Fairmont Orchid Hawaii

We recently returned from an 8-night trip exploring nearly every part of the Big Island of Hawaii. This is the start of a few picture-full travel recaps. If you are looking for what to do, where to eat, and where to stay on the Big Island. Look no further. On our last night, the Fairmont Orchid partnered with me to offer us a one-night stay while I got to photograph and enjoy the grounds. This post is about that excellent experience.

We pondered the idea for only a few minutes before our minds were made up. Once we were ready to book our flights to the Big Island we realized that it was more affordable to fly back on Sunday versus Saturday. We’d booked our lodging before our flights, like we normally do, so we had seven nights booked at rental houses, three in Kona and four in Hilo.

Flying back on Sunday would put us on the island for a night with no place to stay just yet, but we were too tempted by an extra night in paradise so we clicked purchase on the flights. 

We’d figure it out.

I started looking at resort hotel accommodations. We’d planned to be on the go for most of the trip, exploring the island and picturing what it might be like to own a plot of farmland in the middle of such a peaceful place.

But the idea of completely relaxing that last night with no hikes to take and no drives to dinner was growing on us.

At that, knowing a colleague had recently stayed at the Fairmont Orchid, I reached out to their marketing team to see if they might work with me for a one-night accommodation. They responded with a generous offer of a night on their beautiful Gold Floor.

I will admit we are not the types to stay on a resort for our entire trip when traveling to Hawaii. We don’t travel with family, simply as a couple without children. We take on a lot of exploration and pack light-ish, making a washer and dryer beneficial.

All that being said, we’ve already started discussing staying a few nights at the Fairmont Orchid on our own to end future trips to the island. I don’t know if it was the friendliness of the staff, the comfortable room, the grounds, or the food and drinks. Probably a combination of them all. It was so nice to wind down from an adventure inspired trip and completely relax a little while before heading back home.

This is a little bit of why we loved it so much…

The resort is located on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island, so it’s a bit north of Kona. So many parts of the island are stunning, but this specific patch of the property is breathtaking. With lava rocks, coconut palms, and turquoise waters everywhere you turn, it instantly puts you at ease. 

If you are traveling as a couple, it’s also nice to know that while the resort has a lot of family-friendly activities, there are also plenty of spots where you can grab some quiet time. 

We arrived much earlier than check-in time because given the location of the resort, our trip back over the island from Hilo took much less time than we expected. Our room was ready within 15 minutes of arrival and we welcomed the opportunity to be on the resort early for some extra hours of a relaxing stay.

After exploring the grounds, we sat down at the bar at the Hale Kai Restaurant to grab a drink. Now, we typically stick to local craft beer and rum when in Hawaii, but this drink convinced us to have some tequila. 

The Barrel Mule. Tequila from a specially selected barrel of Patron specifically for the hotel is combined with a ginger and lime puree for this drink. It’s garnished with a piece of candied ginger which I had never considered topping a cocktail with before, but it is now my new favorite thing. 

Also – paper straws! So glad to see bars and hotels saying no to non-recylable plastic. 

Well hydrated, we were able to check out the room, which was very comfortable.

The Gold Floor is a pretty special place. It includes a concierge room that serves breakfast, afternoon tea, and nightly hors d’oeuvres. We made it to the night hors d’oeuvres before dinner. My favorite were the pork buns. We also had breakfast there the next morning, of which my favorite were the chef’s special macadamia nut caramel rolls. The room has all kinds of nice touches like an artistic cold brew coffee set up, papaya drinking vinegar at the probiotics station, and an honor bar where you pour your own cocktails. 

Tip, if you eat breakfast there, don’t forget to look in the cooler by the drinks. There is yogurt with lilikoi (passion fruit) jam to be found!

We hung out at the pool the rest of the afternoon staying true to our commitment to wind down on our last day. We had two nice surprises while doing so. The first was this girl and her puppy (which I didn’t get a good picture of due to his wiggly-ness).  Her owners said she had been out surfing all morning. 

As if the hotel wasn’t winning me over with great views and paper straws. Yep, they are dog-friendly! People likely won’t be vacationing from the mainland to Hawaii with their dogs (they have some hefty quarantine times), but this is great news for folks living on the island. The Big Island is just that, big. It can take 2 hours to drive from some spots to others. We drive 2 hours to go to the coast here and stay in hotels so I expect there are mini-vacationers there as well that travel with pets. 

At about 3:00 pm we noticed a few folks gathering near a permanent railing above a rocky piece of coastline at the beach. My husband said he’d walk over and check to see if they were looking at anything special. 

My phone buzzed with a text – Nine turtles on the beach and one more swimming in. 

I might have jumped out of my beach chair immediately. If you watched any of my Instagram footage during this trip, you know that turtles are a very big deal to me! 

We came back to a nice surprise in the room, a gift from the Fairmont marketing team. I was also tempted to wear our leis during our entire stay. 

Before dinner we took a stroll around the property. The evening light was beautiful and the sunset like a postcard. Honestly, this whole place is like a tropical postcard. 

We risked being late for our dinner reservation to catch the lighting of the tiki torches.

We also took one of those beers along for the walk. 

We had dinner at Norio’s, a Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar on the property. This is one of those experiences where you don’t quite understand where reviewers on sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp are coming from. Our food and drinks were not comped except for the in-room gift and the food provided on the Gold Floor, so this is not coming from the perspective of a gifted meal. We chose to eat at Norio’s on our own and were drawn in by the unlimited sushi option with the sake pairing. 

We had delicious food and excellent service. In fact, I was really disappointed to hear from our server that they are going to be closing this restaurant and opening a restaurant with a different concept in the near future. 

The first to hit the table was a pillowy, green tea bread. The sake had a pleasant banana peppery note that was unique to other varieties I’ve tried before.

After a super active week on the island (you’ll get the idea in a few other posts I have planned coming up), we turned in early and had a great night’s sleep in the first proper air conditioning we’d had on the trip. 

The next morning, I had one goal. See those sea turtles before they headed off into the ocean. I got up at 5:45 am. 

Once I got down to the beach and rounded the walkway, this is what I saw. 

One single turtle left! I was both mad at myself for not getting up earlier and happy that this one had waited for me before hitting the road. I snapped some pictures, then stood and watched in the quiet of the morning as he shuffled down to the waves and let them wash him into the sea. It’s a scene that I could never possibly get tired of viewing. 

Once the turtle was gone, I took a walk and enjoyed the beautiful morning light on the property.  I also used a lava rock as a tripod to capture some of the waterfalls around the resort. 

There’s been a lot going on around the Big Island lately. The devastation for some weighs heavy on your mind. But that being said, this area of the island is as beautiful and peaceful as ever. We were grateful to have a full 24-hours of complete relaxation to close out our trip. 

And I have to say, if you are looking for that on your Big Island vacation, too, I’d highly recommend the Fairmont Orchid. We will definitely be back for a stay on our own in the future.

I expect many returns trips to this island in the coming years. This is our 3rd island visited in Hawaii after Kauai and Maui, and as I expected from the descriptions we received prior to our trip, it is my very favorite. 

More on why this is the case to come.