Puakea Ranch Reviews

This place was incredible and I would recommend everyone to have their wedding here! We rented out four of the bungalows on the property. There was one that was not rented out but we pretty much had the whole property to ourselves. I was a bit sad because we stayed in the one bedroom one which was the one without a full kitchen...but I couldn't justify staying in the other ones as they had more than one bedroom.

They had an adorable farm stand where they would put some fresh veggies and the fresh eggs! That was the best...nothing beats a fresh egg. There is absolutely no phone service, but they do have wifi. The wifi doesn't blanket the whole property, but it works well in the bungalows.

My biggest concern was that I never visited the place prior to booking it....but it turned out it was unnecessary to be concerned because it was as beautiful if not more than the pictures on the website. All my pictures came out AMAZING and we even had a rainbow during the ceremony!!! I highly recommend having your wedding here. It's a bit expensive....but it's a once and a life time event.

Christie is a dream to work with. She provided lots of information on vendors, styles of weddings, weather issues for that time of year...with her input, we were able to plan the perfect event! The ranch is absolutely gorgeous! Josh helped us set up and take down everything. He checked on us several times to make sure we didn't need anything. Cannot wait to come back for vacation time!

Absolutely perfect venue. Christie, Josh and everyone at Puakea ranch was so helpful and flexible making our stay and wedding party extraordinary. We stayed on the ranch with both our immediate families for the week before the wedding, which was a perfect way to feel right at home by the time the wedding came around. The only problem was that we didn't want to leave! We'll surely be back to enjoy the ranch again.

This place was amazing!! Such a beautiful setting and so peaceful. The ranch owner, Christie, was very helpful with placing the reservation and suggesting ideas for the wedding. The ranch manager, Josh, was super helpful but also hung back and let us do our thing. It was such a great place for our entire family to all be together, we made some great memories here. I am so happy that we found Puakea Ranch. It was hard to leave, and we will definitely be back!

My husband and I were recently married at Puakea Ranch and, oh my goodness was it amazing! We stayed at Yoshi's house (which I highly recommend for weddings/elopements) Our wedding was an elopement so it was just the two of us, but Yoshi's house was definitely big enough for more guests! Josh, the ranch manager was available for anything we needed, even to tie my husbands tie the morning of our wedding! Christie replied very quickly to every single email, every question or change in plans. With the elopement package we had everything set up! I did end up finding my own photographer (Rebecca Arthurs) and privately booking hair and makeup (Mara McMichael) but the officiant, flowers, dinner, cake and ceremony were all taken care of! The house was absolutely gorgeous and very clean, the detached bathhouse was the most amazing little space! The scenery was perfect, the weather was perfect, our wedding was perfect...it felt like a dream! I would highly recommend this venue to anyone!

I was really luck to have wedding at Puakea Ranch which our time, environment, memories will stay with us for ever.
If you want to make your wedding special, I suggest Puakea Ranch as best option for this. Once you enter the Ranch, this place is all for you, your family, relatives and who ever is attending your wedding surrounded by only nature and nothing else to disturb you from this special time and day. Spiritually and physically everyone is detached from daily life and attached only to wedding ceremony. Yet basic need are all available at just 3 min by drive.
I happened to see wedding ceremony in Waikiki where at least 3 couples a day in each hotels which was produced by mass wedding industries which made me feel more precious and lucky that our wedding was at Puakea Ranch.

We had a wonderful wedding and stay at Puakea Ranch. Myself and my husband stayed at the Miles Away cottage, which was very peaceful and had distant views of the ocean. The garden was beautiful and the house was filled with all the amenities we needed, including a BBQ and a wonderful wooden bath. People were very helpful and friendly (especially Josh). We opted for their 'Elopement Package', which included a Wedding Officiant, Photographer and Chef for the wedding day. I would fully recommend Calley O'Neil who was out Wedding Officiant. Calley was so open and approachable and helped to make our day special.

My partner and I recently got married at the beautiful Puakea Ranch, surrounded by our friends and family who had all travelled enormous lengths to be with us. It was made even more special by the fact that we were all able to stay at the Ranch together for the week!

