The spirit of Aloha still lives here...
Written: Oct 19 '06 (Updated Oct 19 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Not crowded, very scenic, excellent service
Cons: a little bit isolated, only one restaurant.
The Bottom Line: Snorkeling or bathing at Anaeho'omalu beach is a memory forever. This hotel, while not too fancy, is a good value towards a more intimate Hawaiian experience.
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| icio's Full Review: Marriott Waikoloa Beach |
The Marriott Waikoloa Beach Hotel is not the fanciest hotel in this area or the most conveniently located, but it is still a great place to spend a vacation in Hawai'i. Hotels in this part of the world are often expensive enterprises.
To give you an idea of the scale we are talking about, hotels on the Big Island do not reach the $1 billion cost for the Bellagio or the Wynn in Las Vegas, but a resort like the Hilton in Waikoloa cost more than $300 milion, has 1,200 rooms and looks a little bit like a small Disneyland, which is how some locals refer to it as a matter of fact. The Marriott does not compare on that scale, but it is still a nice hotel, more on the luxury side than the economy one. Pure luxury is available at the Four Seasons and other few hotels on the Big Island.
Location: The location is great in some respects as you get to use the Anaeho'omalu Beach (public beach, by the way, but since almost nobody lives here besides the tourists, it does not see big crowds at anytime), arguably one of the best in the Big Island and one that provides some of the best sunsets you may ever experience. It is also the closest hotel to Kings Shop at Waikoloa, a 75,000 square foot shopping, dining, and entertainment complex offering a variety of shops, restaurants and services. Unfortunately it is half an hour from the Kailua -Kona airport.
Renting a car or taking a taxi ? It depends on what you plan to do. A cab ride is about $50 each way and car rentals overall are very reasonably priced so it becomes a close call. If you plan to do any sightseeing on your own, it is probably worth renting a car, although with the parking fees, insurance, etc, it might be a more expensive option. If your plan is to just use the beach and relax, then you can likely do without a car rental.
One thing that must be clear is that you can tour the island (a full tour with a few stop will require about 8 hours), but access to the most interesting areas and beaches often require the use of unpaved, pot-holed and, not unusually, very steep roads which are accessible only using 4x4 vehicles. In addition, technically speaking, several of these roads are off-limits to car rentals. What car rental companies don't know won't hurt them, but some roads are really bad, so be careful.
Rooms: The rooms are nice, clean, spacious, equipped with comfortable beds, high-speed internet access (wireless and not), and with a balcony where to spend a little time in the evening or the early morning to enjoy the ocean breeze. The bathrooms area is also very nicely planned and furnished. Going back to one's room after a heavy day of snorkeling at the beach (yeah, right ;-) ) to enjoy a great bed was a perk in itself.
The next important question is whether you should pay the extra price for an ocean view room or not. I personally do not think so since you would likely be at the beach for long hours and the view while very nice does not compare with the one you get by being present at the beach. Also, during most part of the day, it is uncomfortably hot to spend much time on the balcony, anyway.
Restaurants: Here the hotel is a little bit weak. They really have only one restaurant. The Hilton in conparison have several. But, is it really important? I'd say no, in particular when one considers that there is a mall nearby and a convenient and frequent shuttle to take clients to the Hilton hotel. The food served is fine overall. As a matter of fact, I found walking to the Hilton, a 15-20 minutes walk, a nice way to work up an appetite.
Perks. Besides paying for our room, we were offered for $10 extra a day, use of internet, 2 mai tai cocktails, beach and pool towels, snorkeling gear. Considering that the room came at about $265 a day, one may think that extra $10 is not so good, but my wife and I found that not having to carry extra gear from the main land was actually worth it. The pool is open all night and it could be quite romantic as after midnight it sees very few people. There is also a jacuzzi to warm you up. At night it gets a little bit cool to be completely honest and entering the pool water is a little painful. There is currently a large renovation going on and once the works are completed there will be a new and larger pool available for their customers. They also have tennis courts. I saw at least a pair of those, but tennis does not interest me very much so I did not really check the resort carefully in that regard.
Costs Talking about prices is a little bit difficult. There are the official prices, the ones you can get from their website for example:
http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/koamc
but there are also many other prices that you could get attending a conference or booking through agents and consolidators. My wife and I paid $265 per night (we had a conference rate as my wife was there to attend a big international biomedical conference), but talking to other people we became aware that there were almost as many prices as there were customers. So, what I am trying to say is that shopping around and doing some internet searching can pay back handsomely.
