TLDR: Gorgeous property with a few holiday weekend hiccups that were resolved quickly and handled well. I’d 100% come back and would recommend this property to anyone looking to chill tf out and touch some grass.

FULL REVIEW:

Just wrapped up a 3-night stay at Sensei after two nights in Honolulu and wanted to share some thoughts since I basically consumed every review on this sub (and watched Ryan Walker’s Youtube review twice). I’m the type of person that likes knowing exactly what to expect before spending this kind of money, while my girlfriend is the complete opposite and shows up surprised by everything. It ends up balancing out our expectations pretty well.

The property is honestly the star of the show. The grounds may be the most beautiful I’ve experienced at any resort that isn’t on the ocean. Everything is so well maintained, and walking around every morning and evening never got old. It’s the highest compliment I can give a place where “doing nothing” is kind of the point.

We booked the Discover Sensei package and used our credits on the 90-minute evening hale experience, a 90-minute couples massage, and a snorkel sail that we didn’t end up doing (more on what happened below). Separately, we booked a 2-hour golf lesson with one of the golf pros (not covered by Discover Sensei credit).

Evening Hale (9.2/10): $900 per couple. Just book it. If you’re traveling with your partner, this would be at the top of my recommendation list. If you’re traveling by yourself, this would STILL be at the top (even more so!).

Couples Massage (8.4/10): Veryyyyy good, but at roughly $600 before gratuity per person (gratuity is not included in treatment pricing), it’s also the most I’ve ever spent on a massage, so the price/value ratio is probably clouding my judgement a little here. I’ve had 60-minute massages for about half the price that left me feeling equally, if not slightly more, relaxed. That said, I really appreciated our therapists. Instead of a lengthy intake questionnaire, they simply asked what we wanted them to prioritize and let their experience take over. I asked mine to focus on my neck and traps, but she found knots in parts of my back that I didn’t even know existed until she started working on them. There were definitely a few moments where I winced, but you know that just means she’s doing a good job.

The golf lesson ended up being one of my favorite surprises of the trip. Our pro basically asked us what we wanted to get out of the session and rolled with it instead of following a rigid lesson plan. We’re both complete beginners, and by the end we were consistently making solid contact with the ball. I’ll happily take that as a win.

Food was a pleasant surprise? Nothing crazy but also nothing that made me feel like I was being absolutely ripped off. We had breakfast at Sensei by Nobu, one dinner there, lunch by the pool, lunch offsite, lunch at Views (at the golf course) and our final dinner at Osteria Mozza.

We’re generally not huge Nobu people, so I went in with pretty neutral expectations. I’ve had the miso black cod a number of times before, and for whatever reason, this was the best version I’ve had. I have absolutely no explanation for why it tasted better here compared to the Malibu location… it just HIT.

Pool service was excellent, and Views is well worth stopping by. Those mini tacos were M I N I - but they were FIRE.

The biggest standout for me, though, was the service. We had two communication hiccups, and I’m pretty sure it was because of the holiday weekend.

The first was our snorkel sail. We weren’t told it had been canceled until after we’d already checked in and waited past the scheduled departure time. The front desk was just as confused as we were, because the activities team hadn’t notified them that all sails had been canceled that day (for marine biology research allegedly lol). I was definitely disappointed since I genuinely love snorkeling, and the reason for cancelling felt suspiciously abrupt, since we had been confirmed for over 2 weeks. Weather was also gorgeous that day, so I’m not sure what happened.

The second was our dinner at Osteria Mozza. We confirmed the reservation with our pre-arrival specialist the week before, and the Sensei team even reached out through the app to reconfirm since it was going to be a buffet-style July 4th BBQ dinner that needed headcount. We showed up and apparently no reservation was ever made.

Thankfully, both situations were handled well. The front desk removed the Discover Sensei package rate for our final day and also comped our dinner at Osteria Mozza, which ended up being around $500 after drinks and gratuity. The restaurant team still found a way to seat us at our original reservation time despite the mix-up, and later that evening we came back to a bottle of LP and a handwritten note from the assistant manager apologizing for the inconvenience.

Nothing is ever perfect, especially over a busy holiday weekend. What I care about is how situations are handled, and I thought the Sensei team came through. In some ways, that left a stronger impression than if nothing had gone wrong in the first place.

One last shoutout to Alex, who helped book our stay. This was our first time booking with her, and I’m such a fan. We were welcomed with a bottle of LP and a thoughtful handwritten note, and she also checked in with us midway through the trip. We didn’t receive an upgrade, but both Sensei and the Four Seasons looked and felt completely full given the holiday weekend, so I wasn’t expecting one.

Overall, I’d absolutely recommend Sensei Lanai to anyone looking to slow down for a few days.