The condo is located in a nice gated community, and the ocean view off the back patio [which is not private as people can walk by and you can see other patios next door] is breathtaking [we saw dolphins swimming on several days!]. We brought take-out home to eat on the back patio often and watch the sunset. There is beach access within a 5 minute walk [good for sunset watching, but not swimming]. There is a convenient shopping center 5 minutes away with restaurants and a grocery store (and a farmer's market on Saturday mornings). We didn't realize you have to buy all your drinking water in Hawaii [you can buy big jugs at the KTA grocery store with a deposit for the jug and then exchange empty for full ones for cheaper, or better, go find a Water Box to refill your jugs for a third of the cost]. Our host's local contact bought us 4 bottles of water when she heard we didn't have any, which was very thoughtful :) There was a high surf advisory for about 5 days of our stay, and the condo management closed up our back deck for 5 days, as the surf was literally crashing against the condo, so we lost our ocean view, which greatly diminished the enjoyment of staying there and made the condo like a dark cave [though the high surf was exciting upstairs]. If we come back to the Big Island, we'd probably stay in North Kailua-Kona, as we were driving north to find the sun and the nice beaches and snorkeling [like Hapuna, Mauna Kea, beach 69 etc.] almost every day, which is quite a drive from Keauhou. There is good snorkeling at Kahalu'u Bay just 5 minutes from the condo, but if you want a really beautiful beach, you need to drive a bit farther. The hosts were very kind and responsive when we asked them not to have the place sprayed for bugs during our stay [which the condo complex was routinely doing]. This is a good place to stay if you want to be more centrally located to explore Captain Cook and Kealakekua Bay, the Southern part of the Island, and go see the volcano via the southern route.