Grand Wailea Resort In Maui

Review Of The Grand Wailea Resort In Maui

On our 5th trip to Hawaii, we decided to stay at the Grand Wailea Resort during the first week of May in 2007. When planning our trip we decided to stay at the Grand Wailea for two nights and then at the Westin in Kannaplli for five nights. We chose this for two reasons. First the Grand Wailea is one of the most expensive hotels on Maui. We were lucky enough to get a rate of about $375 per night for a garden view room. Usually you can expect to pay $400-$600 per night depending on the time of year and the view you select. The second reason we decided to switch hotels during the vacation, is that we wanted to spend some time farther north up the island in Kannaplli and Lahaina where most of the action is at. Now, since having our 3rd child we have learned the joys of finding hotel rooms that allow 5 people in a room. Yes, when our kids get to be much older, we will probably be wanting to reserve two hotels rooms or at least get a larger suite. Right now, however, our kids are very little (one of which was an infant) and they need to stay by us. Besides, we can still fit in a standard room. It is crazy to count an infant as a 5th person when the baby sleeps in a crib and not even in the bed. So, when we made our reservation over the phone with the Grand Wailea, the reservationist said "I'm hearing 4 sir," when my husband said we had a family of five. After that we learned to say that we had four people staying in the room and just not make a big show of our entire family upon checking in. Now if you are reserving for an all inclusive vacation or if there are other aspects of the hotel that your 5th child might need, like a wristband for the pool or waterslide, then you have to be honest about being a family of five. On this trip, our baby wasn't required to have the wristband for the pool. The Grand Wailea is a beautiful resort.

The waterfalls when you drive in and the open air lobby is gorgeous.

Our room at the Grand Wailea was plenty big for our family. The two queen beds were very comfortable and there was extra space to walk and move around the room. The bathroom was awesome. It was very large and had double opening door. The toliet was in a smaller separate room inside the bath. There was a sink with a large marble counter top and a tub and large glassed-in shower. The shower was great.

We had a balcony off our room and the bellman placed orders to childproof it. That was the first time we had ever been offered that. While we were gone from the room, they tied a snow fence across the rails of the balcony. Yeah, it didn't look super sophisticated, but safety first.

The number one reason for staying at the Grand Wailea is for the pools. The system of about seven connecting pools is just awesome. The pools are in levels, so you can start at the highest pool and slide down the smaller slides to go down into the next pool. There is a cavern section with faster water, a rapids slide that is really fast, a rope swing, 2 meduim length waterslides, one longer waterslide, and a sandy baby beach area for little ones. We spent about every minute in the pool. My 5 year old daughter loved it all and enjoyed the rope swing. It was amazing how many little kids jumped off the cliff, hung onto the rope that swung into the deep water, and then was able to swim by themselves to the side. My 3 year old son liked the "baby beach" area that had a sand bottom. The zero depth entry was perfect for him and he could swim all over and not worry about the water getting too deep. There is also a water elevator ride that will take you up near the top level of the pool system. At the time that we were there, the resort was filled with plenty of people, but not overcrowded at all. We never had trouble finding a place to sit. Yes, there is a swim up bar. It is by the rapids slide. There is also an adult only pool called the Hibiscus Pool. We did not go in it, because we were with kids, but it looked very nice.

The beach in front of the resort is also very nice and large. You can rent chairs to have on the beach.

