Reservations:
We booked online thru the classic resorts website (---).
The actual booking process was then handled by "WWTE" or "Worldwide travel exchange". Not that it mattered much, but if you have a question regarding the reservation, it's a bit odd to talk to someone who ends up sitting in Miami rather than on the big island. It was also not really clear from the reservation how WWTE and classic resorts work with each other, and one of the consequences was that when we arrived at the resort, we found ourselves in front of the locked gate of the islands at mauna lani. - Sure enough is says somewhere on the internet that it's a gated resort, but it would have been quite helpfull to say in the reservation to pull up at the classic resort office 2 miles up the road to get the keys. The islands at Mauna Lani has no own lobby or reception.

Location:
The roughly forty units are built in groups of four units, adjoining one of the golf courses of the Mauna Lani Resort.
Ours was a center unit, but still had plenty of windows and lihgt. If you can, I would still try to get an end-unit though.

While some of the units offer some sea-view, they're NOT directly on the beach. It's a 20 minute walk either thru the picturesque "petroglyph trail" or along a nice walkway to the Mauna Lani Hotel.

We liked the short walk which also takes you down to the old Hawaiian fish ponds.
Watch out for the eels close to pond nearest to the Mauna Lani Hotel and the beach. I'd rather not put my feet in there...

The beaches were marvelous. There's a good choice of different beaches regarding scenery, size of waves and number of other people around. Plenty of turtles and also whales to see at the beginning of March. The water was clear, but a bit on the cool side for swimming.

Resort Facilities:
We found Resort facilities to be fine, especially the maintenance of the gardens and golf courses is top notch. On the other side, it's far from "fully integrated". For example, you can only use the pool at the islands and signing your restaurant bill to your room is not possible at the Restaurants at the Mauna Lani Hotel. It didn't matter much for us, since we allways cooked in our own appartment.

If you have no car or don't want to use it, there's a free resort shuttle on call that takes you from doorstep to anywhere within the Mauna Lani Resort. Never used it.

There's also a little General store just outside the gates of the Islands, but prices are ridiculous. (Up to two to three times that of the already "healthy" prices you ohterwise pay in Hawaii.)
Since I expect the prices of the Spa (next to the general store) to be even more ridiculous, I never used it.

"Room":
These are two story townhouses, not hotel rooms. They're either two or three bedroom units. Everything about them is HUGE, starting from the 42" TV with DVD in the living room, the great kitchen with every mod.con you can imagine (2 Ovens, Full size Fridge and Freezer, Coffeemaker, High-tech-Toaster, electric can-opener, blender, dishwasher and on and on... and of course also all the cooking utensils one could need, You-name-it, it was there.

This goes for the whole appartment: Everything you could wish for was there. From the beachmats and towels to take along, to the tupperwares for the beachside snack, boardgames if it should ever rain and I even found some oil to stop the squeeling of our baby stroller

Living Room and dining room had a nice bright hardwood floor, upstairs bedrooms featured a beige carpet.
Each upstairs bedroom also had its en-suite bathroom, each with separate shower and bathtub. Bathrooms were about the size of our living room at home... ;-)

Our rate included daily maid-service, which even even included cleaning up the kitchen, tough we did not "overuse" that part of the service.

I found the Room decor to be a pleasant mix between elegant, luxurious, with a Hawaiian touch (not to the extreme, i.e. not filled with that hideous mismatch of shouting colours I've seen in pictures of other condos).

Since the condos are individually owned, that as well as the impression you have may vary by unit, but I think quite a lot of the features are general standard and that seems good.

There seem to be quite a lot of changes in ownership. According to our maid, our unit had its forth owner. Thankfully, there was not a single try by anyone to sell us a unit (or timeshare) here or anywhere else in the resort.

Summary: If you're lookig for luxury, elegance, space and the convenience of a home away from home in a beautiful setting, this is for you.
If you want to be directly AT THE BEACH, try the Mauna Lani Hotel.
If you want to be where the ACTION is, go to Waikiki.

My family stayed at The Islands at Mauna Lani over the Thanksgiving Holiday. When we arrived the staff was warm and welcoming, which was very nice after a 5 hour flight with my daughter. We choose The Islands because of the size, but I never imagined that they would be this big. We had a two-bedroom unit, the unit was beautiful with a living room, huge kitchen, and separate dinning room on the first floor and the bedrooms upstairs. We had a barbeque on our deck and a huge lawn area that was perfect for our 2 year old. They had a large pool with more barbeques and a very nice eating area. My wife and daughter spent most of the time on the beach and I spent most of mine on the golf course. It was a wonderful vacation at a wonderful location. We will be back next year.

Just got back form a 2 week stay in Hawaii and spent 5 nights at the townhouse complex called "the Islands of Mauna lani". The townhomes our two bedroom townhome was at least 2500 square fteet with a two car garage. The views from our balcony and lanai were beautiful.

First the bad- upon check in we were sent to a unit that although spacious seemed shabby to us. After just having come form the new Westin Kaanapali ocean resort everything seemed old. I voiced my complaints to the front desk and they informed me that they were individually owned and decorated. I happen to see the unit next store to me and it was funrished beautifully. I was upset to pay the same and not enjoy the unit.

Now the Good- The front office was very accomodating and although they did not have any available units that night they offered to move us the next day. While my husband played golf the front office sent a car and driver to take me to see two other units that were in the "cleaning stage". Both were exactly what I expected. I chose the one with the newer TV's and end unit for additional windows. The front office told us to enjoy the day and leave our stuff by the front door and they would move everything for us within a few hours. They made the move easy and without disrupting our day.

We felt that we owned a private home, we cooked relaxed and enjoyed all the facilities and beaches of the Mauna Lani resort area (golf at a great discount) beaches at the Fairmont and Mauna Lani and the best of all a Private beach club that we had special access to via a pass key. The beach club had a restuarant serving lunch and tropical drinks. We were provided with "no extra fee" towels and chairs. The private club was no more that a three minute drive from the townhomes. Great snorkeling and a great swimable beach. Turtles came up on the beach daily.

The Island also had a wonderful pool area with a grotto waterfall into the pool. The kids loved it. The unit had 6 oversized pool towels in the unit for pool use. The pool also had daily newspapers for the residents and guests to pick up.

The unit had a full washer dryer and the unit upon arrival is stocked with breakfast essentials--milk, butter, cereal, bread, butter ,jam, bacon and eggs. We were not expecting this and it was a wonderful surprize.

We dined at Kings shoppes one night and the Canoe House another and dined in the rest of the time in our lovely home. I will write a separate review on the Canoe House.