Recently returned from a great Maui vacation at the Fairmont Kea Lani. Stayed 8 nights with my wife and baby daughter. Requested and received a renovated suite with ocean view. Very, very nice. Huge bathroom, king bed, wraparound lanai. The suite also had a entertainment system equipped with VCR, CD, and DVD players, as well as a full stereo system. Impressive.

The Kea Lani is a fabulous hotel. Wonderful grounds, and a very accomodating and helpful staff. We spent a lot of time researching Wailea resorts before selecting the Kea Lani over the Four Seasons. Key factor was numerous reviews that described the Kea Lani as more child-friendly. I think this is a very fair assessment. The hotel staff always made sure our needs were met (i.e. crib in room, extra items for baby care), and they really doted on our daughter. Plus, there were lots of other families, which made us feel even more comfortable.

One thing we really enjoyed was the breakfast plan at the Kea Lani restaurant. Very good value for full buffet breakfast every morning. Normal price is $25 per person, but we prepaid as part of our vacation at approximately $17 per person. The buffet is extensive and scrumptious! Well worth the expense, especially compared to ordering ala carte or room service. Make sure to enjoy the passion orange guava juice (POG) because we've been unable to locate the delicious nectar on the mainland.

All in all, we loved our stay and look forward to a return visit.

My husband and I and our 2 year-old stayed at the Kea Lani the week after Labor Day. We had a really good time--although not as relaxing as it was before the baby was born. It was fairly quiet. Most of the kids on the water slide were over 21. There were lots of chairs everywhere. So, I guess if you don't want to be with the rug rats, go to Maui when they go back to school. The hotel was not perfect but it was pretty nice. If you ask my 2 year-old if he like the Kea Lani, I'm sure he would say he did. He loved the baby pool, the beach and the the spaghetti from Caffe Ciao. My son is allergic to dairy, nuts and eggs. We communicated this to the manager of Ciao and he personally came to our suite to talk to us and show us the pasta they would use for his meal. When his spaghetti was cooked, Frank, the manager, personally came back with the room service personnel and made sure everything was as we requested. Now, we thought that was special. It's nerve-racking to travel with a kid with allergies. We had dinner at Nick's one night and the waiter was so absorbed in memorizing the menu. I told him about my son's allergies and he brought my son's fish swimming in butter. Guess we didn't have fun there. Breakfast was included in our package so we didn't feel the pain of losing another chunk of our money every morning. The deluxe ocean view suite was sweet. We asked the reception staff to show us the villas. She showed us #15. Yuck! The tile looks old, the carpet old. The sofa looked like many wet behinds have sat on it. The ocean view should be called "Tip of the ocean view". Not worth the $1900. Liked our suite better. If you're facing the beach, some of the villas on the right side were being renovated. So if you are rolling in it and want a villa make sure yours is newly renovated. There's a walking/jogging path that's a 3-mile round trip along the beach. This is worth doing every day(okay, so I didn't do it everyday)--especially if you know that it will be very likely you will sin on the the dinner table. The views are awesome--even my little rug rat loved it. Don't go crazy about the prices in this hotel or anywhere in Maui. You know it was expensive. Have a great time. Give yourself a break. If you go to Makena beach--south of the hotel, be careful under the trees. The small pieces of the branches that fall have thorns. On the way to Makena there are some taco vendors. We ate some good tacos from one of them. Wailea is totally cool. It's beautiful and clean. Makena is quite and natural. Kihei is a kick back town. If you like seafood or Japanese, go to Sansei. We went there for Yellowtail cheek and great sushi.

My wife and I just returned from Maui. Stayed at the Ritz Carlton and the Kea Lani. Some hybrid of the two would have been perfect. (As a point of reference, on previous trips to HI we stayed at the Princeville resort, the Royal Hawaiian, the Lodge at Koele, and Kona Village.) Problem with the Kea Lani was with the check-in experience. Arrived, impressed by valet, lobby, and reception. My wife had told the reservation person we were in Hawaii to celebrate our anniversary. This information was never conveyed to staff. (At Ritz we received much love.) Anyway, still high on the check-in experience we came crashing down to earth when we saw the room--a mountain view that was actually a parking lot view. Room looked worn and dingy. So depressing. We complained and were led to another room, this one in the renovated section of the resort, which was nice, but what a journey. What was the guy thinking? We saw the bowels of the resort, construction workers ripping up carpet; the cold towels, lei greeting, and juice were a very distant memory. This new room was much better than the first, but was a double, not the king we had requested--at least we were spared the parking lot view. Why couldn't we have been offered this room in the first place. (We changed to another room the next day, which was very nice--if they had offered this room at the start all would have been great.) Ate at Nick's; had braced for ridiculous prices and Nick exceeded expectations. We had a very pleasant evening--excellent service, good food, but wildly overpriced. All in all, service at the resort was very good, bathroom in room is great, the beach is lovely, grounds are beautiful. If you have read this far, let me say this, the Ritz strived to make us feel special, the Kea Lani was terrific, less the awkward beginning.

We stayed five days at the Fairmont three weeks ago and had a wonderful time. The hotel is beautiful and the staff is very attentive. Yes a small section of the carpet on the corners is dark along the edges with what is probably mildew given the amount of heat and moister that is part of the Hawaiian climate. I doubt the rug cleaning machines can clean those areas properly. It is barely noticeable. That being said the Fairmont needs to be vigilant that the furniture and rugs do not look too worn or they will lose their reputation. Otherwise the suite was immaculate. The bathroom is huge and it had an enormous tub with an open shower beside it. The bathroom is completely done in earth tone marble. Side by side pedestal sinks and a lots of mirrors. House keeping comes twice a day - once in the morning to do the usual stuff and again in the evening to tidy up your suite and turn down your bed. I would caution about the mattress in the pull out sofa it is very uncomfortable. We stayed in a deluxe ocean view suite and the view was truly magnificent. I advise not to stay on the very top floor as we did because there is very little shade on the laniai. All laniais have a chase lounge and a glass topped table with four chairs. The grounds are beautiful and Polo beach is great for body surfing or boogie boarding. Bring or buy your own boogie board. The prices that are charged to rent one are ridiculous. The beach chairs are free. Forty-four dollars a day for an umbrella. Sixty a day for one of those tented cabana chairs at the beach (needs to be reserved in advance). Yes its disgraceful to be charged for a bogie board or an umbrella when you pay so much for a room but the Fairmont is not the worst of the offenders. At least the Fairmont gave you the beach chair – the Hilton in Honolulu, which we had visited the week before, charged for that too. They charged extra for so many things that for a while there I though they were going to charge me a toilet paper roll restocking fee. Many guests grumbled that they were being soaked so Paris could afford to keep her dog in the latest designer outfits. Here is my advice … stay away from Oahu … it is a dump and I'm not just talking about Honolulu. Crowded, run down, and trash strewn. Maui on the hand was a clean, well-kept, and incredibly beautiful island and I highly recommend it. On a side note we spoke to a couple staying at the Four Seasons in Maui. They said the hotel was beautiful but very crowded everywhere you went. Also Wailea beach has a new condo project going up next to the Shops a Wailea so make sure you don’t have to look at the giant construction crane.