Luxury Resorts in Kauai: The Finest, Honestly Reviewed
Kauai is the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the most visibly geological — the mountains more jagged, the valleys deeper, the rivers more dramatic, the rainfall that creates all of it more present even on the island’s sunny south shore than the sky over Maui’s Wailea coast ever suggests rain is possible. The Napali Coast on the northwest shore, sixteen kilometres of cliffs that rise a thousand metres directly from the sea, accessible only by boat or helicopter or a strenuous multi-day trail, is one of the places on earth that aerial photographs have circulated widely enough that first-time visitors arrive expecting to be disappointed by the reality. They are not.
The Grand Hyatt Kauai sits on the south shore of the island’s most beautiful island at the confluence of everything the Poipu coast offers: consistent sunshine, a direct beach frontage on swimmable sand, grounds of tropical density through which the pools wind in a configuration that has been voted among the finest resort pool complexes…
The view arrives before anything else. Guests checking in at the St. Regis Princeville walk through the lobby toward the check-in desk and find, behind it, Hanalei Bay — the two-mile crescent of water below the cliff, the mountains rising from the far shore with the Napali beginning at their northern edge, and a quality…
Kauai has no all-inclusive resorts. The island that contains the Napali Coast — sixteen kilometres of thousand-metre cliffs accessible only by water or air — and the Waimea Canyon, and the Hanalei Valley’s taro fields that have been farmed on the same terrain for a thousand years, and three or four beaches that earn descriptions…
The luxury resort market on Kauai is smaller and more selective than Maui’s — two flagship properties at opposite ends of the island’s character, each the correct answer for a different kind of traveller, and very little of note between them at the true luxury level. Understanding which of these properties suits which traveller is the most useful function this guide serves.
The St. Regis Princeville on the north shore is built around its view. The hotel cascades down a cliff above Hanalei Bay — the two-mile bay that opens to the left as the property’s lobby is entered, with the bay’s crescent of beach below, the Napali mountains rising behind it, and a quality of light that arrives differently at different times of day but is never ordinary. It is, in the consistent assessment of guests and travel writers who have stayed at or assessed the finest hotels in Hawaii, the finest hotel lobby view in the state. This is the primary reason to book the St. Regis, and it is sufficient.
The hotel offers butler service for suite guests, two championship golf courses at the Makai Golf Club, and a sunset cocktail service on the Makana Terrace that frames the Hanalei Bay view at the hour when it is most dramatic. The full review is on this site.
The Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa on Poipu Beach on the island’s sunny south shore is Kauai’s most comprehensively resort-like property — expansive grounds, a pool complex that has been voted among the finest in the United States, a direct beach frontage on Poipu’s swimmable sand, and the practical advantage of being on the side of the island where the sunshine is most reliable. For families, for guests whose week is organised around pool time and beach time, and for travellers who want weather reliability over scenic drama, the Grand Hyatt is the more practical answer. The full review is on this site.
When to Go
Poipu on the south shore is sunny year-round. The north shore is wettest November through March — the St. Regis in December or January can be cloud-covered and rainy in ways that the clifftop setting intensifies rather than shelters from. Summer visits to the north shore, June through September, offer the best combination of the St. Regis’s extraordinary position and the weather to enjoy it. May and September are the best months across the island for pricing and conditions.
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