Kona Village A Rosewood Resort

Our spring break trip to Kona Village Rosewood was a trip of a lifetime! From the absolutely beautiful setting, wonderful culture, delicious food, and incredible staff who made us feel like family — I’m spoiled for life! It was my family’s first trip to Hawaii (husband, 8yo, 6yo, and me) and coming all the way from NYC, we figured it might be our last. Now we are all hooked and can’t wait to go back. We arrived on a Saturday evening after a long day of traveling and were greeted with smiles, warmth, and beautiful leis. I thought often during the week about what we were told that night — “make sure to do everything!” Our room was absolutely beautiful with welcome food and drinks, gorgeous and respectful architecture — both modern but also homey — beautiful artwork, comfortable furniture, an outdoor shower, and a large outdoor deck looking over the lagoon. Even if we never left our room it would have been an amazing trip! 🤣 I got up early each morning to workout. The gym has all the equipment you could want and the cardio machines are outside so you feel a nice morning breeze and can stare out at the mountains while you sweat! Our first breakfast (and every breakfast!) was spectacular. I tried all of the specials and not a single one disappointed! Food overall was delicious — fresh poke bowls, yummy steaks, island favorites like “loco moco”, amazing sushi, over the top desserts (best pineapple cake in my life!) and top notch basics for the kids (pizza, burgers, chicken tenders, etc). The cocktails are also quite special and the bartenders (Shane and Shane!) can tell you all about them. Unlike many hotels (even 5 star hotels!), they run a full fresh fruit program with no batched syrups and nothing from concentrate. It was nice to finally have a real mai tai🍹 The resort is so beautiful that you can have a blast doing nothing but just enjoying all the different places to lounge (multiple beaches, pools, the lagoon, a bajillion books and crannies to get lost in with others or by yourself) OR you can be super active and canoe, sail, paddle board, hike, snorkel, dive, play games, etc. Our kids loved the keiki (kids) club and enjoyed the team there who were super creative and kept the kids very active while also taking time to teach them a ton about Hawaiian culture and the local area. I could go on and on but the best thing about the entire experience was getting to spend time with the team there. From the leadership (MariaJose and Daniel) to the F&B team led by Daniel to Matea and Manita and Taylor and Shane and Shane and all the other wonderful folks who took care of us and made us feel at home by sharing their home and culture — we couldn’t be more grateful. We just can’t wait to go back. We were already Rosewood fans but not we are super-crazy-can’t-stop-thinking-about-it fans for life!!!

Fantastic stay! I attended a wedding at the resort and was blown away by how beautiful the resort is. I was in a Mountain View king hale and the room was perfection. Super comfortable bed, great patio, amazing bathtub, and I loved the outdoor shower. Turndown service every night gave me a cute wooden magnet of local wildlife, which I looked forward to every night. The service at times definitely runs on “island time,” but overall the staff was super friendly and I didn’t let the slowness at times put a damper on my stay. The food was great and I didn’t have a single meal I didn’t enjoy. I did not get a spa treatment but I enjoyed using the spa facilities and their spa is one of the most beautiful spas I’ve ever been to. I appreciated the hotel took great care in the interior design and landscaping, which both felt they honored the local Hawaiian spirit and history of the original resort. Since all rooms are individual bungalows, the hotel feels very private and exclusive and even at full capacity it will never feel crowded like the nearby resorts. As it’s a brand new resort there are definitely some new business kinks to work out, but overall I highly recommend staying at what is most definitely the premier resort in Hawaii.

This resort would be my top choice over Four Seasons and Mauna Lani. The service was excellent and the restaurant choices were amazing. We stayed in a Tree Top view room 109 and it took my breath away. The experience at this resort was unlike any other I have experienced. The room was like a tree house outside in a beautiful jungle with windows throughout that opened to hear the majestic sounds of tropical birds and the breeze blowing on palm trees. The wood and colors inside were breathtaking with soft wood and dark marble in the bathrooms. The outdoor private patio had a swinging bed that you could lay on to watch the stars. The noise was so quiet I forgot I was in the middle of the ocean on an island. The waves crashing could be softly heard but the trees blowing with the windows open was incredible. The bed was super comfortable and felt like a cloud but had added support. The outdoor shower was a beautiful touch with rain falling on top overlooking the beauty of Mauna Loa Volcano. The lava rock was a beautiful touch and the food services were great for pancakes, French toast, sandwiches and hot meals. I was so impressed and I’m sure you will be too. Make this resort your top choice as I don’t usually make a lot of reviews this destination deserves it. Hands down best on Big island.

