FlyerTalk Forums - Ritz-Carlton Okinawa Review

Introduction I spend two nights at the RC Okinawa ffrom August 18-20. This was my first ever stay at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. For the stay, I used 40,000 SPG points, which I transferred to Marriott Rewards for 120,000 points. August is a very busy month for resort hotels in Okinawa and the paid rate for the standard deluxe room during those dates was about 80-90,000 yen per night (about $750 to $850). I was lucky to reserve early, as the place was completely sold out during our stay. This marked my second trip to Okinawa. Being the middle of summer, the temperatures were in the low to mid 90s. Check In When we arrived at the hotel, we were promptly ushered to the check in area where a few people were sitting around waiting to check in. We were told to sit down and a welcome tropical drink of our choice with a cold shibori towel were brought to us. The check in was a little confusing because a few others were waiting and no staff appeared at the check in desk, so we just waited and let things take their course, and we were all checkd in the order that we had arrived. Room The room was standard deluxe with a Bay view. There were three of us in the room (the maximum allowable), so there was a rollaway bed in the room when we arrived, which significantly reduced the sitting area space. Even though the room is 494 sq. ft., a good half of that space is taken up by the shower, bath, and toilet area, so the sleeping area felt a little constricted, especially with the rollaway bed. (Sorry for the poor quality of the attached room photos, I didn't take them planning to write a review.) There is plenty of closet and drawer space and the balconies are spacious. Because this was a bay view room, we had an excellent view, as you can see. The rooms are attractive and well kept and the bathtub is right next to the window, so you can bathe while admiring the above view. The only downside of the room was that the lighting in the stting area did not work, which I think is a significant oversight for a hotel like the RC. Service Service was top-notch and I was called by name when we visited onsite restaurants. All staff were openly friendly and helpful, yet unobtrusive, allowing us relax and not feel pressured. Dining There are three restaurants onsite. The first night we ate at Gusuku, which is more of an Okinawan/Japanese restaurant. The prices at Gusuku were quite reasonable compared to the other two restaurants. Three of us had dinner and I don't remember what each person ordered, but I had an Okinawan porkburger served with fries, which had Okinawan-style seasoning that was quite delicious. Everyone was pleased with their order. The only downside for me was that I found the restaurant lighting to be a little too dark for my taste. If you are on a budget, this is where you want to eat. We had thought about going out to a local restaurant, and based on previous hotel reviews that I read, RC staff can recommend to you some restaurants and drive you there and pick you up later. Since we were only there for two nights, we decided to get the full Ritz dining experience. On our second night, we ate at the Teppanyaki restaurant Kise. We were initially taken a back when we saw the menu, which offered three different course menus with the cheapest costing 21,000 yen (just under $200 per person), so we dediced to order a-la-carte. All of us ordered steak (100/150 grams) with vegetables, garlic fried rice, salad and desert. The steak was Okinawan, extremely tender and served with three dipping sauces (one of them being a local salt). Dipping the meat in the salt was by far the tasiest of the three. It was the most delicious and mouth-watering steak I ever remember eating. The rice for the garlic fried rice was cooked in a small pot directly on the teppan grill. It too was very good. Our chef was an expat from Italy, yet his Japanese cooking skills were sublime. The total bill for our meal for three came to 28,000 yen. Location The RC Okinawa is a little over an hour from Naha Airport by car. There is a shuttle bus that stops at all the hotels in the area (just south of Nago City), but it only leaves once a day at 12:50 pm, which was the excat time our plane arrived in Naha. Therefore, I arranged with the hotel for a private car to pick us up at the airport and drive us there. The cost for this was 16,000 yen, and I am told that a taxi will also cost you the same. The shuttle bus only costs, IIRC, 2,200 yen one way. I'm glad we hired the driver because he was very friendly and engaging and answered our many questions about Okinawa and the hotel. We spoke with him in Japanese and I don't thiink he spoke English. If you ask for a private car when you visit, you may want to ask if they have any English-speaking drivers. When we asked him whether pineapple and mango were grown in Okinawa, he offered to take us to a local market on the way to the hotel to buy these and other local fruits, which we did. It was a kind of farmer's type market and a nice break in our journey. The shuttle bus ride back to Naha leaves the hotel, IIRC, at around 10:45am and gets to Naha at around 12 noon. Hotel entrance Pool Because the hotel is not directly on the beach, the pool seemed to be the center of social activity. There is a shuttle that I think leaves the front entrance every half hour to take guests to the beach where they have recliners and umbrellas to relax under. We did not go as we were busy betting spa treatments. The pool area is very pleasant and there were a number of children playing in the shallow end of the pool. There is also a bar next to the pool where you can order drinks and food. They offered a special pizza menu in the afternoon with beer, which I wanted to try, but time did not allow. The view from the pool is very pleasant and its a great place to unwind. Spa The spa facilities are very nice, especially the bathing, shower and sauna area. I had a massage that was a little on the weak side, but relaxing nevertheless. But what was really nice was being able to use all of the spa's facilities while I was there. There are two saunas, a dry and a steam one. I particularly enjoyed the steam sauna. You lie on a stone slab, but it gets so hot that you need to have two towels spread out under you. With only one towel under me, my back turned bright red. There are two rainforest showers outside the sauna and a hot bath. The walls are all glass and you can slide sections of the wall open, step outside and sit in a chair and relax.There is another section to the spa that is outside and downstairs where you can sit in an outdoor jacuzzi (only one), swim in an indoor pool and relax outdoors in one of three cabanas. There were very few people using the spa facilitiy and there was no one in the bathing, shower and sauna area other than myself on both days of using the facility. If you do not get any spa treatment, you can still use the spa facility for a charge of 3,000 yen per person, which I think is well worth the price since there is no time limit on your use. Overall, I really enjoyed the spa and consider this the highlight of the trip.Indoor relaxation area for use before and after spa treatment. Gym There is a somewhat smallish fitness center connected to the spa facility, but there was only one other person there when I used it. I contains several treadmills, climbers and weight-resistance training stations. It is a very attractive, but apparently underutlized facility. Bathroom The bathroom in the standard deluxe room is very spaction, as I mentioned, taking up nearly half the room area. There is a walk-in shower and a spacious two sink counter with Asprey amenities. The bath next to the window with the bay view is especially nice and there was even a special pillow supplied to be used when relaxing in the bathtub. Overall I really enjoyed this trip, but especially enjoyed the restaurants, the spa and the pool, which are really the main activity centers of the hotel. The quality of all of these was top notch. This being my first stay in an RC Hotel, I'm not certain what I expected, but I was impressed with the easy no-pressure ambience and friendly atmosphere. I highly recommend it as a resort hotel to just kick back and relax. FYI, there is no club lounge at this hotel. I knew that before coming, but some may be disappointed by that. However, there is a very attractive lounge area that is open to everyone and has excellent views, but I was disappointed to find out that it was a stictly monetized space. You can't go in there to just sit down and relax, but have to order afternoon tea or some sort of drink just to sit there. Perhaps this is the norm at the Ritz, but it comes across as a common lounge space where people can just sit, talk, and relax. My main criticism of the hotel would be its distance from Naha and the fact that it is not directly on the beach. If you are planning a visit of more than two days and want to see a little of Okinawa, then you should probably rent a car. For short stays though, I recommend using the spa, taking it easy, and just hanging out at the hotel, as there is not much to see that is within easy walking distance.