Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea Review: Why Families & Couples Love It

Maui has no shortage of family-friendly luxury resorts, but Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea stands out for its impeccable service, understated elegance, exceptional dining, and seemingly endless kid-friendly amenities. And after years of booking readers and clients here with valuable Preferred Partner benefits, I’ve learned that couples love it just as much.

It’s the kind of resort where you want for nothing. Our own stay coincided with the threat of a hurricane, which thankfully never arrived, although there are worse places to be stranded when flights are canceled.

In this Four Seasons Maui review, I’ll share what I’ve learned from my own stays and years of client feedback, including how to choose the right room or suite, what to know about the restaurants and activities, and how best to make your reservation. Having once lived in a Four Seasons hotel, I also know exactly what the experience should be like.

Also featured in: Best Hotels in Maui, Hawaii

What’s New at Four Seasons Maui

The resort’s multi-phase transformation is nearly complete. In fact, everyone who checks in today will enjoy a renovated room or suite. The last of the accommodations are being finished as I type this.

Guests can also look forward to a redesigned Club Floor and lounge, and the new Kai Holo Spa, which includes an aquathermal circuit, updated fitness facilities, and a longevity center.

Other additions include Pantry by Madhappy for coffee and grab-and-go food, the Queen’s Garden cultural experience, KOMO sushi restaurant, and a Games Room for all ages.

Wailea: Perhaps the Best Maui Location

You can rent a car at Kahului Airport (OGG) and drive 25 to 30 minutes to the resort. The road to Wailea is mostly straight, which is important to us because my daughter got carsick on the other side of the island during a previous vacation.

The exclusive Wailea enclave in Maui is right up my alley because it’s quieter and leans more upscale than other popular tourist spots. Sure, there are still plenty of tourists because of the many resorts here, but I don’t feel overwhelmed.

We drive into nearby Kihei for odds and ends and to check out the local foodie spots my husband likes for poke and other delights. Kihei is also relatively quiet, easy to navigate, and home to grocery stores.

But I can absolutely see why some guests spend their entire vacation at the resort and rarely leave. Many now arrange transportation through Four Seasons or take an Uber or taxi from the airport, then rent one of the cars available on property for a day or two if they want to explore Maui. This also avoids paying the nightly parking fee for a rental car they may barely use.

How to Choose a Room at Four Seasons Maui

Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea has some of the largest standard guest rooms and bathrooms on the island. Every room currently available to book has been renovated.

I’ve booked guests into nearly every room and suite category here over the years, so I have a pretty good sense of which ones are worth considering. I haven’t personally stayed in one of the newly renovated rooms yet, but my clients have. And because the resort’s layout hasn’t changed, my advice about room locations and views still applies.

My Experience Staying in an Ocean-View Room

Our Ocean-View King Room was around 600 square feet, with a living area and an enormous bathroom. I’ve stayed in hotel rooms in Europe that were as large as this bathroom.

I appreciate that bath amenities include after-sun care, and through the fabulous Four Seasons app, you can (and I do) request other items you may have forgotten to pack. The empty mini-fridge lets us keep fruit and other perishables on hand for snacks. The rooms also come with Hawaiian-style coffee and coffee makers, though you can pick up a complimentary fresh cup and pastry in the lobby early in the morning.

Milk, cookies, and fruit were waiting in the room for my daughter upon check-in during our last stay. With this view, the balcony was a lovely place to watch the sunset or dive into a good book. I’m looking forward to staying in a renovated room because our clients’ reviews are extremely enthusiastic.

A Full Run-Down on Room and Suite Types

Here’s where my role as a travel advisor and attention to detail come in handy. The resort is shaped like a “U,” with rooms on the interior and exterior sides of that “U.” Understanding this layout is important because it affects what you’ll see from your room.

All of the guest rooms are 600 square feet, plus a lanai. The biggest differences between standard room categories are the location and view, rather than the amount of space.

Advice for families: King rooms have a sofa bed, so they can accommodate three adults or two adults and two children. Two-queen rooms accommodate up to four adults or two adults and two children. A crib can be requested in either room type.

If you need connecting rooms, the typical arrangement is a king room connecting to a two-queen room in the Garden-View, Deluxe Garden-View, Ocean-View, and Deluxe Ocean-View categories. Mountain-Side Rooms also offer a king-to-king connecting configuration.

