Lanai-Hotels & Attractions
 

You don't have very many choices to begin with when on Lāna‘i--though it is a beautiful place. Trip Advisor is usually pretty good and listing all the available accomodations in a particular area:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotels-g2...ii-Hotels.html

I'd start there. And, food, hotels, activities are very expensive on Lāna‘i to begin with.

As for activities, there isn't much. Enjoy the island for its beauty and relaxation. However, more info on attractions can be found here:
http://www.gohawaii.com/default.aspx?island=Lanai

Hope this helps give you at least a place to start. Let us know if you have any further, specific questions.

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The following is the Lanai trip extracted from a trip report to the Islands we had.

Tuesday

Get up at 6am, bellman is at our room 6:15am, we grab some fruit/muffins and juice from the exec lounge when it opens at 6:30am. We return car to Alamo who did not charge me for gas even though my tank was at 7/8 full. 8am flight on Aloha to HNL, then had to walk to the commuter terminal at HNL to catch the 9:55am flight for Lanai on Island Air, an arm of Aloha. We arrive into LNY at 10:30am. On the way into LNY you can see how uninhabited Lanai is, I’m getting excited now.

We make it, but our checked bags (and those of three other pax from KOA do not). Greeter from the Lodge at Koele (the lodge) http://www.lodgeatkoele.com mentions that it happens all the time and the bags will be on the flight from HNL which arrives at 11:55am. Take the shuttle to the lodge. Are greeted by the concierge Fiona who presents us w/leis (wife loves the leis) and takes us on a brief tour of the lodge and shows us to our room. This is an incredible property. The corner room on a second floor we had has tons of character; it feels more like a Ritz in the northwoods than a resort on an island in HI. Call Lanai Eco Center (LEC) to pick up our jeep. Dollar is the only major rent a car agency in town and I really dislike the fact that they gouge because of it $130 for a jeep?!?! C’mon. Don’t rent from them! Full details on the Lanai Eco Center at: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Foru...TML/000022.html
We end up w/a topless jeep that has some huge ribbed tires. Cool. Those 4 wheel trails will be a piece of cake in this thing. Ate in the town square at the “new” place called 565 Café. I love Hawaiian plate lunches and that is what we had. Good food cheap. Went to the local grocery store and purchased water and two 12oz bottles of Bacardi’s malt beverage drink. Drove back to lodge to see if our bags had arrived, sure enough they were in our room waiting for us. You just have to love that kind of service!

Drove off road to Polihua Beach on the NW tip of Lanai that you see when flying in. On the way there you drive through an ironwood forest where all you see is Ironwood trees, nothing else. When you are in the forest, stop your jeep, turn off the engine and just listen. I love the sound of the wind through the “pines”. You’ll also drive through “Garden of the Gods” a plantless red earthed area w/strange rock formations. Very weird, feel as though you are on Mars. After the “gardens” you start to descend to the beach and see the island of Molokai in the distance. We arrive, drive up on the sand and park our jeep. AHHHHHHHH! Only us, NO ONE ELSE! Just as we lay our towels down, my wife exclaims, “Whales!!!!!” Only ¼ mile off shore was a mother and her young calf that was just delirious spouting, breaching, slamming his head into the ocean. The show lasted 40 minutes, we just oohhhed and ahhhhed. Every other hour or so, a jeep would come down to the beach, the people would get out, walk around for about 5 minutes then drive off back to town. So we had the beach all to ourselves for the most part. Much to the relief of my wife, we make a leisurely trip back on the rough road (no 20’ plume of red dust behind the jeep this time). Takes 30 minutes to get back to the Lodge. Shower and Change up, take a nice easy drive down to Kaumalapa’u Harbor. There are only two other locals who are fishing. We sit on the wall and watch the sunset while drinking our refreshing malt Bacardi’s. Oh yeah more whales too and we never get tired of seeing them. On our drive back to the lodge our “check engine light” goes on, but we make it back no problem.

for those who 4WD on Lanai, ask the concierge for some garbage bags to put towels and other stuff you do not want to get dirty in. Also wear clothing that you do not mind getting dirty/dusty. The dirt will not come out of some clothes.

Seeing as a jacket is required of men for dining in the Lodge’s formal dining room, I get one from the concierge. Most men were wearing the oh-so-stylish jackets provided in the dining room. We had two appetizers and two entrees, one of the apps was weak but the other three dishes were delicious, worth the $170.

Wednesday

Left our balcony door open all night, no screen, none needed. The cool mountain air was so conducive to sleeping. I look out on the lawn to see a big tom turkey fully strutting his stuff w/18 hens and other males in line. Very bizarre to see a turkey fly and land on a bough, they are not graceful birds! Had breakfast served on the balcony. Excellent, my macadamia crusted blintzes w/marscapone/mango stuffing was terrific. On a side note they give you a toaster so your toast is ready when you are.

