Hawaii’s 'Most Over the Top Resorts’ List Features Two BrightView Hotels

While a Hawaiian vacation is already a paradise, some island hotels can take a trip to a whole new level, including two resorts that are BrightView clients. The resorts were recently named to ‘Hawaii’s Most Over the Top Resorts’ list by The Active Times.

The lavish hotels that made the list feature everything from “infinity-edged swimming pools, to outdoor lava-rock garden showers, luxurious spa treatments, award-winning restaurants and 24-hour fitness facilities,” according to Nicole Dossantos, who compiled the list of 15 resorts.

Making the cut are the Four Seasons Hualalai on the Kohala-Kona Coast and the Four Seasons Resort Maui on Wailea Beach, both of which feature work by BrightView.

“We’re going on an eight-year relationship with (the Four Seasons Hualalai),” said Kate Douglas Kestyn, Associate with the BrightView Design Group. “We’ve served in an on-call design capacity for them. When they have a need, they just pick up the phone and call our office. It has been a great relationship for us.”

The Four Seasons Hualalai, on the Island of Hawai’i, has a remarkable seven swimming pools to go along with its 125 guest rooms, outdoor lava-rock garden showers and five ocean-side restaurants and lounges.

When the Tōhoku earthquake in March 2011 caused a devastating tsunami to hit Japan, it also struck Hawaii, causing major damage to the Four Seasons Hualalai’s beach front and Beach Tree Restaurant.

“That west side of the island took on 11 feet of water and Hualalai is right there on that coast,” Kestyn said. “We mobilized a Design-Build Team and over six weeks, we were on the ground and literally drawing sketches and handing them to our construction guys and they would go and start building.”

The Palm Grove Pool, with a walk-up bar in the pool and overflow edges, and the new Beach Tree Restaurant, with custom Adirondack chairs and an open-air lounge, were both projects that came out of the tsunami-restoration work.

Boasting the largest accommodations and the most spacious hotel bathrooms on the island of Maui, the Four Seasons Maui has 383 guest rooms and suites.

The hotel has a Serenity Pool, created by BrightView Design Group, as a quiet alternative to the main pool and beach area. The Serenity Pool was built on a long, narrow hillside with a view of the ocean.

The pool features a swim-up pool bar with underwater seating, an infinity edge and lounging alcoves between tropical plants, along with oversized cabanas.

In order for the two resorts to stay relevant and keep guests coming back, the Four Seasons is always making changes and when those changes involves landscaping, they often reach out to BrightView.

For a $40 million enhancement, the BrightView Design Group helped turn the Hualalai resort into a tropical-garden oasis with open-air seating pavilions facing a natural-rock waterfall and even a sand-bottom stream guests are encouraged to walk in as part of a pre-treatment experience for the resort’s spa.

Currently, BrightView is working on a project for a different part of Hualalai.

“They have a residential community associated with the resort,” Kestyn said. “There has been a lot of pressure on the resort itself to have enough space and amenities for all of these folks. We continue to work with them to find available spots within the resort core where we can add new amenities spaces. We’re working on a new pool and new villas for them right now.”

Though no awards were won for being named to the list, the BrightView Design Team feels a good deal of pride for contributing a piece of what makes the resorts so ‘over the top.’

“What feels good for us is that this is a relationship we have developed and nurtured over eight years,” Kestyn said. “A lot of the gratitude comes from us doing really great work for our client and our client then appreciates what we bring to the table. It’s a really fun recognition for us.”

Click here to view the entire list from The Active Times.