Review: The Ritz-Carlton O’ahu, Turtle Bay Club Lounge

Published Mar 21 2025, 9:08 AM, Updated Mar 21 2025, 9:20 AMThe Ritz-Carlton O’ahu, Turtle Bay has one of the best club lounges in Hawaii and is one of the best luxury hotels on Oahu. Being part of the Marriott Bonvoy brand, this Ritz-Carlton hotel is an ideal destination to earn and burn loyalty points, and if you book via our luxury travel concierge, you will get complimentary breakfasts, resort credit and more during your stay.

Location

The Ritz-Carlton Oahu, Turtle Bay, is a recently refurbished resort that has been adopted by the Ritz-Carlton brand. It is situated on the North Shore of Oahu, which means that it would be very easy to twin center a trip to Oahu with the more commercial Waikiki beach, staying in the Halekulani, which we consider to be one of the best luxury hotels on Waikiki beach, or maybe the Ritz-Carlton Waikiki, before traveling to a more wild, remote and peaceful part of the island of Oahu.

This hotel’s remote location on Oahu means it’s less convenient than many of the resorts on Oahu, being over an hour’s drive from Honolulu Airport (HNL) and about 90 minutes from Waikiki, and there are no nearby restaurants or bars to grab a cheap eat. This makes its club lounge a particularly valuable asset. Having access to complimentary snacks and drinks throughout the day is a major advantage and terribly convenient when the alternative is paying resort prices for something to drink or eat. The afternoon tea and evening spread are major money savers even though the initial price of a club room is much higher than a standard room.

Style & Character

The advantages of this resort include its beautiful new design, with all the rooms offering some ocean view. The resort building is on a peninsula, and the pools are on stepped layers leading down to the waterfront. The pools are beautiful, starting with an infinity pool at the top in front of one of the restaurants and then freeform pools below with slides for the kids. To the side of the peninsula is a superb bay with a white sandy beach, which is picture-perfect.

Standing around six stories tall, this bold concrete structure offers sleek, contemporary interiors which open to panoramic ocean views through vast floor-to-ceiling windows. The club lounge is oceanfront and located within the main building on the floor above the restaurants. What makes this lounge particularly special is its stunning outdoor terrace, which provides a front-row seat to watch the waves roll in.

The interior of the lounge is warm and inviting, with pinewood accents, floor-to-ceiling windows, and high ceilings that create an open, airy feel. Plush oatmeal and cream-colored seating is scattered throughout, while the terrace offers exceptionally comfortable seating, perfect for sipping a drink in the sunshine or enjoying a sunset cocktail.

Food & Drink

This club lounge offers numerous food presentations throughout the day. These include a decent breakfast. Whilst the breakfast is more generous in the main restaurant, and breakfast is included as one of the complementary perks when you book a stay here via our luxury travel concierge, the club lounge breakfast is served in a more peaceful, less hectic atmosphere than the main restaurant downstairs, which is a big advantage at peak times.

All day refreshments are available from the fridges with all the soft drinks you can imagine are available throughout the day. There’s also a coffee machine for hot drinks that you can help yourself to. In many club lounges, the drinks are delivered to you on request, at others, you can just help yourself from the fridge.

Review: The Ritz-Carlton O'ahu, Turtle Bay

Reviews

The Ritz-Carlton O'ahu, Turtle Bay is the latest Ritz-Carlton hotel to launch on the Hawaiian Islands. There are now three Ritz-Carltons in Hawaii, and this one is brilliant for families and couples who are looking for a remote luxury resort on the easily accessible Oahu. The Ritz-Carlton O'ahu, Turtle Bay is located on the stunning North Shore of Oahu, accessible via the scenic H-2 and Kamehameha Highway.

Afternoon tea usually includes mini sandwiches and mini cakes, much like you would get if you ordered a paid afternoon tea in a restaurant. This is almost always really good in Ritz-Carlton club lounges as Ritz-Carlton club lounges are some of the best club lounges in the world.

In the evening, there’s a generous array of finger food and salads. More than enough to make a full meal and a genuinely tasty one, with cake and moose-style desserts, too. So, if you decide to grab your main meal in the club lounge, you shouldn’t be left wanting.

Ritz-Carlton club lounges also offer alcoholic beverages, should you wish. Basically you can get pretty much any drink that you could possibly want in the lounge. Usually champers or sparkling wine, beer wine and spirits and are available with canapés into the evening.

Conclusion

The only disadvantage of this resort is that the beach can be wavey which it is less ideal for little toddlers, but for bigger people, it’s brilliant and you can try surfing here too. For little ones, the Four Seasons Koh Olina is your best pick on the island of Oahu because of its calm beach.

As for whether you should book the club lounge access. I love a club lounge, not just because it pretty much covers you for food throughout the day, but also because it provides a home from home, a place to relax beyond sitting on your bed in your room. It’s a halfway house between your lounger and your room.

Whilst the breakfast provided in the lounge is not necessary if you book your stay here via our luxury travel concierge because the main restaurant breakfasts is included and is usually better than the breakfast in the club lounge. The rest of the food offerings are invaluable at a remote resort like this.

This club lounge has so many incredible daily food presentations, a stylish interior seating area, and a wonderful outdoor terrace where you can grab a bite or a drink and look down at the resort activity, the pools, and the waterfront beyond. It’s an amazing lounge to hang out in at sunset, and alcoholic drinks are included so you can have a free glass of fiz as the sun goes down.

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