The other highlight of the Grand Wailea is their famous Spa Grande. It is one of the top 10 spas in the country. If you go to the Grand Wailea, you have to at least experience it once. If you don't want to commit for a whole day, at least go to experience the well know Terme' Wailea Hydrotherapy. If you sign up for any spa treatment, you get to arrive an hour before your appointment and enjoy the Hydrotherapy area. You can also purchase the hour in the Hydrotherapy room by itself. On the second day at the Grand Wailea I made a reservation for a two handed massage. I arrived an hour early and was escorted in and was given a locker with a pair of Spa Grande flip flops. I was a little nervous, because the hydrotherapy area is clothing optional. When I was there, all but one women had their bathing suit on. The area is all females, by the way. The men have their own hydrotherapy area on the other side of the spa. I next took a shower in a private shower room. I showered in my swimsuit and used the Spa Grande products that was there for me. After showering, you wrap in a towel and you are then given a brief tour of the hydrotherapy area. There is a curved row of single baths otherwise known as a Japanese Furo bath, that are each filled with a different hydrotherapy treatments. There is a bright green papaya bath (which was may favorite,) a mor mud bath, a sea salt bath, a mineral bath, and a couple others. You can sit in each bath for as long as you want. When you get out you have to then rinse off in a brief shower that has a zillion little nozzles that rinse you off in about 30 seconds. You can then dip in another bath or try a cascading waterfall massage, the roman jacuzzi tub, a super hot jacuzzi with a cold plunge afterwards, a swiss jet shower, or an eucalyptus steam and a redwood sauna. At some point during your hour in the hydrotherapy session, your name will be called for you to receive a quick exfoilant treatment. You lay on a table and a woman will scrub you all over using padded mitts with a Hawaiian exfoilant. She will then spray you with an overhead hose of warm water. You then go back to enjoy the rest of your time in the hydrotherapy room. There are also refreshments layed out such as fruit and light snacks. They want you to remember to drink, so there is water and the best iced tea that I ever drank. When your hour is up, they will call your name and you are given a robe. Change out of your swimsuit and put the robe on with nothing else. I was then told I could go up the big staircase and sit. I sat for a few minutes in a lounge chair and looked at a magazine. I was then escorted to sit outside on the Spa Grande balcony. It's a fabulous view of the grounds and fountain features of the resort, with the ocean in the background. You just want to keep staring at the view, in hopes of imprinting it in your brain forever. After about 10 minutes, two women came to escort me to my two handed massage. It was good and different having two sets of hands doing the massage. It was the most naked I think I have ever been for a massage. I mean barely all the important parts were covered. Don't let that scare you though, it was a nice experience. Overall, I think it cost me about $300 for the two hour spa experience. Yeah, it is expensive, but you can say that you actually experienced one of the top rated spas in the country. When you see it featured on the travel channel, you can tell everyone that you have been there. There are a good number of shops in the Grand Wailea and one of the shops sells the products from the Spa Grande. I bought a medium sized bottle of the Spa Grande lotion. When my husband spotted the price tag on it, after we got home, for $75 he flipped. That is crazy to spend that much on a bottle of lotion, but when I put it on everyday this summer it reminded me of Maui.

There are several restaurants at the resort. We LOVE eating the fancy breakfast buffets at the hotels when we go to Hawaii. We enjoy it and fill up so that we can practically make it until dinner time to eat again. We ate at the breakfast buffet at the Grand Dining Room. It was excellent. We ate overlooking the the beautiful grounds and the fountain area that runs into the hibiscus pool with the ocean in the background. The breakfast was great with a wide variety of choices, even omelets made to order.

We also ate at the Kula Cafe. This is a walk up and purchase fancier cafeteria style place, with some outdoor seating. We ate breakfast there one morning and got a pizza meal special with pizza, breadsticks, and soda for dinner the first evening we arrived.

There are a few other fancier restaurants and lounges and bars that we did not go to, mainly because of having kids with us. The one restaurant Humuhumunukumokuapua'a, named after Hawaii's state fish, looked nice. It was in almost a large hut surrounded by a large salt water lagoon filled with fish. It looked nice, but I thought the lagoon smelled kind of bad. I don't think I could have ate there because of the fishy smell.

There were quite a few shops in the Grand Wailea. I liked the Spa Grande shop with the spa's products and the store that sold Grand Wailea imprinted apparel. There is a very nice, upscale mall not far outside the resort. We hit Cheeseburger In Paradise one night for dinner. We did end up liking the Cheeseburger In Paradise in Lahaina better though. The shopping is good at this mall and on the weekends the local dance students perform free hula shows. This is great to expose the kids to some real hula dancing without buying a pricey ticket to a luau show. There are also some nice spots to visit if you leave the Grand Wailea resort and travel down the road to the right. There are several nice beaches such as Big Beach and Little Beach. Note to self, Little Beach is a nude beach that are mostly locals and some tourists mixed in either participating or sightseeing. Ulua Beach and of course Wailea beach are great too. Enjoy gazing out at Molokini in the horizon. If you keep traveling on this road through Mckena until you can't go anymore, you will come to this unbelievable spot where the world changes into piles and piles of brown lava rock. You can see the patterns of where the lava had flowed down from above and towards the ocean. Keep driving until you can't go any further and you will find somewhat of a parking lot with other cars there. You can get out to walk around the lava rock and take in the scenery. It is always windy there and the surf is usually rough. If you choose to stay at the Grand Wailea, you will have a great time. You may even spot a celebrity or two. When we were there I was casually asking an extremely large man who was with his son about how to get to the top of one of the waterslides. I then later saw him with his other kids and his beautiful wife by the baby beach area. As I was listening to their conversation with another couple, I figured out he was a lineman for the San Diego Chargers. The Grand Wailea is also popular for weddings. If I could redo my wedding, I would definitely consider having it here. You can choose to be married anywhere on the grounds, by the beach, or in Grand Wailea's picture perfect chapel.

If you are considering the Grand Wailea for leisure with your significant other, with your family, for business conventions, or to get married, go for it! You will love it.

http://www.grandwailea.com/