Archive for Sunday, June 17, 2007
An uncrowded stay on Hawaii

By Tribune Staff Reporter and Toni Salama
June 17, 2007

The Palms Cliff House Inn,
Honomu,

If this bed were anywhere else, I’d never want to leave it. It sits high,robed in black-and-gold, loaded with pillows and bolsters, framed like the finest artworks always are, in carved wood. On either side, where wall sconces would be appropriate, there are instead long, slender standards set with feathers. The feather standards are a symbol of royalty called kahili, and remind me that Room 5 in this intimate, Victorian-inspired inn is on the island of Hawaii, a few miles north of Hilo along the rainy Hamakua Coast.

The eight-room Palms Cliff House Inn is a place for life’s special moments,wedding proposals, honeymoons and anniversaries. But given its location, it’shard to spend much time enjoying the room itself; after all, Hawaii is calling.

The nearest lures are a few minutes away at Akaka Falls State Park, where two of the falls plunge to the bottom of a jungle-draped crevasse. An hour’s drive in one direction brings you to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A half-hour drive in the other direction puts you at the Waipio Valley overlook.
As you might expect from its name, the Palms Cliff House Inn hugs apromontory above Pohakumanu Bay – there’s no beach here – and one of its small pleasures is that of letting the sound of the surf crashing into the cliffs below keep you company on your room’s ample balcony. Overall, the property is small, and the thick lawn that separates the building from the cliff’s edge is soggy from the rains. But there are ocean views from the breakfast porch and a communal hot tub that’s secluded by landscaping.

ROOMS: There are four rooms on each of two floors, eight in all. Each isdecorated differently and in addition to bearing a room number also has anickname; for example, Room 7 is Tropical Splendor. If air conditioning is important to you, you should know that only the rooms on the upper floor have it. All rooms have a king-size bed, balcony with ocean views, mini-fridge, coffee maker, phone with voice mail, data ports,dial-up Internet,
television, DVD player, safe, alarm clock, ceiling fan, hair dryer, ironand ironing board.

Four of the rooms also have a gas fireplace and a whirlpool bathtub large enough for two people.
I paid $350, actually $390 with tax, to spend one night in Room 5, alsocalled the Hawaiian Views Room. It is one of the four that has a whirlpool tubset in a turret alcove whose windows overlook a strip of lawn, rich vegetationand, of course, the Pacific Ocean. This room also has a sheepskin rug setbefore a gas fireplace whose mantle is held up by caryatids, or columns shaped like people.

BATHROOM: The walk-in shower easily could hold six people, though I wouldn’t recommend trying it.
The sink, set in an antique sideboard, is in thesleeping area, as is the whirlpool tub. Bath products are from Gilchrist & Soames.

 

John Kaniukumakekai Gamble & Michele Kealaokapualokomaika'i Gamble celebrate 9 years of sharing their aloha with guests.

Site Content & Web Design Copywrite: The Palms Hawaii Accommodations, LLC. 2009.