Our group of 4 adults must have looked at a hundred AirBnBs before we chose this one! While there are a few things we would have changed, overall, we really enjoyed our stay.
Community: Kolea is a lovely, beautiful community and we felt very safe staying there. The grounds are well maintained and this condo is very close to the pool and the beach. There is a mall nearby and a grocery store (see my note below about the grocery store). The pool is small but well-maintained and there is also a hot tub and a small sand-bottomed pool, as well as two treadmills. There is an entrance out to the beach from the pool area. All attractions are a drive, but the island is called 'Big' for a reason and by staying here you are fairly central on the Kona side (30 minutes to Kona, 1 hour to Waipio Valley, 1 hour to Mauna Kea, 1 hour to Captain Cook). We stayed on the Hilo side for a few days prior to coming here, so we could also see the volcano, cacao farms, and waterfalls.
Pros: The condo has everything you need, including two large bathrooms which were critical for us as 2 couples. It's clean and well-maintained and the sofa is comfy. The included washer and dryer were also very useful as we had lots of laundry from a very active vacation. The proximity to the pool, beach, and parking were all fantastic. The pool area is small but very nice, and we spent a lot of time there. We also used the kickboards and chairs provided in the beach gear locker which were very much appreciated. Nothing worse than a beach trip with no beach equipment, so this was great! Cliff is also very friendly and answered our questions quickly.
Cons: The guest bedroom is two twin beds pushed together, and the beds are hard and both the beds and pillows were uncomfortable for us. If you have kids, they won't care, but as a married couple used to our nice bed/bedding at home, this made us creaky and cranky. It was a constant battle turning down the Nest air conditioning system, which was programmed to reset the temperature to 77 degrees periodically. The bedrooms were always slightly stuffy since the vents in there were smaller, and the bathrooms had no vents, so you must keep the doors open to cool them. I understand the need to not be wasteful, but this was annoying especially when we came home one night ready to go to bed, after a long sweaty day, and the condo was very warm. The grocery store nearby is CRAZY expensive. After spending a lot of money there, we found out from our restaurant server that there is a regular grocery store 20 minutes away in Waimea. If you stay here, don't make the same mistake we did! Finally, the checkout procedure requiring us to wash, dry, and fold the towels made things a little hectic on our last day. Luckily, the host gave us a late checkout (which was super appreciated!), so we had extra time to get it all done.
All in all, we would definitely stay here again if the bed/bedding were replaced. Mahalo Cliff!