My children have decided they will leave our life behind and move to Hawaii into this house.
We loved the gated community, which kept the roads quiet. We utilized the bikes and rode around our street. The kids could even go alone down around the circle.
The house itself was beautiful. The beds were comfortable. The pillows were soft.
They set out a pack n’ play and a high chair, which made travel so much easier.
We definitely recommend this home.
Things to note
- There are no gates on the staircase. The host will not offer a baby gate because they claim it is a liability. I wish the railings included a built in proper gate that could be closed and latched fully. The house is kid friendly, and the hosts offer baby gear, but the stairs seem like a safety oversight.
- There are no rugs under the tall twin beds. It’s a long drop to the tile floor. It’s a sleeping injury waiting to happen. I wish there was a large rug under the beds.
- There is no map of the area. You will have to take time exploring and researching where everything is, and what is even available. The hosts give you a long list of things to do, but don’t specify what is included in your community vs just something to do in the island. They do give a list of free vs paid experiences, but again, you will have to research everything individually to figure out if they are close to you or not.
- All doors to the pool have ear piercing alarms on them. It’s great as a deterrent for kids going out alone, but if you have a child who doesn’t understand, or who is strong enough to unlock and open the door unassisted, you will spend a lot of time running to close the door and disable the alarm. If there were rods to put in the back of the door track, you would have more control over kids opening the door.
That being said, the doors are very heavy, so it would take a strong child.
- The blender that is mentioned is a Nutribullet. It will make smoothies, But not Nice Cream like a Vitamix would. We had hoped to make Dole Whip. Oh well, we did find some at a Texaco of all places!!
- There are bikes and adjustable helmets. There are training wheels for one of the small bikes, but they don’t work because they are missing the stabilizing bar. Also there is no baby seat for the bikes. Because of these things we couldn’t utilize them for transportation around the community as we had hoped. I did go for a short bike ride with my two older kids though, which was glorious.
- There are pool floats for babies, but only one for big kids. You may need to buy some for playing.
- The hosts will only give you a few rolls of toilet paper, and you will be required to provide your own after that. It’s a small thing, and we didn’t run out, but we didn’t stay a full week. If we had, we would have needed to buy more. For a house this expensive and well equipped, it came off as incredibly strange not to have, or offer, a supply of toilet paper.
- The cleaning checklist includes you doing multiple loads of laundry before you go. You will need to plan that your final morning there is spent cleaning an not playing. They turn over this house after only a few hours. There isn’t proper time to air everything out and sanitize all surfaces. This was very off putting to us during a pandemic.
- You will have to buy basics for baking. The kitchen is fabulous and is stocked with most things. We only wished there was a specific tool to quickly slice a whole pineapple (since that is why you visit Hawaii), and a working meat thermometer for the grill. As for the spice cabinet though, we wished there was sugar, baking powder, and some seasonings. It’s an island known for sea salt, but there wasn’t any. We wanted to make macadamia nut cookies one day, but figured they would throw out the bag of sugar, so we didn’t.
Positives:
- There are plenty of towels. We did end up washing beach towels every night for the next day, but there were plenty for playing, and putting down on the thresholds because again, no rugs.
We never ran out of bath towels.
- The linens are fantastic. Mattresses are comfortable (except the pull out bed of course. We just added the mattress cover from the twin bed room to make it plush enough), pillows are soft and full, comforters are the right balance of plush and warm, but not hot.
Everyone slept well all night every night.
- Bikes are in good working order (one of the red ones could use some oil on the chain, but it’s minor), helmets are adjustable so you can ride safely. Most of the boogie boards are useable, sand toys have all you need, coolers are clean and there are ice packs in the freezer so you don’t have to buy ice. We took the chairs to the beach, but didn’t use them because there are already loungers at the private beach. Overall, the garage is your whole vacation. Everything you need is right there. It’s the best part of the house.
- The neighborhood is so quiet. It’s the perfect getaway from a pandemic city life. We saw about 5 people between the airport and the house. Once there, you don’t have to be close to anyone else unless you choose. Even the shared pool and private beach are distanced nicely. They weren’t crowded ever. Sometimes we were the only people at the big pool. The neighborhood is a haven.
- The details in the house are beautiful. All