Dear Friends, Family, & Readers:
For
this blog I decided to do something different and not talk so much about
myself, but rather give some hotel reviews and links to make it easier for
those thinking about visiting the island.
I thought about doing this a long time ago, but never got around to
it. After my parents came, and Kara and
I got the chance to spend the night in two different hotels, I felt I had a
little more to say. Know that many of
the hotels in Saipan are decent hotels, and that my review could be more
critical than it is... In the list below
are some of the hotels that Kara & I have either stayed at or have
frequented due to their water park, happy hour, or beach. I only reviewed the three hotels that Kara
and I have stayed at personally. The
others I have simply put my likes and dislikes below them from having visited
the hotel without having stayed there.
I
will start with our least favorite of the three we visited and go to our
favorite. Fiesta Resort is third on our
list of hotels in Saipan that we’ve stayed at.
We stayed there on Christmas Day and partook of the festivities at the
hotel. On a positive note, the hotel’s
location is Garapan, making it easily accessible for tourists to go to various
shops and restaurants by walking around.
When we stayed, we chose an Ocean View room, a little more costly than a
Mountainside View. The view of the ocean
is spectacular perhaps it was made even better by the fact that they placed us
on the 6th floor. Our room, however, left much to be desired
of. The King bed, lighting system, and
the smell of the hand soap were about the only things enjoyable about the
room. The t.v. had terrible fuzzy
reception on most of the channels, the toilet did not flush well, for being an
ocean view room it would have been nice to have a balcony with a chair or two,
but instead it was a small half circle with only enough room to dry clothes off
of and stand around. Perhaps the most
annoying thing about the room is that we could not control the air conditioning. If I weren’t a local who had adapted to the
heat, I may have wanted it cooler than 25C.
But alas, it was preset and no such luxury could be afforded me. The shower in the bathroom was also archaic
as it happened to be one of those spray yourself hose showers designed for the
elderly. It did have a hook so that it
could act like a normal shower, but the size was designed for someone much
smaller than 6ft tall…rather annoying I must say. The pools at this resort are
small and during the day are filled with kids.
Luckily it is open until 10pm and we got a chance to enjoy ourselves in
peace and quiet, except when I found a frog had jumped into the pool . I told the lifeguard and he scooped it out.
The beach was full of sea weed and many of the beach chairs on this beach were
broken. The buffet was fairly good, but
the staff were very tired it seemed. To
end on a happy note they did leave a stocking hanging on our door handle when
we arrived (the room door was ajar!)
Inside were some cheap chocolate chip cookies, 2 candy canes, a little
Fiesta Resort bear (made in China), and a medium sized T-Shirt.
Our
second favorite hotel is Lao Lao Bay Golf Resort. This resort is amazing. It is very new in all of its
furnishings. The room comes complete with
two digitally run air conditioning units that you can set at any level you
want, the rooms also have lights that
follow you. If you go toward the door
they will turn on automatically! The
shower was a really cool square that was very relaxing. The T.V.’s were flat screens that had great
picture quality and sound quality. The
pool is wonderful as it has a kids pool,
adult pool, and two hot tubs (all outside) for enjoyment. The golfing is what is extraordinary. To golf on the course you must have nice
shorts, collared shirt, golf shoes (rentals are fairly cheap), and a playing
partner. The course was designed by Greg Norman a.k.a. “The Shark.” As such the course is challenging, but worth
the money to play. It is cheaper for
locals than for tourists but compared to golf courses in Asia it is well priced
for a weekend of fun. The restaurant has
decent food, but it is definitely more Asian than American cuisine. When we
were there, very few people were in the restaurant. The only reason this hotel
is 2nd on our list is that it is located in Kagman Village, which
for a tourist or local is in the middle of nowhere land and further way from
any attractions…there is no beach access at the resort either.
Our
favorite hotel is Aqua Resort. Aqua is
very quiet, lush plants are all around the property, and it has the classic
look of a 70’s beach club resort with lots of dark wood. The pool is fairly nice in size and has a
swim up bar as part of its charm. The
room we stayed in was not an ocean view room, but was part of a promotion in
which we received coupons for a free breakfast each morning of our stay, so we
gladly went with the deal. The t.v.’s
are older and the internet connect at the hotel is really slow as it is Dial-Up
(from the room), however, if you were near the pool you could pick up the
pool’s wireless internet, which was noticeably faster. Our room was close enough that we didn’t need
to set up a dial-up connection. For
hotel guests there is a massage parlor to check out, but if you don’t want to
pay for a massage you can jump into one of the two tubs they have at the
massage parlor. Inside the parlor is a
room with two tubs one is a hot tub with jets and the other a cold pool with
jets. Coming through the center of the
room’s ceiling is a large tree with vines coming down from it. It was very relaxing as the staff had set up
little candles around on the window sills.
Restaurant was not bad. Our
breakfast buffet had a lot of American and Asian food. There was also a cook willing to prepare
omelets or you if that was your fancy. We found the breakfast to have lots of
charm and a lot of light coming in through the windows. The only negative thing about aqua for some
tourists might be that the beach is not a good swimming beach, but if one has a
rented car and Saipan guide map there are plenty of beaches nearby to visit
with great snorkeling like Pau Pau & Wing Beach. Overall, we liked the demeanor of the staff
as well. At places like Fiesta, staff
looked tired or too busy, but at Aqua they seemed happy and always ready to
help with anything you had need of.
