About
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is the original destination resort of the Pacific — designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for Laurance Rockefeller and opened in 1965 on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island, it established the model for Hawaiian luxury resort design that every subsequent property has followed. The hotel sits above Kauna'oa Bay, consistently rated Hawaii's finest beach for its crescent of white sand, exceptionally calm water, and absence of development on either side. Rockefeller's personal art collection — more than 1,600 pieces of Asian and Pacific art distributed throughout the hotel — remains in place, creating what is effectively a world-class art museum embedded in a resort. The spa includes Finnish sauna, steam, and ocean-view treatment rooms; the volcanic energy of Mauna Kea (13,796 feet) looming above the coast, combined with the Pacific thermal experience, creates a wellness environment of exceptional geological grandeur.
