Four Seasons Lanai vs Four Seasons Maui: My Take After Staying at Both

Four Seasons Lanai vs Four Seasons Maui: the short answer

Okay, so you've narrowed it down to the two Four Seasons resorts that everyone argues about. I've stayed at both, and I do have a favorite.

If it's two adults going for three to five nights, I'd book Four Seasons Lanai. I think it's the better hotel. The pools are calm, the beach is close to empty, and the service is excellent.

If you have kids under ten, it's your first time in Hawaii, or you're staying a week, I'd book Four Seasons Maui. You get four restaurants, a kids pool with a slide and the whole island of Maui to explore. The catch is the adult pool, where you'll be fighting for a chair every single morning.

Four Seasons Lanai

What I liked:

• Excellent service
• Hulopo'e Bay, where a dozen people on the sand is a busy day and the snorkel gear is free
• The grounds. The whole resort is planted like a botanical garden, with koi ponds and waterfalls between the buildings
• Entry rooms of 663 to 734 square feet, bigger than Maui's
• The flight from Honolulu is included, with a private lounge before you board

What I didn't like:

• Two real dinner restaurants, and neither is cheap
• It adds two to three hours each way over flying straight to Maui
• There's almost nothing to do off the property unless you rent a Jeep

Four Seasons Maui

What I liked:

• Ferraro's at sunset. I booked it again for later in the same week
• A kids pool with a mini slide, and a kids' menu in every restaurant
• Wailea Beach right below the pools, and a path from there to the rest of Wailea

What I didn't like:

• The adults-only Serenity Pool doesn't have enough chairs. In a school-vacation week they're gone by 7 am
• Rooms are being renovated until December 15, 2026, and in the wrong wing that means jackhammers from 9 to 5:30
• The entry rooms can look straight at the parking lot

Maui is the cheaper of the two, by roughly $200 to $300 a night for the entry room, although Lanai often runs a fifth-night-free offer that narrows the gap. Honestly, I wouldn't pick on price. I'd pick on whether you want a resort you never leave, or a resort with a whole island to go and see.

At a glance

There's a lot more to do on Maui

Four Seasons Maui comes with an island. Haleakala, the road to Hana and Molokini are all a day trip away, and there are dozens of restaurants a short drive from the lobby. If it's your first time in Hawaii, you're going to want all of that.

Lanai is tiny. About 3,000 people live there, there's one small town 20 minutes up the hill, and there are no other resorts on the coast (Larry Ellison owns about 98% of the island). If you want to see the sights you rent a Jeep, which is about $195 a day from the island's rental company, and honestly one day covers it. After that, Four Seasons Lanai IS the trip. You go to the pool, you walk down to the bay, maybe you play a round at Manele, you have dinner, and you do it all again tomorrow.

I love that, but I know not everybody does. If you get restless by day three, book Maui. If the whole point of the trip is to stop moving, Lanai is perfect.

The pools and the service are so much better on Lanai

If you're a couple, this is the biggest reason I'd send you to Lanai.

Four Seasons Lanai has 213 rooms on a lot more land, and you can feel it on the first morning. There's a family pool with a waterfall, and a gated adults-only pool about 50 feet away. Neither one is big, but it really doesn't matter, because I never had trouble finding a chair at 10 am. By day two the pool crew already had my drink coming. And when my room wasn't ready at check-in, they bought lunch and put a credit on the bill.

The Serenity Pool at Four Seasons Maui is the one you've seen in the photos (and in The White Lotus). It's adults only, with a swim-up bar and an edge that runs right out to the ocean, and it is a GREAT pool. It just doesn't have anywhere near enough chairs for a hotel this size. One June morning I put my name down at 11:30 and was told three hours... while a whole row of premium cabanas, priced at over $1,000 a day, sat empty right next to the waitlist.

The staff are good, and they come around with chilled towels and frozen fruit, but a full hotel really stretches them. My pool lunch came out wrong twice, and an upgrade I'd been promised never happened.

So if you're traveling at Christmas, spring break or in August, I'd go to Lanai for this reason alone.

Dinner is better on Maui, breakfast is better on Lanai

Lanai has two serious dinner restaurants, and that's it. Maui has four, plus everything else in Wailea. That's fine for a short stay, but if you're there for a week you'll be eating at the same two places again and again.

The four at Four Seasons Maui aren't equally good, so here's how I'd rank them. Ferraro's, the open-air Italian above the beach, is the one I keep going back to. The sushi counter at KOMO is excellent. The steaks at DUO are hit and miss. And Spago, which is the famous name, is the most expensive and the worst value on the property. On my last visit the mahi mahi came out dry, so I'd skip it.

At Four Seasons Lanai, Nobu is the better of the two. The food is as good as any Nobu I've eaten at, but it's priced like they know you have nowhere else to go (the omakase is $245 a person). The pastas at Osteria Mozza are well made, but they're about $30 and small, so you're going to want a second one.

Breakfast is the other way around. Lanai's buffet at Mozza is $52 and it's one of the best hotel buffets I've had, and I never waited for a table. Maui's is $59 at DUO, and there's a 15 to 20 minute wait when the hotel is full.

Lanai takes two to three hours longer to get to

Maui is easy. You fly nonstop from the West Coast to Kahului and drive 30 to 35 minutes to Four Seasons Maui, so call it 7 to 7.5 hours from takeoff to lobby.

