We just spent 6 nights at the Sheraton Kauai and loved it. The hotel is very nice, with an open island feel. It was immaculate, and has a great location on Poipu beach. We stayed in the Ocean Wing with an amazing ocean view (I was upgraded as a Starwood Platinum member). The room was nice, the bed very comfortable, the bathroom very nice. Housekeeping did a great job keeping it up and replacing the towels a couple of times per day. As a Platinum member, when I arrived I gave the bell man (Nelson - he is great) my last name and he knew my first name and said they had been expecting me...nice touch. They immediately gave us lei's, and checked us in right at the bell stand so I didn't even have to go to the front desk, which was nice. The Concierge was great and spent 45 minutes with us the first night planning our entire week on Kuaui. We ate at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel the first night, it was very good, but Hawaii hotel expensive. There was a small fridge in our room so we went to the local grocery store in Koloa and bought food for breakfast to skip the expensive hotel breakfasts. The pool on the beach side is average, nothing special really, but with Poipu beach in front of you who needs a nice pool? The beach is great for swimming, snorkeling, surfing (beginning) and playing on the soft sand. We rented a beach cabana chair for $35, which I felt was worthwhile since we spent the whole day there. For the entire day an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal slept on the beach 50 feet from us (roped off for his protection), it is common for them to swim to the beach early in the morning. We walked 5-10 minutes through the Plantation Garden across the street to the Poipu Village Shops for good shopping and several good restaurants including Roy's Poipu Grill and Tropical Burgers, both very good. Roy's has a good menu and decent service, great food and is a bit pricey, but worth it. Tropical burgers have 15 different kinds of burgers for about $10 each and is a good break from all the seafood you eat on Kauai. We did go to the Northshore for a day and stopped by the Princeville for a few hours, as you can use their pool, beach, towels, etc. as a Sheraton guest. I have heard great things about the Princeville, but I was not that impressed. If you are a bit older and want fewer kids, the Princeville is nice, but if you have kids skip it and stay on Poipu beach. We also liked going to Koloa for souvenir shopping and for ice cream and sorbet at Lapperts, don't miss it. Kauai is fantastic, if you are thinking of going, do, and if you are looking for a nice place to stay, the Sheraton is great. They do have a Garden Wing across the street that didn't seem as nice (always nicer to be on the beach). If price is no object, the Hyatt is pretty impressive just down the street, but the Sheraton is also a good choice.

Well I am back from our 14 night stay at the Sheraton Kaui and overall I was pleased with the experience. I'll preface this review by saying we've been to Oahu, Maui (West and South) and the Big Island on the Kona side of the island. I have to say Kaui is truly special and I am not sure I am going back to Maui ever again - Kaui still has that old Hawaiian feel, although if you really want that head on over to Molokai!

So back to the Sheraton Kaui. Before going I was trying to choose between the Grand Hyatt and the Sheraton Kaui. My last experience on Kaui was at the Marriott and I must say that the location on Poipu is the best in Kaui hands down. It truly is the sunniest part of island, we were there from 12/15 to 12/30 and had several guests come to from Princeville due to the rain there - in our 2 weeks it never rained steady, not once. Sure the odd shower, but nothing to spoil a vacation.

So I am sure many of our asking and wondering, Sheraton vs. Hyatt? Which one is better? Which one should we pick. Lets start here, at the Sheraton there is a much more laid back atmosphere , but also it feels much more authentic, while we did eat twice at the Hyatt at the Tidepools (the food was good, but not outstanding, service was excellent), the Hyatt's "Grand" brand truly rings true at this "Las Vegas" style resort. The lobby is impressive but feels forced, fake and not very Hawaiian at all. The grounds are lovely but again, it's all man-made, so it feels a bit out of place and perhaps the biggest turn off for me is the size. This is a sprawling resort with over 700 rooms where as the Sheraton has under 400, a big difference in terms of peace and quiet. Even on Christmas day, the Sheraton felt calm and it was never a problem to snag a beach chair.

In essence the Hyatt offers a good option on Kaui but it just feels so un-Hawaiian and this is Hawaii so it's nice to be able let your hair down, the Hyatt felt stuck up and stuffy, and I've stayed at the FS in Maui, but this place just didn't feel right. And the biggest warning at the Hyatt, YOU CAN'T SWIM ON THE BEACH and the hotel is actually set some ways behind the ocean. Our deluxe ocean front at the Sheraton was amazing, so close to the ocean you heard the waves at night and the sunsets were quiet something to experience. And the beach was amazing, you could swim and snorkel and its was right in front of the hotel. So ask yourself, your going to Hawaii to swim in a pool or in the beach? - the Sheraton wins hands down.

