Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 15, 1993 TAG: 9308080161
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WAILEA, HAWAII LENGTH: Long
Yet here I sit on yet another lazy afternoon in Wailea, along the southwest coast of Maui, sun-drunk, sea-soaked, frond-shaded and skeptical.
If ever there were an elemental landscape, this is one. Sun. Sea. Sand. Implements for enjoyment of the aforementioned. A winding path leads along a mile and a half of immaculately arranged shoreline. Logo-bearing towels are carefully draped on deck chairs. If we humans are so irrepressibly inventive in our vocabularies, then why don't Hawaii's dictionaries include seven words for sun block, nine words for golf, 11 words for lobby sculpture, 17 words for tiki torch, 23 words for reclining patio furniture?
Because at this point in the 20th century, when you find simplicity, the last thing you want to do is complicate it. And even if you have to cross a few thousand miles of Pacific Ocean to reach it, well, the hefty price still may seem worthwhile. So goes the strategy behind Wailea, which opened its first hotel 17 years ago.
Wailea's creators aimed to offer a more luxurious alternative to Kaanapali, the master-planned resort that opened in 1962 along the island's northwest coast and helped set off the first stampede of mainland visitors to Maui. Given the overbuilding of the Hawaiian hotel market over the last decade and the recent southerly drift of the U.S. economy, it's hard to guess who will succeed in the long haul. But after a flurry of construction in the last three years, Wailea has emerged as a formidable destination: 1,500 acres, 2,514 hotel rooms, 250 vacation condominiums, 36 golf holes (soon to be 54), 14 tennis courts. Island tourism experts agree that the place has become a force to be reckoned with.
From Maui's Kahului Airport, I steer my rental car 17 miles south until I am surrounded by manicured lawns and the discreet directional signs bearing orange and blue logos. It's late, about 10 p.m., but at the front desk of the Stouffer Wailea Beach Resort, the receptionist welcomes me with a smile, a lei, a room key.
The next morning, I pad down to breakfast with a 180-degree panorama of tropical paradise spread out before me. The buffet is massive. On a Sunday morning at many hotel restaurants, this meal could pass for brunch and fetch $20 a head. Here, as hotels scramble to lure guests with added values, the feast comes free with my room every morning.
Upstairs, my room includes a view of greenery and Haleakala, the world's largest dormant volcano, rising in the distance. It's normally a $245-a-night room for two, with twin washbasins and telephones on the desk, by the bed and in the bathroom. But in the battle for customers, many Hawaiian hotels are throwing in all sorts of extras. Having inquired closely about such possibilities, I am here on a package rate of $199 per night, with not only the breakfast but a rental car provided in the bargain. (This offer is available for a limited number of rooms through Dec. 19.)
By this neighborhood's standards, those rates make the Stouffer Wailea Beach Resort, which opened in 1978, relatively inexpensive. But it is quite comfortable, its grounds and 347 rooms having been renovated in 1991, and the service is professional enough to have earned a dozen consecutive five-diamond ratings from AAA.
If you're feeling adventurous, you take a helicopter ride over the crater of Haleakala, clouds crowding around it as evening darkens. Or you drive farther south to broad, beautiful Makena Beach (a.k.a. Oneloa Beach), where actual locals go. Or continue south past Makena to the crumbling old lava flows, where a nice man offered to sell me some marijuana and where a road sign warns: "CAUTION. SIMULATED MOON SURFACE." (Apollo astronauts are said to have trained somewhere around here.) Also, there's the tennis and golf.
Strolling south from the Stouffer toward the other four hotels that together make up Wailea, you first come upon the Maui Inter-Continental Resort, oldest and least expensive of the bunch. The Inter-Continental opened in 1976 and finished a renovation of its 550 rooms in spring 1991. But the place is still a few paces behind its neighbors. Its architecture and decoration seem to fall on the wrong side of that line that separates drab from discreet. The renovation notwithstanding, the rooms look a bit frayed and stained around the edges. On the brighter side, the Inter-Continental's nightclub, Inu Inu, is a more comfortable alternative to the only other nightclub on hotel row, the laser-happy, ultramodern, altogether-too-large Tsunami at the Grand Wailea Resort.
The Inter-Continental is also the leading luau thrower in the resort, staging open-air, torch-lit feasts of traditional Hawaiian food every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. These are entertaining evenings, lively and music-filled.
After the Inter-Continental, the next hotel stop on the Wailea path - and foremost in the memories of many visitors, I'm sure - is the Grand Wailea Resort, Hotel & Spa. The Grand Wailea, which opened in October 1991, as the Grand Hyatt Wailea, is a Gargantuan thing: a 787-room palace with 40-foot-high ceilings and frescoes on them; a mock volcano; five restaurants; guitar-wielding balladeers in the dining room at 9:45 on a Thursday morning; and a bevy of black Botero sculptures worth millions (even if some of the hotel help call them "the fat ladies"). And let's not overlook the labyrinth of landscaped water-slides, for guests only. It is possible to spend $8,000 per night at this hotel, meals and taxes excluded. (That's the rate for the three-bedroom "grand suite." Most people pay $350-$475.)
After this, the neighboring Four Seasons Resort Wailea, completed in 1990, seems impossibly restrained. The architecture is subdued, the grounds more inviting than astounding. But there's decadence here, too; it's just painted in muted hues. Look closely at these rushing waiters and waitresses. To each lounging guest around the pool, they periodically deliver a cool towel for the brow. Also, the 380 rooms are spacious, with big balconies - 12 by 15 feet in one I looked at - and an hour's worth of snorkel gear or bike rental is included in room rates. (Cheapest package rate: $250 a night for a mountain-view room, rental car included, subject to availability.)
Now we're to the end of the line, Wailea-wise, and the Kea Lani Hotel.
The Kea Lani, which opened in December 1991, is a 450-room, all-suite, neo-Moorish creation with gleaming domes, rounded corners and white walls outside, Italian pottery and tapestries inside. It feels quite new, like an architect's model that awakened one morning and found itself full size, and perhaps felt a little bit awkward. It has a wonderfully inviting Italian-style bakery, though: Caffe Ciao, designed in high but casual style, with pastries and breads baked daily, along with fancy waters, coffees and salads. Room rates fall in the lower middle range for this neighborhood: $325 for a room with a full ocean view, $225 for one without.
That's Wailea. Now, for those willing to range a little farther south, there's also the 7-year-old, 300-room Maui Prince Hotel, a little severe, very Japanese, a secluded place set off on its own. The koi pond is so well stocked that at feeding time it looks like a rippling animated Impressionist painting, heavy on the orange and white. Nearby lie six Makena tennis courts and 18 holes of golf, with another 18 due in September. The Maui Prince has one of the better package offers in the area, too. Through Dec. 22, $189 nightly rents a double room with buffet breakfast for two and a rental car.
All experiences are subjective, of course. But if money were no object, I'd book first at the Grand Wailea Resort, Hotel & Spa, then at the Four Seasons, then at the Stouffer, then the Maui Prince, then the Kea Lani, then the Inter-Continental. Assuming that money is an object - and that current rates hold - I'd probably go back to the Stouffer first, then try the Maui Prince, then the Kea Lani, then the Grand Wailea Resort, Hotel & Spa, then the Four Seasons, then the Inter-Continental.
by CNB