The resort offers baby amenities such as diaper pails, bottle warmers, swings, high chairs, pop-up tents, rocking chairs, and babyproofing upon request. Our clients use these.

Mountain-Side Rooms line the back of the “U” and parts of the exterior sides. Some have beautiful views toward Haleakala, but they overlook parking areas, common spaces, or Wailea Alanui Drive.

I personally suggest starting with a Garden-View Room, the next category up, if budget permits (my friends in the reservations department agree with me). That said, some clients request Mountain-Side Rooms because they plan to spend most of their time at the pool or beach and aren’t particularly concerned about the view.

Garden-View Rooms and Deluxe Garden-View Rooms overlook the resort’s tropical landscaping. The main difference between the two is the quality of the view. Deluxe rooms generally have better garden views, and some even offer a small glimpse of the ocean, depending on when the trees and plants were last trimmed. Both room types tend to be on lower floors.

Ocean-View Rooms and Deluxe Ocean-View Rooms are on the middle to higher floors and have angled ocean views. You’ll see the ocean from your balcony looking left or right, or from certain angles inside the room. It’s not a straight-ahead ocean view.

Deluxe Ocean-View Rooms are closer to the tips of the “U” and generally offer a fuller ocean view. I highly recommend Deluxe for people who prioritize an ocean view.

Club Floor rooms and suites (26 in all) occupy the top floor of the resort’s South building, where they enjoy some of the best views. The Club Floor and its private lounge were redesigned in 2026.

Club guests enjoy:

• Private check-in and check-out
• Exclusive keyed access to the Club Floor
• The Club Lounge, with breakfast, afternoon tea, evening food presentations, after-dinner drinks, and a full-service bar
• A dedicated concierge team, many of whom have looked after Club guests for decades

Executive Suites come with Garden, Deluxe Garden, or Ocean views. These smaller suites are about 840 square feet and are popular with families because the bedroom is separate from the living room. Executive Suites outside the Club Floor do not include Club privileges.

The Garden-View Suite (1,100 square feet) is particularly useful for families of five because it can accommodate a rollaway in addition to the king bed and sofa bed.

The Ocean-View Prime Suite (1,400 square feet) offers more space, a separate living room, and ocean views. It can also connect to an additional guest room to create a two-bedroom configuration, which isn’t necessarily obvious when browsing the room categories.

For more space and some of the resort’s best ocean views, many of our clients choose larger suites. Going back to the resort’s U-shaped layout, many of these premium suites occupy the ocean-facing ends of the building or the tips of the “U.”

• The Oceanfront Prime Suite has a separate living room and a spacious lanai overlooking the Pacific and Wailea Beach. Like the Ocean-View Prime Suite, it can connect to additional guest rooms, with configurations of up to four bedrooms.
• The Elite Oceanfront Suites are available in two- and three-bedroom configurations, with additional space and services, including a dedicated personal assistant.
• The Maile Presidential Suite and Lokelani Presidential Suite are the resort’s top accommodations, with three bedrooms and generous indoor and outdoor living areas.

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Four Seasons Maui Swimming Pools

Now let’s get back to the resort amenities. Guests have three pools to choose from, but we spend the majority of our time in the family-friendly Fountain Pool (pictured at the top). Complimentary cabanas, plus poolside drink and food service, round out the leisurely experience.

During our last stay, I took advantage of the flavored waters, magazines, and sunscreen available at stations around the pools. Friendly staff members also cleaned sunglasses at no charge, provided cool towels and cucumber slices, and offered an amenity every hour, ranging from smoothies to muffins to fresh fruit.

I appreciate that you can’t just throw your stuff on a cabana first thing in the morning and call it yours for the day. While there is some leeway, the rule of thumb is that you risk losing your space if you are completely absent from it for over an hour. With guests rotating between the pool, beach, room, and various activities, securing a cabana was not difficult during our stay. Do order the poolside Mai Tai, which comes in a fresh pineapple.

Small children have their own pool, the Waterfall Pool, with a toddler-friendly mini water slide and multiple depths, including shallow wading areas.

Adults 21 and older seek respite in a tranquil pool area with a swim-up bar and cabanas, which is why many couples choose the resort. I recommend reserving cabanas at all pools in advance because they can sell out, especially during peak season.

So Many Onsite Activities — Most Are Included

To give you an idea of how much there is to do, we stayed for six nights, were fairly active, and still didn’t have a chance to experience everything.

