My favorite part of our stay at Susan’s was the location. It’s not too far of a drive from Kona where there are restaurants, grocery stores, and all the necessities. My husband enjoyed the luxury of walking (2 minutes- no car needed!) to the Magic Sands beach for a morning or evening swim. This is a small, but popular beach, which might be a negative if you don’t like crowds. Being next to Magic Sands Beach, the area is busy, which means more noise. However this did not bother us, and it was a fun experience to be in a popular area. As darkness approaches, the beach clears out, and the area quiets. There is Magic Sands Grill right next door. It’s pricey, but the food was great so it was worth the money.
No complaints about the condo. It’s a modest space made very enjoyable by the large sliding doors that open to a great view of the ocean. It was great listening to the ocean and watching the sunset. I usually dislike spending time in the condo/hotel (that’s not why I go on vacation, right?), but I did not mind spending time lounging on the sofa in the evenings after a long day out in the sun or in the morning as we ate breakfast because the view was just so fabulous! The only thing I didn’t like is the room is in front of the pool, so privacy isn’t the best. It wasn’t a terrible thing since not many many used the pool.
The bed was firm- not in a bad way. We slept comfortably. There is a portable air conditioner in the room that you are allowed to use for a limited time a night (or during the day by request). We used it at night as we like it colder to sleep more comfortably. Not having it during the day was not an issue- with the sliding doors open, it was comfortable during the day (although we were gone much of the middle of the day). The only thing with the AC is I’m not sure if it’s on a timer. It turned off early some mornings (before 5am) and stayed later other mornings. Overall, the temperature was always comfortable.
There is a pool and laundry (shared) available, which was nice because we did wash some clothes and towels. We didn’t use the pool, but the area looked clean.
Bath towels were soft and in good condition (very appreciated). However, there were only 2 beach towels. It would be nice to have a couple more just to be able to swap out if staying more than a few days.
There were no issues at arrival. Susan messaged us with our door code. The smart lock is a great feature because we didn’t have to worry about a key!
The damper with our stay was the water heater ended up not working for the last 3 days of our time at Susan’s. This is quite a negative especially since there were days where it was overcast and not very hot out. One of the mornings, we went snorkeling. It was a cloudy morning, so the ocean felt particularly cold. By the end of our snorkel, I was shivering, and I was upset to have to go back to a cold shower. To be fair, it didn’t seem like the water heater issue was from neglect. These things happen- we understand! It did, however, still affect our overall experience. More of the problem came from Susan’s response to this situation. She asked if “our showers were a little too long” (whether we ran the water 10 seconds or 10 minutes, the water was frigid!- that was not the problem), and she stated there was nothing she could do. For 3 days? To me, being without hot water is not acceptable. I would have been more willing to overlook this if it had not been for her response to the next thing. One morning, I noticed water in the cabinet under the sink. (Not sure if this is linked to the water heater not working since it was located in the cabinet right next to this one.) I messaged Susan immediately letting her know of the water in the cabinet since as a homeowner myself, I’d want to know something like this immediately as well. While she was not rude about it, she did say “you must have knocked the pipe loose when you took out the dish rack” (which was located in that cabinet at our arrival). The whole pipe was loose, and this was not something a small bump would cause (if I even bumped it at all). I felt like we were being blamed for the things going wrong, and I did not appreciate this. This is the reason I removed one star from her overall rating.
I think her responses are an important part of this review. Overall, the location and condo were so great, I would recommend this stay.