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Hanalei Colony Resort
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6 reviews for Hanalei Colony Resort
I just returned from a week at HCR. I left the husband and kids at home in search of parental rejuvenation, peace & solitude...and this was a great place for just that. When I first pulled into the driveway and headed to check-in, I was a bit disappointed...the resort looked a bit tired and was undergoing renovation. However, by the end of the week, this feeling was pretty much gone. Here's a summary of the pros & cons...
PROS:
...Remote & pristine setting on a quiet rocky beach (if you can afford it, definitely go for an ocean view or oceanfront room; I really wouldn't want to be stuck in the rear units)
...Nice interior decor, very light & open to the outside (try to get a unit that backs up to the large central lawn)
...Private deck with dining table/chairs
...No TVs or phones
...Onsite coffee place (good) & Mediterranean restaurant (average)
...Unobtrusive staff (they don't bug you unless you need them; housekeeping comes every 3 days making for even more privacy & less waste)
...Steps from a quiet, almost private, beach
...On-site spa (never got there!)
...Free Wi-Fi in front of restaurant/coffee shop
...Pool & jacuzzi (never got here either...how could I with the beautiful beaches beckoning to me?)
...BBQ areas
...A great place to totally disconnect from your life on the mainland!
CONS:
...If you're looking to tour the island, you'll need to drive at least 15 minutes (to Hanalei). You can't walk to town because of the narrow winding road and multiple one-lane bridges. This is more of a place for staying put with only occasionally ventures out.
...Overall lower end construction (especially poor insulation...thank God I had quiet neighbors above me or I would have been pretty miserable. Try to get an upstairs unit...I requested one, but didn't get it. Also, there are no windows, just locking shutters, so you can hear everything outside and vice versa.)
...NOT a true 2-bedroom (if I would have come with my husband & 2 kids, I would have been starved for privacy by the end of the trip. The "rooms" are merely areas separated by partial walls and/or shutters (no sound proofing at all!).
...You need to buy every condiment as there wasn't even salt & pepper in my unit.
...and did I say horrible toilet paper???
I would definitely return here for more rejuvenation...especially at the price I paid ($215/night for an ocean view unit)! Aloha!
An amazing place to stay. 2BR/2BA, huge living room/common area, full kitchen, oceanfront view, lanai, no TVs, no phones. Super relaxing and just great to disconnect from the world. Our unit was on the first floor in the B building.
The whole resort is steps from its own beach, which is a bit rocky so it's not the best swimming beach, but it's beautiful nonetheless. Lots of little tidepools to explore.
HCR has its own restaurant (a surprisingly tasty Mediterranean place), along with a small art gallery, coffee shop (that also serves bagels), and an on-site spa. There's free wi-fi around the restaurant and coffee shop if you feel the need to know what's going on in the world outside. There are also washing machines (handy for washing off that red Kauai mud), dryers, various BBQ facilities, and a pool and Jacuzzi. The staff is really friendly. Housekeeping services only every three days, but you can exchange your towels and linens in between if you want at the housekeeping building by the pool.
HCR is really close to great hiking on the Na Pali coast, which we took advantage of. The main drawback is that its remoteness means it's a good 15-minute drive even from Princeville, so it can take a while to get places.
Wide range of customers: families with kids, old folks, other couples like us -- it ran the gamut.
Hope to return! BTW: the low season prices are a steal.
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I wanted to immerse myself in a natural, tropical paradise and HCR fit the bill. No phones or tvs but they have free wifi around the onsite restaurant, Mediterranean Gourmet. We stayed in a deluxe, oceanfront condo which was tastefully furnished and very comfortable. There is no a/c but you don't need it because you get lovely, cool breezes from the ocean. The well-stocked kitchen even included a styrofoam ice chest which came in handy for beach outings. The property is on a beach (unlike the Princeville). Although it isn't a good swimming beach, I loved being able to walk out of the condo and onto the beach for morning and evening strolls. There is a swimming pool for the kids and a few bbq areas.
We had our destination wedding here. Nancy was great. She stayed on top of everything and I can't imagine a more stress-free wedding planning experience. And everything was perfect. I can't recommend them enough for destination weddings!
Tips: If climbing stairs to a second-floor unit isn't your thing, be sure to ask for a 1st floor condo. The Costco in Lihue is a great place to stock your kitchen. Tunnels and Ke'e beaches are only a few miles northwest and are great for snorkeling and honu sightings. Pier jumping in Hanalei Bay is a favorite activity of the local kids.
Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Kill nothing but time.
