40 — Sunday, February 23, 1992 —- North Shore News

TRAVEL

Maui’s new Grand Hyatt Wailea
does everything on a grand scale

WAILEA, MAUI — What
Somerset Maugham liked
about money was that it
enabled him to tell other
men to go to hell.

These days very rich men amiulse
themselves with heavenly hotels. °

So it is that the Sultan of
Brunei poured a fortune into the
Dorchester in London, the
Orient-Express’ Jim Sherwood
recently paid a king’s ransom for
the Windsor Court Hotel in New
Orleans, and a Japanese investor
has just opened the Grand Hyatt
Wailea here.

At $600 million US, it cost
more to build than any other hotel
in the world. The architect had a
free hand to redesign until
everything was perfect. When
original estimates were realized the
owner chucked in another $150
million to get-it right.

What our man got was a 787-
room hotel, a sort of plantation-
style building on a lovely sandy

- beach it shares with the fairly new
Four Seasons Wailea. He owns
that one as well.

All of the rooms have a water
view and have large lanais perfect
for watching the sun slip into the
ocean.

Up in the presidential suite the
view takes in a terrace of foun-

tains and statues not unlike the
’. gardens of the summer palace at
St. Petersburg, while the fanai is
big enough for an imperial tea

party.

The whole place is wrapped
around sprawling gardens with a
‘fairytale wedding chapel, soaring
-Toyal-palms and a water park that
cost $15 million. ©

Swimmers swoosh through a
canyon, the water slide has rapids,
and diving is taught in a 10-ft.
deep pool. :

This 50,C00-sq.-ft. facility is
claimed to be the largest in
Hawaii, and for all we know

David
Wishart

TRAVEL TiPS

Rome didn’t have one this lavish.
Spa specialists went around the
world, including Sweden and
Japan, te get the best of
everything.

Six restaurants, some of them
scattered around the gardens and
pools, offer a variety of dining
experiences, the most remarkable
Geing the Kincha. ~

The owner had it designed like
a private villa and brought 800
tons of rock from Mount Fuji as
a touch of realism. Dinner is $300
for two, if you can believe that.

Nothing here is cheap. And
while other hotels are cutting their
prices to counter a poor tourism

-market (a good hotel nearby was

offering $270 rooms for $125), the

owner has told the sales -people

that $280 is the rock-bottom rate.
So far the hotel is doing well;

_ new hotels always appeal to con- -

ventions and meeting groups, but
it’s obvious our man has .deep
pockets.

Around the hotel there’s $30
million in artwork by Fernando
Botero and Fernand Leger as well
as Hawaiian artists. I didn’t like

any of it very much, but overall

Sun of a Beach
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44 The whole place is wrapped
around sprawling gardens ...
soaring royal palms and a water
park that cost $15 million. 99

the effect is at least better than
the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa on
the Big tstand, where a press
release once described its bits and
pieces as ‘$5 million worth of
priceless art.”

There are outside distractions as
well for guests at the Grand Hyatt
Wailea, such as helicopter rides
around Maui, or a drive in the
country .to the Tedeschi Vine-
yards, which produce 250,000 bot-
tles a year of pineapple wine.

The golf course at Wailea and
Makena are busier and pricier
than ever, but two new courses
have opeied at Waikapu, on the
way to the airport. .

One is reserved ‘for guests at the
Grand Hyatt and the Four
Seasons. The Frank Lioyd Wright
design for Marilyn Monroe’s
house is being used for. a lavish
clubhouse under construction, No
prizes for guessing who owns the
whole shooting match.

And so to the airport for a

quick Aloha Airlines flight to
Honolulu. | sit with a kid who’s
thrilled because the airline did not
charge him to carry his surfboard.
Soon afterwards my. Continental

Airlines’ non-stop io Vancouver
lifts off, and they’re handing out
Beck’s beer in the stand-up bar.

A tanned woman lifts a glass
and says to her friend: ‘‘Hey, the
best things in life are free.”’

Depends on where you go.

TRAVEL SHOW

Canoe the Bowron Lakes, hike Mt.
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Tatshenshini, sail the Queen
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Alaska all in one evening.

Join us for this informative multi- -
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Wed. Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m.

H.R. MacMillan Planetarium
1100 Chestnut Street

Adults $4 Seniors $3
_Reserve early — call 263-1476

¢ in Al.
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