There are many things to like about this hotel, but for our stay this week, also events that are outrageously unacceptable.

#1 - awakened at 5am by a blaring alarm: “EMERGENCY EMERGENCY Everyone must leave the building immediately. Do not use elevators.” This repeated twice more at 4 or 5 minute intervals. Needless to say we threw on clothes and in a daze tried to decide what to take with us. Out of the room and in the stairwell, another message, “Disregard the prior announcement“.

#2- we could not access the internet for 24hours. We called at that point and we’re told to use a different wi-fi name, one went down.

Things happen.

But there was no acknowledgment, explanation, or APOLOGY for either of these extremely disruptive events.

Not what I expect from a Westin.

Oh, and food quality matters a lot to us. We have concluded that the best way to describe it is consistently mediocre.

This is a lovely resort -- the perfect blend of beauty and a relaxed attitude. The room and grounds are lovely and well-designed designed, with open-air hallways, and right next to a charming sand beach (yellow from the coral, rather than black from lava). The staff were pleasant and responsive, without being over the top. The furnishings of our suite were lovely, and even included a generous desk area in the center of the room that we found very appealing to use. The patio adjacent to the room was the most usable I've seen, with a stylish high table with room for two, and a lovely wood sculpture on the wall for hanging swimsuits, and a stylish wide lounge chair. The design of the building is harmonious throughout, featuring large circumference columns, a motif that was echoed throughout. The art included native designs. The courtyard next to the conference center had stunningly beautiful trees. The flora around the grounds are lovely.

The design of the floors and how they interlink with the restaurants is really terrific. Everything is close in terms of walking from one part to another -- unlike many resorts -- and the halls and restaurants are all open-air, which is what I like most about Hawaii. The floors in the halls were so clean and the stones so smooth that we often walked back to our rooms barefoot from the beach/pool.

It didn't hurt that we had perfect weather -- clear every day -- with stunning sunsets. At first we thought the pool would not be good for swimming, but if you go at a time that is not really popular, you can actually get in some serious laps. The length of the non-adult pool is about twice that of a standard pool, and if you're willing to dodge around those who are playing in the water, you can get in a good swim.

The hotel is generous with towels, and supplies rentals for the ocean, including boogie boards. The beach is not very long, but there is a very long, lovely walking path from the hotel to the next one down (we discovered it late in our visit, so will do the whole thing next time). The elevators were fast; we never waiting long, and stairs are available too.

The hotel supplied us with two high-quality metal water bottles and refill stations all around the resort, so we -- and hopefully others -- did not waste plastic on cups for water. They are such good quality that we brought both home. I prefer this eco-friendly touch over something fancy like free wine or chocolate.

The only negative is that the dinner/lunch choices were a bit limited. The piko bar is great and so is the breakfast. There are many restaurants within a 15 minute drive although we did not find one that we loved.

I would say that the best thing about the Westin is it’s location. It’s on Hapuna beach which is one of the best beaches on the island (if not the best) with one of the few natural white sand beaches. We visited the Fairmount and the beach looked man made and was reasonably small. A plus or minus depending on what you wanted, the beach at the Fairmount was also very calm compared to Hapuna so no body surfing or boogie boarding. Almost everyone with whom we dealt with the exception of one of the concierges was also very pleasant (the concierge wasn’t mean but wasn’t especially helpful with recommendations). It’s definitely a plus that they have free laundry but it’s only on the 6th floor so if you are on another floor it can be annoying. The food at the pool was pretty good with a decent amount of choices which is more than I can say for a large number of places we have stayed. Service was great with multiple check ins during the day and fairly quick delivery of things ordered. The rooms were pretty good but if you were on a low floor your partial ocean view could be obscured by the residences built in front of the hotel. Things that were only okay included the Wi-Fi that was intermittent. The included platinum breakfast was only continental and upgrading was $25. The breakfast buffet was pretty much the same everyday with the exception of like 3 items. Also, there was no service on the beach. They didn’t deliver food or take food orders, no drink service and no beach towels service. Though they had chairs, you had to get towels by the pool and bring them down, not the worst thing and a first world problem but it would have been nice to have those amenities when you were on the beach. All in all we would stay again but it wasn’t so superlative that we wouldn’t check out other places on the island.