The price of the restaurant/s are in line with what one would pay in California or other big cities on the main land.
Extra activities The hotel per se provides a luau on its grounds (around $85 per person), but to visit the Big Island or for other experiences you are on your own. Nevertheless, there are desks within the hotel that would help you book a bus tour around the island, rent a car or to book an helicopter tour to the volcanic area.
The possibility to play golf in this area is plentiful and growing. It seems like golf course are becoming the new landscape on the western part of the island. In my opinion there are even too many, but as more and more elderly people are moving here to retire, maybe they will all see a lot of use. They are expensive with several (including the famous Mauna Kea Golf Course) reaching in the $200's dollar course fees.
Beaches. Should I travel the extra distance to Waikoloa or should I stay in Kona ? Well, beaches here are not as crowded as they are in Waikiki or the island of Ohau in general, but the truth is that in Kona they are more crowded than they are in Waikoloa. Being at the beach in the Waikoloa area allows a more personal dimension, the possibility to go snorkeling without meeting any sort of crowd. Snorkeling is pretty good. I have no clue why a previous reviewer complained about snorkeling. Maybe I had lower expectation, but I managed to feel like a child swimming with very colorful fish, some of respectable dimension as well. The reef was quite rich with sea life. A few sea turtle can be seen as well from time to time, although they are more easily spotted resting on the beaches where human presence is less common.
It is also possible to rent a sea kayak, but they will not let you go very far (basically they will not let you go out of their sight) or take a boat tour where the glass bottom provides an opportunity to see the ocean life for those who do not feel comfortable about snorkeling. Water gets deep very quickly as a matter of fact. Once I was truly surrounded by a school of at least hundred large pale blue fish, once I saw a large barracuda... Hundred yards from the beach it is already over 20 feet deep, but the deeper it gets the more difficult it becomes to see fish. Anaeho'omalu beach is protected by another reef so one does not need in general to be concerned with the surf, i.e. the waives and the current. The Big Island in general is not good for surfing. If surfing is a priority, probably you are in the wrong place. There is limited surfing near Kona as far as I can tell. Windsurfing and kite surfing, instead, are available. Kite surfing is not so easy to learn though.
Weather Basically a sure bet. The Big Island is quite a place having 11 of the 13 different types of climate in the world. The Western side of the island gets very little rain, unlike Hilo on the Eastern side where 100 inches of rain plus a year are common. Tall mountains ( Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea) shield the western part from bad weather. Of course, there are seasonal patterns, but for that it suffices to check any weather site to plan the trip accordingly.
Is it possible to jog, bike or skate around the hotel ? You could see many joggers in the morning hours. I have not seen many bicycles, to be honest, or skaters. I think, however, that the stretch of road from Waikoloa to Kona is very suitable. It is unfortunately just a very straight road with not much to see besides lava field, but the pavement was excellent and the bike lane generously wide. The only cyclists I saw where athletes training for the Iron Man Triathlon which takes place in Kona.
Talking of Hawai'i, I have been warned that locals are dangerous drivers in the sense that they tend to stay very close to bike lanes and do not pay much attention to bicycles or skaters when making turns. Maybe that is true in other parts of Hawai'i, it did not seem to be case around Waikoloa.
Service Very good. Personnel was polite and helpful. You really get the impression that the spirit of Aloha still lives in this part of Hawai'i. Learning a few local words can win you a smile and sure help from local people. Everyone learns to say Aloha and mahalo, but there is more to it and it is not all that difficult and easily available in many tourist guides, like saying aloha kakaiaka for good morning, etc...
Work in progress When my wife and I stayed at the hotel in early September 2006, the resort was undergoing some major restructuring. While the hotel did the best to limit the annoyance to its patrons, it is impossible to hide it completely. If this could be a big problem to you, check ahead of time on the status of their work in progress.
Once completed, there will be more room, an extra pool and some other amenities, in the meantime, it is more of a liability than anything else.
Something more to check Somewhat tragically, on October 14 or 15, 2006 Hawai'i was hit by a 6.6 Richter Scale earthquake whose epicentre was located at 10 miles from Waikoloa. I did not hear of any major structural damage to the hotels in the area. While it seems that fortunately there was no loss of life, it is possible that there have been damage to structures and roads. So, checking with the hotel is important, at least for the next few months or so. Lava flows occasionally become an issue, but it has been a long time since lava flows affected this part of the island.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
icio
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Location: Thousand Oaks, CA
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 6 members
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