The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort represented the best value that we’ve experienced from a Marriott Bonvoy redemption in Hawaii to date. With a large resort like feel to the property, a world class beach at your footsteps, and a reasonably solid Elite upgrade to an ocean view, there was a lot to like when spending a week at this resort. Our in depth review tackles all areas and experiences at the resort over our five night stay.

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This post is one chapter on my trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, United States of America. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, Hawaii, United States of America

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“The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort represents a terrific value for Hawaii on Marriott Bonvoy points. The property features everything that you might need for a family beach holiday, set on a world class Hapuna Beach.”

Booking The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort:

Marriott Bonvoy Opportunities:

With a stack of Marriott Bonvoy hotel points sitting in our collective family points accounts, MrsWT73 was keen to use Marriott Bonvoy points to offset the cost of this holiday. The Marriott Bonvoy program isn’t always a terrific value in Hawaii, USA, with most properties seeking over 70,000 points per night. This is usually a terrible value redemption, but using points does save some money in the bank by using points over cash.

When researching the trip, we happened to discover that the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort on Kona, presented stay options for a more reasonable 54,000 – 55,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night. The alternative during our stay was a cash rate of about $579 USD per night. While we missed the days of when this property was available for as low as 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per night (as a Category 5 property), the point rate was still pretty reasonable in comparison to other Hawaii properties at 70,000+ npoints per night.

We ended up redeeming 218,000 Marriott Bonvoy points at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort for a five night stay. We got the fifth night free, per the Marriott Bonvoy terms and conditions on reward stays. This represented a redemption value of about 0.012 dollars value of a Marriott Bonvoy point, against an accepted value of about 0.008 dollars per point. While this was hardly a terrific value in terms of global perspective, it was, in my view, a reasonable redemption in the context of the Hawaiian environment where most hotels are pricing well over 75,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.

We booked into a basic Partial Ocean View – King with a partial ocean view and balcony.

As a result of variable pricing, we had a variety of room rates across the stay, we ended up paying an average of 54,500 Marriott Bonvoy points a night. This math worked out to 43,600 Marriott Bonvoy points per night when averaged over five nights.

In my view, this is a pretty reasonable rate for Hawaii and you’d be happy these days in getting a room redemption under 45,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night somewhere decent.

In addition to the base redemption, there were other upgraded rooms available for redemption. These were available provided you were willing to part with a cash upgrade supplement that ranged from 700 USD to 1,200 USD a stay. We ended up selecting to play the upgrade roulette by hoping for a better upgrade at check in on account of MrsWT73’s Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status. Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador Elite members the best available room at check in, including select suites.

For those more interested in paying cash, during our summer months, the cash rates were going for about $579 per night. The range of rates ended up climbing upwards to $879 per night.

Applying Suite Night Awards:

We ended up applying Marriott Bonvoy Suite Night Awards to this reservation. The Suite Night Awards are awarded to Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador members as a Select benefit.

There were a number of Suite Night Award rooms available at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. In order to get value out of them, I don’t typically redeem Suite Night Awards for anything other than a suite.

Unfortunately, all the Suite Night Award rooms ended up getting purchased by paying customers and didn’t become available for redemption at the five day mark before our stay. We were unsuccessful in getting a Suite Night Award redeemed, and they were returned to our account. It is worth mentioning that there are only one or two “1 Bedroom Suites” per floor; this makes upgrades outright to these rooms unlikely given their limited availability.

Despite this, the upgrade roulette ended up paying off. We would end up getting upgraded at check in into a Premier Ocean View category room. The upgrade gods had us moving from a $653 USD a night room at the time of stay, into a 859 USD a night room; a pretty reasonable upgrade value.

Overall, I think we came out pretty well in finding value for a Hawaiian Resort stay.

Getting to The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort:

We arrived into the The Big Island of Hawaii on Alaska Airlines First Class Seattle – Kona. We rented a car with Hertz Kona in order to get to the resort, which is located miles and thirty minutes from the airport.

I would highly recommend renting a vehicle during your time on Kona, as the airport to resort shuttle options are practically non existent, and you’ll find yourself stuck at the resort the entire time without your own vehicle. If you do happen to take a shuttle to the resort, the resort does contract with a local company to rent Tesla 3 vehicles, with an advance reservation required.

