Hotel Monterey Okinawa Spa & Resort — Hotel in Onna

This resort was such a great place to stay. My husband and I decided to come for a long weekend for our "babymoon" and it was so relaxing. The staff is incredible! They are so kind and although we do not speak any Japanese, most of the staff, if not all are great at communicating in English, and even if they are not, they still find a way to be helpful to guests who are not native to the country. It is a very welcoming and calming environment and the staff at every point does everything they can to make sure you have a relaxing stay. Check-in was easy and our room, which was on the 6th floor, was perfect for us. In order to get to your room, after getting off the elevator, you have to scan your room key which opens the doors to get to the actual level, which I loved for security and safety reasons. If you do not like smaller rooms, then I would suggest getting a deluxe upgrade, but most have two twin beds, which is why we chose the room we had (one bed) it's not over extravagant and is very simple, but I felt it allowed us to relax more. The view from our balcony was amazing, as we had a direct view down to the private beach. The bathroom was really nice and had all the products you need during your stay. The beds were quite low, which was expected, but they are a little more on the firm side, and so are the pillows. This is part of why I only gave four stars, because for me, at 33 weeks pregnant, it was harder to get more comfortable, but my husband loved it, so it really just depends on personal preference and situation! The Televisions in the room were equipped with all Japanese channels, understandably, and we just decided to watch Netflix on our laptops so it was not a big deal at all. The hotel offers free wifi throughout the building and no password is needed, but because of this, speeds can be slower and in some areas, the signal is very weak. The private beach is really nice. There is netting that is set up to keep guests safe from sea animals like jellyfish which I liked. The hotel does have a tattoo cover-up policy. I do not know how strict they are about this policy, but both my husband and I have tattoos and we just bought the patches they sell at the shop to cover them up to be respectful of the rules. The patches are 4 dollars and stay on really well. Some guests had visible tattoos and we never heard them get in trouble or anything like that but there were also some guests, specifically those who came to the beach who stayed on the public area, which I am assuming was because of the visible tattoos, so there are options. There are beach chairs available on the resort's private beach, but they do cost money to rent (something that I did not quite understand) and I believe they are 25 dollars We chose to not rent them and just left our stuff on the beach. They also have beach towels, which you must rent, beach floaties, and toys also for rent and there is an on-duty lifeguard. The breakfast was good, but it was definitely geared towards the Japanese audience as most of the options were traditional Japanese cuisine. I have only been in the country for about two months and have yet to really get used to the new flavor of food, and with my pregnancy, I was not able to eat many of the options. I wish they had a larger variety of food, but it was still good. They have pastries, eggs, pancakes, fruit, rice, noodles, multiple traditional soups, a salad bar, and traditional Japanese meats and side dishes. There are multiple restaurants in the resort including a traditional Japanese restaurant where they cook in front of you, a French restaurant, a buffet restaurant, and a few other small locations that serve lunch and light dinner. Most of the restaurants are very pricey. We did go to the aromatherapy spa on our last night and it was truly incredible. The two ladies who gave the massages were so kind, professional and made us feel really relaxed. I would definitely recommend that. Overall it was a...