We just finished 7 nights at Kona Village. We had a trip booked there in 2011, but the Tsunami hit so the trip was cancelled. We were excited to hear that they had reopened and just returned from 7 nights for our family of 4. The property itself is definitely 5 stars. Beautiful location, beaches, and rooms (hales). The property is over 80 acres and tucked away. It felt private and less crowded than other large resorts. We also saw wildlife galore right from the beach - monk seals, turtles, whales, etc. The price to stay here is $$$$$. We paid $3,200 per night for an ocean front Hale. At that price point you’d expect exceptional service and that was where the resort fell short of the 5 star ratings and had us leaving feeling that they are way over priced. Examples: - At check in our room wasn’t available. Actually it was cleaned and ready to go, but some amenities hadn’t been delivered yet. After 2 hours of waiting we asked for an ETA. They had no idea. We then asked them for we could go to the room to change while they wait for the amenities to be delivered and they told us that wasn’t allowed. We then asked if we could get our swimsuits from our luggage so that our kids could at least swim while we waited and they said that our bags had already been delivered to the room so no. Lots of run around and, as guests, we would have placed a much higher value of getting in our room as soon as we arrived vs waiting for hours so that a hand written note and fruit platter could be in our room prior to our arrival. - They give you bikes to get around the resort. We were in Halle 150 which is at the very end of the resort. There were 4 of us, but only 2 bikes at our Halle. Problem number 1 is that they didn’t have enough bikes at our Halle before arrival. Problem number 2 is that, when they delivered bikes to our room, they weren’t even close to the right sizes for our kids. Our 6 year old ended up using the 10 year olds bike to give you a sense of how off they were. They kept saying that they were low on kids bikes and didn’t know that they’d have the right sizes for our kids. They did, thankfully, as I don’t know how we would have gotten around without them. Given that they repeatedly told us that they were short on kids bikes, I suggested that they pick up the bikes that were the wrong size from our Halle so that another family could use the bikes and they never did. They sat there, unused, for the entire week. - One morning we had a snorkel trip booked and had to leave the resort before the restaurant opened for breakfast. They have a coffee shop on property that opens an hour before the restaurant so our plan was to grab breakfast there before leaving for the snorkel. It was supposed to open at 6am and was still closed at 6:20am. When I asked the front desk what was going on they had no idea that it hadn’t opened yet and assumed that an employee didn’t make it to wait that day. This caused quite the scramble for us. - We waited over 20 minutes fr

Spend 4 nights at Kona Village and stayed at Hale 113 (Ocean Front Hale). Check out the resort map gives you an idea the size of the property and hopefully help you choose the hale of your desire. The resort is worth a tour, all Hales comes with bikes to get ground the property, we spend an afternoon biking around and discovered different types of Hale and Suites, enjoyed different views of the beach, and come to learn the resort is 100% solar energy with batteries backup via Tesla Megapacks. During our stay the main beach area and pools were not crowded at all, staff brought us towels and food & beverage menu, I had the pool to myself at 3PM in the afternoon. The Asaya spa is well worth a visit both of our masseuses (Angela & Lily) were friendly and incredible, the facility is beautifully design and build. When it comes to food and beverages this is somewhat subjective, our preference is keep it simple and let the ingredients speaks for itself. Breakfast at Moana were enjoyable with good selection, however their dinner food quality need some improvements (i.e. overcooked fish, over sauce raw fish menus (masking seafood freshness?), and why so many smoke and milk/cream sauce). Had a better dinner experience at Kahului Cookhouse, the fresh baked bread, ceviche, and whole catch zarandedo, the scallop was not fresh and masked with again milk/cream sauce. Both restaurant services were friendly. Our Hale 113, very close to the pool, beach, restaurants, bars, and spa. Amazing view of the ocean, great amenities, and beautifully design and build. It’s next to Shipwreck Bar so there are noises in the afternoon and early evening, this could be a positive you can literally stand in your lanai wave the bartender down and order your drinks. We had a terrific time and much needed getaway, will definitely come back again.

Positives: Beautiful grounds Swimmable beach Friendly staff Wonderful accommodations - love the outdoor shower Received an upgrade upon check in from Ocean View to Ocean front Many beautiful design elements but doesn’t seem particularly Hawaiian - the hales could be anywhere Love the bikes! Good beach and pool service Water toys Free self-park Nice enough gym Nice enough spa Wonderful Super Bowl viewing party Morning paddle is a must! Breakfast is included Negatives Food is so-so but priced like a FS Restaurant service is super friendly but can be very slow Receipt prices do not match menu prices Poor housekeeping and mini-bar servicing 20% occupancy so feels like a ghost-town Resort is really spread out so if one is not able to bike or if it’s raining then a wait for a golf cart is long There is very poor follow-thru when calling guest services with simple requests. That’s pretty poor when the occupancy is so low - not sure how bad it will be if there is ever a busy time.