Confirm a NEW RESERVATION, at our regular rates for either Villa 2-204 or 6-304 BEFORE game kickoff Sunday January 23rd, 2011 2PM CT. and the Bears final score (win or lose) is your % discount. Your reservation % discount will be adjusted to new rate after game ends. Discount applies to room rate only.
• Eating out and discovering great spots is one of the special pleasures of being on vacation. I don’t know about you, but Bonnie and I savor our restaurant experiences and hate to be disappointed. When at our condo we do often eat out and have many favorite places and opinions on food, service and the overall dining experience. A hidden gem is the Holualoa Café (76-5901 Mamalahoa Hwy, Holualoa (808) 322-2233). The drive along Mamaloha Hwy to Holualoa is itself like going back in time to older Hawaii. We go for either breakfast or dinner but mainly breakfast (see below for other breakfast recommendations). Good food and a lovely tropical patio. Traffic noise from the nearby Mamalohoa Hwy detracts a bit. We have also experienced very slow service on occasion. So take it easy, relax, and enjoy the location and moderate prices.
• A favorite place of ours, for at least one dinner visit while at the condo, is Jackie Rey’s Ohana Grill (75-5995 Kuakini Hwy,. Kailua-Kona, 808.327.0209). I would characterize it as a small family style place in a tiny strip mall. No tropical setting, no ocean view. It is best seen at night when it’s open wooden window shutters gives a kind of Hawaii Back Country feel. The food is good and the prices are reasonable..I like their attitude. They are plugged into the local community and care about it. Sign up for their news letter and when you are back home you will be an occasional memory aid of your visit when the newsletters arrive in the mail.
• For a really fine dining experience, Bonnie and I always pick the Pahu i’a. This restaurant is located in the Four Seasons Resort (72-100 Ka`upulehu Drive Kailua-Kona (808) 325-8000). The restaurant is very upscale and with prices to match as you would expect from Four Seasons. We have had breakfast and dinners there and have always felt that the whole experience was worth the price. Actually the experience begins at the entrance to the Four Seasons Resort property. The drive to the front lobby through the idyllic golf course (greens set in lava fields) sets you up for a walk through the lobby building. Splurge and leave your car with the valet. The lobby building, for me, epitomizes the tropical architecture style (perhaps Polynesian more than Hawaiian with it grand open-to-nature feel. Then walk to the Pahu i’a where you can take a table at the ‘rail’ and be nearly at the water’s edge. This is luxury setting with creative fusion cuisine. Impeccable service too. No question that the Four Seasons beats the Kona Coast for style and nearly everything else (as it should for the price). But when I look at those room units (at about $400/night), I think, you know they don’t even compare to the quality and value and livability of our condo. After a lovely special meal it is great to get back to our condo and the comforts of home.
Kona Coast Resort Condo # 7-106
Bonnie and Fred’s Condo
I don’t know about you, but Bonnie and I enjoy eating out. And by that I mean ‘Al Fresco’.
Outside in the lovely Hawaii air. The condo kitchen is great for sure but we also eat out
every chance we have. Breakfast is just one such opportunity for pleasure during a day but I will focus on breakfast in this message. There are at least three places we always make an effort to enyoy during our ever so brief time at the condo. Each as a different character to savor and they have different distances from the condo.
If you don’t have a car, our first recommendation is a
short walk to the south along Ali’i Drive. Kona Golf and Country Club ‘Vists’ restaurant.
http://www.konagolf.com/konagolf/restaurant.cfm
78-7000 Ali’i Dr and about 10-15 min walk from the condo. Inexpensive traditional food in a
building with large open windows looking onto Keahou Bay. Nearly like being Al Fresco!
To reach the second place, you could take the bus to get downtown in Kailua but a car is nice
to travel the 4 miles. One of the most delightful locations to eat is Java on the Rock.
http://www.javaontherock.com/
This is essentially an espresso coffee cart that serves a minimal breakfast (like eggs and
bagel). The food and coffee are expensive and the food comes on paper plates. Plus they
have an ‘attitude’ (No sitting down until you have paid. No cell phone calling. etc.). What you
get is your toes in sand a few feet from the waves and an umbrella over your head to protect
from the sun. It can be a sublime experience. However, be sure to go early as they close at
10:30, start to clean up and put the coffee cart away. You must be out the door by 11:00.
The third resturant is a drive. It’s south on Highway 11, one mile south of the Captain Cook Post Office, between mile markers 108 and 109 for the Coffee Shack.
http://www.coffeeshack.com/
This is about 10 miles from the condo. As the ‘Blue Book’ says (see the blog below) it is a
great place to stop on the way to Volcano. But if you go from the condo as a round trip
there are some intersting shops along the way and you can make a morning of it. The Coffee
Shack has decent food and reasonable prices but oh oh the view. You sit on a covered lanai
at the 1500 ft elevation level and look out at Kealakekua Bay. This is the famous place where
Captain Cook lost his life in a fight with the native Hawaiians.
So folks, even if you are at the condo for only a week, take time to enjoy one of these three
spots.
Kona Coast Resort Unit # 7-106 Bonnie and Fred’s condo