much grooming.
The Bottom Line: In spite of the updates this hotel needs, it has a great lagoon, it is situated in a great location and I would go back there.
|
|
|
| jo.com's Full Review: Royal Kona Resort |
We recently spent 3 weeks in Hawaii on 4 islands. Island 3 took us to The Big Island and The Royal Kona Resort We were on a budget and got this hotel through Priceline. We really didn’t know what we were getting and what a surprise it was when we bought ”Hawaii The Big Island Revealed” by Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman and saw the hotel we were about to go to listed as “A Real Gem.”
General Information
~The Royal Kona Resort is located on 75-5852 Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona, which is on the western side of the island. It is considered oceanfront on Kailua Bay. Alii Drive is the main strip in Kailua-Kona. You can walk to any kind of store or restaurant from this resort. In fact The Hard Rock Café is literally across the street.
~The hotel is about 10 minutes from Kona International Airport.
~The website is http://www.royalkona.com/
About Royal Kona
Royal Kona Resort used to be a Hilton. It has 452 rooms in 3 buildings, one of which is where you register and I call it the main building. The hotel has one really unusual feature that makes it stand out. It abuts the bay so there is no beach but what they have done is built a salt-water lagoon. Literally – A decent sized body of water was next to our building with sand and chairs around it. I thought it an ideal idea for children because they get the feel of salt water and the safety of not being in the ocean. There is no lifeguard so don’t leave children alone, of course. There are fish in the water so it is also a great place to learn how to snorkel whatever your age.
My first impression of it, since we didn’t even know if it existed was that it was very nice. The 3 buildings are tiered with balconies facing the street. The middle building’s balconies all have flowers and vines coming from them and it would be nice if they did that to the other two buildings as well. As we walked in to an open-air lobby (Almost everything in Hawaii is open air.) we walked over a bridge that had water on both sides of it. Torches lit the way since we arrived at night. It was really very pretty. The lobby itself was large but simple. There were lots of chairs to sit in and during the day people would just sit here since the lobby blends in with eating areas and shops.
Our Building
Since this is all open air the hotel is a bit unusual. If you have ever been to the Luxor in Las Vegas that is how the hotel is set up. There is an elevator and when you get off, you are outside but not on an outer corridor like a Days Inn. Rather you are in the inner corridor and looking down we saw our little lobby with a fountain and some chairs. It was really quite pretty. Since there are washing machines and dryers in a room off the lobby in the Beach Building, those chairs come in handy for people who are waiting for their clothes. I preferred to sit outside at the lagoon the morning I did laundry.
Parking is $7.00 a day and there is a lot of parking. Even with an almost full parking lot we would always find a space closest to our building. We were given a card and that is how you enter the building. The card opens a gate.
The Room
We were upgraded from a garden view to one with a balcony. The balcony did not face the water, though. It was nice to have one in any case. The building is the Beach Building and having seen all 3 of them, I like this one the best. The main one will get noisy and the 3rd one seemed desolate. The Beach Building is right next to the lagoon and really the buildings are close together and connected on land by a walkway so they all seem like one unit anyway.
We had 2 double beds, a table with 2 chairs, and a large dresser. But the furniture seemed old. The drawers didn’t open easily. The bathroom had no hairdryer or conditioner. There was a coffeepot and coffee in the room but if you had the coffee you were charged for it. In my opinion, the rugs, blankets, and chair cushions need to be replaced. The bathtub needs to be updated and the bathroom needs new wallpaper. Is it too picky to say that the sheets on our bed didn’t tuck in?
The room was clean enough. I didn't have a problem with that, but when things are old and in need of fixing or painting they don't feel as clean as one would like.
The was a large sink outside the bathroom with a good-sized counter top which was nice as well as the regular bathroom. The sink outside the bathroom had a mini-refrigerator under it, which was nice. The towels were amazingly thin and few in number. We were given 2 towels to take with us when we went to the pool or a beach.
Customer Service
I wasn’t happy or unhappy with the service. I found it to be mediocre. We asked for a non-smoking room and got it. However when we went to check in we were kept waiting for longer than I would have liked with no one even acknowledging that we were there.
It was disconcerting that the room we asked for with a king sized bed was not available although we had been told it was. The clerk was nice enough to double check and as she found a room for us, someone came over to her and whispered and we saw an islander who was behind us get that room. That wasn’t the first time that happened and you will read about it in the guidebooks, but that doesn’t happen in most places – I do want to emphasize that.
I found the service at the buffet breakfast just fair. Our empty plates piled up and we had to wait for more coffee. The view made up for it; but then again the fact that the whole breakfast area needed painting and redoing counteracted some of the view!
Food and Lounges
We ate one breakfast at one of their open-air restaurants where you can eat inside or outside. The buffet was only fair. The price was $9.95 and I would have been fine with it if there weren’t fruit flies all over the canned fruit. It must have been in syrup because they didn't touch the fresh fruit. You can get eggs made to order, cereal, pastries and enough food to fill you up but none of it was delicious and I would not have eaten there again. It is called the Tropics Café and is open 7 days a week, 6:30 am to 9:00 pm and dinner buffets are served there also.
