My husband and I just returned from a 5 night stay at Kona By the Sea. I was pleasantly surprised with this place, as a lot of previous reviewers have stated it's in need of a redo. Because of this, I decided to not have high expectations and to just be happy with the location and the view. My main criteria was to have an ocean view room where I could fall asleep to the ocean waves at night that wouldn't break the bank. I guess it just depends on the condo, but #122 was absolutely amazing!

We booked a one-bedroom ocean front but somehow got upgraded to a two-bedroom ocean front, which was way too much room for just the two of us, but we weren't complaining! The room was fabulous! It had been recently updated, was very clean and had all of the amenities of home! But best of all was the sound of the waves when we opened the sliding glass doors. We kept them open every night so we could fall asleep to the waves pounding the shore. However, when the doors were closed, you couldn't hear a peep. I was happy at how soundproof the place was in general. We couldn't hear anyone next to us or above us, which was nice!

We saw several turtles right on the rocks in front of the property during our stay. The pool, hot tub and BBQs were great and we met a lot of nice people while hanging out down there. The parking was very convenient too. The $10/day resort fee was not the greatest but I guess you can't really get away from that these days. Since it's a condo, there are no resort amenities like onsite restaurant, room service, gym, bar, although this didn't bother us at all since the restaurants, bars, grocery stores, Costco, etc, were just a short drive away. There is, however, a dvd rental kiosk (which we didn't use) and activities desk where you can book excursions.

Kona By The Sea is very convenient to town and a great base if you want to stay in the Kailua-Kona area. We will definitely stay at Kona By the Sea again and if we had the money we would consider buying a condo here. ;)