The Grand Wailea Maui, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, recently completed the final stage of its $300 million renovation with the unveiling of a $55 million facelift to its Kilolani Spa, a 50,000-square-foot wellness center that is the most expansive in Hawaii.
Oprah Winfrey (who owns a home nearby), Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Paris Hilton and Brooklyn Decker have all frequented the 40-acre property, where guests are welcomed at check-in with kukui nut leis. (Rooms available through grandwailea.com and booking.com.)
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The spacious spa includes 40 treatment rooms for individuals and couples, a salon for hair and nail services, halotherapy infrared saunas infused with Himalayan salts, a hammam and open-air hydrothermal gardens that include a myriad of steam rooms, saunas, a vitality pool, waterfall showers, a cold-plunge bath and a salt-water pool. Guests are guided in meditation using vibroacoustic technology in one of the spa lounges.
In collaboration with New York-based Tihany Design for interiors and San Francisco-based TLEE Spas + Wellness for programming, the new Kilolani Spa was inspired by the rituals of the Hawaiian moon calendar and lunar cycles — kilolani is the Hawaiian word for stargazer — and the resort employs in-house astrologists. Essential botanical oils crafted in Maui (which are changed with the moon phases), herbs grown on site and volcanic clay are utilized in body treatments. Also integrally involved in the spa revamp was Kalei Uwekoolani, the resort’s cultural programming manager, whose voice can be heard as part of “oli” (Hawaiian for chanting) that plays throughout the spa as a form of sound healing.
Unique services include Ho’omālie Ritual ($465,) featuring rhythmic lomilomi bodywork techniques with a warm pōhaku stone foot treatment and coconut scalp massage, and Helu Pō Ritual ($489), incorporating bodywork, mindfulness and native botanical remedies aligned to a 10-day period of the lunar cycle. There are also astrology natal chart reading and soul healing sessions, starting at $315, and on-demand sessions with Maui sound healers.
The spa will soon offer sleep retreats in partnership with Boston-based sleep science expert Dr. Rebecca Robbins that propose strategies to target jet lag and enhance restorative sleep. Last month, the resort announced a new collaboration with New York-based wellness and fitness guru Melissa Wood-Tepperwood of Melissa Wood Health (whose clients include Keke Palmer, Cara Delevingne, Sofia Richie and Sara Foster) that kicks off with an in-room workout tutorial.
Focused on healthy aging and wellness solutions, Florida-based company The Biostation has opened its first outpost outside of the Sunshine State at Grand Wailea. On the menu: bioidentical hormone replacement or testosterone therapy, IV nutrition drips, personalized weight loss and nutrition plans, Botox and fillers, and in-depth evaluations that include over 40 biomarkers and body composition testing.
The overall resort renovation, a first since the property opened in 1991, includes all new decor for the 794 guest rooms and suites, the debut of coastal Italian restaurant Olivine last June, and the November grand re-opening of signature seafood restaurant Humuhumunukunukuāpua’a (the Hawaiian word for reef triggerfish) complete with an aquarium built into the circular bar. Catering to the Hollywood crowd, the grab-and-go market-café Loulu (named for the native, fan-shaped palm trees) features a Hawaii-exclusive curation of foods from buzzy California health food store Erewon, such as jars of roasted pistachio nuts, chile lime mango , liposomal vitamin C supplements and artisanal spirulina popcorn.
The upper Napua resort floors offer an exclusive in-house experience with select access to club lounges that boast a dedicated concierge and complimentary breakfast, snacks and happy hours with live entertainment. Uber-VIPs can relax in a 5,500-square-foot presidential suite — renamed the Napua Grand Suite — with expansive ocean views and service access. Privacy is also afforded at 50 three-bedroom Ho‘olei Villas in an adjacent gated community with all of the resort amenities.
Beyond beach yoga and fitness classes, culturally immersive activities include a Grand Luau (complete with a three-course meal of native cuisines such as kālua pig and poi, along with traditional entertainment); a garden tour where guests can taste pineapple, cacao and sugarcane from on-site gardens that include banana and starfruit trees, more than 2,000 palms, and hundreds of orchids; hula and ukulele instruction; scuba, snorkel and surf lessons; hala weaving with leaves from the Pandanus tree, and whale-watching in catamarans. A series of five pools range from private cabanas to a maze of slides, rope swings, waterfalls, caves, jacuzzis and a swim-up bar for adults, where frozen mango mojitos are a favorite.
Billionaire Japanese developer Takeshi Sekiguchi, who initially built the resort, is an avid art enthusiast and collector. So another draw of the property is the largest collection of private art in Hawaii, worth north of $40 million and numbering more than 900 world-class pieces, including nine bronze sculptures by Colombian artist Fernando Botero.
Reservations for all rooms can also be made at grandwailea.com and booking.com as well as via phone at 866-953-4401.
