Turtle Bay Resort - A Week at Turtle Bay
Dec 10, 2017, 8:09 pm
Turtle Bay Resort
57-091 Kamehameha Hwy Kahuku, HI US 96731
A Week at Turtle Bay (2 Photos)
Turtle Bay Resort
Both my wife and I lived in Hawaii for many years. For a vacation there, we were seeking a comfortable, self-contained resort in a rural setting. My wife had stayed at Turtle Bay previously and liked it very much. The other places we were considering were Manele and Koele on Lanai and the Hotel Hana Maui. Turtle Bay was the best value.
Almost everything about our stay was perfect. We were lucky on the weather for December, and there was dramatic high surf. The sheltered cove on the east side of the hotel is great for swimming and sunbathing. I had one massage and my wife had two--they were wonderful. I took a group surf lesson, and was able to stand up on my third wave. We did not see any turtles during our stay..jpg)
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Room
Our King Room on the Vista (top) level was very comfortable. We usually stay in a suite, but the room was adequate as it had two very comfortable chairs and ottomans on the lanai.
Dining
We found all the dining options to be acceptable to very good. The North Shore Kula Grille is somewhat ordinary. We enjoyed the one dinner we had at each Pa'akai and Roy's Beach House, but returned to Lei Lei's for a second meal. We also had room service for two dinners. The Vista Level room we had includes a breakfast that at the time of booking was described as "Continental," but they have added a hot dish also (and one morning there were actually three hot dishes).
Location
We pretty much stayed at the resort, venturing only as far as Kahuku Superette for Poke one day and going into Haleiwa another day to shop (and for more Poke from Foodland at Pupukea). We found the facilities, services, and dining at the resort to be adequate to keep us entertained for a week.
Concierge
One minor problem during our stay was some misinformation from the concierge on the Vista Level (there is a concierge on duty near the breakfast bar from 7 am to 10 am and afternoon snacks from 3pm to 5 pm). We were taking a redeye flight home, and wanted to use the hospitality room to shower and change. The concierge told us the room was booked for an hour. But after forty minutes in the room, housekeeping came knocking even though we had the DND sign out. A couple minutes after we shooed them away, the front desk called informing us the room was only ours for half an hour. When we finally checked out of the room, the fromt desk clerk was rather surly.
Amenities
We had an interesting experience with the TV movies. Apparently, there are two recent movies called Mother. The cast listed on what we selected were not in the very dark movie we ended up watching. The front desk reversed the $13.95 caharge for the movie.
The Wi-Fi was okay, but I often had to log on to the the account for the room next door instead of my own.
Last edited by Maglev; Feb 6, 2018 at 12:36 pm
Jan 16, 2018, 6:17 am
FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
Hawaii Forum
Feb 6, 2018, 1:01 pm
When the post was moved, it lost its paragraphs and photos. I was able to edit the text, but needed to make this new post to restore photos.
Here's sunrise and sunset from our room:
Apr 10, 2018, 9:28 am
We love Turtle Bay!
Hoping the new management doesn't affect anything negatively. There have been some recent record about increases in resort and parking fees and done slips in maintenance and quality. Hoping they get worked out and that the Vista level offerings are updated as well.
Dec 24, 2018, 3:51 pm
I rented a mountain bike this time, and there are several great trails on the resort property good for a few hours of riding. The highlight for my wife was a hot salt stone massage.
Dec 24, 2018, 6:05 pm
Dec 24, 2018, 8:31 pm
Breakfast this time was "North Shore Breakfast Bites--" minuscule trays of various savory concoctions. I tried the "frittata" the first day and it was so bad I never tried anything on other days. There was also yogurt and cereal, some small pastries, and minuscule trays of fruit. Afternoon pupus were basically just mixed nuts and fresh fruit.
Mar 14, 2019, 12:09 am
Mar 15, 2019, 8:44 pm
Dec 20, 2019, 6:10 pm
Dec 20, 2019, 6:34 pm
Mahalo.
Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Feb 26, 2021 at 11:03 am Reason: image removed from quote
Dec 20, 2019, 6:42 pm
Dec 26, 2019, 7:16 pm
It's a relaxing place to be if one gets a room with lots of wave-crashing-on-rocks sound. Truly magical.
Some more positives:
Outstanding food for reasonable (at least by Honolulu standards) prices. We just love the baby back ribs at Lei Lei's. The catch of the day and the pork shank at Pa'akai were great.
And, some criticisms:
The room rate is but a fraction of the cost one actually pays. Not even mentioning taxes, the resort fee was $50 pd, and the self-parking fee was $15 pd. The only value we got our of the resort fee was wifi, and we could have hot-spotted from our phone if we wanted to, so basically no calue for us.
The breakfast food offerings at the Vista level are embarassing. One hot serving: Yesterday it was a tepid ham and egg sandwich. Today it was fried rice. Wowee! No Nespresso-type machine available either in the room or in the "lounge," so if you want espresso, lattes, or cappucino, one needs to go downstairs and pay for it at the coffee shop. The afternoon offerings of nuts are laughable. How about some hot bites from Costco? At least that would be competitive with executive lounges at Hilton
.A few better offerings at the Vista level, and it would could be a value-add.
Last edited by 747FC; Dec 26, 2019 at 7:20 pm Reason: added info