The rooms and the sea view of this hotel is really stunning but I have to say it comes with quite a price or should I say multiple prices. While the price for a room here is already quite ambitious even off season, you literally pay for every little thing here. Parking, gym, indoor pool, laying at the beach, laying at the pool. Even for coffee you will be charged. While you have a capsule machine in the room you still pay for if you want to use the proper machine in the lobby. Even the cheapest hotel I stayed in my 3 weeks in Japan offered this for free. If you are unlucky with weather and it rains they are closing the beach AND the pool, for indoor pool you are still charged on that day with 1500 yen per person! So on a bad week you are nearly paying 100€ just for some bathing. On top of that the hotel comes with a lot of partially pointless rules. You can not wear googgles with nose in the pool. Without nose is OK... The beach area is spanned with a net and quite small. You are not allowed to snorkel here or wearing fins. Beach also closes at 6pm! The interesting areas of the beach are also forbidden to go like the whole coast. Jetski can only be used as passenger. As if it's difficult to ride... To "earn" money for all the paid stuff you can use light weight room cleaning or no cleaning at all which is in general a nice idea in my opinion. However the vouchers can only be used in the hotel and no cash payout is given, they also can't be used on your checkout day. When you need to leverage room service on a longer stay they still do not clean proper, we had to ask extra to actually get the floor vacuumed as well. Also you should know that this hotel is advertised for families with small children in China so there are really a lot of children running around. Although I was not really disturbed by that, it's something I would prefer to knew before my booking. If you want to use one of the many restaurants you should also preper to pay around 10000 yen for two people. Food is really expensive and compared to other restaurants in a very low quality. I highly recommend to not use the restaurants of this hotel, it's feeling like scam. Luckily there are a lot of restaurants nearby that charge a fair price for food although it seems common that you have to pay only to get a seat with a small appetizer but it's still OK pricing. If you plan snorkeling you can use the public beach next to the hotel which is quite nice but also shallow and with a lot of grass. You can also use the hotels offering for nearby snorkeling trips which seems to be fair compared to others in the region but be careful. The times on the map are tricked. 100 mins snorkeling means from beginning to end with preparation time of approx 15 people. That means if you only two your trip will only be one how with half an hour snorkeling time. Complaining brings nothing as staff only speaks poor English. In general the communication is disappointing, I don't understand why a hotel that offers service for foreigners is not training their stuff proper. Wi-Fi is OK but for sure not the fastest. I tried complaining especially about the pool situation and the snorkeling, the staff is friendly but was not very helpful as they don't really understand English. I think the hotel should offer pool vouchers on rainy days if they have to close pools and beach and should be honest about the water activities. Charging for every little thing feels kind of ripped off and appears greedy to me. Overall we had a nice stay in the hotel but I won't recommend it to others, not sure if there is hotels with better practice nearby, I heard that other hotels in the area have...

TL/DR: Beautiful hotel in one of the most prime on-island locations, but expensive and you’ll pay extra for everything from sitting in the lounge, on beach chairs, to use of the indoor pool.

Overview: Hotel Monterey an incredibly beautiful hotel, and one of my favorite to stay in on-island (I’ve lived on Okinawa on-off for nearly a decade). It’s situated in one of the best parts of the island, Onna. A bit expensive for what is offered, but it’s still a wonderful stay next to a few of my favorite restaurants (highly recommend Jams Steakhouse nextdoor for dinner).

Pros:

-The location is prime with some of the best oceanfront property on-island, and walking distance to some great restaurants and izakayas. If you’ve spent any time on island you’ll know that Onna really is the gem of Okinawa, and this is a great place to use as a launchpad.

-Rooms and view are stunning. Get the deluxe room, which is just a hair above basic, and you’ll be more than satisfied. Views in general are almost alone worth the stay here. You’ve got the view from the both balcony and the bed, and both are fantastic. Generally the rooms are good and comparative to a 4 or 5 star hotel in America or west Europe.

-Staff is very attentive and polite.

-Wonderful outdoor infinity pool overlooking the beach (free).

The Cons:

-Expensive. You’re going to pay to stay here. Beyond a comparatively hefty room fee, the restaurants are well overpriced for what you get (I recommend eating outside), especially the breakfast at the sea forest.

-You have to pay for extras (This is the worst part for me). Even after paying a hefty room fee, the hotel greedily makes you pay for all the little extras, to the point that it degrades the overall value of the experience here. Things like using the indoor pool or gym are typically included in an expensive hotel, but not here (extra 1,500 yen at time of writing). Same for use of any of the beach chairs or anything padded by the outdoor pool (call it the “butt” fee!).

-Lounges are only for special credit card holder/members. This really makes you feel a bit second class, as soon as you walk in there’s a beautiful lounge overlooking the ocean, but you can’t sit there unless you’re a member of some special card program. Same for a closed off cigar lounge bar type area—card holders only! Again just another extra to pay for, on top of being a guest.

-Car parking is a bit inconvenient, as you’ve got to park your car outside the hotel and then walk back to it. Many spots are uncovered, which sucks when it rains (as it did for us). Again with an expensive hotel you should expect some sort of valet service or at the very least covered parking and a shuttle to/from.

Final word: I do love this hotel, however it is very overpriced and the value isn’t quite there for what you pay. I do enjoy coming here and will likely do so in the future, but there are some frustrating things about the experience here that I do hope management considers improving in the future, if they do aim to grow their customer base and guest...