This is our second stay at Sea Mountain and we love it. Sea Mountain is 1 ½ hours south of Kona, which many people complain of, but it is much nearer to Hilo and the volcano for visits there, next to the Black Sand Beach and other walking opportunities along the shore and we cannot express enough about how peaceful it is. Couple that with a pool that is usually available, an oceanfront hot tub, and hearing the surf from our unit – we’re happy! We saw 19 turtles one day: we are only a 5 minute walk to the Black Sand Beach and the ocean environs there. For our first day’s walk, I didn’t even take my camera since we seldom saw any turtles there last year , except for seeing a head or two occasionally sticking up out of the waves. But this time, they were everywhere: in the water, out of the water, and particularly interesting, close to the rocky shore feeding, then we could see their brown backs …they look like rocks too up close! .. and then their heads came up every now and then. To see that many, we walked to several coves, it was very fun.
There are restaurants within 10 minutes, and shops as well to buy groceries, although we usually buy in Kona before we come, even loading up at Costco.
Sunrises are fabulous and even sunsets are pretty. VI units have been redone and they are very nice inside. The bedding is wonderful. We are planning to come next year, too.

We cannot begin to say enough about Sea Mountain, our room was beautiful, the view was gorgeous, the property was well taken care of, and the black sand beach was only a few minutes away. We will definitely be going back here...We wish we had left Waikiki sooner so that we had more time at the resort. We highly reccomend this resort. With the ocean breezes comming through the patio doors the tempreatures were perfect, there was no need for air conditioning. The washer and dryer in the room was a life saver as we were traveling for another week.

Overall, this place was very nice and we had a good stay here. We liked the location close (relatively speaking) to the Volcanoes National Park, and for the most part the units were well appointed and in good condition.

A few minor complaints and suggestions:
The units have no AC. This would be fine at a slightly higher elevation, but right along the coast, the temps get pretty warm in Sept. and the unit could get fairly stuffy. Ceiling fans helped some, but AC would be a big improvement.

While the front desk people are friendly, their office hours in the evening are non-existent. The office closes at 5PM, so hopefully you don't need anything after that time. Also be sure to call ahead and arrange for a late-check in if you're arriving after 5:00.

The washer in our unit was functional, but it was not working optimally and did a pretty poor job cleaning clothes. Also, the dryer was apparently not vented properly, so the entire bathroom filled up with hot steam. This was especially bad in a unit that was already too hot.

Finally, the resort had workers or maintenance people working in the unit directly above us relatively late at night (10pm or so) and then again very early in the morning by 6am. They were talking/walking/moving heavy items around rather loudly,

I would definitely recommend the property because it is very well kept with beautifully maintained mature grounds. Black Sands beach is just a minute's drive or a five minute walk and the turtles were hanging out sunning themselves in the afternoon, bobbing and feeding in the morning.
The caveat is to be aware that these 1970's condos haven't any sound insulation, at least not the one we were in. We could hear the upstairs occupants opening drawers and scooting the chairs around. The unit, #50, is privately owned, www.thehawaiicondo.com, and maybe the resort owned rooms are better insulated. The price is ridiculously cheap, $50/night, with a cleaning fee of $55 no matter how long you stay there.