Kula Lodge

This is my favorite place to eat breakfast ever! Since I am from New York, I cannot get here often, but when I’m on Maui, I make it a point to stop in. The grounds are beautiful! There is a unique outdoor seating that I have not used … yet. The views are stunning!
I had buttermilk macadamia nut pancakes with sliced bananas & coconut syrup. My husband ordered the Kula Veggie omelette. Both were delicious … and the coffee was amazing, too! My nephew LOVED his chocolate chip pancakes.

Kula Lodge gets zero stars from us.
When we arrived the room was hot as hell with no AC and no way to block the sun from heating the place up. Staff’s suggestion was that we just wait an hour until the sun wasn’t shining in the window anymore. As Angela S. said, at four in the morning loud noise from the bus going up the mountain, a very loud garbage truck and the noisy shower next door woke us up much earlier than we wanted. Although the bed was comfortable, the polyester comforter — no sheet — was very warm in the middle of the night. When we asked for a sheet, they gave us a foul smelling polyester sheet that we couldn’t use because it smelled so bad.
The purported wifi was erratic at best. Though we were able to get boarding passes online we couldn’t get them printed because the night manager didn’t know how to use a thumb drive and wouldn’t let me use the computer.
Morning coffee in the room was pathetic.
We thought we had found a nice garden path to walk through but it was closed to the public, only available to the gardeners. The «scenic view» from our hilltop room was of a noisy parking lot and the dumpsters. The Kula Lodge website and its cost led us to believe this would be a luxury stay after more rustic Hana. Unfortunately, this was THE MOST DISAPPOINTING part of our trip. Most importantly Kula Lodge was the ONLY place with no Maui Aloha.

We really enjoyed this place and the staff is excellent. I think the bad reviews are because it gets very damp at night but for $ 170 a night in Maui what do you expect? The room was great except for the dampness and it was only a 45 min drive to Haleakala. We ate at the lodge two times during our stay too. We are vegetarian and they had options for us. The pizza was fantastic and so was the beet salad.
I even left my go pro on the hostess stand and the girl at the hostess stand returned it to me right away. Overall, I can’t say anything bad about this place except that it gets wet and damp in the room…

Service was okay. I stopped by after watching the sunrise at the top of the summit. The pancakes were absolutely delicious, making up for the service. Also the venue has a wonderful view from the seating area.

KULA LODGE @15 200 HALEAKALA HWY KULA HI:
I have not stayed at this lodge but I love this old pretty building with great view restaurant, terrace garden, small art gallery, and a market place with a lot of gifts. I especially loved the garden. We enjoyed taking photos in the garden on a rainy day. The view from the restaurant on the rainy day, you can’t see much but dining in a cloud is pretty cool as well.

I stayed at this lodge for 3 days. The pictures on their website were certainly photo shopped to look good. Each day starting at 4am heavy traffic went by the unit. Since there is no insulation or sound proofing it was like vehicles were driving thru your room. People may call this quaint — I call it a waste of money. I could of stayed at a Motel 6 — at least then I get my monies worth. At this lodge the illusion of quaintness does not justify the price.

We stayed at Kula Lodge the night before heading up to Haleakala for sunrise. Our flight didn’t land till 8 pm and Kula closes at 9 pm but we had made a reservation in advance. Barry (an employee) called me at 9 pm to let me know he was closing the front and would just leave our unit open. Luckily we were around the corner so he waited for us. He was really nice; walked us to our room and showed us around.
We had originally booked cottage #3 but apparently it was double booked so we were upgraded free of charge to one if the bigger rooms which had two stories and a fireplace!
The room was surprisingly clean for being in the middle of a forest. The shower was hot and they provided shampoo & conditioner. The one thing that concerned me is that the bed didn’t have a sheet to sleep with (it had a fitted sheet for the bed); it only had a light blanket. It left me wondering how and whether they clean the blanket between guest stays. :-/​
Since I assume most people stay at this small lodge (only 5 cottages so book in advance) to do the sunrise at Haleakala, I wish they opened up their kitchen earlier or had a mini fridge in the room to store things like milk or cream cheese. Unfortunately, the kitchen doesn’t open till 6 am. However, there’s a guy who operates a small coffee stall just up the road from Kula, on the way to Haleakala. Pick up hot coffee there!
On the way back from Haleakala, we stopped here for breakfast too. We shared the veggie omelette — the feta cheese was an interesting addition. Service was fast and the food was average.
One thing to note is that there’s no wifi in the rooms; only in the restaurant.
All in all, it was convenient to stay here prior to Haleakala and I recommend it.

4 **** FOR THE CHALET! We stayed at the B&B at Kula Lodge and loved it! We stayed in Chalet 2 and it had a queen bed downstairs and a loft with 2 twin beds. If you like the «rustic» feel, then this would be the place for you! They may want to consider changing out and purchasing new bath towels and new curtains for the chalet, otherwise the view and chalets are a wonderful place to stay. However, if you have seniors that are unable to climb stairs, then you should make sure that the unit you stay in doesn’t have any. There are about 8 steps that go down to the main living area and bathroom from the front door, and about 6 stairs that go to the loft. (My mom 81, thankfully very active, stayed in the loft and during the middle of the night had to make her way down all those stairs to use the bathroom.) I think there could possibly be only 1 that doesn’t have stairs in the chalet, which would accompany 2 people. Make sure to check first! There is also no television or Wi-​Fi in the rooms!!!
1 STAR FOR DINNER AT THE RESTAURANT!!!
Dinner at the restaurant didn’t go too well. We ordered a cajun rib-​eye steak for $ 38 that was much too HOT! We realized that cajun is spicy, but after watery eyes and our runny noses we decided that we were definitely not a fan! I literally scraped off the rub from the steak! They also served our meal (although we did have a choice) with a bismati rice that was cold. When we inquired, the server told us that the new chef had ordered so much rice and they had 30 lbs left over and so they’re trying to use it all up. (They were possibly too honest)!! It didn’t go complement the rib-​eye! Apparently they served some Indian food at one time and it didn’t work out. Ugh!!!
My mom had a braised short rib which she also was not a fan, describe it as meat with bottled teriyaki sauce poured over it! :(With all this we did mention it to our server and she apologized and told us she would mention it to the chef. Lastly, you would hope that they would compensate you at the end with a complimentary dessert for us or discount the bill! NOTHING!!! The one thing that I did like is the amazing view and the hostess that greeted us was very friendly.
**Made reservations for the outdoor seating area which they claim opens on the weekend and it wasn’t!!! They said it was going to rain and it didn’t! I’ve been there serval times and it NEVER open!!! Not quite sure what’s up with that!

