The Manele Bay hotel was beautiful and the restaurants good. The main dining room at the Lodge was awful. Both properties had beautiful grounds. The beach was a bit rough. It did not have a Hawaiian feel in the island as the other islands do.

Our family of 3 (mom, dad, 12-yr. old daughter) spent 4 nights at the Four Seasons Manele Bay in early Nov. 2005, followed by 7 days in Maui. Our first time at 4S and first time to Lanai, we truly felt pampered. The hotel is beautiful and was very quiet during our stay. Very few children. Staff was very friendly and accomodating. We had a garden view room, with waterfall outside and it was spacious. We had a problem getting hot water one day and the next day were told we could be moved to another room. We did not make the move (didn't want to pack and unpack again), and were pleasantly surprised during checkout that the manager had given us one free night for the inconvenience (without our even asking). Husband played both golf courses ($185 at Manele, but if you play Kohele the same day, it was only an additional $70), family really loved the Lapine Sporting Club where we took beginner archery lessons, snorkeling off Manele was really clear and saw lots of fish we'd never seen in Maui, and swam with a sea turtle. Snorkel gear is no charge, and the staff on the beach were very nice about setting up lounges, umbrella and bringing water or lemonade. As far as inconvenience on the remodel process, there was very little, other than during the weekdays you heard the construction on the new Pool Grille Restaurant. The hotel shuttle and vans worked out well for getting around to the Lodge at Kohele, Lanai City, and Manele golf courses. We did not rent a car and did not miss having one. We hope to return in 3 years for our 25th anniversary.

The Manele Bay Hotel was a wonderful site to visit. We arrived there as our first stop during our honeymoon. Be warned, there is construction going on the east side of the hotel; we were advised this by our travel agent. The Four Seasons people are really trying to keep that down to a mininum, and it looks like it is going to finish in a few months. From our room we were right in a full ocean view to the west side so we didn't hear or see any construction until we got to the center of the facility. About the only thing that bothered us was some construction noise in the morning buffet area.

Saying this, visiting on the off season too like we did, we felt like we had the place to ourselves. No one really was there and we ran into the same couples all the time. At night we strolled down to the beach and back to look into the stars at the pool with no one to be seen. Quite a good thing!

The service and people were top notch, the room and facilities were great. The staff definitely are on the Four Seasons program. Their Spa is very clean and nice, both of us had great massages. I recommend the Spa right when you arrive. There is not much for swimming pools there with only one smaller version offered, but the beach is a small walk away and there is good service there (minus alcohol).

Lana'i is awesome and the shuttle service to and from "The Lodge", another Four Seasons property up country central Lana'i, made our adventures great and easy to get around. The facility was clean and certainly going to what you would expect of a Four Seasons.

We took the 4x4 package so an event was planned for each day included with the stay. All this with the picnic lunches were top shelf for some of the activities. I recommend looking into this if you aren't all about sitting at the resort the whole time.

Bad parts: Lana'i doesn't offer much to places to eat (although we did eat at several places in Lana'i city - Henry Clay's is good) so one would expect more from the 2 Manele Bay "restaurants". However the choice at Manele Bay was not too good and the food was not to the level I would expect for the price and for Four Seasons. We did like our in suite private dinner service, but again variety of food choices was pretty small. They know there is not much competition in the eating arena, so I think they are slipping there.

My wife and I stayed at the Four Seasons Manele Bay Hotel and overall we really liked it. I knew we were in for a good experience the minute we arrived at the very small (one airline) Lanai airport, where (somehow!) the hotel concierge knew who we were without an introduction. They had a van ready for us and three other couples to go to the Hotel where we didn't even have to stand at the Front Desk. I think the Four Seasons way of doing business is definitely being implemented.

That said, one day I took a long walk around the hotel and discovered that half of it is still closed for a complete renovation. There were probably about 50 workers keeping very busy on that, but the noise from that part of the construction was not noticeable. What we did notice, however, is that they are still renovating (my guess is for the next month) the Pool side Grill building, so there is defintely some loud noise by the pool. I'm good at tuning it out, but some folks aren't. In fact, we met one couple that after two nights decided to move to the Four Seasons in Maui.

Food: the daily breakfast buffet (which was included in our package) was great. For dinner, the Italian fine dining restaurant was very, very good and I highly recommend it. Avoid, however, the Hulopo'e Court restaurant. The menu just wasn't up to snuff for a Four Seasons.

One day, we took the free shutle up to the other Four Seasons and Lanai City and had a great time. This is an absolutely beautiful hotel and very quiet and secluded. We also walked all around the two main streets of downtown and visited several very friendly storefront vendors.

Snorkeling: one day I walked down to the beach (about 400 yard walk); they offer free equipment, but to be honest, I should have gone first thing in the morning, rather than in the mid-afternoon. The surf had come up quite a bit and I just didn't feel safe and came back in. I would highly recommend that the hotel hire a full-time life guard.

The pool side service was excellent; they often came around with cold towels, cold pineapple chunks, and spritzes. Also, be sure to take one of the power raft trips: we saw an amazing school of "spinner" dolphins, including several babies only 24" in size. This was an unbelievable experience.

I think a year from now it will be a true Four Seasons experience, but it is a fantastic, quiet location.