The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort is located up on the Kohala Coast, as one of the northern most resorts on the western side of the island. The resort is surrounded by the Mauna Kea Golf Course, and is located behind a security gate. Aside from the golf course, there aren’t any other houses, commercial buildings or restaurants close to the A Manalahoa Highway. This means that the resort is quite remote and you won’t be stepping out to dine at a nearby restaurant off resort. Aside from a daytime food truck at the Hapuna Beach, the nearest off property restaurants are located approximately 8 miles or fifteen minutes away by car.

The Westin Hapuna’s Beach Resort shares the hotel beach with the State of Hawaii’s Hapuna Beach. The public trail access for the resort is located to the south of the resort. The beach itself is large enough to share with the general public, and it’s not likely that you’ll see alot of public beach goers during your beach resort time.

Overall, the resort’s isolated location is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The remoteness of the Mauna Kea Resort and surrounding the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort offers that distant and tranquil resort feeling. With the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort being surrounded by a golf course, it allows for greenery and the feeling of having a lot of personal space.

On the downside, being this far out means that you pretty much have a longer drive to get anywhere on the island, including to other off resort restaurants for happy hour, sunset cocktails or dinner. As a result, I highly recommend that you rent a car when visiting this particular Westin Resort’s, and allow for extra time when getting to and from the resort. Without a car, otherwise you might find yourself a little cornered in the resort, without a means of getting out.

Checking into The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort:

It was well after dark before we arrived to the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. Valet Parking was complimentary, or to be exact, the same price as self parking ($35 USD / day). We unloaded the car and were led around the corner towards the front desk to check in.

We were given a refreshing passion fruit guava drink along with a cold towel; a great refresher after that long journey. While another party checking in at the same time received a lei arrival, we didn’t happen to get this opportunity- perhaps due to our late hour of arriving at 10:45 PM.

We were pro-actively upgraded from the base “Partial Ocean View” to a “Premier Ocean View”. This was described on more than one occasion as being “the highest possible upgrade category available”. We were assigned Room #915, which was located a short walk from the lobby.

We were also provided a sheet with the Westin Hapuna’s Beach Resort Resort Fee inclusions ($37 USD / Per Day per Room). This included some pretty dismal wifi that did not throughly work throughout the resort. We were also explained as Marriott Bonvoy Platinum members, we would be entitled to a complimentary continental breakfast. as an Elite Welcome Amenity. An upgrade could be completed to the breakfast buffet for $25 USD per person. We ended up with the breakfast benefit; which was a perfect amount of food for most days.

Declining baggage assistance, we self navigated up to the room.

The Room: Premier Ocean, King Room, 1 King, Ocean View, High Floor, Balcony

With the lobby on the eighth floor, we took the elevator up one level to the ninth and top floor. All the hallways at the Westin Hapuna are outside, and we wandered one building over (out of three) to our Premier Ocean room.

The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort Premier Ocean Room was a reasonably spacious hotel room at 600sq ft in size. The room was decorated in traditional, but mostly contemporary Westin browns, green and greys, which were starting to look a little on the mature side.

The room featured a Westin Heavenly Bed. The bed was advertised as a King Size Bed, but it felt a little compact compared to the King Size bed at home.

The room also featured Westin’s Sleep Well scent vials. This is more of a gimmick rather than something that I look forward to when I stay at a Westin hotel.

Looking back towards the centre of the room, the bed faced into a large flat screen television which was built into a longer desk.

Instead of a couch or individual chair, the seating area of the room was in a sectional “L” shaped light coloured sofa. This ended up becoming a bag drop zone, so it didn’t reach it’s full potential as a relaxing space during our particular stay.

Adjacent to the couch was the room refreshment centre. There was a small un-stocked mini fridge, a drip coffee maker, and two bottles of AquaFina water. These would end up being the last bottles of AquaFina water we would receive on our stay. The resort offers complimentary water refills at water stations throughout the resort, included in your Resort Fee.

In the hallway by the door, the room offered a pretty spacious bathroom. The construction company designed a great space here, with more than enough space for two people to get ready and exist at the same time.

The washing facilities consisted of a bathroom and Westin Rain Shower facility. I find the Westin rain showers to be a little weak on the water pressure, since they rely on mostly gravity in order to feed the shower head.

The attached bathroom offered a Toto heated toilet. It glowed in the car with blue LED’s at night, which was a futuristic way to use the water closet at night.

Heading outside, the Premier Ocean View offered a small to medium sized balcony. The balcony contained a lot of furniture for a hotel balcony. The balcony featured a two person high top table along with a small lounger for one.