A stop into the game room for a bout of ping-pong or shuffleboard became a pre-dinner ritual. The resort has since opened a new Games Room for all ages. A supervised Kids For All Seasons kids’ club is complimentary and offers daily programming for ages 5 and up. There’s also a camp dedicated to the tween and teen age groups, available seasonally (an extra fee usually applies).

Unfortunately, I had to take a call on Tuesday morning when SUP yoga was offered; otherwise, I would have totally tried it. We also seemed to be occupied during the complimentary outrigger canoe outings, but this is on my to-do list for next time.

The beach is beautiful. During our last stay, waves were a bit stronger and larger than usual because of the tropical storms, but we managed to rent boogie boards on our final day, when the water was calm, warm, and clear enough for snorkeling. No lifeguards are on duty, but flags indicate ocean conditions.

Chairs, umbrellas, towels, sand toys, volleyballs, and other recreational gear are available for guest use on the sand. A lounging area perched on a nearby bluff also overlooks the beach.

Fantastic Four Seasons Maui Restaurants

The food at Four Seasons properties is always good. It’s clearly an emphasis at this resort, perhaps because people tend to stick around after long days of leisure. We ate most of our meals at the Four Seasons Maui restaurants because it was tough to leave when, say, seafood or farm-to-table dinner buffets were happening steps from our room.

During our stay, we ate at every restaurant except Wolfgang Puck’s Spago. We actually planned to dine there on our last trip, but became sidetracked by what was lauded as Maui’s best raw bar.

DUO Steak and Seafood

Let’s start with the raw bar at DUO Steak and Seafood. During our stay, they offered a buffet that included bottomless lobster, crab, poke, oysters, and then some, paired with a choice of salad or soup. I think we savored every brilliant morsel over several hours. I’ve never eaten so much lobster in one sitting in my entire life. Today, DUO’s dinner menu has a raw and chilled section with oysters and king crab legs.

A few days prior, we’d booked the Market Night dinner with seasonal local produce and ingredients from the island. Guests could basically choose their own dinner from overflowing displays. At that time, about 70% of the ingredients were from the island (supporting upwards of 60 local fishermen, ranchers, and farmers), which was incredible given how much food was on offer.

Do arrive at DUO Steak and Seafood early enough to enjoy a cocktail with a Maui sunset. The staff noticed my husband squinting a little—he’d left his sunglasses in our room—so, of course, they brought over a box of sunglasses in multiple styles for guest use.

This was the view from our table.

DUO Steak and Seafood also has a fantastic breakfast buffet, featuring continental, international, and Hawaiian favorites. I ate piles of bananas soaked in coconut milk each morning, but the choices cover almost anything you’re craving for breakfast.

All buffets here offer adorable keiki options (I may confess to having indulged in the donuts here).

Ferraro’s Restaurant and Bar

We ate several times at Ferraro’s, near the pool, where the sunset is also fantastic. The seafood Cobb salad, kids’ steak (my daughter ordered it multiple times), and charcuterie and cheese board were also excellent. My husband ordered lobster pasta, which was out of this world.

Lobby Lounge

The view over the resort is arguably the best from here. The indoor-outdoor lounge proved the perfect spot to unwind with a cocktail and small plates after a long day of travel or sightseeing. A hula dancer performed to live music—talk about the perfect Hawaiian ambiance—and even allowed younger kids to jump in and give it a whirl.

KOMO

KOMO, added in 2025, is the resort’s sushi restaurant, with a sushi bar set inside part of the lobby. It is open for dinner.

Pantry by Madhappy

The café, open since August 2026, serves coffee and matcha drinks, pastries, sandwiches, salads, açaí bowls, and gelato. Two of the drinks are Maui exclusives: a mango sticky rice matcha latte and a banana coconut latte.

In-Room Dining

In-room dining is a perfect solution for late mornings and times when holing up in the room seems like the best idea.

My advice is to order the Japanese breakfast whenever it’s on the menu at a Four Seasons property. It is exquisite.

The Spa and Fitness Center

I went to the spa, of course, to enjoy a fantastic massage. The spa has since been rebuilt as Kai Holo Spa, which opened in July 2026. Its signature Pacific Journeys treatments are built on island ingredients such as kukui oil, honey harvested at the resort, and Hawaii-grown spirulina.

