Amana Air Conditioning

Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club First Class Facilities Without The Price

Our family just spent ten days in Kona, Hawaii, and the four of us (all adults) stayed at the Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club. I started planning for our trip one year in advance and I spent hours looking for the perfect accommodations in Kona. Finding the Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club was a blessing, and I would not hesitate to stay there again on a subsequent trip.

Because our Hawaiian vacation was in May, which is the off season, we were able to get this fabulous condominium for only $140 a night, but our condo (Building 2, unit 203) is now listed for only $109 a night, which is a steal!

This is a 4-star Oceanfront Resort that is only 4.5 miles from Kailua-Kona town and 14.3 miles away from the Kona International Airport (KOA). Our condo was an Oceanfront unit, which was my first priority when choosing lodging. The Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club is a gated community, which gave us all peace of mind. I also wanted a condo on the second floor, because there is no air conditioning and I wanted to be able to leave the doors open and let the ocean breeze come in through the screen doors, without worrying about someone coming into our condo.

I booked our reservations through alohacondos.com, where I was able to see a video walk through of our condo, both throughout the unit and of the ocean view from the large lanai. The entire experience from start to finish was smooth and flawless. I did have to pay a $150 cleaning fee (standard), and a $250 security deposit (also standard).

Unit 2-203 has a nice kitchen with granite counters, but the microwave was a bit dated, as was the oven and cabinets. Still, it was very nice, clean, and well stocked. The living room and dining area are all one large room, and while there is a table and four chairs to enjoy meals at, we ate on the lanai and did computer work from the dining room table. The living room is spacious, with a couch, love seat and chair, large television, cable TV, DVD player, stereo, and wi-fi internet. It is decorated in typical island style, with seashell mirrors, tropical prints on the furniture, silk palm trees, and tropical flower arrangements. The dining, end, coffee and outdoor tables are all made of glass. The master bathroom has a beautifully tiled step in shower, and is large with a new stackable washer and dryer. The second bathroom is okay, but again a little bit dated. For the price we paid I am not going to complain! Both bathrooms had complimentary shampoo, conditioner and lotion.

This unit can sleep six adults. The main bedroom has a king size bed, the spare bedroom has one double and one twin bed, and the living room has a couch that converts into a bed. All of the furniture was very comfortable and we slept well listening to the ocean waves and birds outside our windows.

I was very pleased to see that 2-203 was so well stocked. It had paper towels, hair dryers, toilet paper, laundry soap, snorkel gear, beach towels, a well stocked kitchen complete with toaster, blender, microwave, Amana dishwasher and even some Cascade dish soap. There were Hawaiian books to educate us about the flowers and birds as well as what to do on the Big Island. Last, our favorite place to relax was on the spacious lanai, overlooking the ocean. It was equipped with a round table and four chairs, two padded lounge chairs, a few plastic lawn chairs and some end tables. The sunsets from the lanai were gorgeous, and we even saw spinner dolphins one morning while drinking our Kona coffee! The draperies on the living room and master bedroom doors were mesh, which allowed for privacy while allowing the cool breeze to flow through. There is a great smelling Plumeria tree (which was in bloom) right off of the lanai.

Unit 2-203 is not air conditioned, but a friend of mine who lives in Kona said this is not at all unusual for the area. We left both bedroom doors open, and got a wonderful cross breeze that kept us comfortable at night. There are four overhead fans, one in each bedroom and two in the living area. These are wired to updated, easy to use controls, which also have the on/off of the lights - some of the electrical switches light up at night to double as a night light.

The Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club has a swimming pool, covered BBQ area with picnic tables, lighted tennis courts, abundant tropical flowers, and golfing and snorkeling are very close by. Turtle Beach and Kahalu'u Beach Park are great places to snorkel, and are an easy walk away. A nice golf resort is right next door, but they charged $150 per person, which was too expensive for our tastes so we didn't golf there.

We had an issue with the washing machine one day, which locked on us. I emailed the owner, Steve, and he called me back very quickly explaining the machine was brand new and that it has a safety locking feature. Once we were made aware of this we had no further problems.

The Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club 2-203 was extremely clean and well stocked. We had an iron and ironing board, sun hats, fans, snorkel gear, beach towels, straw beach mats, and even a bottle of "no fog" which you need when snorkeling. One of the snorkel renting outfits failed to give us our no fog, so we were thankful that Steve's condo had some for us to use.

Eating out in Kona is expensive, but we saved a lot of money by purchasing groceries (I recommend Safeway or Costco), and cooking our meals in the condo. The only two things we ever needed were a cookie sheet and a vegetable peeler, so I'd say that is pretty great! A small shopping center is an easy walk away, with a variety of shops. One evening my husband and I walked there after dinner to buy frozen yogurt at Moo Bettah (highly recommended), and walked back to the condo eating our frozen delights. When we went for picnics, Steve had a cooler available, as well as ice packs to keep our foods cold.

Steve was wonderful to work with, very professional and very organized. We would not hesitate to stay at The Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club 2-203 on our next visit to paradise.