Turtle Bay Resort

If you're a regular Ritz-type customer, then the prices shouldn't bother you. If you're not, be prepared - restaurants, hotel, resort fee, valet - $$$$. The hotel is beautiful - I think all rooms get some kind of amazing view; not sure if some rooms are updated and others aren't, but ours was pretty dated. The decor was nice but bathrooms were definitely "older". Housekeeping comes daily, which is nice. The gym has one of the best views of all! Hotel lobby bar is a great place to enjoy the open air views. The resort fee does include an umbrella and two chairs on the beach - first come, first serve. Pool gets crowded, so we spent time on the beach. You are isolated, so unless you want to drive, you are stuck with the property restaurants. We tried Beach House by Roy Yamaguchi - casual, food was okay - lots of sauces; Alaia - beautiful setting, food & service good; Ho'olana - grabbed a sandwich here (enough for 2 ppl) & took it to the beach for lunch - probably the best meal we had - was delish; Room Service - pizza & 1 glass of wine, about $70. We much preferred the dining in Haleiwa, but it is about 25 minutes. Kahuku is only 5 minutes away - lots of food trucks, but not open for dinner. Great location if you're looking to get away but the hotel itself can get crowded - pool & restaurants/bars, and we were off season. Hard to go wrong while in Hawaii.

We stayed 5 days in an Ocean Bungalow. The room was beautiful, spacious for a couple, and had a backyard area and a view of a beach and the surfing area in front of the hotel proper. The staff kept it clean and brought requested items (a blanket, bag of ice, breakfast) reasonably quickly. We enjoyed the Jamie O’Brian surf experience with Hugo, as he was an excellent teacher. We had breakfast included, and the buffet at Alaia is fabulous. My favorite meals on the property was breakfast. My favorite amenity is the trails to run and walk on each morning. The pools and hot tub are okay. A meter deep and mostly for wading. We spent time in the hot tub which was respectably hot. They have a few cute waterslides too, and a handful of creative mocktails for us non-drinkers. I would have rated this a 5 if the pools and food were more to my liking, for the price. We spent a lot of time each day off the property, enjoying the beauty of O’ahu.

Lovely resort with A+ food and staff. Dined at Roy’s Beach house and it was simply amazing. A huge shout out and thank you to our new friend Dayse, she works in the shop next to front desk. Met her in the grocery store and chatted with her. Next thing she tells us is that she works at the Ritz. We purchased a few items in the shop. She was the friendliest person! A+ to Dayse. Another shout out to the mgr of the pool deck and cabanas. I don’t remember her name but she was so lovely and sweet.

This is a very remote hotel at the far north of the island. Nothing around it so it is all about the resort. Luckily it is a very nice place to be. Simply one of the best lobby bars I have ever seen and with bar staff to match. Every night they had live music that was complementary to the atmosphere. During the day they offered a good selection of activities that are complementary. Rooms nice, modern, clean with a super ocean view. Bathroom is massive! The main sunset restaurant is lovely. Food good and service to match. There is an onsite coffee shop that is as good as will get. The adult Pool is nice although can be noisy and has thick lounger cushions but not much shade on offer. The pool staff are great and very attentive. Other pools are available and these offer more shade. This really is a nice place to be but not sure I’d say 5 star hence the rating.

This was our fifth stay at Turtle Bay, and our first since Ritz-Carlton took over. We have always loved this resort, which made this experience especially shocking. The setting is still spectacular, and the pricing is unquestionably Ritz-Carlton, but the service felt much more like a standard Marriott. Our room had a persistent bad odor that ultimately resulted in the hotel replacing our mattress. During our stay, I developed approximately 40 unexplained insect bites and my five-year-old had around 30. Whatever the source, dealing with that many bites during a luxury family vacation was extremely upsetting. They did move us and all our belongings to another room and when we got there the room was left unlocked - we found out that the door lock was broken and they had to move us again Dining and pool service were also surprisingly disappointing. We sent back multiple meals, including poke that didn’t seem fresh, and on three separate occasions asked for water at the pool that simply never came. The polished, anticipatory Ritz-Carlton service we had experienced in the past was noticeably absent. We never once heard the signature “with pleasure” that we had experienced so consistently before. We also booked the resort’s catamaran excursion, which was billed as a luxury experience but was anything but. The trip felt uncomfortable and unsafe. Despite being told we didn’t need to bring anything, there were no towels or water onboard. Lunch was a plastic-wrapped grocery-store-style sandwich, and the only beverage offered was Spindrift. It was nowhere near the luxury experience we were expecting. The pricing throughout, however, is unquestionably luxury. An 80-minute massage was $395, plus an $85 service charge, tax and gratuity. At that level of pricing, expecting an exceptional level of service doesn’t seem unreasonable. Any one of these issues could have been overlooked. It was the accumulation of them—and the stark difference from our four previous stays—that made this visit so disappointing. Turtle Bay remains an extraordinarily beautiful property, but at Ritz-Carlton prices, guests should receive Ritz-Carlton service. Based on this stay, we cannot recommend it at the current price point. There are simply too many exceptional luxury resorts in Hawaii delivering the level of service these rates should command. After five visits to a resort we genuinely loved, we won’t return unless there is a meaningful improvement in service and quality.