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Likes: It is beautiful. Its beach is probably the cleanest on
Saipan. The water around the Hyatt is
less weedy as well. It is prestigious
enough to be home to Rotary International’s Saipan branch, which must give hint
to the hotel’s reputation. It is also
home to my favorite hair guy at Dolce Salon. Dislikes: Every year we go there to watch
fireworks, and the staff won’t even let visitors sit on the beach chairs. Also
when it is not a holiday and you go to relax on the beach there the staff will
often ask you if you want drinks despite knowing where the beach bar is had you
wanted to have a drink…
(Read the
blog article)
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| A panoramic picture of the large pool at Lao Lao Bay Golf Resort. The nice thing about the pools at Lao Lao Bay is that the main pool is deeper . This is nice because it makes up for the lack of beach access at the hotel. |
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| Living Room at a Lao Lao Bay Golf Resort Room |
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| Our bed at Lao Lao Bay Golf Resort, slightly ruffled because we jumped onto it. |
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| The view from our balcony, which by the way, was long enough to sit out on while enjoying the breeze. |
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| The cool colors that light up the hotel on the outside at night. |
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| The beautiful flowers at Aqua's poolside. |
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| These little pavilions at Aqua are open to being rented for 1/2 a day or a full day for varied prices. |
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Likes: Kara and I worked at Marianas
Trekking all last summer, which was located right next to Marianas Resort. As a result, we got the opportunity to
explore the hotel surroundings a bit.
The buffet/restaurant at the resort has good food. The beach area around
the hotel is very good for snorkeling or Kayaking if one wished to do so. The staff were also very friendly at the
resort.
Dislikes: The pool is rather small/shallow
and the kids pool needs some definite renovation although most kids don’t seem
to mind… kids can have fun anywhere. Their website is also a bit frustrating to use.
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| View of the Marianas Resort pool. The kiddy pool with shallow water and waterfall is in the back ground, but difficult to see. The kiddy pool needs more renovation than the main pool. The main pool (which you see here) is rather shallow, so this pool is not great for adult fun. The good news is that Mandi Spa is connected to the hotel and has more adult oriented facilities (but not a deep pool). The chapel that many Japanese like to get married in exists in the background as well, but the photo does not do it justice. |
Likes: It has a great happy hour and it has a
bunch of swimming pools for kids. This
is a wonderful hotel if you have young children. There are also two locations by which to eat
on the property. Club mates also make
the stay worthwhile for children, while mom and dad get away. There is even a mini boogie boarding pool. It is a very popular hotel for Russians and
Japanese tourists.
Dislikes: Their lazy river is not as good as
the experience we had at World Resort, which for adults is more of an
attraction. But if you have kids, this
place is great. The only negative thing
about happy hour is that sometimes we have had to wait for a long period of
time, but this only happens occasionally.
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| View of the Kid Pool at PIC |
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| This is the view of the boogie board /surf pool that has a local competition each year and to the left (though not in the picture) is a grand stand/viewing platform for pictures and judging. |
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| One of the entrances to the lazy river at PIC |
World
Resort, Saipan: http://www.hanwharesort.co.kr/irsweb/resort2/eng/resort/index_r013.asp?rcode=r1300
Likes: It is a great hotel with a
wonderful Asian focused buffet. Kara and
I almost worked there for a tutoring camp, but needed to fulfill other
engagements. The resort has an awesome water park attached to it called Wave
Jungle. This is a great place for kids
to have fun. If you don’t stay at the
hotel, you can still pay to swim there. It is not too far from PIC if you have
a rental car. The Lazy River is also
faster and more fun. It is called wave
jungle because of the wave pool at the hotel.
Dislikes: For locals the price
went up for wave jungle to $40 a person!
I feel that this is a bit high… sometimes there are deals, but such a
high price makes me less inclined to go there.
Perhaps that is the hotels strategy… keep the water park only for hotel
guests and alienate the Saipan populace… but, oh well.
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This is a somewhat poor picture of the Wave Jungle at World Resort. The photo does not do the facility justice, but may give you an idea of what to expect.
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(Read the blog article)
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| This is the view from our Ocean View room. |
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| A panoramic view of Fiesta Resort |
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| This is the view from the entrance to our room. If you have a mountainside room (which costs less) this is probably your view. The tourism district/village of Garapan with the hills of Saipan in the background. Many of the shops and food eateries are within walking distance of the hotel. |
The
Palms, Saipan:
This hotel is actually out of commission right
now so there is not a website dedicated to it.
Trip Adviser and other websites mention it, but until a new investor
comes in the hotel remains empty. I
thought I would include a picture of the hotel because I have been told that
there are both Japanese and Russian investors looking to take over the hotel’s
ownership should the business climate in Saipan straighten itself out. In not too long, perhaps the hotel will
resume function and regain its beauty.
I have also included a picture of the chapel that people still book for
weddings as it is arguably one of the best hotel chapels on Saipan. For many Korean & Japanese tourists the
chapel at Marianas Resort is popular as well.
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| This is the wonderful chapel at The Palms, which overlooks the ocean through large windows. |
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| The Palms, sadly closed until further notice. It used to be beautiful with large flowering vines etc that would flow down the side of the building reminiscent of middle eastern traditions. |
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I hope that the review is helpful and that the pictures provide some context before you visit the hotels.
Sincerely Yours, Grant
p.s. Remember to click on the pictures to make them larger.
