Hotel Wailea on Maui is Hawaii’s only adults-only, all-suite hotel, and it’s also the state’s only Relais & Chateaux property. Until recently, it was also the only hotel in Wailea out of the “big 6” that I hadn’t stayed at. 

I’d been up to Hotel Wailea for dinner and drinks at the Birdcage before and always thought it was lovely. And it’s been racking up awards left and right…most recently, Travel + Leisure named it the #1 Hotel in Hawaii and inducted it into their World’s Best Awards Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for hotels that have ranked among the top in Hawaii for ten consecutive years. That’s not nothing.

But I could never quite pull the trigger on an actual stay, because it’s not on the beach…and yet it’s usually priced in the same tier as the Four Seasons. People LOVE this place, though. Fiercely defend-it-as-the-best-resort-on-Maui kind of love. So I finally booked a stay to see what all the fuss was about.

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Staying at Hotel Wailea

Hotel Wailea sits up on the hillside in Wailea, about a mile or two up from the beach, spread across 15 acres of tropical gardens with distant ocean views from some areas of the hotel. 

With only 72 suites, a secluded location and its adults only policy, Hotel Wailea is thought to be something of a honeymooners hideaway…something a little more special than the sprawling resorts down at sea level.

Things I Loved about Hotel Wailea

Every room here is a one bedroom suite with a separate living area, a kitchenette, and a private lanai. 

The little details are thoughtful too…they stock a Dyson hair dryer in the bathroom, they bring refillable glass bottles of water to your room, and there’s a good sized fridge stocked with drinks that are all included.

The Restaurant at Hotel Wailea is a real highlight, both for dinner and for breakfast. The views from up here are great, and the whole vibe is quiet and peaceful.

A lot less bustling than the resort restaurants down on the beach. The menu also feels a bit more refined than what I’ve had at other resorts in Wailea. And it’s home to one of the most awarded wine programs in Hawaii…The Restaurant has picked up Wine Spectator honors and is generally considered to have the most expansive wine list in the islands.

The pool area is lovely too. Service is great, the food and drink menu is solid, and it’s a pretty quiet and peaceful vibe the whole time…no crowds, no chair scrambling. The cabanas are huge (the biggest in Wailea, they’ll remind you) and complimentary, first come first serve as long as they haven’t been reserved in advance. 

I also have to mention the valet team, because they ended up being one of the more memorable parts of the stay. They drive you to your suite in a golf cart initially and show you around, they valet your car, and they also drive the fleet of house cars (mostly Land Rovers) around Wailea to take guests to shopping, dining, and the beach. Because there’s only a handful of these guys, you end up with a lot of face time with the same few people throughout your stay, which gives the whole experience a more personal feel than you’d get at one of the bigger resorts where you’re interacting with dozens of different staff members.

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Also, having access to the house cars when you just want to go somewhere in Wailea is a nice touch. 

Things That Could Be Better

I’d heard for years that the service at Hotel Wailea was a cut above even the Four Seasons, and I have to be honest…I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Outside of the valet team, the service (front desk, restaurant, pool) felt like pretty standard high end Hawaii service to me. Nothing bad at all, but nothing that blew me away as dramatically better than what I’ve experienced at the other top resorts on Maui. So, not something that needs to be better…but given that this is a major reason why I hear people say they love Hotel Wailea…not sure about that. 

Since the hotel leans so heavily on that design forward, boutique identity, I was expecting the rooms to feel a little more special from a design standpoint. They’re spacious and comfortable, but I didn’t get much of a “wow” moment walking in. Not a complaint exactly, just not quite what I was expecting given the reputation.

They also advertise the views pretty heavily, and while they’re great from The Restaurant and The Birdcage, most of the rooms, the pool area, and pretty much everywhere else on property doesn’t actually have much of a view. If sweeping ocean views from your room or your pool chair are a priority, know that you’re not really getting that here. The restaurants and rooms that do have ocean views are more…distant.

And then there’s the big one for me…the beach. Or lack thereof. There’s really no way to sugarcoat it…it’s not on the beach. Or the shoreline. It’s almost two miles up a hill with distant ocean views at best. 

They do a REALLY good job of making this sound like a selling point for the hotel. From their website and social media to most interactions I had with the people who worked there…“don’t you just love it up here? It’s so peaceful and so much quieter than all the hustle and bustle down there…”. The exclusive hideaway angle is a pretty deep brand story. 

And I did love it up there…and it was quieter than the resorts down on the beach. And it did feel like an exclusive hideaway…but the whole time, I kept feeling like the main thing I was hidden away from was…the beach. And the ocean. And…Maui. It’s a lovely little property, and I enjoyed staying there for a few nights, but for me…it’s just not why I go to Maui. 

A bit more about the beach situation…when Hotel Wailea first opened, they used to do full beach setup for guests down at Wailea Beach. They’d drive you down, they’d have loungers and umbrellas set up, and then they’d pick you up whenever you were ready to come back. But they haven’t done that in about 10 years.

Now you’ve got two options: 1) Their “mobile beach concierge” (i.e. they’ll take you in one of the house cars to whatever beach you want to go to in Wailea and drop you off with a couple of folding Tommy Bahama beach chairs or 2) For $300/day they’ll set up a more aesthetic set of beach chairs and a little tent on one of the more local beaches in Wailea with towels and a picnic basket. 

Being taken via luxury car to an offsite “beach club” situation (like they used to do) seems acceptable (it’s not uncommon for nice hotels to have a separate beach location from the main hotel). But both of their current options are kind of a miss for me…for a luxury hotel at this price point. 

Overall

I think this hotel makes the most sense in one of two scenarios. 

Either you’re someone who’s out adventuring and exploring the island all day and just wants a beautiful, peaceful place to sleep and shower at night AND you’re good with paying $1,000-1,500/night for that.

OR you’re purely there for a honeymoon-style, never-leave-the-property kind of trip. But for me, I would still want my room and pool area to have ocean views, not a view of the side of a building, and I’d want real, easy beach access, not a folding chair and an umbrella dropped off wherever. So I don’t know about that.

So here’s my honest bottom line: I don’t have any real complaints about Hotel Wailea. But because of that gap between what it offers and what I actually want out of a Wailea stay, I don’t see myself staying here again. It’s a REALLY lovely hotel. It’s just not quite my kind of Wailea hotel.

Want the full plan, not just this post?

If you’ve read this far, you’re probably actually planning a trip to Maui…not just daydreaming. So here’s the thing: what you just read is a small piece of what I know about this island.

I’ve been visiting Maui for years, and I put everything…the itineraries, the hotel breakdowns, the restaurants actually worth your time, the spots most visitors never find…into one guide. It’s 75+ pages, built around real day-by-day plans (not just a list of “things to do”), plus an interactive map so you’re not toggling between five browser tabs trying to piece your trip together.

It’s the guide I wish I’d had on my first few trips here.

See what’s inside the Maui Guide → HERE