Mauna Kea Beach Hotel

Just down Kohala's Lava coast, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is the kind of place families return to year after year.[more]

Just down Kohala's Lava coast, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is the kind of place families return to year after year.

Children of long-time guests bring their children, wanting the same room, the same art on the wall, the same smiling staff. They may admit sheepishly, that once in a while they try someplace else, but for them, nothing else quite measures up.

And small wonder. This is the elegant, world-class hotel that Laurance Rockefeller built over 30 years ago as the ultimate family retreat. Today the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel has been restored to its original splendor and continues to attract sophisticated clientele the world over.

The world-renowned Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is located on beautiful Kauna'oa Bay, considered by many to be the island's single most picturesque beach. Crescent-shaped with pure white sands and shimmering aqua waters, it is perfect for water sports including swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, catamaran riding, whale watching and deep-sea fishing. Even at night, guests step onto a circular lava outcropping overlooking the Bay, to watch the manta rays swim beneath.

Designed by Robert Trent Jones, SR., the Mauna Kea golf Course remains the standard by which all other island courses are judged. Eighteen holes of play sport panoramic ocean vistas, prompting Golf Digest to proclaim it the "number one golf course in Hawaii." One of the course's most dramatic features is the famous Third Hole, where surging Pacific inlet waters race to meet the rocky shoreline, creating one of the most photographed landscapes in golf today.

In 1997, the U.S. Golf Association named Hapuna "The Course of the Future." This Arnold Palmer/Ed Seay-designed 18-hole championship course is a links-style course featuring spectacular views of the Kohala Coast and Pacific, with snow-capped Mauna Kea volcano as a backdrop.

A testament to earlier times when his world-class resort paid tribute to the ancient Hawaiian spirit, Laurance Rockefeller's vast collection of Asian and Pacific art still graces the walls and lush tropical grounds. Over 1600 museum-quality pieces have been carefully preserved and displayed so that the unique culture of Mauna Kea Beach Hotel will live on for generations to come.[less]