Online reviews/opinions were very helpful to me this year while planning our Kauai family vacation. It had been some time since an updated post on The Sheraton Kauai, so here’s a detailed review/opinion for those who like to know the latest; things have changed since previous posts so I hope my notes are helpful and current as of Spring 2007.
This property was probably purchased in the 60's when Hawaii first came up for sale to the early developers has one of the prime slices of oceanic heaven in Hawaii. It is a large resort mind you, but its relationship to the sea cannot be denied. This is not an intimate resort, but we’re Southern Californians who have had the pleasure of being on the ocean in lots of different ways throughout our lives. Our trip was a resort-style trip with little kids who must have been on that pool waterslide for 100 hours during our week there. That meant 100 hours of beachfront reading, New Yorker reading, Pina Colada ordering, husband-hand-holding pleasure for this couple who just needed to crash by the ocean for a week.
The ‘resort fee’ that many grumble about has been dropped to $15/per day/per room. It’s not so bad now. But they removed the much grumbled about breakfast buffet as a result. A breakfast buffet would have been handy with the kids, but we created an in-room kitchen with our mini-fridge and did just fine. Do your shopping in Lihue after departing the airport; don’t wait for Old Koloa town where the prices are outrageous.
Here’s the scoop on the wings: Garden, Ocean and Beach. We had the opportunity at check-in to ‘choose’ between wings, so we got to see both oceanfront choices. The Garden Wing at the rear of the resort and across the little road is just fine. Dubbed the “dud wing” in a previous post, we saw plenty of happy couples and families with smiles on their faces returning to their more remote location at the end of the day. The Garden Pool in that part of the resort is quiet and peaceful; a great reading spot away from the hubbub that the Ocean “lagoon style” Pool is.
Perhaps those folks looked so content because they got the Starwood Promotion of 5 days/5 nights for $650. Not bad. I’ve read that the décor in the Garden Wing is still pretty dated and not up to snuff with the rest of the resort, but I’m the first Epinion post in two years and they’ve been steadily upgrading the whole resort. The Ocean Wing has rooms/balconies that directly overlook the ocean with nothing between you and the sea. Think of the view from the side of a cruise ship. Total ocean. A previous post had indicated that the Ocean Wing is a schlep to the pool, the beach and activities. That is accurate. Choose the Ocean Wing if you’re a honeymooner or someone traveling with more solitude and direct sunsets in mind. Oh and the Ocean Wing had slightly bigger spa style bathrooms. For a family traveling with kids, The Beach Wing can’t be beat. You’re over or around the pool, you’re above the casual alfresco restaurant/snack bar called The Oasis, and most importantly you look directly at the white sand beach and the crashing aqua waves that epitomize Poipu Beach. Beach Wing rooms sit in the treetops of swaying old growth palm trees (especially the ones around the pool) and the 24/7 soundtrack of the swaying palms and the crashing waves is tropical heaven. The Beach Wing made going up and down to our room so convenient, and my little ones even started going back by themselves on occasion as I could watch them almost the whole way. Note: the Ocean and Beach wings only have oceanfront rooms; so you won’t choose those wings and end up “in” the wing but facing a frontage road. The Beach Wing is not loud contrary to a previous post, I put my little one down for naps a couple days and the soundtrack was the above + the happy chatter of families below. It was fine. A plug here for the hammocks. By day three I smarted up and started putting my exhausted 3 year old down in the hammock, wrapped up in towels for his nap. He had become accustomed to the sounds of the pool by then and he was a napping celebrity by the end of the week. Apologies to anyone who wanted that hammock for those 90 minutes!
Some of our favorite things included the hosted Mai Tai hour, which we dubbed “Punch Party”; it’s three times a week so if you stay a week you’ll be quite sentimental about it the third time around. And guess what, they’re real drinks. “Take two!” The guitar player keeps purring. The property is lined with authentic Tiki torches and two locals in grass skirts race about the property just before sunset lighting the torches which flicker about the beautiful grounds well towards midnight, loved that. The lady who taught lei making and hula dancing at the Oasis poolside was crotchety, and seemingly weary of her students, but it was a sweet onetime activity to do with my daughter. We didn’t pay the fee for the Beachfront Luau which is twice a week (the weekly resort calendar is posted on their website) but another plug for the Beach Wing is you can just watch it from your balcony, oh, I mean lanai. On Wednesday nights, they screen a feature film on a big screen back on the Garden Wing lawn and it’s a huge screen, like a drive-in. Very fun, too bad they showed Jurassic Park II, too bloody scary for our kids, but appreciated the activity, and would have been fun to have a Garden Wing room on that side of that building as you could have just watched it from your lanai. The snorkeling in the bay was great. The tidepools were great. And who can resist poolside service that consists of reaching to the top of your chaise lounge and flipping up the service flag! I’m sorry, this trip was great. The hotel is a little worn at the edges, but nothing too significant. I would pay again and again to plop on the Great Pacific Ocean just like this. Bring a great novel with you. The open air breezy lobby was so wonderfully old Hawaii that you can’t help but be warmed with the island mojo upon arrival. The service was good all around. We participated in a “vacation ownership” pitch while Starwood hosted our kids in the Keiki Aloha kids camp and paid us an additional $100 in resort gift certificates, the sales staff was incredible and professional and made saying no to a really good thing all the more difficult. The four computers/hookups in the Library are handy, and while they don’t print, the front desk kindly printed our boarding passes for us the night before departure.
Gripes: one small Jacuzzi for a resort with 400 rooms, are you kidding? One Jacuzzi the size of a residential home Jacuzzi; it was jammed with people all the time, and the Garden Wing doesn’t have one at all. Bad food at Shells, but we ate our own food for break/lunch and took the kids into Old Koloa Town for easy dinners, followed of course by the famous Lappert’s local ice cream.
We used our room key privileges later in the week and visited the Princeville Resort (another Starwood Property) for a late afternoon swim/relax following a day on the beach at Hanalei Bay. Yikes! What a dreadful place (for Hawaii). Just go to your local Ritz Carlton if you want marble, and Venetian furnishings, and crackle mirrors and crystal chandeliers and limestone and a stone silent pool where you feel sure that whispering is mandated. It was so cold. So anti-Hawaii; we couldn’t wait to leave. Who would build a resort overlooking Hanalei Bay and not have an open air lobby? Didn’t anyone up there learn anything from the legendary Mauna Kea, or the Hotel Hana Maui or even our humble Sheraton? It was lame, don’t waste your time.
Aloha! And Mahalo for reading.