Kona International Airport (KOA): Approximate driving time is 40 minutes and distance is 24 miles.

Mauna Kea Resort is located on the Big Island's western Kohala Coast, north of the major Kona International Airport at Keahole. A rental car is best for exploring the Big Island, though the hotel can arrange transportation to and from the airport for a fee. Area traffic peaks between 6 and 8 AM and 4 and 6 PM.

A complimentary shuttle operates every 20 minutes between Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Mauna Kea's golf course, Mauna Kea's tennis courts, companion Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, and the Hapuna Beach golf clubhouse and fitness center, where Mauna Kea guests have access privileges.

Batik - This fine-dining restaurant features European and Asian cuisine. The glass-enclosed dining room offers garden and ocean views. Specialty dishes include shrimp, lobster, or chicken served in spicy Thai or Batik's signature east Indian curry. Meals conclude with the delivery of bonbons atop a vented container of dry ice, which flows over tables like lava from an erupting volcano. In the cocktail lounge, a pianist performs nightly. Dinner reservations are recommended.

19th Hole - Open for casual lunch in Mauna Kea's golf clubhouse. The menu includes American salads, burgers, and hot dogs, as well as sushi, sashimi, katsu-donburi, and saimin.

Hau Tree - This oceanfront restaurant serves lunch salads and sandwiches, ice cream, cookies, and drinks to hotel guests in swim and beachwear. One night each weekend, a "clambake" seafood buffet dinner features live Hawaiian entertainment. Clambake menu includes grilled fresh catch, Manila clams, Washington state mussels, Keahole lobster, and New England clam chowder.

Lu'au - A once-weekly buffet feast is served outdoors in traditional Hawaiian style, with Hawaiian music and dancing. The morning of the event, hotel guests can help prepare the imu (underground oven) to roast kalua pig.

Terrace Restaurant - This open-air restaurant serves a full Sunday brunch buffet.

Copper Bar - Cocktails are served day and night.

Amenity highlights: Mauna Kea's golf course is built over black lava rock, and golfers can still tee off over an ocean inlet at the third hole. Public spaces feature 1,600 Pacific and Asian artworks from founder Laurance Rockefeller's private collection—including one of only three known 7th-century pink granite Buddhas from India. Lifeguards watch swimmers, snorkelers, and sailors at the hotel's beautiful, white-sand crescent beach, and the large pool has an ocean view. Guests can choose from excursions, craft classes, lu'aus, and many recreational activities.

Insider tip: Mauna Kea guests enjoy the amenities of the resort's companion, the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, which includes a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay. A shuttle between Mauna Kea's hotel, oceanfront tennis courts, and golf course; and Hapuna Beach's lobby, golf clubhouse, and fitness center departs every 20 minutes.

Hotel founder Laurance S. Rockefeller's private collection of 1,600 Pacific and Asian artworks and artifacts is displayed throughout the hotel. A brochure is available for self-guided art tours; docent-guided tours of art and gardens are also offered weekly.

A salon offers hair styling, pedicures, and manicures, as well as massage treatments given in tents on the beach or in guestrooms. The fitness center with cable TV has self-service complimentary coffee. Coin-operated laundry facilities are also available.

One evening each week, guests can join astronomers to view constellations through an 11-inch lens telescope. At Manta Ray Point, manta rays dine at night on small fish attracted by a spotlight, as hotel guests watch. For children age 5–12, half-day or full-day activities are available seven days a week, with a 50 percent discount May 1 to September 30.

Complimentary activities each week include a golf clinic and a couples putting contest; hula dance and ti-leaf skirt-making classes; and tours of Mauna Kea's Pacific and Asian art collection and gardens. Guests can also help prepare the imu (underground oven), where a pig is roasted for a weekly lu'au. The hotel offers Hawaiian craft lessons in making miniature bowls (umeke) and decorative flowers (fee). One night a week, astronomers with an 11-inch lens telescope offer guided constellation viewing (fee).

At no additional cost, guests can take advantage of all recreation at the resort's next-door companion hotel, the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, including a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay and summertime "Dive In" poolside movies.

The recreational activities listed below are available either on-site or near the hotel; fees may apply.