My family just spent a fabulous May in Kona at the Mahi Lulani house. Most of the great aspects are already covered by other reviews: the view and interior are as gorgeous as advertised, the location is convenient to Kona activities. Although far from a really nice sandy swimming beach, itâs only about a 15 minute drive to great snorkeling or the large tidepool that serves as a keiki (children) beach. There are beach toys and coolers, lots of towels, books and puzzles (more now!) The wi-fi was fine both to work and stream with. The kitchen is big and well stocked with appliances, glasses, etc. The pool is amazing and very clean.
The service from Kona Concierge was generally great. We had an issue with streaming from the large living room television â it was replaced the next day! On the other hand, here are a few things you might want to consider:
1) bugs and frogs: the coqui frogs have made it to Kona. These are tiny frogs that have a pretty noisy birdlike call. They start at sunset and go til about 4, and the birds start at 4:30. Most of us got used to these quickly, but not everyone in our party was able to sleep well. With no AC, all the windows needed to be open on hot evenings. The noise is strongest in the two bedrooms farthest from the pool. And, maybe because there was more rain in may than usual, the mosquitos were a bit overwhelming for most of us. At some point one of us had over 30 bites, while others had only one or two.
2) safety: this is not an accessible house. The gorgeous infinity pool has no handrail. This is pretty clear from the pictures, but if there were a way to put one in temporarily that would be amazing.
3) hot water and dishwasher: we were five adults going in and out of the pool. The washing machine was a life-saver and did well with water of any temp. The dishwasher, on the other hand, and shower in the north wing, were often useless. We only found out when we called the company to let them know about a neighborhood power-outage (in case anything needed resetting) that THE HOT WATER IS ON A TIMER. Huh? When we washed dishes after 8 pm, even after slamming the dishwasher shut, which was required, the cold water did nothing.