The Reef House Puako

ROMANTIC GETAWAY
Couples get engaged, wed, and conceive children at the Reef House. Anniversaries, graduations, and 75th birthdays are celebrated. Best of all are the honeymoons…
A dozen candlelit restaurants and tiki bars within 20 minutes, but why leave the Reef House?
What can beat basking on the lawn above the beach in the afterglow of a day in paradise, watching the sun sink off toward the Philippines, sipping Mai Tais while the ono’s grilling, and watching for the green flash? Watching the cove turn from orange to pink to lavender to silver, a half dozen turtle heads surfacing for a look, as the trade winds shift direction and an owl sails silently past?
What can beat two private cottages for two couples after feasting together around the koa table . . .
After stargazing from the beach to the sounds of waves at your ankles and palm fronds rustling, the fragrance of plumeria, the massive purple shapes around you of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and the Kohalas, and, following the moontrack across the channel, Maui’s Haleakala . . .
Why leave? The Reef House is for lovers.

OUTDOOR NATURE ADVENTURES
If you like swimming before breakfast with turtles, manta rays, octopi, and whales, try the Puakathalon: a run-and-swim to Mauna Kea Beach, surfing Ruddles at the end of the road, snorkleling the grottoes and coral gardens south from the house, kayaking to Waialea Bay and back, then golfing one of the two world top 100 golf courses within three miles. Or birding for golden plovers, tattlers, and turnstones in the tide pools, a tropic bird off the point, saffron finches and Brazilian cardinals at the lava bird bath. Exploring the rainforest of Hakalau, or the palila preserve straight up the mountain, hiking Mauna Loa and the Waimea watershed cloudforest with its 2000 foot falls, and shelling up and down Puako Bay.
Watching whales breach so close you hear the crash from inside the house. Listening to them sing as you swim.
There’s something elemental about this place, so isolated, pristine, and gorgeously raw. Something about experiencing the youngest land on the planet that made us feel truly alive.

FAMILY VACATION
Our own house, our own beach, homecooked meals—fresh fish and fruit and a shelf of island cookbooks—in a quiet little beach town on the island’s premier resort coast—Puako is the place for a family vacation.
We loved the Old Hawaii feel of the two cottages. The redwood paneled walls and koa antiques, the local art and library of books, the wraparound views of the ocean and palms, the superbly equipped kitchen. So different from some sterile condo Legoland, and a fraction the cost of a resort hotel.
We took day trips to rainforests and the national park, plantation and ranch towns, and Kona’s tourist spots; to Kealakekua Bay and the Honaunau City of Refuge, and the snowcapped summit of Mauna Kea. Our son taking off for a day boogie boarding at Hapuna. Our daughter’s astonished look behind her snorkeling mask as a rainbow wrasse floated past her nose. We voted. It was unanimous. Best vacation ever.
But the best times were right at the Reef House, at home.