The Hapuna Beach Prince is located on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island, just north of Kona and the Kona airport. The Prince and its sister hotel, the Mauna Kea, share 1,839 acres of beachfront property. Getting onto the property is kind of confusing. You have to actually turn right off of the highway, when the beach is to the left. A windy road takes you through the golf course and under the highway back over to the ocean side. We valeted the car and gave the porter our luggage. The hotel lobby is open-air and overlooks the ocean. It was sunset and we could see a few floors down there was a Hawaiian musician playing in an outdoor louge. So nice. I just wanted to go down there and chill out! Checking in was a breeze, though, and we were even given glasses of POG while going thorugh the check in process.

Our room was about as far away from the lobby as you could get. Bad thing about such a big property, I guess! Walk and walk and walk and then walk a little more to get to your room! That’s ok, though. It meant the room was quiet. Also, we figured out a really quick back way to get to our car and never valet-parked again. Self-parking was free and we could park in the way back lot, which was really close to our room, so that worked out great.

Our actual room was fine. A little dated, but nice. The TV had to be at least 10 years old. , but we weren’t actually in our room much anyway. The bathroom was huge, with a full tub, a seperate shower, double sinks and a seperate toilet area. For some reason we had two beds in our room, which I don’t think is what we requested, but it didn’t matter enough for us to complain or want to switch rooms. I was just kind of peeved that they’d give us a room with two beds when I mentioned at check-in that it was our honeymoon. Also, I read online that others on their honeymoon were sent complimentary champagne after check-in. Oh well. We were paying a low kama’aina rate, so what should I expect!

We were on the ground floor of the hotel and had a private lanai. Our room wasn’t exactly oceanview, partial, I think, but it was still nice to have this private outside space. One cool thing was the lanai screen doors locked and had wooden slatted doors that pulled into place so we could leave the glass doors open at night and hear the ocean. The front hotel-room door also had louvered privacy doors that locked so you could get a nice ocean breeze and still be safe and private.

The pool and beach at the Hapuna Prince were top notch and not busy at all. The water in the pool was so warm. Unnaturally warm. Dallas said it felt like 100 little kids took a pee in there, but we still swam away! The pool was huge, not like some of the tiny, overcrowded pools you see in Waikiki. And Hapuna Beach is often ranked one of the top beaches in the US, so it goes without saying that it was gorgeous.

On the night we arrived, we ate at Coast Grille, the high end resort restaurant. It was pricey, but it was our first night alone and we were in the mood to splurge. The next morning I went to the Cafe Hapuna, which was more like a store (no seating) and found out it wasn’t much cheaper. I think I got a coffee, a juice, yogurt, fruit and some chips and it was something like $26! Also, the daytime lunch options were not plentiful. One day we had friends come up and the only lunch option was the Beach Bar. It was fine, but options would have been nice. It’s not like you can get in your car and drive less than 20 minutes to go somewhere else. One other thing – wifi was $10 or $12 per day so we only got it one day.. and it was super slow.

One thing I didn’t realize when we were deciding where to stay is that the Hapuna, and the Kohala Coast in general, are kind of removed and secluded. It took us an hour to drive down to Kona and we did it every day – at 5:30 in the morning, after dinner with drinks, etc. It got to be a long drive. That said, if you were just going to stay on the resort and hang out at the pool and beach, it was pretty amazing. Especially since we got a great kama’aiana rate on the room!

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