My wife and I just spent 4 nights at Sensei Lanai in the Hawaiian Islands. We had a wonderful stay overall and would certainly return to this property in the future. When we travel we always try our best to seek out quiet, secluded destinations in interesting natural settings and...
My wife and I just spent 4 nights at Sensei Lanai in the Hawaiian Islands. We had a wonderful stay overall and would certainly return to this property in the future. When we travel we always try our best to seek out quiet, secluded destinations in interesting natural settings and this island and property certainly hit the mark. We made sure to include a balance of activities and relaxation and also made sure that we spent plenty of time on and near the water while being to retreat to the peace and quiet of Sensei up in the mountains. Lanai itself really is special with just the two Four Seasons resorts, one small town with a few shops and restaurants, a cat sanctuary, and otherwise just secluded beaches and untouched areas of lush vegetation and red dirt. For the best of both worlds in the future we would consider doing a split stay between the beach resort and Sensei, however given that we only had 4 nights in total on the island, we maximized our time by staying at Sensei, but doing multiple dinners at the beach resort, going out on a boat for the snorkel cruise, and exploring the island on our own in one of the jeeps to visit some of the more secluded beaches. While the beach resort is nice, we did value the peace and quiet as well as the lush gardens and pool that Sensei had to offer. We were very happy with our choice of coming to Lanai because we were looking for a combination of activities and relaxation and Sensei had exactly what we needed for this particular trip. Check in/Arrival Arriving to Lanai was a seamless process. After landing at HNL and exiting the terminal we were quickly greeted by a Lanai Air representative. From there we grabbed our bags and were transported privately in an SUV to the Lanai Air hangar which was just 5 minutes from the main airport. The Lanai Air lounge was great to relax in for about 30 minutes, they had snacks, drinks, and plenty of seating. The weather during our flight on our way to Lanai was unfortunately a bit cloudy which limited our visibility from above, but once we got closer to landing we were able to have some excellent views of the island from the air. Once the plane landed, we gathered our bags and we were immediately greeted by a representative from Four Seasons. We boarded a shared shuttle that took about 15 minutes from the airport. Upon arriving at Sensei we were checked in and given a tour of the grounds and oriented ourselves to where everything was located, namely the pool, the spa hales, onsen garden, exercise pavilion, restaurant, and bar. The main lobby area is quite impressive with tons of paintings and sculptures, high ceilings, and plenty of sitting areas with two fireplaces to sit around as well. Room We were booked into a standard king room (#322) that was solid, Four Seasons standard in many aspects, but nothing spectacular. Room was decorated with light tones had a king bed with comfortable Four Seasons bedding that I’ve found at every other North American Four Season I’ve stayed at. The room had a big TV, mini bar area, desk area (oddly with no garbage can next to it, the only one was in the bathroom), and a bathroom with oddly enough just one sink, although there was a Toto toilet which was a plus. The room was comfortable enough, but certainly not the reason you’d visit this resort. We were on the ground floor of a 2 story building of which there was another identical on the other side. There are no standalone units on this property to my knowledge. Service For the most part, we were happy with the service at Sensei. Staff at breakfast, the pool, the Lanai Adventure Park, and on the shuttles all tried their best to deliver friendly and genuine service. They fulfilled every request we might have had with one small exception regarding the timing of a shuttle pickup. We asked to be picked up a bit earlier while dining at Lanai City Grill (approximately 1 mile from Sensei) and they offered us the shared shuttle which was coming about 40 minutes from when we made the request to get picked up. We decided to just walk back to Sensei, but my wife was wearing shoes with a wedge heel which have her some difficulty. When we mentioned this to the staff they quickly rectified the issue and offered us more than sufficient service recovery immediately. This went a long way for us and made us feel that they really wanted to get things right. The Four Seasons app was extremely easy to use and responses were very prompt on the app. We made fairly simple requests like changing our shuttle time, ordering in room dining, checking on availability of activities, etc. All of our requests were answered and fulfilled within a timely manner. We had no issues overall with the service, but also wouldn’t say that anything the staff did was memorable, over the top, anticipatory, or even overly personal. The friendly Hawaiian spirit was seen through local staff, some of which had lived on the island for their entire lives. Memorable staff members who did a particularly good job looking after us were Kimi, Jarien, and Hazel in their respective opportunities they had to help us at varying points during our stay. Activities Sensei itself is extremely quiet and relaxing which was a huge plus for us, but other than getting a spa treatment and relaxing in the onsens or at the pool there’s very little to do on the property, so the activities are an essential part of this property. We picked 1 activity to do on the 3 full days we were there and spent the rest of the day either working out or just relaxing by the pool or in the onsens. We chose to do: zip lines, rent a jeep and drive ourselves around the island, and the snorkel cruise. The zip lines were pretty tame and short so I wouldn’t really recommend those, especially for the price they charge, but we might try the climbing activities they have available. There’s an extremely impressive ropes course/climbing structure that would be interesting to do. The jeep rental and the snorkel cruise were both highlights of our stay. When we rented the jeep we drove to Shipwreck Beach which is on the west side of the island. It’s a quiet beach which had just 1 or 2 groups of people on it when we made our way there. There is an old ship which I believe was from WW2 if I read correctly and there were amazing views of Molokai and Maui from here. We spent some time swimming in the clear water and just enjoying the solitude on this side of the island. We were warned to avoid this side of the island in the afternoon because there can be intense trade winds. We then drove back east and passed through Lanai City and made our way to the cat sanctuary which was a fun way to spend an hour checking out all of the cats they’ve rescued and learned that maintaining