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Four Seasons Resort Lanai

Lanai City, Hawaii, United States · Four Seasons · Apex Luxury

Four Seasons Resort Lanai: ExteriorFour Seasons Resort Lanai: ExteriorFour Seasons Resort Lanai: Bedroom

Mānele Bay Hotel opened in 1991, the year of Lānaʻi's last pineapple harvest after decades when Dole's island supplied as much as 75 percent of the world's crop. Four Seasons took over in 2005; Oracle's Larry Ellison bought 98 percent of Lānaʻi for about $300 million in 2012 and poured roughly $450 million into a rebuild that redesigned the lobby three times before the February 2016 reopening. It remains the only Forbes Five-Star resort on Hawaii's smallest inhabited island.

About Four Seasons Resort Lanai

History

The building that would become Four Seasons Resort Lanai opened in 1991 as the Mānele Bay Hotel, rising on the sun-drenched crescent of Hulopoʻe Beach at a moment of profound transition for the entire island. The timing was deliberate: 1991 was the year of Lānaʻi's last pineapple harvest, closing a chapter that had defined the island for seven decades. From the 1920s onward, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company — under James Dole, the self-styled King of Pineapple — had cultivated nearly 20,000 acres of the island, at peak years supplying an estimated 75 percent of the world's pineapple. When David Murdock's Castle & Cooke determined to pivot the island toward luxury tourism in the mid-1980s, it commissioned two hotels simultaneously: the Lodge at Koele in the cool upland pine forests, and Mānele Bay on the coast. The Mānele Bay Hotel was designed by Group 70 International in a cascading-villa style that drew on Hawaiian vernacular precedent, integrating Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Polynesian garden motifs around a central grand lounge. It offered 250 rooms overlooking the protected Hulopoʻe Marine Life Conservation District, one of Hawaii's finest snorkeling and spinner-dolphin habitats.

Four Seasons assumed management in October 2005, bringing its service standards to what remained one of the most remote luxury addresses in the United States — accessible only by a 45-minute passenger ferry from Maui or a short commuter flight. The property's isolation intensified when Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison purchased 98 percent of the island in 2012 from Castle & Cooke for a reported $300 million, acquiring with it both hotels, most of Lānaʻi City, the utilities, and thousands of acres. Ellison's ambition for the island went far beyond resort management: he envisioned Lānaʻi as a model of sustainable living and wellness technology. The Mānele Bay property was closed entirely in 2012 to begin a transformation eventually costing $450 million — one of the most expensive hotel renovations in American history. Every guestroom, restaurant, landscape, and public space was rebuilt or reimagined. The lobby alone was redesigned three times during construction. The renovated resort reopened in February 2016 as Four Seasons Resort Lanai, the only Forbes Five-Star property on the island. Interior designer TAL Studio brought a warm, Pacific-modern sensibility to the 213 rooms and suites, most framing direct views over Hulopoʻe Bay toward Maui on the horizon.

The resort's culinary program after the reopening centered on destination names rather than a single house restaurant: Nobu Lanai overlooking the Pacific, Nancy Silverton's Osteria Mozza Lanai, and Helene Henderson's Malibu Farm by the pool, with The Break and VIEWS covering casual open-air dining. The surrounding site carries deep historical resonance: an adjacent area on the Hulopoʻe headland preserves the remnants of an ancient Hawaiian village, the stone house foundations and fishing shrines of the people who inhabited this coast long before pineapple or luxury hospitality defined the island's identity.

The setting

Located at 1 Manele Bay Road on the island of Lānaʻi — the smallest and least inhabited of Hawaii's six major islands — accessible only by a 45-minute ferry from Maui or a short flight, offering unmatched privacy.

Restaurants and bars

Experiences

Amenities

Awards

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