The Premier Ocean View offered a mostly unobstructed view of the Hapuna Beach. From the ninth floor, the view was as good as it could possibly get. However, the view of the attached Mauna Kea Residences tended to partially get in the way, no matter how hard you tried to look past it.

In terms of sleep quality, the room was very quiet. Being on the top floor, we didn’t experience any noise from floors above (or below). The Westin Heavenly bed was comfortable, and we had no concerns with room temperature or setting the climate.

The front desk also provided us with a number of materials which set out a lot of the resort information. These included the inclusions of the Daily Resort Charge ($37 USD per Room per Day), of which the Pool and Beach Chair Service was the most valuable feature of the inclusions. As with every Resort Fee, there wasn’t a lot of value represented within the fee itself.

In summary, the room was a lot larger than I might have expected. It was much larger than the small rooms that we’ve come to expect at The Sheraton Waikiki. However, the light colours of the Westin tended not to wear as well as I might have liked. While there was nothing obvious or stained, the lighter greys on most of the room seating surfaces tended to look a little shabby after a while.

Around the Hotel Property:

The hotel occupies a large space overtop of a sloping hill that leads down towards the Hapuna Beach. While the resort tends to have a large imposing structure, it is an easy property to navigate. Each area relating to the property is slightly tiered towards the ocean, so there is something on each level.

Main Lobby Area:

There are three hundred and fifty rooms on the property. As a result, you can expect up to seven hundred people to be on or around the resort, when it’s fully occupied. While it’s not as busy as a cruise ship numbering in the thousands, it can still get pretty busy around the resort.

From our room on the ninth floor, we set out to explore the property. The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort has an open air orientation, so many of the lobby features, the resort hallways and the views towards the ocean are open.

Adult Pool Area:

After descending to the fourth floor, we walked the garden pathways down to the pool area and the ocean beach. We passed by the Adult Pool area, which was accented by a koi pond with some healthy looking koi fish.

The Adult Pool area did not have a lot of seating space that I would expect for a hotel of this size. The seating was limited to approximately fifty chairs and tended to get occupied quite quickly and early in the morning. If you plan on spending time at the Adult Pool, I would expect to get up early and reserve yourself a seat in advance (before 9 AM).

The Family Pool and Cabanas:

The Family Pool and Cabanas’ was the focal point of all aquatic and children oriented activity at the resort. The Family Pool featured a large and mostly featureless crescent shaped pool with ample seating around the space. Although the pool did not contain any water features like fountains, it offered fantastic ocean views for those supervising parents.

Although it looks quiet within these photos, the family pool area was over run with kids having the greatest time. It was the epicentre of family activity and all the related noise that comes with that excitement. For those looking for a serene beach get away environment, this isn’t the exact postal code that you should be hanging around in. As a result, we didn’t spend a lot of time hanging around this particular zone.

Hapuna Beach:

Descending from the Family Pool level, we walked down stairs to the Hapuna Beach. We passed by the nice looking Mauna Kea Residences. The Mauna Kea Residences appear to be attached to the hotel, share check in / check out facilities with the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, and have a slightly better and unobstructed view at a 20 – 35% higher price point. If I were staying for a longer period of time, or with a larger family, I would definitely encourage checking out this hotel within a hotel.

After passing by the Mauna Kea Residences, we found ourselves at the Hapuna Beach. The Hapuna Beach is a shared beach with the Hapuna State Park. The beach itself is long enough that you aren’t likely to see many day visitors from off the resort wandering into the resort beach area.

Unlike other Marriott Bonvoy hotels in Honolulu, the Resort Fee covers use of a lounge chair. At The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, there is no additional fee to rent or reserve a lounge chair. There are also a few with shade umbrellas available.

With a hotel at nearly full occupancy, we never had challenges locating a lounge chair on arrival at around 11 AM. We did happen to notice several people “saving” lounge chairs earlier in the morning. Depending on your travel patterns, this may or may not be your thing.

The Hapuna Beach is wonderfully expansive and broad. It contained really fine sand that was exceptionally smooth on the toes. In the morning, when the ocean is calmer, the beach is suitable for children. In the afternoon, the shoreline tended to get a little rougher and less suitable for young children. Each end of the beach was bookended with the Big Islands’ Lava beds, leaving to a rocky out crop.

The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort was set nicely against the beach, along with the great lawns that Hawaii is known for.

We enjoyed several days during our stay doan at the Hapuna Beach. It marked one of the nighest beaches at a Beach Resort that I’ve experienced in the United States.

