Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea

Wailea Beach is a crescent of golden sand on the dry south-west coast of Maui, with the islands of Kahoolawe and Molokini on the horizon and humpback whales offshore between December and April. Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea has occupied its northern end since 1990, a U-shaped building of eight floors around a courtyard of fountains and lawns that opens onto the beach.

History

Wailea was laid out as a resort district in the 1970s by the Alexander & Baldwin company on former ranch and cane land, with golf courses, a beach path and sites for hotels along the shore. The Four Seasons opened in 1990 as the district's most expensive hotel and Four Seasons' first in Hawaii. In 2004 it was bought by MSD Capital, the investment firm of Michael Dell, which has owned it since and funded successive renovations. In the autumn of 2020, with the resort closed to guests by the pandemic, HBO filmed the first season of The White Lotus here, using the lobby, the pools and the beach as the fictional hotel; the series aired in 2021 and the resort has been identified with it ever since.

Architecture and design

The building is a broad U in a loosely Mediterranean style, cream stucco with tiled roofs, arcades and a central courtyard that steps down to the pool terraces and the beach. The lobby is open to the trade winds at both ends, with a view straight through to the sea. Successive renovations have lightened the interiors with pale woods, Hawaiian textiles and local art, and the public spaces are built around the courtyard's lawns, fountains and fire pits.

Rooms and suites

There are 383 rooms and suites, most with a lanai, the Hawaiian balcony, and the majority with at least a partial view of the ocean. The rooms are large by Hawaiian standards, with marble bathrooms and separate showers. Suites rise through several categories to the Maile Suite, the largest, with its own pool deck. Rooms on the wings face the Haleakalā volcano or the gardens; those on the beach side look out to Molokini.

Dining

Spago, Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, has operated here since 2001 with a menu that mixes his Californian cooking with Hawaiian fish, and it looks over the beach from the lobby level. Ferraro's Bar e Ristorante sits at the water's edge with Italian food at lunch and dinner and live music most evenings. DUO Steak and Seafood is the breakfast room and a steakhouse at night, with a terrace on the courtyard. The Lobby Lounge serves sushi and cocktails, and there is a poolside restaurant and bar.

Wellness

There are three pools. The Serenity Pool is adults-only, with an infinity edge towards the ocean and a swim-up bar; the Fountain Pool is the family pool, and a third pool sits near the beach. The spa has treatment rooms, an outdoor garden for massages and thatched hale on the beach for treatments by the water, with a fitness centre and classes on the lawn. The beach is used for outrigger canoe trips and snorkelling, and the Wailea golf courses are a few minutes away.

Weddings and events

Weddings take place on the lawns facing the ocean and on the beach, with receptions in the courtyard, on the terraces and in the ballroom. The resort has a ballroom, meeting rooms and outdoor function lawns for conferences and incentive groups, and it is one of the larger meeting hotels on the island. Whale season and the summer are the busiest periods for weddings.

Location

Wailea is on the south-west coast of Maui, about 30 minutes by car from Kahului Airport. The Shops at Wailea are a short walk along the beach path, which runs the length of the resort district. Lahaina and the west coast are about 45 minutes away, and the road to the summit of Haleakalā begins half an hour inland. Among luxury resorts on Maui it is the one with the largest room count on Wailea Beach and the best-known address since 2021.