Went back to LEC to ask about the check engine light. Wife wanted to stay back at the room and lounge/read on the large window seat w/the windows open. Arrived at 8am and Jarred (not the Subway guy! :) ) said that the light is always on due to they don’t want to pay $150 for the special tool to turn off the light. I must have had a wary look because Kayak John told Jarred to take me for coffees at the local Coffee Works. Jarred treated. My warm Chai tea was heavenly and I took home a vanilla soy latte for the Mrs. “The jeep is fine see dude” was the last I heard leaving the LEC.

Head off to shipwreck beach, which is a really poor beach compared to the wide Polihua, but you will find most people here as the road is paved almost all the way to the beach. Most are too lazy to make the rough drive to Polihua. There is a large ship that still stands which ran aground on a reef, hence the name shipwreck beach. There is a hard packed trail along the beach and I urge you to stay on it. I decided that my jeep could go anywhere and ventured out on the beach, the sand here is very very loose and I found us slowly slipping sideways to the water on the steep incline of the beach. Merde! I thought, tried to back up, no go, tried to get some momentum to make it up the beach slope to the hard pack, no go. So I just stop the jeep and walk around a bend in front of me. There looks to be some harder packed sand w/rocks in it further up, so I ease the jeep on this semi hard packed surface. I spy a hard packed lookout above us, back up and get a good head of steam up and make our way up the slope to the hard pack. We really start to slow down and just when I think we’re going to get stuck again, we pop over the vegetation at the top to land on the hard pack. Talking to Kayak John later, he mentions he rented a 4WD Suburban to a couple who decided to do the same stupid move I did, only they get stuck in the water which eventually washes away the suburban. Cha Ching “ummm can I charge the Suburban to my credit card!” He also advised me there is a $5000 possible fine for going beyond the vegetation onto the beach. LUCKY LUCKY me.

We get back to the Lodge at noon and have the venison pastrami melt sandwich. There is a local deer population on the island from which they make the pastrami from. This was one of the best sandwiches in my life, delicious pastrami, melted cheese, sautéed onions on a warm roll. WOW. Good food.

My wife decides she does not want to go 4wheeling w/me and prefers to lay by the pool at the lodge which had only one person there. I take my bad boy jeep and go on the Munro Trail a 9.8 mile trail that goes up and along the old ridge of the island’s long ago extinct volcano. It is a really rough drive but well worth it as while on the ridge, you shoulder the island and get to see all sides of it. The trail has hairpin turns, gravel washout areas and steep inclines/declines; I fly through it twice and am completely dusty/dirty but fully satisfied what fun!

I return the jeep to LEC who gives me a ride to the lodge. I join my wife at the pool. Even though you are 2000’+ up, the sun is hot! I lie out for a couple hours then work out in the lodge’s weight room which has dumbbells and an old Universal machine. We both went back to the room and took a 30 minute power nap. Then boarded the shuttle that runs between the lodge and the Manele Bay beach resort.

We have massages scheduled for 5pm. Turns out my masseuse grew up in my town and used to party w/my brother! Small world. My massage was good, Wife said it was the 2nd best of her life. One poor thing IMO is that they automatically charge gratuity and don’t give you the option. We both shower up and have some drinks in the bar that overlooks the ocean/pool area. The Manele Bay is a busy place and the clientele wasn’t quite our cup of tea (plus a convention was checking in), so we took the shuttle to the town center. The shuttle makes a stop at the Hotel Lanai (only other lodging on Lanai). Henry Clay’s Rotisserie was packed and the wait was 45 minutes, we quickly walked to the Blue Ginger Café just before they closed and ordered some plate dinners, man I like these! After dinner walked back to the Hotel Lanai to wait for the shuttle. I really was interested in if Clay’s was special. I spoke w/three groups of diners who all said the same thing, basically, “yea it’s good, but $26 bucks for a rotisserie chicken is a lot of money” I asked if the chicken was done w/some sort of island flair, was disappointed to find out that it is simply rotisserie chicken nothing special. The shuttles run every 30 minutes, but by the time the shuttle arrived we could have walked back to the lodge, but the wife was chilled so we waited.

Thursday

Get up at 5:45 to take Island air from LNY to HNL. Sat on the right side of the plane which offered an incredible view of Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach as we descended to HNL.

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Folks --

I'm considering a day trip next weekend from HNL. Do you all think it's worth it? It's the only major island I haven't been to. I like scenic, motl, not sitting on beach.

Also, are there just the two car rental companies?

Just two: Adventure Lanai Jeep rentals, 808 565 7737; and Lanai City Service (dba Dollar Rent a Car), 808 565 7227. Great off-road driving and incredible scenery.

The last jeep we rented from the adventure place (about a year ago) was really quite horrible. It must have been 10-15 years old, a zillion miles, it drove, but most everything else (including the AC) did not work. I wish we had done Dollar, in spite of all the complaints I'd see about them. But I'll say that we had a blast in spite of it.

It would be an okay day trip in my opinion, although I'd seriously prefer two nights at the lodge.

I wrote an extensive report on the FS Lanai last fall on www.tripadvisor.com. I also wrote about the island and what there was and wasn't there to do.

It is entitled Ah, the real Hawaii at last.

Read this previously and suggested Lanai to family member for honeymoon. Your review was great and very helpful!