Things to do on Lanai
 

We are honeymooning on Lanai at the Manele Bay hotel. We will be there in early May.

Would like some tips on things to do, must sees, places to eat, need of a car, golf, etc. Any suggestions are welcome.

thanks,

Welcomt to FlyerTalk and congrats on your pending nuptials!

Well, there are quite a bit of threads in this forum which you can read through on Lana`i (try "Lanai" or "Manele" in your search) . In short, the golf is outstanding. If you are interested in water activities, there is excellent snorkling right outside of the Manele Bay Hotel or you can get on a diving charter for some other sites and SCUBA/SNUBA. The deep sea fishing is not bad either. You can also look into Humpback Whale watching (although it may be towards the end of the season). Otherwise, there are normal resort activites, dining options are limited outside of the hotels, and lots of exploring via foot, horseback, or 4WD.

Happy reading and feel free to ask any follow-ups.

We really enjoyed the Trilogy dolphin & snorkelling cruise & I normally don't like that kind of thing. You can spend a good day visiting Lanai City (all 1 block of it) & the Lodge at Koele for lunch is lovely. I've mentioned it before, but the restaurant up at the golf club at Manele Bay is excellent, incredible views & very romantic out on the patio.

P.S. I also loved a walk along the beach & up the cliff (the one you see in all the photos) to the high point, then around the top of the next beach from there - all alone & spectacular scenery.

First off, congrats and best wishes for a wonderful life together.
My wife and I spent part of our honeymoon on Lanai last year. We stayed at The Lodge, which I think will provide you with a superior and vastly more memorable island experience than Manele Bay, which has a lovely pool but could be an upscale Caribbean resort and is not distinctly Hawaiian.
The upcountry setting at The Lodge is truly spectacular, and you get the feeling of an English hunting lodge without the animal heads. We were always made to feel special and pampered during our stay.
If you remain at Manele, be sure to take the bus up the hill to spend some time at The Lodge. If you're there mid-afternoon, you can partake in tea and pastries that are complimentary.
The good news is no matter where you stay, the restaurants are excellent. If you eat in the formal dining room at The Lodge, which may be the best (as well as priciest), men will need a jacket.
You can also spend a few hours poking in and out of the shops in Lanai City and grabbing a meal at one of the local eateries. Sorry I can't recall right now one we had lunch at, but by day it's a sandwich place, by night an Italian restaurant complete with tablecloths.
As for activities, definite must is renting a jeep in town to hit the back roads and visit Garden of the Gods. There are only 30 miles of paved roads on the island, so to see the good stuff you have to hit the 4WD trails. It's fun and not dangerous, as long as you exercise a modicum of road sense. Just be ready to pay over three bucks a gallon for gas.
But the best thing to do on Lanai is to simply relax, something so easy to accomplish regardless of where you park yourself. Enjoy.

Congrats!
I second just about everything that has already been said here, including recomending The Lodge over Manele Bay. The gold IS great. Something not mentioned yet is sporting clays, if you're into shooting. I believe there is also an archery range now. Doing the 4WD trails would be a good idea, but if you're NOT going to do that, a car will be a waste. There is a free shuttle to just about every place that you could get to without 4WD.

Good luck!

I need to disagree - although the Lodge is lovely, for the sun-drenched relaxing vacation most honeymooners dream of, Manele Bay is it. The Lodge can get very socked in with fog & is lovely & elegant, but a bit stuffy. I'll agree their service & rooms are better (not that Manele's are bad - love those bathtubs!!), but they'll be just fine at Manele - leave them be.

If Lanai is the only island being visited, then Manele may be a better choice for fun and sun -- it tends to be at least five degrees warmer during the day. But if you're going to do more than one island -- we did three -- then the experience at Manele can easily be duplicated and exceeded elsewhere. The Lodge is truly unique. Nowhere else in Hawaii can you get an upcountry experience amid such opulence.
The week we were there it was about one-third full and it felt like you belonged to a private club. One thing I neglected to mention was upon arrival they wait for you at the front when you come in on the airport van. You get a non-kitschy lei greeting, a cold towel and a glass of pineapple juice while they give you a tour of the place. Check-in was done in our upgraded room.
Will you have a good time if you wind up at Manele instead? Of course. Just don't forget to get on the van and head up the mountain to see what life is like in the country.

The level of service really sank in after we decided to order room service for dinner after our long travel day with our 18-month old son. They asked for our room number. I had to stop and think and say "I don't know. Let me check." Up until that point, we had no reason to know our room number! Then the next night we were having dinner in the casual lobby dinning room and our son was becoming really fussy. We had ordered, but our meals had not yet been served. The waiter offered to have the meals sent to our room and we accepted. A few minutes later, I answered a knock at the door and found... our waiter! Not a room service person, but OUR waiter. He wheeled the table out onto the lanai and we had a beautiful dinner under the stars. Very nice.

If Lana'i is the only island you are going to visit during your honeymoon, one thing I might recommend is that you take the ferry over to Maui for one day, just to be able to visit another island. Lana'i is a wonderful place, but there's not a ton to do there. You might get a little bored. Getting over to Maui for the day might cure that. If I recall, the ferry will cost you about $70 per person.

It's their honeymoon! Let hope for the sake of their marriage that they don't get bored. :eek:

:D :D

We booked a 10-day stay at the Manele Bay (kids were 10 and 14 at the time) and ended up leaving early and flying over to Kauai. The hotel and staff were wonderful...both our rooms were upgraded, the bathrooms are enormous, but it just got "old" after 5 days. The fitness center was outside (under roof) but very limited equipment, no TVs, and no fans. The food was essentially the same at all the restaurants in the hotel -- same ingredients, same presentation, same wait staff, etc. The pool is not at all luxurious -- no waterfalls, no draping mandeville, etc. We were there in late August, and there were bugs (which you don't see often in Hawaii) and no trade winds.

Definitely rent a jeep one day and tour the Island. There is horsebackriding at the Lodge, as well as archery. But be prepared -- the entire island has only 2500 residents.

A trip report which includes Lanai: http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...ighlight=Lanai

Car rentals on Lanai: http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...ighlight=Lanai

Rent a Jeep and explore the island.

Head to Shipwreck beach and take a picnic lunch and walk the beach exploring.

Drive through Garden of the Gods and go to the beach at the far western end of the island. There's a nice BIG beach there but unfortunately when we were there (late afternoon in late May) it was really REALLY windy and we all ended up getting sandblasted.

Take the Jeep on the Munro Trail. Awesome views at the top of the mountain (as long as you go early in the morning). It's quite a drive (dirt road, very bumpy and bouncy, quite fun).

Check out the petroglyphs.

Go into Lanai City and walk around the town square. It's very "old Hawaii" if you will and the people are fantastic.

Have dinner at the Hotel Lanai.

Play croquet on the lawn at The Lodge (and check out the orchid greenhouse too).

One suggestion, wear clothes you just don't give a crap about if you drive around on the dirt roads (of which most of the island has) because by the time you are back to the hotel, your clothes will be red with dirt as will your entire body. I had to SCRUB my body I am not kidding 3 times before I got the dirt off my face, arms and legs. I looked like a terra cotta statue :p