ACCOMMODATIONS. We’re recommending that people stay near Hanalei Bay or
Princeville, since that’s very close to the house on Anini Beach. Two places we can
recommend: hotel/condo accommodations at the Hanalei Bay Resort, on a hill above
the Princeville Hotel, or the Hotel itself.
If you completely want to “check out” while you’re in your hotel, you may also be
interested in the Hanalei Bay Colony ….
The below reviews are cribbed from The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook – by Andrew
Doughty & Harriett Friedman (See Amazon or http://wizardpub.com to order a copy
– it’s a good book.)
Hanalei Bay Resort and Suites
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(800) 827-4427 or (808) 826-6522
(800) 826-7782 or (808) 826-9775
(Note in the picture, the numbered condos are the Hanalei Bay
Resort, and the place below with the big pool is the Princeville
Hotel. At the Resort you do have to tromp down a hill to get to
the beach, but we liked its views of the bay, affordable-ish
condos, peace and quiet, and relaxed attitude.)
280 rooms, 8 tennis courts, a tennis pro shop, coffee makers, air
conditioning (in rooms managed from the above number), daily
maid service (unusual for condos), 2 pools, a nice keiki (kids)
pool, spa, cocktail lounge (Happy Talk), restaurant (Bali Hai) and
8 "maintained" roaming kitty-cats. Suites have kitchens. This
resort is located in Princeville on 22 acres of beautiful, lush and
winding grounds. It looks and feels very tropical. You can't drive
to most rooms, but they will shuttle you around the grounds or
to either Princeville golf course, so you don't have to tie up the
car for the day.
The main swimming pool is dashing and the sand-lined keiki pool
with small waterfall is glorious. The layout of the resort makes it
quiet, even when they're nearly full. (Though the Bamboo
buildings, number 9, get an earful when neighboring Princeville
Hotel's lu'au is going.) The Happy Talk Lounge has always been a
great place to have a drink in the evening, and they serve food.
All rooms are not created equal. There are three main types:
hotel-type rooms (which are plain), studios (same but with a
kitchenette) and condo-type rooms (called suites). Of these, the
suites are much nicer and include free daily breakfast and two
cocktails if you book direct. In these you get a living room area
and larger rooms. Ocean views are fairly distant but many are
stunning, overlooking Hanalei Bay and Bali Hai.
Some people get frustrated that they can't use the beach chairs
at Pu'u Poa Beach in front of the Princeville Hotel. (The chairs
belong to that hotel.) Hanalei Bay Resort will bring a chair down
to the beach and pick it up if you ask them to.
They are converting 170 of the rooms to time shares but they'll
always keep many rooms in the vacation rental pool. If you don't
want to buy a time share, tell them so and they (hopefully) won't
bug you about it again.
We used to give them a gem rating. Though the grounds are still
exotic, the poor service at the front desk coupled with the
reletively spartan furnishings in many of the rooms makes their
rack rates too pricey.
Depending on view, hotel rooms (around 550 sq. ft.) are $185-
$275 (add $30 for studio kitchenette). Condo-type suites (1,091
sq. ft.) are $350-$390 for 1/1. Larger units available by
combining lock-offs with 1/1s. ERA (the second set of phone
numbers) has much cheaper rates. Their rate sheet is so
complicated it would make an astrophysicist screech in
frustration. But they have very nice units, much better than the
first set of numbers. ERA is also the place to go if you want 2-
bedroom units. Though we've had to remove the gem rating for
this resort, based on the nasty front desk and more spartan
rooms, we'd give it a solid gold value for units rented from ERA's
vacation units.
Princeville Hotel
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(800) 826-4400 or (808) 826-9644
252 rooms, 6 tennis courts, 3 restaurants, 24 hour room service,
cocktail lounge, fitness center, in-the-pool bar, several shops,
ballroom, conference room, valet parking, keiki program,
wedding coordinator, pool with three spas and a keiki pool, lu'au,
and a free 60-seat cinema. About a third of the rooms have
lanais. Casual luxuriance is the overall feel here. The hotel is
richly furnished with a fabulous lobby featuring 18,000 square
feet of marble, marble fireplace, clamshell fountain, and a drop-
dead view of Hanalei Bay through the glass walls. The lobby is so
richly furnished that it's easy to miss little things...like the
$100,000 19th-century Erard piano near the Café Hanalei
restaurant. The valet parking area has their trademark serene
fountains. The rooms are more expensively furnished than the
other resorts on the island and are quite comfortable. They even
have a feature unique on Kaua'i. The bathrooms have windows
with liquid crystal panes. The result? Instant opaqueness at the
flip of a switch. In regular rooms these windows overlook the
main hotel room, in Jr. suites they overlook the outside. Private
dinners on the beach are available for $395 a couple. Expensive,
but very romantic. They also give massages near the water.
The hotel is designed in a series of tiers, stepping their way
down a mountain. The payoff is great ocean views from most
rooms. Rather than gaze upon ugly roofs below you they've
thoughtfully planted grass on them. At the bottom is the pool
area. The swimming pool is near the beach and is filled all the
way to ground level without the usual lip. (Called an infinity pool,
in case you're thinking about getting one.) Have a beverage in
the pool from the swim-up bar, or walk across the pool bridge
and take a few steps across the grass to Pu'u Poa Beach, an
easily accessible and relatively user-friendly beach. In comparing
the Princeville Hotel to the Hyatt in Po'ipu, the Hyatt has a more
exotic, tropical feel, whereas the Princeville has a richer and
more expensive feel (and a better beach). Both are outstanding;
it just depends on what you're looking for. The Marriott is
somewhere in between, and the Sheraton Po'ipu rooms aren't as
nice but are closer to the water. Because of common ownership,
guests here get deeper discounts at the two golf courses.
Rooms 101-119 are avoidable because the hallway in front of
them is the main route used by most pool and beach goers. We'd
also recommend Mountain View or Ocean View rooms. The
interim "Partial Ocean View" units we've seen only show the
ocean from the lanai. Parking is an offensive $15, valet or self, so
you may as well let them do it. Local calls are $1.50 and 800
calls are $2!
Their Seamless Check-in is a wonderful perk. Go straight to your
room and avoid the check-in desk. (Coming and going, if you
want.)
Here's a magic code word: Sheraton offers discounts of around
30% on most rooms if you ask for an escape rate or if you join
their Starwood Preferred (which is free) when you reserve.
Without these significant discounts, rooms (547 sq. ft.) are $425-
$645. Prince Jr. Suites (821 sq. ft.) are $745. Other suites range
from $1,900 up to $4,800 for the Royal Suite. That price includes
complimentary everything (as it darn well should). If you pay the
rack rate for the high-end suites, it comes with 24-hour butler
service.