The spa’s centerpiece is an aquathermal circuit with three hydrotherapy pools (a vitality pool, a hot pool, and a cold plunge), a steam room, a sensory shower, and traditional and infrared saunas. The thermal area is co-ed, so swimsuits are required, and it is for guests 18 and older.

The fitness center was rebuilt at the same time, with new Technogym equipment and an infrared Movement Studio for yoga, Pilates reformer, and outdoor TRX classes. A longevity center next to the spa offers biomarker testing, IV therapy, and NAD+ treatments.

Offsite Activities

I rely heavily on Four Seasons concierges to organize my itineraries because they know best. I could research and research, but ultimately, their choices never fail me. This time was no different. Figuring we’d be jet-lagged, I organized a 6:30 a.m. snorkeling tour to Molokini with Kai Kanani that they suggested would be perfect for my daughter. It was.

She also loved Maui Zipline, a scenic drive of about 30 minutes. We rode five lines in sequence with witty guides who paid incredibly close attention to safety. The lines draped over a lush tropical plantation with panoramic views of the ocean on one side and mountains on the other. It’s perfect for families but not necessarily for the adrenaline junkie.

And the oceanfront Te Au Moana luau provided fantastic evening entertainment and pretty good food just a 10-minute or so walk from the resort. I appreciated that pre-dinner activities included demonstrations on how to open a coconut and detailed descriptions of how the pig is roasted, among others, so there wasn’t much idle time. There are simply a lot of things to do in Maui with kids.

A lot of our clients are booking helicopter tours lately to see places that aren’t accessible by car, and seeing the Road to Hana from the air is easier than driving it.

What to Know Before You Stay at Four Seasons Maui

Between the on-site boutiques and nearby shopping in Kihei, don’t stress about forgetting anything.

Artisans sometimes showcase wares on the ground level near the pool. If you see something you like, don’t wait to buy it, because vendors change.

The resort can arrange transportation from the airport, and a house car and resort shuttle can take you anywhere within Wailea. We found a rental car handy, but as I mentioned earlier, some people forgo a rental car these days.

And, of course, the flowers throughout the hotel, mostly orchids and other tropical arrangements, were stunning.

Whale-watching season runs from November through April, and Four Seasons says guests see humpback whales from the grounds almost daily in season.

Everybody books this resort, from honeymooners and families to business travelers, singles, and couples. Fall is considered the couples’ season.

I still feel like there is so much to mention, but I’ll wrap up by saying this is the best resort in Maui for families looking for a Hawaiian vacation. We left feeling rejuvenated, reconnected, and ready to tackle the school year. We’ll be back.

Four Seasons Maui FAQs

Are the rooms at Four Seasons Maui renovated?

Yes. The last group of rooms is off the market while its renovation finishes, so any room you can book now is a renovated one.

Does Four Seasons Maui have a kids club?

Yes. Kids For All Seasons is complimentary for children 5 and up and runs every day. There is also a seasonal camp for tweens and teens, and children 4 and under eat free with an adult at Ferraro’s, DUO, the Lobby Lounge, and KOMO.

Does Four Seasons Maui have a kids pool?

Yes. The keiki pool, which the resort calls the Waterfall Pool, is designed for young children and has a toddler-friendly mini water slide. The family-friendly Fountain Pool is the main pool. The adults-only pool is for guests 21 and older.

Which room is best for families at Four Seasons Maui?

If the budget allows, start with a Garden-View Room, since Mountain-Side rooms can overlook the parking lot. A king room has a sofa bed and sleeps two adults and two children, and a two-queen room sleeps four adults, or two adults and two children. Families of five book the Garden-View Suite, and families who want two rooms book a king room connecting to a two-queen room.

How far is Four Seasons Maui from the airport?

Kahului Airport (OGG) is 17 miles away. Plan on a 25-to-30-minute drive.

How do I book Four Seasons Maui with VIP benefits?

Book through a Preferred Partner agency such as ours. Send your dates through our Four Seasons request form to start.

Make Four Seasons Maui Reservations With Our Benefits

At this resort in particular, the general manager goes through each day’s arrivals with the team every morning. Preferred Partner reservations get the most attention. They are discussed first, and their preferences come first. I know the general manager, and I work with the team here all the time.

Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea is one of the resorts we book for clients, with agent-exclusive amenities that enhance your stay and add value. These include:

Have you stayed at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea?