There’s No Place Like B&B; in Hawaii

A crescent of vanilla sand curves invitingly along azure ocean more than a mile in each direction. Except for the palm trees and you, the beach is deserted.

Are you shipwrecked on a remote atoll?

Not necessarily. This scenario applied to a beach in Kailua on Oahu, half an hour’s drive from Waikiki, on a lazy weekday afternoon.

Kailua is a prosperous town at the end of the Pali Highway, north across the mountains from Honolulu, a world away from the crowds, high-rises and honky-tonks of Waikiki.

Residents have successfully opposed attempts at hotel developments, but cheerfully allow a limited number of visitors at bed and breakfast accommodations in private homes.

Besides the beach, Kailua offers a river, a park, restaurants and shopping geared to the community.

Disenchanted Visitors

The Kailua connection for B&B; was started by Doris Epp, who grew up in Germany and lived briefly in Spain before settling in Hawaii almost three decades ago. “We’ll never come to Hawaii again,” was a statement Doris heard constantly from visitors she chatted with along Waikiki.

“Europeans were particularly disappointed to have spent two days of travel time to come halfway around the world, only to wind up in the same sort of high-rises available to them closer and at lower prices in Italy or Spain,” Epp said. “They weren’t experiencing Hawaii. I thought how sad it was that they couldn’t know Hawaii as I did, at a reasonable cost.”

Epp remedied that with the consent of her husband, Orlando, by making spare rooms attached to her home available to paying guests. “I wasn’t aware then of the bed and breakfast concept in the United States,” she said, “but rooms in private homes are common in Europe.”

Her enthusiasm grew along with her expanding knowledge of and confidence in this type of operation. Soon she was telephoning acquaintances, including many of the clients to whom she sold homes during her career as a real estate agent, to suggest that they accommodate B&B; guests.

New-Found Expertise

In 1982 she named her new enterprise Pacific-Hawaii Bed & Breakfast. After lining up several B&Bs; in Kailua, she cast her new-found expertise toward other islands as well as other areas on Oahu.

“I print a directory to give people some idea of the places available,” Epp said, “but it’s out of date almost before the ink is dry. Not every home is available at all times, because some hosts open to guests only parts of the year. We make every effort to match guests to the type of environment best satisfying their needs and interests.”

Doris inspects each home on all islands. Her directory lists 45 homes in Kailua, 20 elsewhere on Oahu, 10 to 15 each on Maui, Kauai and Hawaii, and two on Molokai. Most are on or near beaches, with a scattering of mountain, park and urban sites. Many are set amid lush gardens, with living rainbows of tropical blossoms and fruits.

“One of the most unusual was in Waikiki Yacht Harbor, but that one literally sailed away when the boat’s owner decided to move on,” Epp recalls.

Dog Ready to Play

An example of a listing is her own home, where she continues to be a host to guests in an adjoining unit with two rooms, including kitchenette plus bath, separate entrance and private patio on the beach in Kailua, for $65 a night or $1,500 a month. At no extra charge their dog will play with you on the beach, although he prefers husking the coconuts that wash ashore to fetching driftwood sticks.

On another shore, on the island of Hawaii, another B&B; has such a commanding view of Hilo Bay that the military commandeered the house during World War II. The state’s biggest gun (a six-inch Panama mount) was emplaced here on its biggest island, where giant blossoms and ti plants have claimed the ultimate victory in the now tranquil yard.

The hostess here is as invincible as the house; both have withstood earthquakes and tidal waves. “My father built this house in 1886 from redwood lumber he floated ashore,” says Kapua Hoya Heuer, who’s of Hawaiian and German descent.

She opened her home for B&B; two years ago after the death of her husband, a former sea captain. A huge breakfast tops off nights in huge rooms, with 12-foot ceilings and rich hardwood floors. Her charge is $30 single or $35 double for this beach-front experience a quarter of a mile from downtown Hilo and 10 minutes from the airport.

‘House in the Mist’

The year 1886 must have been a booming year for construction on Hawaii. Also built then is a very different home in a very different environment less than an hour away. Haleohu, meaning “the house in the mist,” set amid kaleidoscopic gardens that could keep a botanist delighted for days, remained the property of descendants of the Lyman missionary family until 1972.

