My husband and I were lucky enough to take an adult-only trip to Fairmont Kea Lani, Maui in May 2022. We missed our kids but we needed some adult time. I’m not sure my kids would be able to handle the 12-hour flight there or the 24+ hour trip home (thanks to some delayed flights).
The Fairmont was a beautiful 30-minute drive from the Maui airport. Our driver showed us some great places to visit on our trip there and even took some back roads so we could start our site seeing right away.
When you pull up you are greeted with some beautiful leis. The open-air lobby looks over the breathtaking property. The hotel is on a hill so the lobby is much higher than the beach. The lobby is even higher than the gift shop and restaurants. There was quite a bit of climbing and elevator riding in this hotel. This is not a complaint at all, but if stairs and hills are something you avoid, this isn’t the hotel for you.
Our room was even better than we had imagined from the pictures online. We were only on level 2 and we had a great view of the pool and the beach. The room has a full living room with a desk and couch, a foyer, a huge bathroom with a stand-up shower, a tub, a private area for the toilet and multiple entrances, a large balcony that felt more like a patio, and a large bedroom. There were many times that my husband and I would circle around missing each other.
The beach was a little torn up while we were there. In order to sit on the beach you had to sit pretty far back and there wasn’t much seating. We were nervous to go in the water with the big waves so we mostly hung up on a grassy area. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed sitting high up on the hill, away from the beach, away from the pool. The view was amazing, and there was lots of privacy since the chairs were far away from other groups. We had a nice table for our drinks and the waitress came regularly to see if we needed anything.
We have been to Aruba, Mexico, Bahamas, Bermuda, and Florida, but the views from this hillside just blew away the normal view of the ocean that you get at those other places. It made the long flight worth it.
After two days of barely moving from our hillside chairs, we ventured up to the adult pool and swim-up bar. The pool is up the hill and pretty secluded. It was easy to lose a few hours of swimming and enjoying drinks before dinner.
Fairmont Kea Lani has some of the best-rated restaurants in Maui. We ate at two of them. You can read my review of them here.
We appreciated that the hotel had a free car service to nearby locations. We used it a few times to go shopping and have dinner. It was easy to grab a ride out of the hotel and to get a ride back you simply called the hotel and asked for them to get you. We never waited more than ten minutes. We did walk to a nearby state park one day and called for a ride home but they said that we were out of their range so we had to Uber back. It wasn’t a big deal but there were not many Ubers at the time so we waited a while to be picked up and we were hot, tired, and very thirsty.
We loved starting our day with a long walk. If you go to the right out of the hotel, there is a long touristy path that hugs the shoreline. We saw lots of people out running and walking that path every day. It was a great way to start the day. If you head to the left, you go to a more hidden back road. This was by far my favorite place to walk. There was no one else – at all. There were all little hidden beaches along the way and amazing private homes. The streets were lined with crowing rosters that were not afraid of us at all. Each turn brought new surprises and new views.
Breakfast was either an incredible buffet or a small gift shop with a few breakfast options. We basically split it up every other day since we couldn’t handle two days in a row of that buffet, but the options in the gift shop were very limited.
There wasn’t much nightlife at the hotel. I’m assuming that everyone went to bed after dinner. A few of us had drinks each night at the lobby bar and one night there was someone playing piano. If you are looking for some real nightlife, you should head to town.
This isn’t the type of hotel that has activity directors running games of bingo or water aerobics. The days were long and peaceful. The one activity that they recommended on property was a cultural canoe ride. It is free for guests but if you cancel they do charge you. The waves were very rough and I’m not sure we should have been out there on that canoe – but I wasn’t going to miss this experience so we tried it even after the guide told us we could easily flip this canoe. The experience was nice but it was really hard work. You have to lift up this incredibly heavy canoe and run it in the water. Then when they say to, you have to paddle exactly like they say, and most importantly, don’t lean to the right or you will flip the boat.
There was a craft fair one night in the lobby but I don’t remember any other activity happening at all. We made sure to book excursions for some fun and adventure since we knew we were not doing more than relaxing and eating at the hotel. You can read more about our riding, boating, and biking adventures here.
We are so thankful for this wonderful experience in Maui, and we hope to visit again one day!
thecasaway.com 