For Four Seasons Lanai you fly to Honolulu first and then take the Lanai Air flight, which is included with every room and suite. I was expecting to hate the connection, and it's actually really pleasant. Someone meets you at baggage claim and drives you to a private lounge, and the flight itself is only about 20 minutes. Door to door it's about 8.5 to 10 hours. A few things to know before you book your flights:

• Reserve the Lanai Air flight at least seven days ahead. The planes are small and seats run out.
• Luggage is normal airline size. Two checked bags each, up to 50 pounds, free. Your carry-on rides in the hold.
• Lanai Air flies between 7 am and 6 pm. Land in Honolulu late and you're spending the night there.

If you're coming over from Maui, take the morning Expeditions ferry from Maalaea. It's about 70 minutes and about $66, with two suitcases free. I wouldn't take the afternoon one, because the crossing gets rough.

I think the extra travel is worth it if you have three nights or more. If you only have two nights, or you have small kids and a late flight, just book Maui.

With young kids, book Maui

If you're bringing kids under ten, this one's easy.

Four Seasons Maui is built for them, and it starts with the room. A two-queen room sleeps four, and a king connects to a two-queen if you'd like a door between you and the kids. The Waterfall Pool has a mini slide and a section that's only a foot deep, and every restaurant has a kids' menu.

At Four Seasons Lanai, a standard room only takes two adults and one child, so a family of four has to book an Ohana suite or two connecting rooms, and that gets expensive fast. The beach also has shorebreak that I wouldn't put a non-swimmer anywhere near. Where Lanai IS great is with older kids who like being outside, because there are tide pools, horses and a zipline.

The kids club is the same at both: free, for ages 5 to 12.

The rooms are bigger on Lanai (but Maui's are being redone)

Lanai's cheapest room looks out at a garden, while Maui's can look straight at the parking lot.

Every standard room at Four Seasons Lanai is 663 to 734 square feet with a lanai, and it opens onto a garden walkway instead of a corridor. The whole resort is low buildings spread through the gardens, where Maui is one big building wrapped around its pools. The design is from 2015 to 2016 and it's held up well, but it's a lot of dark wood. I like dark wood. This is a LOT of dark wood, and on a bright Hawaii morning I wanted something lighter. Ask for the second floor, where nobody walks past your lanai.

Standard rooms at Four Seasons Maui are about 600 square feet plus a lanai. The entry category is called Mountain-Side, and it's the one to avoid. The old rooms were tired (which is hard to forgive at these rates), so every one of them is being redone in a much lighter look, with creams, soft blues and woven panels. They look really good. They're still 600 square feet though.

So right now Lanai has the better entry room. From 2027 Maui's will be newer, but Lanai's will still be bigger.

Both beaches are good, but I'd pick Hulopo'e

This is the closest call of the lot, because they're both good beaches.

Hulopo'e Bay is a marine preserve, a three to five minute walk downhill from the pools at Four Seasons Lanai. The snorkeling off the rocks is the reason to come, spinner dolphins swim into the bay, and I never counted more than a dozen people on the sand. The one catch is the surf. On a south swell the waves break hard in shallow water and the beach crew pulls the snorkel gear, so ask them before you walk down.

Wailea Beach is directly below the pools at Four Seasons Maui, with soft sand and easy swimming. It's busier, because you're sharing it with Grand Wailea's guests and the public. There's also no food or drink service on the sand, so you're walking back up to the pool every time you want a drink.

If you made me pick, I'd take Hulopo'e. If I had a five-year-old with me, I'd take Wailea.

Things that could be better

A few things to know before you book either one.

Maui is a construction site until December 15, 2026. The noisy wing moves as the work moves, so there's no side of the hotel that's always quiet. If you're going before then, I'd book Lanai, or get a renovated room away from the work confirmed in writing. The safest thing is to book Maui for 2027.

Rooms at Maui run late when the hotel is full. Mine wasn't ready until 4 pm, which is a long wait if you have tired kids. Ask the front desk for the hospitality suite.

Lanai isn't adults-only, and you'll notice in the school vacations. If you want it quiet, go in May, September or October.

So which one should you book?

Book Four Seasons Lanai if:

• You're two adults, on a honeymoon or an anniversary, and you want to stay put
• You have three to five nights
• You golf
• Your dates fall before December 15, 2026

Book Four Seasons Maui if:

• You're traveling with kids under ten
• It's your first trip to Hawaii
• You're staying a week or longer

Book neither if you want Lanai's calm without the connecting flight. The Big Island has nonstop flights into Kona and two resorts side by side: Rosewood Kona Village, all standalone bungalows and my pick for a couple, and Four Seasons Hualalai, the better one with kids. Each usually costs more than these two. For a family that wants space in Wailea for less, the Fairmont Kea Lani next door is all suites.

How I'd book it

• At Lanai, book Ocean View on the second floor. It's the cheapest way to a real view of the bay. Skip Resort View and the ground floor.
• At Maui, book Garden-View at a minimum. Never Mountain-Side.
• Reserve Lanai Air when you book the room. Then book Nobu and Osteria Mozza.
• Doing both? Lanai first, Maui second. Cross by the morning ferry and fly home nonstop from Kahului.

FAQ

Is the Four Seasons Maui renovation finished? No. The Club Floor reopened in May 2026, and the rest of the rooms are scheduled to finish on December 15, 2026.

Can you stay at both? Yes, and I'd put Lanai first. The Expeditions ferry runs between Lanai and Maalaea on Maui three times a day in about 70 minutes for about $66.