Right next to the Tropics Café, actually almost an extension of it is nightly entertainment in the Windjammer Lounge. It is very pretty because wherever you sit you have a view of the bay. Each night there is a different theme.
We didn’t go to the Lu'au here but it is very, very popular. Each Monday, Friday and Saturday night the Lu'au includes a traditional lei greeting, Imu ceremony and torchlighting, along with Kailua-Kona's premier all-you-can-eat Polynesian buffet. Although they hide it behind bamboo shades, it can still be partially seen and heard quite well. It costs $55.00.
According to Doughty & Friedman this is the island’s best Lu’au. They also, however, call the Royal Kona Resort’s breakfast “the best oceanside breakfast" which I why I suggested on another review of Hawaii to use more than one guidebook! And read every epinion written.
Amenities and Other Information
Though there was no fitness room here there are 4 tennis courts, a split-level swimming pool (no swim up bar) a wading area in the pool, which is open 8:00am – 8:00pm.
Pets are not allowed.
Alii Drive is a major area. After being in Maui and Kauai anything would have looked major, but this really was. Walking the strip was nice to do and we found ourselves doing just that every evening. We hadn’t really seen an Hawaiian strip, though, until we went to Oahu, but that’s island #4.
The hotel has a beauty salon, shops that sell clothes and things like film and suntan lotion. I know they are planning on upgrading this hotel although there were no signs of that happening. Some of the information was wrong. The information in our room told us that there was a snack shop called The Food Pantry which was suppose to be open from 7:00am 㪢:00pm. It does not exist.
They advertise a Lotus Center with massage and spa treatments and wellness classes. I never went to it and I am not sure that still exists as well although one website I surfed through briefly said there was a wellness center.
Children stay free in your room. Personally and I will probably write this in every Hawaii review, I don’t see any of the islands being a destination for children, but that will be your personal preference. Babysitting is available here, though, if you do bring children.
There are 2 activity desks. One should tell you what is happening in the hotel. We spent very little time in the hotel so we never found out through the desk but there is a blackboard and they post any events that are happening.
There is another activity desk and I thought the young women working there would be selling time-shares. But the 2 times I went they didn’t mention it. One particularly was not very helpful. What they were doing was giving out information about the Volcano and their information, which I reported to them the next day, was wrong. One of the women told me that you could only go to Crater Chain Road from 6:00pm-12:00pm (The road that takes you close to the volcano that is erupting.) and in fact the road was open from 6:00pm – 6:00am during the time we were there.
Although there is a policy of complete satisfaction, that isn’t spelled out in detail the way it was at The Baymont Inn or The Hampton Inn & Suites we recently stayed at.
Check in time is 2:00pm and check out time is 11:00am.
One last thing- I will write this if I ever get to write a review of The Big Island itself, but in case it isn’t for a long time, this is important to know: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, the reason to be on this island, in my opinion, is on the other side of the island. We knew this when we chose the Kona area. The Kona area is a wonderful area in which to stay. But if you can pull this off do this: stay one night in Hilo. The drive from Kona to the Volcano is about 2 ˝ hours (100 slow miles). We left at 6:00am and got back at 2:00am. Staying in Hilo one night and spending the next day in the Park also is the way to do this island if you can.
In summary:
This is where rating different aspects of a hotel comes in really handy! The location of Royal Kona Resort is ideal. (I am not taking into consideration the above paragraph.) You’ll find beautiful beaches during the day and shops, restaurants and nightlife at night. We paid a great price for this hotel so I cannot and will not complain. We paid $76.00 but we later found out that although we thought that a fantastic deal, we didn’t save much going through Price line. You will see quotes of prices from $89 a night to over $200 a night.
As much as I like Priceline you can do as well on your own if you do some searching. You’ll see rates for as low as $80 at the sites epinions lists. I will recommend this hotel at that price but I wouldn’t pay $150 for our room. I have to give it 4 stars overall inspite of its negative. It is a nice hotel that needs some grooming and when it gets it, it will become a 5 star hotel. Travelnow.com rates it 3 stars in the Holiday Inn and Hilton category. I think it is a step up from most Holiday Inns I have been in and I have never been in one with a lagoon, thus my rating.
Feel free to leave me a comment or ask any questions. Other Hawaii reviews you may be interested in:
Traveling to Hawaii on a Budget
The Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel
Aloha Airlines
Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast in Maui
Maui
LahainaTown Maui
Hana Highway in Maui
Haleakala National Park in Maui
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiian Airlines
Puff the Magic Dragon Lived in Kauai
Waimea Canyon on Kauai
Poipou Beach Area, Kauai
Na Pali Coast, Kauai
Hideaway Cove Villa, Kauai
Royal Kona Resort,The Big Island
The Island of Hawaii - The Big Island
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island
Oahu
USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu
DiamondHead State Monument on Oahu
Polynesian Cultural Center,Oahu
Wailua River State Park in Kauai, Hawaii
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.