On Oʻahu's fabled North Shore, the resort long known as Turtle Bay has a new name and a sharpened identity. Rebranded as The Ritz-Carlton Oʻahu, Turtle Bay in 2024 after extensive renovations, it remains the area's flagship stay — and it's leaning hard into what makes this corner of the island different from Waikīkī: surf heritage, ranch country and farm-to-table food.

Guests arrive into an open-air lobby looking out over Kuilima Cove, and the property makes a point of honouring local history rather than sanding it away. The land was once part of Kahuku Ranch, worked by paniolo — Hawaiian cowboys — and the resort's signature lūʻau, Paniolo, A Hawaiian Cowboy Lūʻau, stages that story outdoors against the backdrop of its stables, complete with a pig roast, hula, mele and tales of ranching life.

Surf culture gets its moment too. Last December, after a five-year gap, the resort revived its iconic Surfer The Bar as a pop-up timed to the winter surf season, run with "Surfer" magazine and celebrating the music, art and community that surround North Shore wave riding.

The food is where it all comes together. Signature restaurant Alaia pairs ocean views with a menu built on Hawaiʻi's comfort foods: hamachi sashimi with lilikoʻi leche de tigre, ʻahi poke with ogo seaweed, huli huli pork and pūlehu chicken. Sourcing is treated as the point, not a garnish — the Kahuku corn tagliatelle uses corn grown nearby and cheese from Sweet Land Farm in Waialua, while the beet salad features produce from Kuilima Farm, a 468-acre working farm the resort owns. It supplies the kitchens, the bar and even the spa, and visitors can tour it and pick their own fruits and vegetables.

There's fresh energy in the kitchen as well. Executive chef Daniel Guevara Quintero, appointed at the start of the year, brings stints at The Fat Duck in the U.K., La Vie in Germany and Quique Dacosta in Spain. In May he launched the Town & Country Chef Series, a dinner programme honouring the chefs, farmers, ranchers and fishermen who shape Hawaiʻi's food culture. The first instalment featured Maui chef Sheldon Simeon to mark his second cookbook, ʻOhana Style — six courses paired with Kosta Browne wines — with chef Lee Anne Wong following in the second.

For travellers, the appeal is a resort that feels plugged into its surroundings rather than dropped on top of them. You can watch winter surf at famous breaks nearby, ride horseback country once worked by paniolo, eat corn that grew a few miles from your table, and meet the people behind it through a lūʻau or a chef's dinner. If your idea of Oʻahu skips the high-rises, this is the version of the island worth booking.