this sanctuary protects the local bird population because the street cats would eradicate them otherwise. We regrettably did not have time to make our way to Garden of the Gods and some of the other secluded beaches, but we coveted a good amount of ground for a couple of hours of having the jeep rental. Lastly, we enjoyed the snorkel crew a lot. Martin was a great host on the boat that took us and a couple of groups out to a secluded location to snorkel. This outing departed from the harbor next to the beach resort where the Lanai-Maui Ferry can also be caught. The visibility of the ocean was excellent and the snorkeling was very good (the only other place we’ve done a similar snorkeling outing was at Azura Benguerra in Mozambique which had absolutely excellent snorkeling), but that being said there more than enough colorful fish to enjoy getting to view and enjoy and hour or two in the way. I also was able to spot an eel which was a highlight. On our way back we got views of humpback whales, as well as a massive pod of spinner dolphins that we got a great view of with them coming extremely close to the boat. Dining At Sensei there is one restaurant, Sensei by Nobu that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On the property you can also get food at the bar for all 3 meals. At the beach resort there is Nobu Lanai and Malibu Farm (which becomes One Forty for dinner). In town there is the Lanai City Bar and Grill. Aside from a few smaller options in town, to my knowledge, these are all of the dining options on the island. We tried all of them over the course of our 4 night stay. After arriving in the late afternoon we had our first dinner at Sensei by Nobu which was offering a Valentine’s Day dinner special omakase menu which we declined in favor for the a la carte menu. We started off with the gem salad and the hamachi Crudo which were both solid dishes, while I ordered my own bowl of miso soup. We got the tofu preparation of the sukiyaki which was a new dish for us, but we enjoyed it. For entrees we had the rack of lamb and the Thai yellow curry served with seafood. Overall, we were happy with the food served at Sensei, but definitely not blown away. Our second dinner took place at the Lanai Bar and Grill in Lanai City. It’s a part of a small hotel in town called Hotel Lanai. We loved going here for a change of pace, as the atmosphere was a bit more lively than at Sensei with live music being played. The dishes that stood out for us were the Parker rolls, Sensei farms salad, the axis deer (found on Lanai) ragu, and the seared ahi tuna with bok choy. Our third dinner was at One Forty. This is the Malibu Farm restaurant during the day, but at night it converts into One Forty. Our favorite dishes from this meal were the goat cheese salad and the mahi mahi served with rice and mashed potatoes. This was probably the dinner that we cared for the least. Our fourth and final dinner on this trip took place at Nobu Lanai at the beach resort. This meal was excellent stand out dishes were the rock shrimp tempura, the new preparation of both salmon and whitefish (local to Hawaii), the short rib, and the mango shaved ice with coconut sorbet. We loved this meal. We had lunches either at the pool or bar at Sensei. We tried the salmon burger, regular burger, chicken wrap, chicken sandwich, shrimp tacos, ahi tun sticks, chips, salsa, and guacamole, among other dishes. Overall, the lunches served at Sensei were a weak point for us. The dishes we tried for breakfast were mostly excellent. We tried the French omelette, Lanai breakfast, mushroom and feta toast, avocado toast, blueberry pancakes, coconut yogurt bowl, açaí bowl, banana bread, chocolate croissant, monkey bread, as well as a couple of the smoothies and juices. We ate 3 of our breakfasts outside at Sensei by Nobu and 1 of them in our room via in room dining. Overall the dining experience at Sensei and on Lanai was solid. The food is certainly not outstanding and leaves something to be desired, not nonetheless overall we enjoyed it. There are really only 4 main dining options on the entire island, although you can get food at the bar at Sensei as well as at The Break down at the beach resort, so the dining could definitely become repetitive after 4-5 nights. Location/Facilities The thought of going to Hawaii and not staying on the beach was a little confusing at first, but once you step foot on Sensei’s property and understand that you can take advantage of the hourly shuttles that run between the beach resort to Sensei all day long, then the appeal becomes much stronger. Sensei is situated 20 minutes up from the Manele beach resort, just above the one town on the island, Lanai City. Lanai City was a cute town that had a small gift shop, art gallery, movie theater, amongst a few other small shops. We drove around the town to check out the high school and a few other aspects of the daily life on Lanai. Getting to stay in the lush gardens up in the mountains was a privilege, but also having access to the beach resort and the water in general was the perfect combination. The gardens that make up Sensei’s property include plants imported from literally all around the world (Mexico, Philippines, Polynesia, Brazil, etc.) and make up the most fascinating, lush gardens. There are also sculptures are over the property that are fascinating to look at including the tree huggers, but highlighted by Talaia which is the massive head sculpture that is at the top of the resort property. The property also features a large lake, excellent pool with 3 hot tubs, and a spacious exercise pavilion with all the equipment one would need to get a great workout in (plenty of woodway treadmills too). One of the other highlights of the property for us was the onsen gardens. These are private hot tubs that are available on a first come first serve basis set amongst thick lush gardens towards the back of the property. They are available 24/7 and each one is completely private from the others so that even if others are using a separate hot tub, you will feel completely alone. Lastly, we received a couples massage in our own private spa hale which was a truly special experience. The massages were lovely and afternoon treatment we had 30 minutes (which we could have extended but elected not to) to enjoy the amenities in the hale which included a hot tub, cold tub, steam room, and sauna. Getting a treatment and spending time in one of the hales is a “must do” experience when staying at Sensei. Overall We had a great trip to Lanai and we are happy that we chose to stay at Sensei. The balance of spending time up in the mountains with being able to take the complimentary shuttle to the Manele beach resort made this the perfect trip for us. If we are to return and have more time on the island, we would consider a split stay, although I am not completely convinced that we would enjoy the beach resort as much as we enjoyed our time at Sensei.
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