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The Group Travel Leader Going on Faith Select Traveler

A quick look at the Fairmont Orchid


Courtesy Fairmont Orchid

1 North Kaniku Drive
Kohala Coast, Hawaii, HI 96743
800-845-9905 or 808-885-2000
808-885-8886 fax

www.fairmont.com/orchid

What’s New: The resort has added 42-inch LCD flat-screen televisions and other high-tech amenities to guest rooms and renovated two of its restaurants.

Kudos: The recipient of AAA’s Four Diamond award, the resort has won a spot on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2011 Gold List and is No. 10 on its 2010 Top Resorts in Hawaii and Top 80 Golf Resorts in the World. Its Spa Without Walls is on Travel and Leisure’s World’s Best Hotels and Resorts Top Hawaii Hotel Spas[Is this all one category?] and Marie Claire magazine’s Sexiest Spas in the World.

Rooms: 540 guest rooms include 54 suites (among them two presidential suites) and a 45-room Fairmont Gold Floor with private concierge services. All rooms have private lanais and views of the ocean, mountains or tropical gardens.

Meeting space: The resort’s 32,000 square feet of indoor function space includes three garden-terrace ballrooms, a full-size amphitheater, seven conference rooms and a business center. Outdoor meeting areas are immense, encompassing 76,000 square feet.

Amenities: Daily Hawaiian cultural activities include outrigger canoe rides, net-throwing, stand-up paddle boarding; historic hikes and Hawaiian lore, and Hawaiian arts and crafts. Guests can stargaze; snorkel alongside Hawaiian green sea turtles; take a seaside yoga class; visit the spa and its 10 waterfall huts and five oceanside cabanas; and swim in an oceanfront 10,000-square-foot swimming pool. Other features include two 18-hole golf courses, a 10-court tennis pavilion, a protected swimming lagoon, a fitness center, walking/jogging trails, a children’s program and four restaurants, including a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, a deli and a lounge.

Location: The 32-acre oceanfront resort is on the northwest edge of the Big Island of Hawaii, 20 miles from Kona International Airport. Nonstop air service is offered from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Seattle. Three interisland airlines offer daily flights from the Big Island to Honolulu International Airport. If a meeting requires freight, eight shipping companies offer service between the U.S. mainland and Honolulu. Generally, goods leaving the West Coast take a week; from the East Coast, two to three weeks.