I recently stayed for two nights at the lovely Ihilani resort. It was a nice surprise! This is a solid four-star property in a truly great, quiet location. Good-size rooms, spectacular bathrooms, nice views, and decent service. The lagoons are great for kids and adults.

Some complain about the remote location of this hotel, but for me, that is the charm. This is not a typical Oahu hotel. There are lots of things to keep you occoupied, but they are of the more solitary variety. Walking/jogging paths, secluded beaches, nice golf course. I imagine that during holidays and/or the high season there are lots of screaming kids. But during mid-week, low-season, it was heaven. The breakfast buffet was included with our ocena view room rate, and it was very good with lots of variety. We ate at Azul, the on-site Italian place, one night, and Roy's just across the street the other night. Both were very good.

The pool is a low point. Small, with loud music playing around the bar/pool area. But with the beach and lagoon areas, who wants to be by the pool anyway?

We definitely plan to return and take the kids. This is a really good place for a break from Waikiki.

You might want to think twice about making the 50 minute drive away from town for the mediocre service levels at this resort. At the start of our stay the agent who checked us in was very cold and never looked up once during the minute check in process- nor did he review any of the details of our room. I found it a little strange that I had to ask the pertinent questions about our room. He didn't even ask for the other person's name that was staying with me. Goes to show how much they value the hotel's integrity when it comes to security of the property?

I also while having lunch near the pool it was hard to enjoy my salad while having to smell spoiled juice and swat fruit flies that were coming from the bar.

To cut down our wait time for our valet parked car we called ahead to ask if it would be brought out-only to be told by the clerk to just come down and wait. While we waited over five minutes for our car. While we waited we could over hear the clerks gossiping and chewing on gum. There were no other cars or guests waiting for their cars so I can't imagine why a 4 star hotel wouldn't offer a more efficient valet service. We've stayed at the Kahala were the car is always waiting for us upon request and the valet and their clerks makes conversation with us instead of their co-workers.

The best part of our stay was watching the fish feeding from our balcony. At least their is some culture that is trying to be integrated into the resort.

Overall a property as secluded as this one needs to "step it up" a few knotches to expect people to leave the comforts of Kahala for a property that will give you below average service.

Just beautiful. Beach is very calm. No waves for boogie boarding - this was something I wish I would have known ahead of time because my teenager likes to boogie board - however, I loved the calm waters. The beach offers rentals of chairs and water toys. Good snorkeling right there in the cove. Largest balcony of any hotel I have stayed at. I am a travel agent and have been sent to several hotels all over the world and this by far is the largest "standard" room and balcony. Very spacious and the views are spectacular. Prices for meals are very high. Take the 10 minute drive into town and there are several restaraunts that offer good value. We were able to walk to the Paradise Cove Luau. Enjoyed the show.

This property is all-around excellent. Immaculately clean, I don't think I saw a spec of dust ANYWHERE at any time. Perfect sunset view, very quiet and relaxing.

Personnel:

Front Desk -- Friendly, efficient. What you expect at a 5-star resort

Chambermaid -- Supernice. My wife and I knew her by name within 3 days. Always offering to go get things etc.

Valet -- Excellent. Jeep always brought around in 2 minutes or less. Spent time talking with us, giving us suggestions and directions.

Concierge -- Can't be topped. My wife, being the impulsive one, went down one afternoon to get help with setting up a 'romantic surprise' for me when we got back from dinner. Un-flipping-believable what the concierge put together in 3 hours.

Waitstaff/Bartenders -- Friendly, efficient. What you expect at a 5-star resort

Facilities --

Room -- perfect. quiet, private, great view and affordable (in Oahu terms)

Lobby/Common areas -- elegant, tasteful, spotless. A bit dull and lacking in character though. This is my biggest complaint, so you can see that this stay went well.

Pool -- Again, spotless. Well designed so that you felt connected to the rest of the resort, but not 'in the middle' of it.

Beach -- Great lagoons, a lot of beach-per-person. This definitely IS NOT Waikiki. GREAT snorkeling. I saw more marine life here than I did SCUBA diving.

Food/Dining --

Sushi bar is great. My wife and I don't eat shellfish, so we talked with the waitress (Hi Belinda!) and the chef for a while and they custom made a huge platter of sushi for us. Also took some notes and did some custom things on the Friday night buffet just for us.

Breakfast buffet was great. ALOT to choose from. Ate there 4 times and never had the same thing twice

There were a couple of other places there, can't remember them off the top of my head. But everything was excellent.

Spa was the best we've been to at any price.

NOTE: This is on the west side of the island in 'Ko Olina'. It's away from Honolulu/Waikiki. If you want to be in the middle of the nightlife, this isn't for you. This is quiet, relaxing, and pampering. Great for single couples, retirees, honeymooners and the like. Kids are certainly welcome, but they'll get bored and fidgety quickly.

Also note that Disney is planning on putting up a bunch of resorts in this area. If you want the tranquility, go in the next couple of years.