We stayed in the Tentalos at the Sheraton Ranch on Molokai on an award stay. They structures are indeed tents (canvas) with zippered flaps for “windows”. There are built in screens to keep the flying critters out. Crawling critters do get in, but we only saw a couple during our four days. Canvas is supported by 3” diameter steel pipes so it is quite secure. Tents are on an elevated wood platform about 3’ off the ground. Each pod site consists of two tents at 90 degrees to one another. One tent contained a queen bed, the others a bunk bed and single twin. There is a separate “bathroom” area that is walled off with no roof. There is a small roof over toilet and shower, but if there is a wind at all you will get wet if raining while on the john.

When a storm blew through the tents did leak. To specify the wind was strong enough that it blew water through the small gap of the canvas window flap into the tent. Not much, but enough to get the bed wet. Also, the center steel beam running at the peak of the roof leaked in both tents, thankfully the only part that dripped in both tents were not over the bed. Both floors were wet as water somehow came from under the tent flaps.

Some tents are certainly better than others in terms of location. They gave me a map of the tent area to show us where our tentalo was located and I somehow misplaced it. If I remember correctly the Honu (turtle) tents were all closest to the beach, but it is not like you could see the ocean due to vegetation. Our tent was in the second grouping (star something?), We REALLY liked our location as it was off by itself next to the boundry of the resort w/vegetation. As a result no one ever walks by our place, very private.
The shells were the “worst” as they were along the gravel service road used by the shuttles to access the beach area, plus everyone walks by these on their way to the parking lot for the tentalos which is located outside of the beach/tent area. To clarify you are not allowed to park your car next to your tent, it must be parked in this lot which is 1/5 mile away from the furthest tent. I would have the resort fax a copy of this map is you wish to request a certain tent/area.

The tents/beach village is located 7.5 miles from the Lodge at the end of a gravel road. We know the mileage because we were curious after hiking down to the tents from the lodge one afternoon. If you have the stamina, a great hike. The gravel road you get used to and my best times were slightly over 10 minutes to make the trip during the day and just less than 13 minutes at night. If in a normal car you probably will not be as fast, we had a pickup (cheapest rental on Molokai) and it could handle the bumps, dips and gravel.

Food: Ok, nothing special and VERY EXPENSIVE. Breakfast is a very good value and serves items you can’t get on the island. Highlights included fresh island fish over English muffins with avocado and poached eggs, the banana stuffed; sweet Hawaiian bread was great with the coconut syrup. Never ate lunch at the resort, too many cheap and better offerings on the island. Beach house area has a buffet nightly. Lots of meat, some salads, decent dessert offerings. The only reason it was a good meal is due to the setting very close to the beach and with the torches lit. Veranda at the Lodge is wonderful to sit on, always choose outside seating. Bugs at night are very minimal if any. Dinner at the lodge was nice and I’m glad we did it, but again, nothing special. Leave your gourmet wishes on some other island and just enjoy the meal for what it is, a meal in Molokai paradise. Other Molokai dining details in FT dining, US West forum

There is only one pool area at the Lodge. Very small and only 8 lounge chairs and about 8 chairs. Pool is heated to a very high temp, not comfortable IMO. We only dipped twice and each time every chair was taken and they were out of towels. There was a phone and each time I called towels were brought promptly.

While they state there are set times for most activities, if you have enough people almost anything will be scheduled custom.

A list of activities offered: various kayak tours, whale watching, fishing (1/2 & full day), scuba diving, surfing lessons, lots of bike riding (expert to easy), various hikes, archery, skeet/clays, pellet gun range, paintball (bring old clothes), tours, horseback rides, participate in a paniolo (HI cowboy) Roundup and either mule ride or plane ride to the Hansen’s disease (leper) colony at Kalaupapa

While it is nice that the Sheraton offers all these, many can be booked outside on your own for less. Something to note is if you are interested in the mule ride or plane ride to Kalaupapa, schedule in advance for sure as we arrived on December 26 and all tours (mule & plane) were booked solid until Jan 11th.

The clay shooting was great fun, it been in awhile for me. Sam the guy who runs it is quite a character and loads of fun. Nice 12 & 20 gauge Berretta shotguns are available to use.

$15 per day resort fee, includes internet access available at beach and lodge. Also includes one cooler with ice and water/pop. Ice, water, pop is refreshed daily.

For a clay shoot, breakfast three days, one dinner, some drinks our bill was $444, way too much for an award stay IMO, but it was fun.


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