Second owners Gordon and Joann Morse turned their home into Volcano Bed and Breakfast in 1984, with small basic bedrooms. Their printed information features such enticements as: “Do not get upset over an earthquake now and then,” and “Most volcano eruptions can be seen and heard from your bedside.”

Even dormant volcanoes sport B&Bs.; Several are on the slopes of Haleakala in upcountry Maui, particularly in Haiku, half an hour from Kahului Airport. At the Baldwins’ home, breakfast can be enjoyed on a flower-flanked patio with a sweeping panorama of mountainside meandering toward ocean.

Also in Haiku is a 138-year-old pineapple plantation house, a few minutes from surfer-favored Hookipa Beach. B&Bs; on the other side of Maui range from studio units in Kihei to rooms in Lahaina.

The majority of B&Bs; on Kauai are in Poipu and Kapaa. Molokai has one at each end of its 38-mile length, and a couple in between.

European Visitors

“Every time an interesting visitor stays here I feel like I’ve been on a trip myself,” Epp says. “My recent guests have included numerous Europeans, a coffee broker from Brazil and an executive with a leading automobile manufacturer. Money isn’t the major motivation for most hosts or guests to choose B&B.;”

Prices are much lower than resort hotels, though, at $25 to $80 a night for two, with most averaging $35 to $50. Pacific-Hawaii Bed & Breakfast specifies a three-day minimum stay, but some individual B&Bs; are available for one to two nights. Weekly or monthly stays usually earn discounts.

Reservations are recommended, with a deposit. Credit cards generally are not accepted. Travel agents may book B&Bs;, but receive their 10% commission via an add-on to the cost, because basic prices are so low.

Bed and “breakfast” is something of a misnomer. The only requirement is that some possibility for breakfast be provided, ranging from access to kitchen facilities to cook your own, to cold rolls or fruit.

“Technically,” Epp explains, “Hawaii health regulations forbid the host to even place a piece of bread in a toaster. Some B&Bs; acquired commercial kitchen licenses in order to serve full breakfasts.”

Several B&Bs; specify non-smokers and a few request non-drinkers.

‘Home’ Atmosphere

Many B&Bs; are favored by travelers chiefly for their “home and family waiting for me” atmosphere. But guests who are late to bed, late to rise may be uncomfortable (and often sleepless) in a room inside a house with other people who think that the rooster crowing down the road means that it’s time to get up. Bedtime dissidents or semi-loners will be happier with a B&B; that is a separate unit rather than one room in a large house.

Adults traveling without children may prefer one of the majority of B&Bs; that prohibit children, including one where the homeowners have no small offspring. About a third of Hawaii B&Bs; welcome children.

Although extremely rare, if a guest is dissatisfied with the accommodations upon arrival, Pacific-Hawaii Bed & Breakfast will find an acceptable alternative or refund the deposit. Even rarer, a host may decline to accept a certain guest.

The fact that Pacific-Hawaii Bed & Breakfast is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with someone answering the telephone to solve any problems, is valuable for travelers who arrive on nights or weekends.

The other primary B&B; agency, Bed & Breakfast-Hawaii (formerly Bed & Breakfast-Kauai) staffs its telephones only Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Hawaii time; on nights and weekends your message may have a long wait on their answering machine.

First B&B; Agency

Bed & Breakfast-Hawaii is credited with being the first B&B; agency in Hawaii. It was started in 1979 by former Californians Evie Warner and Al Davis in their own home in Kapaa, Kauai. They now live in Poipu, Kauai, near nine apartment units rented to overnighters, but continue to make management decisions for their agency.

They have more than 100 listings on all five islands. Warner and Davis sell a combination guidebook and directory, updated annually, for $7.40 ($5 plus $2.40 postage), although it isn’t an absolute requisite to booking reservations. They also offer a non-essential “membership” for $5, the only benefit of which is a few discount coupons usable on Kauai.

Most B&Bs; seek bookings through more than one agency, so the majority of the listings are duplicates. But at least the two top agencies also have some exclusive listings.

For more information:

Pacific-Hawaii Bed & Breakfast, 19 Kai Nani Place, Kailua, Hawaii 96734, (808) 262-6026.

Bed & Breakfast-Hawaii, P.O. Box 449, Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii 96746, (808) 822-7771.