Kings Land - Waikaloa Village

So this was quite the fun little random vacation we took locally. Having points to use that have accumulated in recent years, we were able to explore a few local resorts as guests. Kinda neat.

We routinely, as in every couple of months or so, rent a condo in Kona for an extended weekend. Actually, because we can go anytime, we usually choose the midweek options. Gives us a lot of choices, should we need them but luckily for us, our favorite spot is most often available to us whenever we choose. 

Kona, is most definitely on my list of favorite get away spots only because we have plenty of places we enjoy on the "southern" side of Big Island. Kona is convenient if you want to visit beaches on that end or dine out. But honestly, we are so in love with our spot that we just cook or grill or get take out, should we not feel like cooking. Rare, but it happens.

But closer to my neck of the woods, is Waikaloa. We tend to beach closer to home, near Kohala, on the North tip of the island. We have a locally quiet spot we prefer at Mauna Kea when at home, but we have explored this area in Waikaloa, as well. Perhaps not as often as we do other spots on the island, but being that it's right between our favorite beaches and Kona, it usually is just a passing thought on the way to Kona. 

A perfect opportunity presented itself recently when we weren't able to book as long as we wanted in Kona. When it's around the time for the Iron Man marathon, it gets pretty hard to find anything at all. But we were pretty lucky and secured a few days, even so. But on a whim, I looked up Kings Land to see if they had some availability, too, since we had time to tack on a few more days. Sure enough, they did!

Make no mistake, this is a large resort. We've been here once for a luau which I didn't really love. I'm not a tourist, but hey once is worth a shot. The facilities and the resort itself though, are quite impressive. This is a picture from the Ocean Towers. Some prefer this Hilton if you are looking for more of a bustling hotel-y type of experience. Too busy, too chaotic. Not aloha. 

We are locals. Tsu nixed it for the quieter golf and mountain view suites. It was a super call, for us. We know this beach is here, don't need to come to the hotel to go here at all and in fact, there are others all along this little coast line.

We came here for the monster pools and the golf. And the Mexican restaurant we know is right up the street. lol! Stunningly different views of the mountains we actually live on was quite a draw for us, as well. From this perspective, we got to really see a different side (no pun intended) of our island. Easy to see why our home is so temperate and perfect as well, as we live quite high up at 1800 ft elevation.

Very serene and quite perfectly manicured Japanese water gardens are all over. Our building was very quiet and all buildings in this residential golfing complex have their own grill facilities and waterfall style hot tubs and swimming pools. I was captivated by the pools honestly and spent a good bit of time in them when not hanging out in my unit or on the balcony. 

But the golf courses on this island are just ridiculous so I rather enjoyed the change of pace and the landscaping of this resort.

Very private, super quiet and amusingly, herds of island goats would traverse the golf course in the wee hours of the morning or at dusk. I love them, even though they do menace my bananas from time to time at home. But the one thing you should take away from your visits to Hawaii are just how beautifully landscaped and well-maintained these properties really are. Truly breathtaking if you are paying even the slightest attention.