Mokulē'ia Beach Houses at Owen's Retreat

This is not the Four Seasons, so if you are looking for 5-star luxury, go to the Four Seasons. This is a cottage located on a property with 5 "houses" that share a courtyard and 2 brand new propane BBQ grills. We stayed in the yellow cottage, which is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom plus Full kitchen, living room and great outdoor porch, 2 tandem parking stalls. I don't know what some of the earlier reviews were talking about because our house had a hair dryer, towels, linens, coffee pot, pans, cooking utensils, night lights, I can't think of one thing it was missing except A/C. There is no A/C, and yes there are bugs, some of them fly and some of them bite, especially at night. You are in Hawaii on the beach, and that's where they live. In fact, you will probably see a bunch living creatures while you stay...including chickens, cats, maybe fish, turtles, and if you're lucky even whales. Nobody is on the beach in front, so you practically have a private beach. This is what I imagine Hawaii was like before tourism took over the island. If you get to experience this, count yourself lucky. This is exactly what we needed. We needed to get away and relax, away from traffic, crowds, and get back to nature. At night it's so dark you can see the stars. You are next to Dillingham airfield so you will get airplane noise when they take off and land. You can see the guys jumping out of planes right above you as they parachute down. There's a polo field nearby that does horseback rides, and Haleiwa is a 10-15 min drive away. Kaena Point is just a few minutes past this place. There is an on-site caretaker.

Great location, very “rustic”. Beautiful or be on the beach and hear the ocean at night. But “CAVEAT EMPTOR”! This accommodation is more “cabin” than beach house. Lacking in many expected amenities, including hair dryer, bar soap, Kleenex, tea kettle, working dead bolt lock, and working TV. Serving bowls had to be washed first, there was grim abundant, and lots of dirty scraped baseboards and gouges with chipped paint everywhere. When I cleaned the floor with a wet Swiffer mop, it came back black with dirt. There are two overhead lights, no bedside lamp for reading. Pocket door for the bathroom is hard to move and very loud each time. Cook top did not work; Reuben came over and fooled with it and got one burner working. For the price—-$2960.00 for 5 nights— it was a rip off. You can’t charge top prices for poorly maintained properties.