Renaissance Wailea

This was the first hotel we stayed at on Maui. It is a Marriott owned hotel on a great beach-front location on the southwestern part of the island. This area is apparently notorious for having these huge expensive resorts, and this one is no exception.

Overall, the hotel was very nice and very beautiful. The lobby was very open and beautifully decorated, with lots of places to sit and look out over the ocean in the distance. Our room was only a "terrace view" room, but it was still very clean and comfortable, decent size, and had lots of lush tropical plants beyond the patio that served as a buffer between us and the parking lot. Ocean view rooms, I'm sure, had a much better view, but there were no rooms that I would really call "ocean front"...as in, being right on the ocean!

It was a pretty quick walk down the beach and ocean, which the resort had beach chairs set up on the beach, ready to use. It wasn't really crowded, so a place to sit and lay back was pretty easy to come by. The area was a pretty decent place to snorkel, and we saw a good number of brightly colored fish and coral by the rocky areas.

After being in the salty ocean, it was nice to have pools and hot tubs at the resort to relax in and wash the salt out of your pores. Poolside drink/appetizer service was awesome, and everything about this place was a great resort experience.

All in all...this place is great if you want the "resort" feel, having everything brought to you, having your room cleaned daily, and having a lot of activities available at your disposal, all on sight. It's good if you can afford it too! Our room would have ordinarily run us about $350 a night, but it was free with our Marriott Rewards points.