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I just got back home from two nights at the Andaz Maui at Wailea.

It’s a beautiful, luxurious, attentive resort with breathtaking sunset views.

It’s also very expensive, poorly located for the activities that interested me on Maui, and charges a $30 mandatory valet fee per day if you come with a car.

What are my thoughts on the service, food, room, value, and more (with tons of pictures)?

Valet

There is no self-parking at the Andaz. You pull right up to the main entrance and 1-3 valet attendants are waiting to open your door, welcome you to the Andaz, and give each member of your party a lei if you are checking in.

Valet is efficient, and you can call ahead as you leave your room to have your car waiting at reception.

I’ve certainly never had a more convenient parking experience at any hotel.

Unfortunately, this mandatory service costs $30 per night plus tips to the valet, which is an exorbitant price I would never pay to avoid walking.

Not only is this too expensive, but I’m against all unavoidable fees tacked on by hotels outside of the normal room rate. If valet is required–and a car is basically required on Maui–it should be part of the room rate in my opinion. Down with resort fees (which the Andaz Maui does NOT have) and down with mandatory valet parking fees!

Check In

Check in is a really nice experience. As we walked in, Tara, in a beautiful, flowing dress, came out from behind a counter and welcomed us to the Andaz. She asked us to take a seat in any of the waiting chairs while she prepared a lemonade and colt towel for us.

While we sipped our lemonade and cooled off from a day in the sun, she took my credit card and ID and checked us in on an iPad.

With the formalities completed, she showed us to our room and explained the features of the room.

The check in process is really well done.

I only wished we’d checked in during the day to maximize the beauty of the open air lobby with its resort and ocean views.

The Room

I’m not 100% sure which room type we had. The nights had been booked one at a time with free night certificates, one in a Partial Ocean View and one in a Garden room.

We could certainly see the ocean, so I assume we got the two queen Partial Ocean View room. We were on the 6th floor (out of 7) of the Makai tower. (“Makai” is Hawaiian for “toward the sea.”)

The room was adequately sized, stylish, and had some cool amenities.

I really liked the bath tub with a view of the TV.

The check in agent gave us an overview of the room. One nice feature is that the snacks are complimentary and replenished daily by house keeping. The nut bars were really good to take on our bike ride down Haleakala.

The refrigerator is stocked with non-alcoholic drinks and beers. The beers are Maui Brewing Company–I recommend the Bikini Blonde–and cost $8. The non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary.

Between the beds were buttons that controlled the two possible shades that could be put down over the window including an awesome blackout shade, which we used to nap from noon to 3 PM after biking down Haleakala on a day that started at 2:30 AM.

There were very few papers in the room describing the room service menu and other services of the hotel. Those were all on the TV menu, which is a nice way to save paper and make the info easily accessible.

Facilities

The hotel had some great facilities. There are three infinity pools, one below the next, that head down from the lobby to the beach. The middle one has a hot tub. All of them are perfectly aligned to watch the sunset, which is spectacular over the Pacific Ocean.

Below the three infinity pools is a de facto kiddy pool where I saw most of the families with small children at the resort.

On the other side of our tower was a pool for adults only that had some chairs inside the pool.

Pools were open from 6 AM to 10 PM except the one with a hot tub was open 24 hours.

There were also some rooms that opened to a mini-pool right next to the adults-only pool.

Also on property was a completely-empty well-stocked gym with views of the ocean from the cardio machines.

In the spa, there was a steam room and sauna–both free!

Also in the spa was an apothecary. I’m not 100% sure all the services offered by the apothecary, but she gave me a free hand scrub that she had just mixed as she waited for customers to come in.

The final facility to mention is the Ohana Room on the 1st floor of the Makai Tower. It is open to everyone in the hotel and best used by those who arrive too early to check in or fly out on a redeye and need a place to relax before the flight. It has TVs, couches, lockers, a computer and several full bathrooms.

Beach

You’re going to Maui for the beach, right?

The resort’s beach is small, beautiful, and feels very private.

The sense of privacy is caused by a rocky outcropping between the resort’s small beach and the larger beach of the resort to the north.

The beach itself is a typical west-coast-of-Maui beach, no better or worse than you’d find farther up the coast at the other hotel centers.

On my last morning, I could see several whales playing in the ocean not far off the beach.  This is a common site in Maui (and the rest of Hawaii to a lesser extent) from January to March.

Food

I’ve heard the breakfast is mind-blowing from several sources. It’s $45/person or free if you are a Hyatt Diamond. We were out biking our first morning and still recovering from that bike ride the second morning.

We spent a lot of time away from the resort, so we only had one meal, room service for dinner. The room service menu is the mostly the same as the menu at Mokapu Market, which is the take away place at the hotel. It was surprisingly cheap. Three entrees–two paninis and a pizza–came to only $56 after taxes and the 20% gratuity.

They were delicious.

Here’s more info on dining at the hotel.

Service

The service was right up there with the sunset as the best feature of the Andaz Maui at Wailea.

Every member of the staff I interacted with was friendly–not just the absence of unfriendliness but actual friendliness–and attentive.

• The valet had three people waiting to open our doors as we pulled up. They later were extremely helpful suggesting a running route to my friend.
• The check in agent took the time to show us everything about our room.
• The cleaning lady asked if we wanted a water refill, and walked down the hallway to fill our carafe with cold water.
• The pool attendant immediately arrived to offer me a seat cover, a towel, a water, and the menu.
• Another pool attendant offered to walk me to the spa when I asked where it was.
• The apothecary asked me if I wanted to try out a hand scrub she had just mixed when I asked what she was smelling.

Tip top marks for service.

Location

The Andaz Maui is in Wailea, which was inconvenient to everything we wanted to do.

The Andaz is 26 minutes from the airport, 45 minutes from the start of the Road to Hana, and 41 minutes from Lahaina.

There isn’t a single resort that’s convenient to everything on Maui, but I found Wailea to be particularly inconvenient.

The Andaz and Wailea are fine options if you mainly plan to stay put for a few days and not move around. If you plan a week in Maui with 4 days of activities and 3 days of relaxation, they’d be a great place for the 3 days. (For the other 4 days, I’d suggest moving around to hotels near where you want to start your day.)

Price

The hotel has a $549 base rate for much of the year. After taxes and valet, that is about $650 per night. Ocean view rooms and suites are more.

Why I Would and Would Not Stay at the Andaz Wailea

If I had a lot of money or Hyatt points or Ultimate Rewards or free night certificates at Hyatt, and I really planned to make the most of the resort’s facilities and activities, and watch the sunset each night, I would certainly stay at the Andaz Maui again.

I think it would make a particularly good spot for couples or families.

If I were looking for a base for Maui exploration though, I would not stay at the Andaz Maui.

For a Haleakala sunrise tour, I would stay in Haiku. For the road to Hana, I would stay in Haiku and Hana for a night each. To enjoy Lahaina and the Northwest, I would stay in Lahaina or at the Sheraton Maui.

Overall

I loved the service, sunset, reasonably priced room service, free internet, pools, and beach.

I didn’t like the location or mandatory valet parking.

The price is a bit high–even in points–for me to return any time soon, but I think the Maui Andaz at Wailea is ideal for a splurge for a few days and nights of relaxation as part of a larger trip to Maui that includes activities and other hotel stays nearer those activities.

If I missed anything in my review, please ask in the comments!