Priceline and Hotwire Forum: HI Hawaii Royal Kona Resort Kona - Priceline and Hotwire Forum

Royal Kona Resort

Overall, we loved this place and would definitely stay here again. There was a line and about 10 min wait to check in-staff are very friendly and will take time to answer questions when you check in-hence the line tends to build up. No PL discrimination and we got a beautiful king room 3rd floor in the main building right on top of the lobby. Our balcony had a sea view and we could hear the waves crashing on the shore. We could also see the luau area. We are not overly finicky people and I had to look hard to find the peeling wallpaper others had complained about-I never would have noticed it if it hadn’t been mentioned in other people’s reviews. The bathroom was fine, everything worked, AC worked fine, I couldn’t find anything to complain about. The luau was excellent-if you go to the hotel website you can currently get it for $42 pp, otherwise it is $59 pp. I think there is some discount for hotel guests but the website rate is better. Only complaint is that the cups for soft drinks were too small so we either had to bring several at a time or make a lot of trips to the drink area. Jugs on the tables would have been nice. We don’t drink alcohol but some others at the table complained that the bar closed too early. If your stays allow you some leeway and you are a couple, you should check the local tourist “This Week” type brochures to see which days certain luaus offer “free kids” days so you can avoid them. On the other hand, if you are a family, you can use the same to determine which days would allow you to save some money.

We had one breakfast buffet-restaurant has a beautiful location overlooking the Kona shoreline and we were amused by birds begging for food. Nice selection on the buffet. They didn’t have the macadamia nut pancakes I had read about somewhere on that particular day but one of the staff brought me out some chopped macadamia nuts so I could make my own. Good service and good, plentiful food. If you are planning to see the volcano lava flow at night, you should plan in advance and buy sandwiches somewhere. The local Volcano restaurants close around 9pm and even Kona has few offerings after 11pm. We finally found a Wendy’s open until midnight. It takes a good 2.5 hours to get back and I am a pretty fast driver where conditions allow-it is a very twisty road. We managed to see most of the Big Island sights in one LONG day from 7am-11:30pm. At least we had the next morning to relax and enjoy the small lagoon beach and hotel pool. If you want a full sandy beach, you have to drive up the coast a bit. Parking is $7.00 per day, we had a nice Ford Taurus from Hertz (upgraded from economy car). Gas was about $2.50 per gallon and we used one tank to get around the island, including side trips.