suitelucia

Curious to hear which property you preferred?

STS-134

Huh? That's not true. https://www.hotellanai.com/

Then there's this one. It's a B&B, so not technically a hotel, but nonetheless a place to stay: https://dreamscometruelanai.com/

DenverBrian

OK, I went back and edited my two-year-old post to be a bit more clear.

Gberg

Ended up going back to Sensei again...preferred that it was quieter and fewer people (and half the price). Activities were pricey but fun. That said, if you want to be in the action and spend time at the beach, definitely go to the beach resort. Ended up taking the shuttle over for a day to have dinner at the beach Nobu, so even if you're staying at Sensei, easy to hop over to beach property on the shuttle (25 min or so and run every hour).

747FC

Re shuttle, when we were there two months ago, one had to make sure that shuttle space was reserved in advance due to capacity controls. Is this still the case?

ryandc99

Just finished up a 6 night stay at this property. Happy to answer any detailed questions and will do my best to offer a full review here. In general, a great stay overall, and I will certainly be back. It seems that the low rates of the past are a goner at this property.

Lanai Air:
Could not have been easier to fly with Lanai Air. It allowed me to maximize time at the resort and found that it was very seamless experience. There were 2 additional people on my flight to Lanai and 4 additional people on the flight back from Lanai to HNL.

Check In/Room
I thought check in was easy at this property. I was staying on a 4S PP rate booked via DavidO travel agency (Ourisman Travel). I was really happy to have received a nice upgrade 1 class up to partial ocean view. I also received a nice welcome amenity as a part of the 4S PP program, which was unexpected and nice. I found the room to be very spacious and quite nice overall. I was staying on a 5th night free rate, which as of the current website is ending in December 2021. I asked at check out if it would return and they said it is highly likely it will be extended.

Dining Options on Property
As an FYI - the menu's posted on their website are not necessarily accurate. I posted in the wiki the most accurate menus as of my stay.

• Nobu - I had dinner here 3 times, 2 with reservations and one without (at the bar). I strongly suggest making reservations as soon and early as possible. With COVID restrictions, it is very hard to get reservations at the last minute. The Nobu Bar is first come first serve seating, and currently only has 9 seats at the bar out of 20. The food here was incredible, I tried the omakase menu one night and general sushi the other nights. Everything was quite good.
• One40 - Breakfast and dinner is served at this restaurant. Breakfast was incredible every day, and I tried many items on the menu. Breakfast is included on 4SPP rates, and this property notes that you can use up to 66$ per person per day, and that gratuity is included. I went over a few days and it was waived at checkout without any questions. They currently do not have a breakfast buffet due to COVID. I did not go to dinner at this restaurant as the menus didn't seem all that interesting to me personally.
• Malibu Farm - This is primarily a lunch only restaurant, but they did open a few times during my stay for dinner due to the overflow of guests. Good lunch fare, but did not try for dinner.
• Views - lunch only, great sandwiches, and great views really enjoyed the homeade ice cream sandwiches
• The Break - All day dining, tried dinner here a few times and had good options including sliders and chicken wings.

Activities
I spent a day at the Lanai Adventure Center doing the electric mountain biking and found it to be quite fun. Highly suggest it. The pools were always easy to get a set of chairs.

Shuttles
The shuttle to Lanai City leaves hourly at the top of the hour starting at 10 AM and I think ends at 9PM. The shuttle picks up on the 30. They did suggest reservations are required however I never had any problems getting a "reservation" 15 minutes before I wanted to take the empty shuttle . I took the shuttle multiple times to Lanai City for lunch. Poke from Bennett's market is quite good, and certainly worth the trip.


Nobu Menu
Malibu Farm - Pool Side Menu
Malibu Farm - Sit Down Menu
The Break - All Day Dining
One40 Breakfast Menu
One40 Wine List
One40 Dinner Menu
Views Menu

ryandc99

Lanai Air Plane


Beach Area near hotel (where they setup beach chairs and umbrellas:


One of my favorite breakfasts, the petrossian salmon



Richards Market Poke Selection:


Numerous Amazing Options from Nobu:







And finally some views from some of the amazing hikes I did:

EmpressRouge

Are Lanai Air flights included for OTA bookings? Or do you have to book directly thru 4S for them to be included in the booking?

