Turtle Bay Resort

A unique, beautiful location on the North Shore of Oahu but overall underwhelming service for the hefty price left us lukewarm on the overall experience. Our room was beautiful and the view was incredible. The adjacent ocean bay was perfect for our small children. Unfortunately, WiFi service was spotty and very unreliable in our room. More importantly, all of our interactions with hotel staff were underwhelming. We ate at the Point (pool bar restaurant) on the first night and found ourselves waiting > 60 minutes from placing our order until food arrival. When we mentioned this to our server, she later asked us to "wait 20 minutes after dinner for the manager to come." As it was already much later than we planned to spend at dinner, we elected to leave and chose not to eat on property for future meals. The following day, while getting ready for dinner, my wife found there was no hairdryer in our room. She called room service and asked them to bring one up. It was 3+ hours until they brought up the hairdryer and we were already back in the room after dinner. My wife's hair was long dry. Given the high daily "resort fee," a common practice amongst large Hawaiian hotels, we expected better service and more included amenities. For example, plan to pay an additional $20-$50 / day to rent chairs or shade at the beach. Parking is $15 (self-park) or $20 (valet) per night but self-parking involves a 10+ minute hike and competition against beach-goers, who park for free. The North Shore of Oahu is beautiful and Turtle Bay seems to be the only option if you would like to stay at a big resort on the north coast. Overall, we found the price to be high and the service significantly less than what we experience during the second half of our trip (at the Hilton on Waikiki). Read less

My husband and I were here to attend a friend's wedding in Honolulu and didn't want to stay in that area which is busy and congested. Our daughter suggested Turtle Bay as she and her family stayed there in Oct 2017 and loved it. We were not disappointed. It's very relaxing, the rooms are spacious and comfortable, and the view from our balcony was awesome. We loved our stay and highly recommend this resort. We will be back. Read less

It is unfortunate that Turtle Bay is the only big hotel to stay in on the North Shore. Our family of five stayed for two nights and could not get out of there soon enough (we changed our flights to earlier). Beach towels are hard to come by, the Private Ocean Villas pool had no place to sit. The Front Desk staff was not hospitable. Other than The Pointe, the restaurants were overpriced and sterile. No atmosphere whatsoever. Golf was decent. Given the public nature of the beach, renting beach equipment was difficult. Both days we saw families with coolers, boxes of chips, wagons and beach chairs getting wheeled to the beach. More of a Coney Island feel than a resort in Hawaii. Read less

Beautiful property with great views in every direction. We stayed in the main resort in what they called an “Ocean View King” room. What we booked on Hotels.com was called “Deluxe Ocean View”. It is apparently impossible to figure out the difference, if there is one. So, here is what I was able to find out walking around and talking to folks at the registration desk. Hopefully this helps you at least figure out what questions to ask. Except for suites (which are obviously larger), all rooms on all floors are exactly the same size. But, there are three types of balconies (lanais). Some rooms have larger, rectangular lanais with enough room for a couple of chairs with ottomans and an end table. That’s what we got (deluxe?). Others have smaller lanais with curved railings that provide just enough space for two bar chairs around a taller table. Finally, some rooms on the second floor (facing east, for whatever reason) had no usable lanais; just a sliding door and a railing. I believe the website refers to these rooms as “resort” rooms. One lady at the registration desk did say they “usually” charge more for the larger lanai, but they will sometimes waive the extra fee. No idea how or when, or whether they did for us (doubt it). Finally, the rooms on floor 6 are a premium stay area. The rooms are the same size but presumably the view is better from the top floor. There are also some other perks. I will note that even the 6th floor has both the larger and smaller lanai options, depending on the direction the rooms face. So again, if the larger balcony is important to you, don’t assume you’ll get one by booking the more expensive top floor. Best option ... call and ask to ensure you get what you want. Unfortunately, if using a travel site to book, it’s just hard to know what room they’re advertising for their discounted price. I noticed some still using the “Deluxe” adjective. After all of that, when it comes to the view ... you really can’t go wrong with any room on any floor facing any direction. The angles obviously will differ giving more of an ocean view versus a beach, bay or cove view, but they’re all stellar. By the time you add in the slope of the property down to the water even the 2nd floor is high enough to offer panoramic ocean, beach, and cove views. The attached pic was taken from floor 2. The pool complex is very nice with a great pool bar that serves potent maitais and yummy Kalua pork nachos. There is a small water slide for the kids. On the east side is a beach area on a protected cove where swimming and snorkeling are possible year round. They provide towels and snorkel gear for guests at the beach (part of the “resort fee” they charge daily). Chairs at the beach, however, are rental only. We paid $10 per chair for a half day (4 hours). At first it seemed annoying to rent a chair (this place isn’t exactly cheap), but it did prevent us from having to go down early and try to scope a chair before they were all taken, etc. You can also rent umbrella space if you need shade. The snorkeling isn’t tremendous, but enough variety of fish to make it interesting. Ironically, didn’t see a turtle at Turtle BayResort. Service was friendly and prompt. The food at Roy’s was very good. We didn’t play golf but the courses looked to be in beautiful shape. All in all, a wonderful place to stay. Read less