THE MOON BEACH MUSEUM RESORT

The views from the hotel are great. That cannot be denied and you will see that from the photos. But for us, that is where the positives end. After spending 10 days travelling the cities of Japan we were looking forward to a relaxing final few days before flying home. Instead, we found a hotel which had 19 sunbeds to serve a hotel with over 300 rooms. As a result you had two options, wake up at the crack of dawn and be one of ‘those people’ who race to a bed at sunrise, or pay (yes pay!) £18 per day to have a sunbed on their own beach! (The name Moon Beach Hotel makes this even more laughable). On top of this? Breakfast finishes at 9:30 - but they actually take last orders at 9:10. The hotel itself is tired and old and if you drive to the hotel - you have to pay to park! Awful experience, will be spreading as far and wide to as many as possible - do not book this hotel.

As paying guests for a day, we used the beach, the pool, and additionally paid for umbrellas. Beautiful sea, unfortunately enclosed by buoys. I hope the restaurant service for outsiders is decent.

The structure of the hotel is old, but the rooms have been updated and were very comfortable and new. I absolutely loved the retro charm of the place and the common areas such as the atrium pool and inside courtyard area were beautiful spaces. What the marketing doesn’t show is the vast open spaces at this hotel, the stunning landscaped gardens and the art-spaces such as artist in residence and exhibition space. I was blown away by this and enjoy a fantastic painting workshop with the artist who focuses on the local flora and fauna of Okinawa. The best point about this hotel is the staff. They are all incredibly lovely. Lisa and another lady name starting with H on front desk especially were so amazing, very helpful! One night there was an error with our dinner and the chef personally came to apologise. He replaced our meal with a local menu which was incredible and after eating he said the bill was on him as a gesture of apology. I was truly touched by this gesture of kindness. Areas for improvement: the kitchen being closed outside of designated times. If you want food at 10am for example, no chance. Also nowhere to buy drinks near the pool and beach. Food options are not great and the buffet is really mediocre. Also, I would expect their approach to sustainability to be better on an island like this. There is an overuse of plastic, especially single use such as straws and each tiny piece of cake at the buffet being individually wrapped. Really no need for that. I do worry where all this plastic is going. Beach is smaller than it looks. Can’t swim, very shallow full of seaweed and dead coral. Very quiet. Very strict lifeguard: no throwing a ball, no jumping, splashing, laughing it seems. We were using an empty bottle to collect water and build a sandcastle -he removed it. No standing on inflatables. No swimming outside of the fenced off area. From what I’ve seen this is an island-wide thing though, not limited to here. Local area: really not much to see and do outside of the hotel.