Gberg

I’ve done with Virtuoso and AMEX with no problem (but not sure on other OTAs).

willoL

This thread is golden. You've convinced me this is the place to take my travel averse husband on our first trip to Hawai'i. I really appreciate those who give specific details, and comparisons between Lanai (beach) and Sensei. Fellow FT'er KristenNix is working on room reservations for us, probably by the beach (DH's choice.)

It sounds like the Lanai Air promotion will probably continue in 2024, and hopefully the 5th night free will be extended as well. (fingers crossed)

Has anyone done the evening excursion to visit Kilo Hoku Observatory for stargazing?

ryandc99

Until HA starts regular service I don't know how they can discontinue Lanai Air service.

If you do the stargazing please let us know how it is. It was not an option when I was there.

willoL

Yes, IIRC the observatory only opened in the last year or so. A quick internet search didn't reveal any blog style reviews, so I will try to report on it. We will need clear night skies, I suppose, but it will be a top priority activity for us, a couple of nerds. (DH is a scientist, though not an astronomer...)

socalterp

Just back from a trip to the FS Lanai. Simply amazing. Best combination of location, food, service and hard product that we could have asked for.

Getting to/from Lanai Air was really easy. Well run and seamless transfers. Flight into Lanai was quite windy on approach to LNY, but think that it was pretty unusual. Was smooth at cruise. Flight back was less windy, but had some more bumps at cruise.

We booked through a Virtuoso agency, and the breakfast benefit was great. As mentioned before, no buffet, but a $66 per person credit. We chose to eat at One Forty every morning with great views and service - everything was great, with standouts being the Ahi Benedict, venison enchiladas and Petrossian Salmon. Note that if you aren’t going to use up the entire $66, you can get food to go (which we did on several occasions)

a few things to note
- they provide a nice beach tote to use during your stay. It’s $195 if you want to keep it
- 2 Yeti water bottles also provided complimentary, and there are water bottle filling stations located throughout
- the artwork and artifacts around the resort are stunning, as is the landscaping
- beach is nice, with some pretty rough surf at times. Not the easiest entry for snorkeled, and not great for younger kids. Beach is also a couple hundred yards down the hill from the hotel
- hotel itself is really spread out into multiple wings and can be a bit of a walk from room to pool/lobby, etc.
- having separate adult and family pools is nice. I’m not sure it’s a place I’d bring young kids, as the pool isn’t that “fancy” for kids, the beach is a walk and there is surf in the summer, and there isn’t a ton of activities on site.
- worth going to Views for lunch. Great vantage point and the Shrimp BLT is outstanding.

we didn’t do much in the way of activities, which was the point. Content to hit the beach a few times and otherwise read, relax and enjoy living in paradise.

thought the service level overall at the hotel was extremely high. Close to what we’ve found at JWs and Shangri-Las in Asia.

mtofell

Yeah, there is a hurricane passing south of the big island and it's been excessively windy the last few days. I'm on Maui and have been watching the trees on the golf course behind me bend and twist about as much as I've ever seen in the 2+ years I've been here.

It's good you are content to just relax because that's about all there is to do on Lanai.... I remember once I had some work there and one of the locals asked me what else I was doing while on the island... when I said I was just going to go into town and grab lunch he looked puzzled and informed me that, "there isn't anywhere for that." LOL... he directed me to the grocery store where I might be able to grab a sandwich. Granted, this was during Covid so there may be some options now.

socalterp

there are a lot of activities that can be booked through the resort - there is an adventure park with a ropes course, archery/shooting, snorkel sails, tennis, golf, etc…but we didn’t do any of those. A little snorkeling and a little walk/hike near the resort.

we heard about the storm and it was off and on windy through our time there. My understanding is that it is less windy and the surf less choppy in winter, at least in general. Makes sense given the south shore location of the resort and the bay.