We had only seen pictures of the Ranch on the internet, but photos do not do it justice. We were mesmerised by the incredible sea views, lush gardens and amazing cottages. We were met with friendly faces and fantastic hospitality.

The Ranch was the perfect venue for our family reunion/wedding!! We are looking forward to our next visit because we know that Puakea Ranch will always be a special place for us!!

I wish we never booked here. The list of issues we had during our stay was very long, and some of them were extremely concerning (I will be discussing only the major issues). To make matters worse, the owner, Christie, is terrible at communication and is extremely difficult to work when we had any issues and in turn has made our wedding memories a nightmare for us. We, along with our wedding party, stayed on-site as we figured this would be a great way to spend quality time with one another. For starters, Christie changes what is advertised and agreed upon at the time of signing/making a deposit and could not care at all to update her website even after I showed her the discrepancy. Just a few days before arrival, I was sent an email regarding check-in/check-out along with some notes regarding what is regarded as “ranch life” (scorpions, ants, etc). The check-in and check-out time listed in the email was different than what was advertised online, and she made sure to put in red bold print to be checked out promptly by 10am. Then, she then texted me asking if I wanted the twin beds to be changed to a king size bed for a charge. What charge? There was nowhere listed anywhere of there being a charge to change the beds to a king size. I was confused so I declined even though originally I had wanted to. We were also notified by our wedding planner and Christie that she has had issues with her neighbors in the past, which we can tell why now. We had major pest issues IN ALL the cottages – from ants to roaches to rodents. Also, on our wedding night, at around 10pm all the water on the property was shut off. (No warning, no explanation. We texted the owner about it and did not hear an update until the next morning.) Mind you, our wedding had finished at 9pm and we were still cleaning afterwards, so obviously hardly any of us were able to shower/clean ourselves before bed, including myself. Water was not restored until around 9am. Christie argued with me stating that there was more than enough time for all of us to have showered (4 showers and 17 of us!). When I emailed her after our stay regarding the numerous major issues that we had, she took zero responsibility/accountability for being the owner of the ranch, arguing that the water shut off was out of her control and that for us to say that there was a major pest infestation on the property simply could not be true and told me that my group and I were being dramatic and that we were coercing into getting a huge refund (we asked for about $4k back in compensation, when we paid over $11k for a three night stay). She also ignored issues she could not refute such as the safety/security issues we had – the gate to the ranch being unlocked at all hours, doors struggling to close/lock, and a smoke alarm being unplugged from the ceiling in one of the cabins. Anything I tried to bring up to her as concerns regarding the ranch, she blamed on anyone/anything other than herself, showing zero compassion for all that we had endured during our stay.

Had she tried to work with us and been more empathetic about what we had to deal with during our stay, I would be more understanding. I tried to work things out via email but she was no help. To top it all off, in our email discourse in the following weeks after my group’s stay, she threatened to take legal action if anyone from our group writes a negative review. I am a Big Island native myself, born and raised there my entire childhood. I have never experienced such poor behavior from a business owner, and it saddens me that she seems to have no aloha and is using a Hawaiian historic property for her own profit. She blames some of the issues on the ranch being a Hawaiian historic property for refusing to fix some of the issues at the ranch, which if that is the case, then she should not be using this historic property as a vacation rental. To deny the experiences of over 15 people, stating that we must be lying/dramatizing our issues and concerns to get money back is extremely disappointing. She can never take criticism (just look at how she responds to any review that is not 5 stars) and should not be allowed to keep renting out this Hawaiian historic property.

Use a check or credit card. There could be unexpected fines that are not in any contract. We rented the entire ranch for a wedding in September. The cottages were not clean upon our arrival. We were told there would be lights put up in the pavilion (they were not and guests dined in the dark for part of the time) and that music could be played until 11:00. At 10:10, we were told the wedding had to be shut down because of noise violations. We immediately complied. We paid for golf carts to assist elderly from the remote parking lot to the wedding. The batteries were not charged and our guests were stumbling in the dark. The morning after the wedding our daughter received a very threatening email from the owner, Christie, stating that we were being fined 1,000. for noise violation. This was no way to end a wedding weekend and no memory we want. Christie suggested we write five stellar reviews in order to get half the fine returned. This is illegal. Be warned that reviews of this location may not be truthful.