{"id":144,"date":"2017-01-30T04:22:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T04:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/?p=144"},"modified":"2017-01-30T04:25:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T04:25:14","slug":"turtle-bay-is-an-oahu-stunner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/golf\/144\/turtle-bay-is-an-oahu-stunner","title":{"rendered":"Turtle Bay is an Oahu Stunner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Picture<\/a>

Picture From Our Room With a Cool Filter<\/p><\/div>\n

My wife and I have a way of finding inclement weather on our vacations and on our recent trip to Hawaii, as if preordained, tropical storm Darby came through while we were staying on the North Shore of Oahu at Turtle Bay. The storm veered south at the last minute and it only resulted in one day that we couldn\u2019t spend at the pool. There was booming thunder at night and winds that made the golf a bit treacherous. But that was just fine. We were glad to be there. We spent the first two nights at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki.\u00a0 Turtle Bay is a world away from Waikiki. Here\u2019s one example: I arrived at the Hilton in Waikiki at 11:30 AM after an early flight from California. I asked the front desk person about early check in. They wanted me to pay a $40 early check in fee. Early check in doesn\u2019t seem like it costs the hotel any extra money. Is the room ready or not? If it\u2019s ready, let me check in. If it\u2019s not, check my bags and I\u2019ll hit the pool or the bar or both. I mentioned I was a Blue Level Hilton Honors member to the check-in lady but, not surprisingly, that didn\u2019t help. It was late July and the Hilton Hawaiian Village was packed with kids, grandparents, couples and honeymooners. \u00a0I didn\u2019t really want to take the chance there might be a line later in the day. So I paid the fee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At Turtle Bay, when we arrived at noon, they got on the walkie talkie to housekeeping to see if there was a room ready. Yes, there was. And she just checked us in, no fee. It\u2019s easy to make guests happy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And they made us happy for our entire week stay. They have two golf courses at Turtle Bay, the deservedly more famous Palmer and the Fazio. They had a screaming twilight deal that included rental clubs, a sleeve of balls, green fees and cart for $65 on the Fazio and $90 on the Palmer. Whaaa? That\u2019s a great deal for Hawaii right? That\u2019s a great deal for anywhere. I took advantage of one round on each course during my stay. The Fazio is flat and walkable, if you\u2019re into that sort of thing. The course is more interesting on the back nine where the doglegs challenge your perception. Bunkers look flyable or greens look reachable when they\u2019re absolutely not. I liked it and in the pre-Darby wind, it was a handful. By the way, the course designed is George Fazio, not his more accomplished golf course-designing nephew Tom Fazio. So it\u2019s a \u201cFazio\u201d but not a Fazio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The day we had to take shelter from Darby my wife and I played Connect Four with a Longboard Ale and a glass of sparkling wine in the lobby. We then headed to Surfer\u2019s, not your ordinary lobby bar. It\u2019s more like a night club with an ocean view. They opened early that day because the pool bar was closed. They had a Sunday night Karoake party, where we enjoyed a version of \u201cGhost Riders in the Sky\u201d from a woman who looked liked Willie Nelson. And Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s \u201cSimple Man\u201d from a guy who looked like Whoopi Goldberg. They both did serviceable versions. I wanted to do Convoy, the 1975 cult classic by CW McCall, but the dj guy didn\u2019t have the song.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the storm passed I played the Palmer course and\u2026wow! The course was in perfect shape, obviously, as it\u2019s a top ten course in Hawaii in most of those lists. It has also hosted LPGA and Champions tour events. There are a couple of holes that have ocean views but the strategy and setting throughout the course are world class. I have played several of the Top 100 courses in the world and the Palmer course is right there with the best. I would put Pacific Dunes and Pebble Beach ahead of the Palmer course and that\u2019s it. I prefer it by a long margin over the Plantation Course at Kapalua and by a small margin over Chamber\u2019s Bay. The course can be tough but the beauty is overwhelming. I played the 11th<\/sup> and 12th<\/sup> a couple of times before heading in for the day. I was like a bad guest drinking the last of your beer; I just wouldn\u2019t leave.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

View From the Fazio Course<\/p><\/div>\n

One other item needs mentioning; in case you haven\u2019t noticed, hotel fitness centers aren\u2019t usually known for their stunning views. Most fitness centers are stuffed in a basement with no windows and a CNN-blaring TV. If you\u2019re lucky the LifeCycle isn\u2019t too rusty from sweat and there\u2019s a water cooler. The Turtle Bay fitness center is the antithesis of that. Perched over their famous surf break, with floor to ceiling windows, super helpful staff and pristine equipment this is a fitness center you want to go to. The giveaway is that many of the locals come here for their workouts.<\/p>\n

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I know some frequent travelers avoid Oahu like they would a trip to Disney World in July. But just know that for golfers, gym addicts and Willie Nelson wanna-be\u2019s, you can\u2019t go wrong at Turtle Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife and I have a way of finding inclement weather on our vacations and on our recent trip to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-courses-and-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/01\/Turtle-Bay-3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}