Once a barren lava field, the Waikoloa Beach Resort has turned into a popular destination for travelers around the world!
In the 1960s a developer named Ronald Boedekker chose to purchase the land with the idea of developing it with an emphasis on a place where families can come and enjoy. The beautiful white sands of A’Bay made it a an easy place to envision of something great being there. He also had a love for Hawaiian culture so wanted the inclusion of Hawaiian dance, food and crafts in resort activities.
The resort began officially opened in 1981 with the opening of the Waikoloa Beach Golf Course, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. While designing a golf course amidst lava can be challenging given the uniqueness of it, he did have some idea of what to do given his father had designed the golf course for the Mauna Kea resort a few decades earlier. The golf course would not only wind amongst the lava fields, but also have some holes along the blue waters of the Pacific ocean.
A few years after that development began to happen with what is known now as the Hilton Waikoloa being built. This hotel became not only a trademark of Waikoloa Beach Resort, but also of the Big Island of Hawaii offering a lagoon, tram throughout the resort, the largest resort style pool on the Big Island, and all of this is located on an oceanfront bluff. Shortly after that what is known now as the Waikoloa Beach Marriott was built. After that Boedekker began to sell some of the land to developers who began to build some condos throughout the resort. The first two were the Shores at Waikoloa and the Vista Waikoloa. Both of these condo complexes were centrally located within the resort.
Since then Waikoloa Beach Resort has grown into the most expansive resort on the Big Island offering two world class hotels, two shopping malls, 7 condo complexes, and a large number of timeshares offered by the Hilton. Naupaka Place was developed into the first residentially community offering all beachfront homes. Ainamalu followed about a decade later and offers homes in a more secluded area of the resort.
Kolea was the first luxury development of Waikoloa Beach Resort and was built in the early 2000s and is located on the beach. It offers luxury 1600 foot condos as well as oceanfront homes as well as the Kolea Beach Club all on a beachfront setting.
There is still a lot of history to be made for Waikoloa Beach Resort as just over half of the land has been developed. There are currently some more residential developments in the works and the Hilton continues to buy land for more timeshare developements.