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My new husband and I recently hosted our destination wedding at the Hanalei Colony Resort. Nancy Guthrie is the event coordinator for HCR and we couldn't be happier with her work or the overall customer service of the resort and its adjoining restaurant Mediterranean Gourmet. When vendor and location scouting last year, we were looking for a coordinator who we could trust to Get the Job Done -- someone who was steady, communicative, direct, resourceful, and hard-working. As someone who works in the marketing industry and sometimes has to help coordinate events and therefore knows what is involved in planning and executing these things, I must say that Nancy had all of these qualities and performed an A+ job. The only time I ever saw her the least bit ruffled was on the day of the wedding, when she had to tell me we had to move the outdoor ceremony indoors to the restaurant due to a sudden rainstorm (because wouldn't you dread telling a bride about a major change in plans like that?). Aside from that (totally out of her control) hiccup, everything went smoothly. We were 100% satisfied with how the ceremony and reception went and each of the vendors she helped us choose!
As for the resort itself, it really is the perfect place to get away. You should be warned that rooms don't come with the usual hotel amenities like televisions, phones, and radios; the shore nearby is rocky and not to be used for swimming; and the entire property is a few miles away from Hanalei proper and its shops and restaurants and requires a drive across several one-way bridges. However, it more than makes up for these things with its awesome views of the bay; spacious, clean, condo-style units; and sense of peacefulness. The family and friends who stayed there with us (we took six suites) all loved the place.
We hope to come back here one day and enjoy the place as guests and not a busy bride and groom!
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HCR is a great place to stay if you're looking for the kick back island feel, free from the many creature comforts of other local hotels. The resort is broken up into 40+ 2 bedroom condos, spread out with about 6 per building. The waitstaff are extremely friendly and accomodating. All rooms are equipped with a fully-stocked kitchen, though if you're looking for marble flooring or big screen TVs I would recommend the Marriott or Princeville instead.
The only slight negative for me was the somewhat remote Northern location, which required traveling over 4-5 one-way bridges and about an hour drive from the Kauai airport. But I'm sure others see this as a positive. The local restaurant (Mediterranean Gourmet) which I'll review later, is also a nice spot to fill up. Tunnels, the best spot for snorkeling on the island, is only a few short miles away.
To sum it up, HCR would be the spot to stay at in Kauai if you're looking for a relaxing place to lay your head with a true island feel to it. Its an island getaway no doubt.
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We stayed in a few different spots on Kauai ranging from vacation rentals (houses) to hotels to resorts, and felt this was the worst of the bunch. This came as a really unpleasant surprise after reading glowing reviews in The Ultimate Guide and here on Yelp. We booked this for the end of the trip because we expected it to be the nicest of the bunch.
Hanalei is amazing. I see that repeated in other reviews. Do not confuse the amazingness of Hanalei with Hanalei Colony Resort itself, which was not amazing.
The problem is essentially that you're being sold on this idea of an off-the-grid peaceful retreat (no phones, no tvs), but it's more like a holiday inn with hawaiian decor and screaming kids. I'll get to that in the cons part.
Pros:
- The rooms are well-designed and well-furnished.
- No TV, no phone. You're comfortably isolated.
- Good pool & jacuzzi, on-site laundry, and best of all, grills with charcoal.
- Great, remote location (good proximity to Ke'e, northern hiking trails, and Hanalei
- The office cat is awesome and it hangs out with birds.
- The staff is great and friendly
- Nice showers for getting off all that salt and red dirt from your adventures
Cons, including some rebuttals to quotes from their site:
- Paper thin construction. Seriously we thought the people above us were hosting an elephant parade and yelling competition. From the site: "there is nothing to distract you from enjoying . . . leisurely mornings" Oh yes there is if you hear your neighbors trying to convince their daughter to eat her cereal at 6 am after hearing them talk until midnight the night before.
- The beds are crappy, cheap things that have some sort of rubber sheet or coating. The sheets would squeak like a balloon when they rubbed across them. When you're sleeping in 85º heat, this really sucks
- The coffee shop is insane. $3.80 for a cup of Kona when you can drive into hanalei and get one for $2. $1.50 for a single serve packet of cream cheese. A (illegal) $20 minimum on credit card transactions, but no ATM on premises. Clever! I get that the patrons are captive and you can jack up prices a little, but that was just lame. It's not like we were staying in Princeville and paying for refined service.
- "stunning sunsets" no, you can't see the sun set from the resort. trivial detail, but it's obscured by a bend in the coast
So overall it was just kind of "upscale cheap," and you can get a lot better for ~$300/night. Definitely consider doing a vacation rental from http://vrbo.com instead. Hanalei is wonderful so just find another place to stay and have a great time.
