The only thing included in the price of our room WAS our room. If you like getting nickle and dimed, this is the place for you. Let's see: $45 if you want to use one of their low-quality mask, fin, and snorkle sets for the day (you can buy a set for that), $15 per person to play tennis (enjoy doubles at $60) plus $7 each to use their racket. Getting hot? Why not cool down under a covered lounge chair. That'll be $45. I could go on, but you get the point. I was just at Four Seasons Maui and all this stuff was included.
Service was average and the food was nothing to write home about. They had one person working the tennis court (supposedly world class) and he would lock up, go take lunch, and you had to wait for him to return before playing.
All in all, I can't say I recommend this place. Spend the extra dollars and enjoy real 5-star treatment at the Four Seasons.

If you are staying in the Kona area this is THE place to stay. It is a beautiful properly and well-maintained. The staff is superb. The pool is lovely and the private beach is immaculate. The poolside restaurant and the main restaurant leave nothing to be desired.

We stayed at the Fairmont Orchid for six nights May 3 to May 9th,2008. We wished we had booked more time. This resort is not for the person who wants night life, not much but a guitar player/singer on the porch, which we did not mind. The staff was wonderful, the grounds were beautiful and the pool/beach area was something to remember. There are plenty of beach activities to keep you entertained and the pool/whirlpool was open 24 hours. We snorkled with the turtles and saw numerous kinds of fish. RENT A car and see the Island, we rented from the airport. We drove around the entire Island and saw the most beautiful views and met great people. The sunsets are georgeous. BUT since Kilauea is letting out some steam this caused SOME issues. If the wind blew just right it was hard to see the views. If you have breathing issues, you should find information about this before going.
If you are not an Adventurous person then this is not a place for you. We had found something to do everyday of this trip and will return to complete our adventures that we missed. The maids did up the rooms just right, when we checked out and had an 11 p.m. flight, they let us stay on the grounds as long as we wanted and gave us a "hospitality" room to clean up in. We thought everyone at the Fairmont was great and we will be back sometime soon. This resort is highly recommended. Just have an open mind and go with the flow and take in as much as you can, it's expensive, like everything else in Hawaii.. Go shopping and stock up on your refreshments/drinks and you will save alot of money.
Breakfast buffet was ok, yah, it's the same everyday, but you can order other items from the menu. We didn't mind. The other restaurants, we can't say much, we were never around to enjoy them. We will return again and again. I have already contacted my friend who was thinking of their honeymoon in Hawii and I highly recommended THE FAIRMONT ORCHID.

We recently stayed 3 nights at the Fairmont Orchid in early May 2008, the resort is currently one of the nicest options in the South Kohala coast resort areas relative to the other options (Four Seasons - too expensive, Hapuna Prince - rundown, Mauna Kea - closed, nicer grounds than Mauna Lani Bay, much nicer than any of the Waikoloa properties).

The room's at the Fairmont were nice, we were in a Partial Oceanview room, and that was a fair description of the room, you could get a nice view from the furniture on the patio. I would probably best describe the room itself as a nice business hotel room, but the bathroom was definitely much nicer than a typical business hotel room with a separate shower and tub and 2 sinks at the vanity.

They do charge resort fees, but these are a one time charge, so if you're staying for an extended period of time, they can be a good value. They also charge for internet, but since we were there on vacation, this wasn't a problem, but definitely would have been if I was there for a conference / work event. The beach, while manmade, is a very nice place to spend an afternoon, and is built in a way that creates a very nice / calm lagoon. The grounds are beatiful, and add greatly to the experience of staying at the property.

There are several restaurant options on site, and while definitely not a great value, they are not unfairly priced for "resort" restaurants. Brown's Beach House in particular, was definitely one of the best meals we had on our trip, and has beatiful views of the sunset. I would recommend dinner reservations of around 6:30PM to fully experience the sunset.