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Gallery: Hapuna Beach Prince Resort, Hawaii

DrFumblefinger 10/27/145:00 AM

One of my favorite places to travel is the Big Island of Hawaii. Where else can you find the tallest mountains in the world, the most active volcano in the world, and a surreal landscape of lava flows, desert vegetation, coffee plantations and tropical jungle? The Big Island and its welcoming, friendly people never cease to amaze me.

I try to visit or attend medical meetings on the island whenever feasible. One of the meetings I enjoy and learn a lot from is held regularly at a wonderful resort known as the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel. This resort was opened on the Kohala coast (rainshadow side of the island) 20 years ago, twinned with the Mauna Kea Resort on 1839 acres of oceanfront real estate. It's a magnificent place on every level -- architecturally, with wonderful gardening and landscaping, and great views of the Pacific Ocean and several old volcanoes, Its staff are friendly and the food and service excellent. Hapuna Beach is one of the finest on the Big Island, a classic white sand beach that is open to the public (coral reefs around the Big Island are not well formed yet because it is a young island, so many of its beaches are made of coarse black sand, White sand is actually caused by natural breakdown of coral reefs). I don't golf but my friends who do rave about the wonderful 18 hole golf course.

There are many resorts in Hawaii, some of them so large and overwhelming you need to take a shuttle between the various buildings because of how far apart they are. I once stayed at one of the Hilton Village Resorts on Hawaii, which was nice but it was literally a mile's walk from my room to my where my car rental was parked. That scale just doesn't interest me. I definitely prefer a place that's smaller and of a more intimate setting, and the Hapuna Prince definitely offers that being large enough, but not too large.