Where to begin? This is much more than a place to sleep. From children's books to boogie boards this home away from home has had thoughtful consideration put into every detail. You will need to bring your own food including condiments and cooking oil, but everything you need to prepare food with is here. There is even a grill outside to use, a fridge with freezer, full-size range with working oven, toaster oven, knives and cutting boards, colander, hanging basket for fruit, pots and pans, cookie sheet, and more. A huge pantry for all your food is also right off the kitchen. There's plenty of space for everyone to sit and eat. The living room is spacious and has a large sectional couch with TV. There are plenty of electrical outlets and the wifi works fine.
The mini jungle path down to the beach takes less than a minute to walk and is a treat in and of itself. We saw several varieties of birds, geckos and a large frog just in that tiny area. It does rain more often on this part of the island, so be prepared for that, especially if you're visiting the very nearby Polynesian Cultural Center or some of the incredible beaches up this way. But getting out of the city is so worth it!! (By the way, The Polynesian Cultural Center was expensive, but felt very worth doing and was fun and educational for all ages).
There are two private rooms with king size beds, and upstairs is an open concept living area with a king bed on one side and two twins with trundle beds on the other. There's room to have the trundles out and suitcases around and still be able to walk through. Because of the A-frame structure, there's no shortage of shelving around the room for everybody's stuff. All beds were comfortable. The top floor is open below to the living room and the kids especially enjoyed that. It felt bigger than the pictures suggest.
There are shutter style windows that don't fully seal the home (this is a plus for good ventilation) and working screens on all of them. A nice big porch with table and chairs, and lovely fenced yard with grass provide a nice place to enjoy one another's company without fear of little ones getting in the street. We found several different kinds of lizards throughout our stay.
The connecting beach through the little jungle path (shoes are a good idea for the soft-footed) is a great body surfing/boogie boarding beach, safest and most family friendly at low tide (check online for tide times). But these waves do mean business and it is nicknamed "Pounder's Beach" for good reason. Stay away from swimming out away from shore to avoid rip tides. Just playing in the surf at the shoreline is fine, but I wouldn't let my littles go in more than about mid-thigh depth, at the advise of the locals. As my kids put it, "it had the best sand, but the roughest waves." It was not at all crowded.
Sunrise is wonderful out there - don't miss the opportunity to sit and watch the crabs fight over holes as the sky lights up. Great sand, easy on the feet, but do keep your eyes open. We saw bright blue Portuguese man-of-wars. Similar to jellyfish, they sting - bad. Unlike Jellyfish, don't pour vinegar on the sting (whoops). We had one little one get stung and then we were more watchful and saw several tiny ones around in the sand. Probably it's an off thing that they just happened to be there right then but Hawai'i is teeming with life above and below the surface, so I mean, just keep your eyes open, right?
The outside (warm!!) shower is super duper handy to get your sand off and there's a separate cold water spigot lower down too. If you get lucky, and are there in the summer, look for ripe mangos or oranges growing near the outside shower. The beach toy collection is more fleshed out than I expected and was even even equipped with a couple sets of flippers and surfboards, a hand-full of snorkels and masks, and a couple chairs and wagon. Beach towels too, were there for guest use, but I wouldn't bank on anything super specific being there as far as beach gear goes.
A final thought and mahalo if you made it this far. There are many wild chickens on the island but the ones in this particular neighborhood are very special pets. A man feeds them each day and regards them as his daughters. Please be nice to them. <3