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Island Delights

Guided: Kapalua, Maui

By RON DONOHO
Island Delights

IT’D BEEN NINE YEARS since I last experienced calm, classy Kapalua. It seemed unlikely Maui’s Kapalua Resort, a 23,000-acre master-planned community, could have gotten ritzier than remembered. Not so fast. Hotels have upgraded. Restaurants have sprouted up; others have evolved. And there’s excitement in the air . . . did somebody say zip-line?

Where to Stay: The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua (808-669-6200; ritzcarlton.com) recently pumped $180 million into a renovation. Included in its 463 revamped guestrooms are 107 residential suites. Yes, they’re for sale——that is, they were, until the first day of sales saw nearly the entire inventory disappear. You can rent out the residential suites (starting at $1,300), which come with one or two bedrooms. All have kitchens, flat-screen LCD televisions, travertine marble bathrooms, dark wood floors and spacious lanais . . . If you want a great deal, go for the club-level suite (starting at $599) and make use of the Club Lounge, where five food-and-beverage presentations are served daily. If you’re Lounge lucky, chef April will be on hand to cook up one of her seafood appetizers. The Ritz has a three-tiered swimming pool system, including seven new luxury cabañas (flat-screen televisions, fridges) and a new pool for kids. The fitness center has been upgraded, and a spa is slated to be up and pampering midsummer.

Where to Eat: Executive chef Alex Stanislaw wants your (repeat) business at The Plantation House Restaurant (808-669-6299; theplantationhouse.com). And he will entice you back with the diversity of his fish dishes. He takes any local fish, like papio, and presents it on the menu five ways——like “Upcountry Maui,” which comes on a sauté of zucchini, Maui onions, Kapalua beans, mushrooms, garlic mashed potatoes and lemon olive oil . . . Dining is a visual and epicurean delight at The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua’s The Banyan Tree. Tables overlook the Pacific Ocean and neighboring Molokai island. Surf and/or turf offerings dissolve magically in your mouth, be it the beef tenderloin, served with asparagus, mushrooms and truffle sauce, or the pine-nut-crusted ahi, accompanied by cucumber noodles and Thai basil pesto . . . Located at Kapalua’s Bay Course Clubhouse, Pineapple Grill (808-669-9600; pineapplekapalua.com) has a San Diego connection—— it’s owned by San Diego restaurateurs David and Leslie Cohn. The lunch menu features several delish pupus, like crispy duck spring rolls and pistachio-andwasabi- crusted ahi.

What to Do: Just opened in December 2007, Kapalua Adventures (808-665-4386; kapalua.com/adventures) offers dual-track zip-line rides. A biodiesel Mercedes-Benz Unimog (quasi-military transport vehicle) takes a dozen guests up to the mountains above Kapalua. (The coastal views are inspiring.) The zip-line rides——one is more than 2,000 feet long——are safe and comfortable eco-adventures. Kapalua Adventures’ Mountain Outpost also offers a highropes challenge course and climbing towers.