My wife and I stayed at the Kea Lani for our Honeymoon over Labor Day week. We stayed in a Mountain Garden View suite. The room was nice, but was in need of renovations, which they are in the process of doing to the whole resort.

Overall service was very good. Employees of the Kea Lani were friendly and helpful in giving you advice on sight seeing around Maui. We were given a nice picture frame marriage gift, a very nice gesture.

The beach front is nice, though it is small. You can find nicer beaches in other parts of Maui. The pool was very nice, three pools all together and it was never crowded. They even offered cooled towels, but never water at the poolside as mentioned in previous reviews. We never had any problems getting a chair by the pool. I think this was a combination of kids back in school and the renovations going on which meant less people there.

As expected things are very expensive in Maui, but that is expected. Had dinner one night at the Caffe Ciao, the food was good. In addition Caffe Ciao Deli is a nice place for a snack, but expensive.

We ate at Nick's Fish Market one night. The food was good, but felt the waiters were on edge, being overly cautious not to make a mistake. This made the dining experience a little uncomfortable.

We also ate at Spago's located next door at the Four Season's. It was excellent, everything from the food to the service. In addition I would highly recommend Vino’s located in Kapalua, great italian food.

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.