Mauna Kea's coastal golf course, built on black lava rock, was renovated in December 2008, offers a new clubhouse with a Pro Shop and locker rooms, and includes a third hole where golfers tee off over an ocean inlet. A lifeguard is on duty at the hotel's white-sand beach, and guests can rent snorkel gear, kayaks, boogie boards, and sailboats. Guests can also swim in the large freshwater pool with a whirlpool spa tub.
Mauna Kea was recently name the #1 tennis resort in the Hawaiian Islands according to Tennis Resorts Online. Of the property's 13 tennis courts, 11 are oceanside. Tennis clinics, round robin play, aqua fit, and yoga classes are offered throughout the week (fee). The fitness center has cable TV and includes a weight room, treadmills, stationary bicycles, elliptical machines, and circuit training. The resort's helipad is used by helicopters offering private aerial tours of the Big Island.
Complimentary activities each week include a golf clinic and a couples putting contest, hula dance and ti-leaf skirt-making classes, and tours of Mauna Kea's Pacific and Asian art collection and gardens. Guests can also help prepare the imu (underground oven), where a pig is roasted for a weekly lu'au. The hotel offers Hawaiian craft lessons in making miniature bowls (umeke) and decorative flowers (surcharge). One night a week, astronomers with an 11-inch lens telescope offer guided constellation viewing (surcharge).
At no additional cost, guests can take advantage of all recreation at the resort's next-door companion hotel, the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, including a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay and summertime "Dive In" poolside movies.
The recreational activities listed below are available either on-site or near the hotel; fees may apply.