Adventures at a Maui Playground; Freelance Writer Evelyn Silver Describes a Stay at the Recently Renovated Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa

Business Wire, Oct 18, 2004

The Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa was renovated in early 2004. Below is Evelyn Silver's account of her recent stay.

Cocooned in a pillow nest, I gaze at the pink-and-purple dawn and contemplate my day at The Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa.

I am always tempted, in a high-end hotel, to make my room my world. All 780 guest rooms at Grand Wailea were renovated in early 2004 in tranquil shades of auburn, peach, taupe and cream, with a light, tropical feel. The bathrooms are marble suites. Lanais are outfitted with teak furnishings. Every one of the rooms is now non-smoking. (All the more reason to stay in-doors.)

But outside, the Grand Wailea offers another world where adventure begins.

WATER WORLD, ART HAVEN

Michael Gilbert, curator of the Grand Wailea art collection, who leads twice-weekly art tours, explained that the hotel represents the vision of its founder, Japanese industrialist and patron of the arts Takeshi Sekiguchi. Gilbert, hired by Sekiguchi in 1989, when the hotel was just a stack of blueprints and some torn-up earth, recalls his boss as gifted and driven, an unusual man. "There is nothing like this. It's the last days of Pompei," he says, gesturing around the immense, airy spaces of the lobby, where every detail is a Sekiguchi touch. The clam railing motifs are a sly reference to Sekiguchi's love of Botticelli's "Venus," for example.

Today, hotel operator KSL Resorts is building on the dream of a resort that was meant to be a daily conversation between truth and beauty.

Sekiguchi looked over the land 10 years before the hotel opened in 1991 and saw in its slope from Haleakala hillside to Wailea shore a place where he could intertwine the forces of nature and the artistic ideas of many of the world's great civilizations.

His first tool was the most elemental: water. Nowhere on the property are you out of earshot of flowing of water. It begins with a wall of water cascading over stone at the entry and continues in two streams that take separate paths down the slope, feeding tile-lined pools and koi ponds, bubbling up in fountains, shooting through waterslides and flowing gently under bridges. (The pools are fed from different sources, but the illusion of a connected network of water is a beguiling one.)

Sekiguchi's second idea was to create an indoor-outdoor museum, amassing a collection of artworks while making artwork, too, of the hotel's architectural features (the rotunda of the Spa Grande is based on an ancient Italian theater, the railings on the bridges are hand-carved 'ohia wood).

He purchased dozens of pieces, the most recognizable being the nine much-larger-than-life bronzes by Fernando Botero lining the lobby courtyard. Both international figures and well-known Island artists are represented in the more than 70 pieces.

The rarest, including a set of Picasso prints, hang in Na Pua Gallery. Others are cunningly placed all about, many in unexpected groves and nooks -- a treasure trove to be discovered on guided tours (twice weekly) or self-guided strolls (brochures at the concierge desk). Each Tuesday morning, the hotel hosts Artists in Residence who interact with guests.

FUN IN THE SUN

But, of course, many visitors to Hawaii are most intent on hot fun.

For these, a major attraction is the 2,000-foot-long riverpool, Wailea Canyon Activity Pool with water slides, a Tarzan-type rope swing, white water rapids, a 10-foot-deep scuba pool where you can safely and comfortably practice immersion techniques while becoming scuba certified and the sand-floored "Baby Beach" (a separate saltwater pool/beach for toddlers).

If this is a bit too raucous for you, as it is for me, there's the quiet, adults-only Hibiscus Pool, where large, curtained cabanas rent for $130 a day (peak season is $150 a day) while smaller, two-person casabellas (dual chaise lounges with sun-screening hoods) are $45 a day. (Reserve early.)

Concessionaires on the beach offer kayaking, snorkeling excursions and gear rentals. My very favorite aspect of the Wailea resort is the paved path that links several miles of shoreline; perfect for morning walks or runs and evening strolls.

HEALING HANDS, WELCOMING WATERS

I have visited all of the Islands' full spas and the spacious Grand Wailea is large enough to offer a considerable measure of privacy and personal space. Crowding and noise destroy the almost Zen trance, the contemplative turning inward, that is central to the spa experience. Not so at the Grand Wailea, which occupies an entire two-floor wing with men's and women's hydrotherapy areas, treatment rooms and the lanai/waiting area overlooking the resort's tranquil reflecting pool.

Every visit begins with Terme Wailea Hydrotherapy. First, a body scrub. New since my last visit was the Maui-made sugar scrub bar, each with a different purpose, from grounding to energizing. Still attempting to shed office stress, I chose Peaceful -- lavender and honey.

Afterward, the entire West to East bath buffet is yours: steam room or sauna, Roman pool, Japanese furo, cold plunge, a range of healing baths from mud to seaweed, Swiss Jet Shower, and cascading waterfalls where the water pounds down on your shoulders while you sit in a marble enclosure. All are included in the $55 Terme fee ($80 for non-guests; $80 with scrub bar), as are towels, a private locker, showers and bath and hair products.