Our friend let us use her timeshare for our honeymoon. The first thing we noticed after we walked in our room was the smell of dampness. The carpet looked old and outdated. There were dust in between the bathroom sliding door. The bed sheet, the couch, and the carpet felt damp. We brought this up with the front desk towards the end of our stay. We were told we had to keep the temperature at a certain degree, have the ceiling fan on, and the sliding doors closed. I guess it's because the resort was by the beach, and Kona is pretty humid. Someone was supposed to come to check our room, but I don't think anybody did. We wonder if there were mildew in the room... To use the internet, we had to pay $5 per 30 minutes, and to print, we would have to pay another fee. We would not go back to this place again.

This resort is as unique as the island it resides on. The Royal Sea Cliff is a multi-leveled structure with an outdoor atrium. The exterior of the resort is aging, but the breathtaking ocean views with lava formations on the shore make it less noticeable. There is no beach access at the resort. You’d have to go about a mile down Ali’i Drive to the beaches. I was able to look out onto the ocean from my balcony. Although not a completely unobstructed view, a full panorama was only a few floors up on the common lanai.

Oddly enough, guest registration is on an upper floor. Checking in late in the evening, this was a little confusing. There was a big mix-up with our reservation, but guest relations took care of the problem with minimal hassle. Customer service is pretty good here; the concierge is exceptional. Definitely use the services for booking tours.

To see the entire island, you could drive it in a day, or take the tours offered. We elected to drive and stopped at every waterfall and rainforest sign we saw while circling the Big Island. The Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is amazing! There’s a small daily fee to enter the park. It’s definitely designed for those with endurance. There is a lot of walking as well as getting in and out of the vehicle.

Our unit was a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom that was locked off to make a 1-bedroom. The condo is very spacious. Although there was no whirlpool tub, the layout of the unit was comfortable. It was nice to have the balcony off the living room and bedroom. There’s also a washer/dryer in the unit for laundry.

The resort offers two outdoor pools with hot tubs. One pool is freshwater, the other is filtered. There are regularly scheduled activities to participate in.

Kailua-Kona is a very short drive away. You could walk to town, but there are limited sidewalks. Kailua-Kona seemed to only be congested on the weekends. During the week, it is a peaceful town with lots of cute shops and markets.

There's ample parking throughout the property. I saw humongous bullfrogs while vacationing. That was a first for me.

Excellent vacation. Wonderful resort.

This was a very nice hotel, however if you are use to staying in fairfield you will find that it looks like alot of other fairfield hotels, very generic. The staff was very friendly and the events they did were great like the free lei making and the mini lua partys. The view was a pretty good view, not much privacy on the lanai but hey your in Hawaii! I had a 2bdrm and It was large enought for my wife, son and daughter. However halfway through my 2 week stay I was moved to the Kona Hawaian Village and felt it was much more clean/roomy and it had personality to it, unlike the royal seacliff.

The Royal Sea Cliff Resort from our perspective is a very nice place, but it is rather dated as far as Carpet and Furnishings. I booked this trip thru my timeshare company, "Windham" which took over all the Fairfield properties. We had a very nice 2 bedroom, 2 bath room with a full kitchen. Everything was clean and worked well. The refrigerator was fairly new and from the letter that was in the room from Windham stated that they would be replacing all of the carpets, bedspreads, drapes and appliances to make this a more up-to-date resort.
There is a activities desk near the check-in area that can help book anything you would like to do for the duration of your trip. I suggest the helicopter tour of the Island, the one that takes you close to the lava flow into the ocean. I would Also recommend the Snorkel trip with Fairwind to Kaleakakua Bay. If you're a diver, book with Underwater Adventures Hawaii. This is a Husband/Wife Dive Charter company that takes 6 max. divers to the best sites. Cost is only a few dollars more than the rest of the dive operators, but the extra $ is well worth the personalized services they provide. The name of the boat is Aqua Safari and is a 39' Sea Ray. This was the highlight of the trip. Wee did 2 morning 2-tank dive and one afternoon/night dive which was the best diving experience we ever had. The Manta Ray night dive was incredible!!
We enjoyed Don's Beachcomber Restaurant, Huggo's, U-top-it (breakfast place) .