Yes the Sheraton isn't the newest resort around, it's smaller and more intimate , but our room was renovated and overall no major issues. Housekeeping was a bit slow but if you ever needed extra towels they were in less then 10mins. The property also boosts a great gym and they have a great daily activities guide for the family and loads of kids and teen activities - Starwood really does a great job here.

And what about the service? Well to start even before we arrived we received a call from the concierge asking us if we needed anything or had any questions, a great first impression. Lei greeting upon arrival and overall great service from the staff, expect one evening at the Shells restaurant where the waiter had no clue about service, but that is one incident and overall, from font desk, food and beverage to housekeeping all of the staff were lovely.

What About value? Well it's Christmas time is it's always going to be a bit more expensive, but yes overall I felt a good value here, no nickel and diming as they say. Only thing that irked me was that beach cabanas are $30 per day and are not included in the resort fee which however does include the gym, tennis and mai tai happy hour 3 days a week.

What about the food? Ah yes, the food, a very important part to any vacation. The only thing about Poipu is that are the fairly limited dining options at the the hotel and near by. The breakfast buffet was not bad not great, but at $20 it's actually a great value because there are lots of options. The other dining outlets, from the Japanese and Italian options, which by the way are located within the some dining venue as the main restaurant Shells, offer good options but are a bit pricey. For me the best meal was at Roy's Poipu Grill - we went 3 times it was that good!

So overall, we loved our time in Kaui and the Sheraton - it's a laid back, smaller resort that still rings true of the Hawaiian flair and feel. But if you can book yourself in an ocean view or ocean front room, the view is amazing! The Hyatt is grand, but not very Hawaiian at all so I would actually come back for a second round at the Sheraton and not the Hyatt.

Stayed there for 2 nights, were in garden view, place to avoid, the rooms are small, they have updated the furniture but ignored the bathroom(old tiles/cracked sinks) air conditioner barely working, the whole building is looking old/cracked/moldy.
The pool, I keep wondering it it was algae in the pool, broken pieces of plaster in the pool, lthe ground area is in need of pruning dead leaves.
It is a nice hotel but do ask for beach building, service is very gd , the rstaurant is nice too, cannot beat the view.

We just returned from a storm-filled 5 night stay at the Sheraton Kauai, Poipu. We expected an upscale facility and got a step up from a Holiday Inn. The garden rooms are very small and furnishings (apparently newly designed) have only 3 small drawers and no place other than the shelf above the hanging racks in the closet to store things. Not a drawer in the bathroom either. I'm guessing the designer was NOT a woman! Our first room had 2 double beds and no sitting area - not a chair to sit in. Rather a backless bench that when pulled out from under the "desk" hit the bed. Our garden view was a lawn and just beyond, the parking lot. When we asked for a different room the next day, we were offered an ocean view for an additional $100/per night or a "deluxe garden view" for $75/per night. They found us the only other garden room available on the 3rd floor (I would recommend any floor but the first in this place) which was an ADA room (for disabled) which seemed larger although it had a king size bed AND an actual chair with small table. Still only 3 drawers, nothing in the bathroom either but at least a shelf over the toliet area so we could put things there. This room had a lovely view of the garden/lagoons.

The first day we went to breakfast (it is a beautiful view from the dining room to the ocean) and were told that the buffet was $9.95 , a much better deal than anything we saw on the a la carte menu so we thought "why not?" The variety of items offered was impressive - especially the fresh fruit and the omelette station. When our bill arrived, we were shocked to find the price was not 9.95 but $19.95. We each heard our waitress say very clearly, 9.95. We didn't make that mistake again.

The first night in our new room the light on the night table didn't work. We tried switching bulbs thinking this was the problem, but no, it wasn't the bulb. I tried to see if the lamp itself was unplugged but I couldn't because the plug went up into a socket that was behind this huge wooden headboard that we couldn't budge. We called down; they sent up a pretty big guy who actually had to move the king size bed and then pull this humongous headboard away from the wall so he could fix the plug. He had a few choice words to say about the new decor!

We were celebrating our anniversary and asked for recommendations for restaurants. We went to Roy's for our celebratory meal. Don't bother with the "Canoe for two" appetizer. Not great. The rest of the meal was OK - the chocolate souffle the most memorable. If I were to do it over again, I would go to either Tidepools at the Grand Hyatt (very romantic and the food was superb) or The Beach House (great food although fairly noisy).

While it is nicely situated at a beautiful beach, I wouldn't stay at the Sheraton again. The pool was small (the one by the Garden rooms was a bit bigger but no service there). The Marriott near Kapaa and the Hyatt at Poipu are much more luxurious facilities (although I admit, I didn't see what the rooms were like).