Gym and Fitness Club:

The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort has a small gym located just off the spa. While I didn’t use the gym on this particular visit, it has a nice size to it and a day light orientation.

Food and Beverage:

The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort runs several restaurants consistent with it’s size as a resort property. While everything was fine, I actually felt as though this was the resorts best opportunity for improvement.

Ikeda Landing:

Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Breakfast

Ikeda Landing was marketed as having “…a delectable breakfast menu offerings including an abundant buffet including made-to-order omelets and an array of al la carte options with healthy favorites to energize your day“. It mostly achieved that objective.

Located on the fifth floor, we often had a short line up to be seated during the late breakfast hour. Ikeda Landing was open between 6:30 AM – 10:30 AM; late enough for a leisurely breakfast for those not on Hawaiian Standard Time.

Our breakfast was covered as a result of the Marriott Bonvoy Elite Breakfast benefit. The continental breakfast was valued at $30 USD per person, including gratituity. The hotel offered an up charge to the breakfast buffet for $25 USD per person, even though the difference in pricing from the continental breakfast and a buffet ($48 USD) was only $18 USD difference when following menu pricing.

Although there were some interesting menu items on the a la carte menu such as Loco Moco’s or a Hapuna Iron Man breakfast, there was no obvious option to upgrade to the a la carte menu items.

Most days we enjoyed the Continental Breakfast. There were a pleasant assortment of pastries, including a tasty Banana Bread and a wonderful yoghurt parfait with slivered macadamia nuts. Cereals were also available on request, for those days we were looking for variety.

I did try out the buffet breakfast on two days of my five day stay. Ikeda Landing offered a daily buffet that didn’t change all too much across the days. The buffet featured an egg station, a miso soup station and the usual variety of egg and meat dishes. Mostly excitingly, the buffet featured enough items to make your own home made loco moco (egg, rice, beef and gravy dish).

The buffet was ample, but it didn’t contain enough items to keep me coming back day after day. I was more than happy to enjoy it over the occasional day here and there, sticking with the continental breakfast on other days. On buffet breakfast days, it was a healthy three egg omelette with lots of salsa.

While the breakfast was good, I started to find it a little plain after the third or fourth day. Given the size of the resort, I probably would have wished for a little more variety in the buffet.

Naupaka Beach Grill

The resorts casual dining restaurant was the Naupaka Beach Grill. This was located off the pool area and doubled as the beach dining area. Dining was offered al fresco.

The pool area had a bit of an institutional feel to it and I didn’t get an aspirational vibe to dining in a pool area. The menu contained typical resort fare at an elevated resort price point.

Meridia Restaurant:

The resorts high end dining option was Medina Restaurant. Typically, a high end resort restaurant has perhaps a celebrity chef inspiring it’s dishes. Perhaps I was expecting too much but after looking over the menu on Open Table, I didn’t find giving myself a strong reason for dining here. I didn’t see a dinner menu put out during my walk by’s. As a result, I didn’t get any restaurant cravings when I saw it on my daily walk. Despite this, it did appear to offer offered pleasant patio views.

As a result of the less than aspirational dining options, we often ended up going off property to dine. While we were pushed towards taking the complimentary resort shuttle over to the sister Mauna Kea Resort, on the days I attempted to get a casual reservation at 5 PM, I was often told that there were no tables available at Mauna Kea’s food and beverage outlets untill well past 8 PM. That dashed the dining local ideas pretty quickly.

Ultimately, the food and beverage program at the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort was pretty average. I’d probably rate this the resort’s weak spot on the basis that there wasn’t enough to keep us engaged and interested with what was presently offered.While this is a highly subjective area, in our experience we’d end up dining off property on five out of five nights at the resort.

Bottom Line: The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort

A terrific value on points, we enjoyed redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points for a five night stay at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. The resort offers a world class beach along with nicely upgraded rooms. Most of the rooms offer a terrific, but partially obstructed ocean view.

The weakest part of the resort was the food and beverage. While there wasn’t anything exactly wrong with it, it seemed to be a bit average and at an elevated price point than what we would typically expect from a resort. The remoteness of the area also impacted the amount of time it took to get to and from the resort property. If you didn’t have a rental car, you’d really be stuck at this property, as there is nothing else around it for miles.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort. The value that this property represents on a Marriott Bonvoy redemption is unparalleled throughout Hawaii. I’d easily look forward to returning to this property at some point in the future.

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If you have stayed at the Westin Hapuna, Beach Resort, did the resort live up to your expectations ?

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