This is not a review of the «Restaurant» although this is the Kula Lodge and Restaurant. I feel that they should be reviewed separately as not to skew the restaurant’s scores. The restaurant was magnificent.
I wrote an earlier review of the lodge as well; however, I have since learned we picked up BED BUGS from unit #5 which is situated down the hill and to the left of the restaurant as you drive in. To be fair about bed bugs… it is an epidemic nationwide and a global problem so I don’t fault them and frankly, I would not be writing this review if I felt they were handling the situation appropriately.
We stayed there one night and then subsequently three other places on the remainder of our vacation. The next day, my husband noticed a few bites and didn’t think much about it. By the time we got home, he was covered with bites and I had seen this problem with other friends. I immediately stripped our bed to find a single bed bug. I immediately started to call everywhere we stayed… starting with … Kula Lodge. Dennis who said he was one of the managers immediately asked if I was the mother-​in-​law… and I said no. He admitted someone brought bed bugs in around Thanksgiving and they had a few complaints and one customer actually brought two bed bugs to them! He droned on about fumigating and how they did not put anyone in the room for «a day» and he personally taped the legs so they couldn’t crawl up the furniture. I said, I’m here to tell you that you still have a problem as of late November. He blatantly denied the possibility of having them. It was clear to me that they did not have a professional exterminator come in because it is not a one day treatment and furthermore, if you are seeing the bugs, you have a real infestation that requires aggressive treatment that requires the room to be vacant a few weeks due to the life cycle of the bugs. He never asked for my name and didn’t offer an apology, etc. etc. I was appalled because my experience with the restaurant was the total opposite.
So, I’m looking at about $ 800-​$ 1,000 to clear two rooms in my home and a hallway, another $ 2K for our two friends’ apartments in Honolulu and thank goodness the Hilton Las Vegas actually «thanked» us for calling promptly, took our names and contact information and wished us well. So, this has been about a $ 3K bed bug experience and we’re lucky because we caught it so quickly. Kula Lodge needs to be taking this VERY SERIOUSLY!

Selbst wenn man nicht gerade zum Gipfel rauffahren möchte und schon sehr sehr früh aufbrechen will —
kann auch so einen Abstecher zur Kula Lodge wagen ist nett und gesellig dort und das Essen ist auch in Ordnung.

Wer den großartigen Sonnenaufgang auf dem Haleakala Summit (
) erlebt hat, der verspürt spätestens bei der Rückfahrt vom hohen Gipfel Frühstücks-​Hunger. So früh am Morgen gibt es in dieser leeren Gegend nicht allzuviel Auswahl. Auf nur noch 3.200 ft Höhe lädt die Kula Lodge an sieben Tagen in der Woche zum gemütlichen Halt ein.
Seit 1940 gibt es die Kula Lodge. Das Restaurant ist am frühen Morgen gut besucht, sind wir doch nicht die einzigen Gipfelstürmer, die sich jetzt etwas Gutes antun wollen. Im Restaurant ist es heimelig, nahezu kuschelig trotz der Größe. Ein Feuer prasselt im Kamin, die riesige Panoramascheibe erlaubt einen atemberaubenden Blick auf das tief unten liegende Tal von Maui. Wer etwas härter im Nehmen ist, kann sich auch draußen im Garten niederlassen, uns war es einfach zu frisch.
Die Frühstücksauswahl ist großartig. Vom einfachen französischen Frühstück bis zum üppigen Gelage — jeder findet seinen Wunsch erfüllt. Wir neigten an dem Morgen eher in Richtung Gelage. Kaffee wie so oft in den USA wird nur einmal berechnet und immer wieder eingeschenkt, bis das rasende Herz Einhalt gebietet.
Wer hier am Abend einkehrt, kann wohl einen Sonnenuntergang erleben, der wahrscheinlich ähnlich spektakulär sein muss, wie der Sonnenaufgang, den wir auf dem Gipfel erlebt haben.
Die Lodge ist in einem großen Garten eingebettet, mit großen, blühenden Bäumen und einer Vielzahl an Blumen. Auf dem Gelände befindet sich auch der Kula Marketplace, in dem man gut gesättigt dann seine Dollar lassen kann, denn irgendein Souvenir findet sich immer. Außerdem beherbergt die Lodge noch die Curtis Wilson Cost Gallery, die wir uns aber nicht mehr angesehen haben. Wir wollten dann zurück in die Wärme und an den Strand unseres Hotels.
Fazit: Perfekter Halt nach dem Erlebnis auf dem Haleakala Summit. Frühstück das keine Wünsche offen lässt. Panoramablick vom Feinsten. Vier Sterne.