Koʻa Kea Resort on Poipu Beach — Hotel in Kauai

We had stayed at Ko'a Kea while honeymooning. Upon arrival, the valets were nice, but didn't help us unload our luggage. We were ushered to the front desk and were checked-in, which took about 7-minutes. The gentleman then walked us to our room, showed us some features the resort had to offer, and left.

Another reviewer described this hotel perfectly: it gives off remodeled motel vibes.

BATHROOM/LIGHTING: The bathrooms in the room are OK, but the functionality of the room itself was infuriating, especially the lights. The brightest light in the bathroom also controlled the world's loudest bathroom fan - without having that light on, it was hard to get ready/do my make-up, but the fan was like a turbo jet engine. They also had these weird like candles that were connected to a light switch that provided little to no-light whatsoever. Some major design flaws with that.

ROOM: The balconies weren't very private. If you went to the edge, you could see right over into your neighbors (or literally hop over) if you really wanted to. From our room, you could see right into other guest's rooms if their blinds weren't drawn from across the hotel. The room was decorated very dimly/with dark tones, not exactly a bright and airy beach-vibe. The carpet was like a mustard yellow and the chair was a burnt orange. Again, giving 60's motel vibes. The bed was also super uncomfortable. It was basically like a taco when you went to go to bed, as we both rolled to the middle.

ROOM CLEANING: Subpar. We had requested cleaning every day - we were out of our room every morning by 8 AM, sometimes not returning until 3-5 PM and our room still wasn't made up until about 3-4 PM everyday. It was super frustrating and they didn't even bother to clean our room one day when we came back at 5 PM when we wanted to start getting ready.

POOL: This hotel boasts ~120 rooms. We counted, there's approximately a combination of 28 lounge chairs/pool beds in the immediate area surrounding the pool. If you wanted a seat, it's first come, first served and they did have signs saying "if you're gone for more than 30-minutes they'd move your stuff to the lobby", but that never happened. There are other chairs that were on the lawn that overlooked the ocean, however, they offered no shade/umbrella. The pool itself isn't deep (only about 4-feet) and the staff did come around and take drink orders BUT I did get yelled at by this random security man because I had my drink in the pool, yet every day we had been drinking in the pool no issues? We were with 3 other people and he only singled out me, super weird.

LOCATION: The location of the hotel was really awesome. It rained in the mornings and sometimes in the afternoon but usually for less than 20-minutes. It's on the dryer side of the island and was close to great restaurants and beaches.

**BEACH/RENTALS: I wish we would've known this prior to booking our trip - we were warned that the ocean is rougher in Kauai. With that being said, this is an oceanfront hotel that didn't provide any free seating at the beach. We understood that the beaches in Hawaii are public, however, we had came from Maui at the Four Seasons and they had free beach chairs for their guests. If you wanted a beach chair, umbrella, snorkel gear, etc., it had to be rented for a fee (it was conveniently located near the hotel pool) but was frustrating because you're already paying a premium for hotel.

Overall, the hotel was just "meh". The best thing about it was probably the location and we did have a nice view of the ocean, but that's about as good as it got. Nothing stood out to us, no staff went above and beyond, it was just a standard stay at an oceanfront hotel. Would I recommend it, probably not, and especially not for the price. My suggestion to the hotel owner would to be to completely revamp the rooms. They're like ocean dungeons - the lobby looks like the one from the Shining, the furniture looked cheap, and it just gave off...

A motel looking place, trying too hard to be luxurious, but only offering good views if you pay for ocean front. Other than that, it is very simple and overpriced. Also, check in process is way slow, wasting valuable vacation time!

Hotel forces valet service, but there is free parking nearby. The hotel says the valet is free but doesn't clarify that it is free with the $40 parking fee each night. Other guests were not aware and thought parking was free. I personally do not like strangers near my personal items in the car and do not want to inspect car for damages. So I don't like them taking our vehicles.

EXTREMELY LONG Checking in: we called early requesting an earlier check in if possible, but didn't hear back from them at all, so we went to tour the island. We got to hotel in time for the sunset, but checking in took so long (almost an hour when already being helped, there was no one in front of us), with unnecessary holding time just sitting in front of the checkin lady, waiting for her to finish checking in, that we missed the sunset. That is money wasted for us missing it. Just because they force this RIDICULOUSLY LONG CHECK IN process just there sitting. We were also wrongly being charged a $100 resort fee, when we were informed on email that it would be $50. So the checkin staff asked us to email to them the offered fee price...really? They don'thave it in the booking information? So we have to clarify it . (Huge waste of our time). I told the check in lady that it was sneaky to try to do those higher fees from what was advertised, and I told her that I just wanted to get to the room already, but still she continued with useless info.

Didn’tapologize, just said that fees were mandatory, which we knew, but they were trying to charge more. Already, a bad experience wasting out vacation time fixing their mistakes.

Then, the lady walked us to our room, showing us parts of the "resort" (which was a waste of time, especially because it is such a small resort). A small pool in the middle of the yard, with a small bar and a small hot tub.

At least they should ask if one wants to tour or not.

At the room, she still went in with us. I noticed the room was located by the stairs entrance door, and told her I can't sleep with slamming doors. She said it wouldn't slam. (At night time, I had to place a kind note on the stairs door, asking other guests to please close door quietly and it mostly worked. I could hear people being careful closing the door. But that room was bad for light sleepers).

The lady showed us the closet, robes, refrigerator, etc., useless information about standard VERY basic room amenities. When she left, about 5 minutes later, there, door slamming next to our room. By this time, it had been about almost an hour! Checking in wasted our sunset time! I was NOT happy at all. We have been to many resorts, better ones, and this place is by far the slowest one with wasting time showing basic information that no one really needs explained. And this is also the simplest resort.

For almost $800 a night, this is frustrating to have wasted time from our planned evening to enjoy the sunset. The room had a beautiful view, although very blocked by the rails. Have to be standing to enjoy. I consider this place over priced trying to look luxurious but being just a standard decent beach hotel. Which has a motel exterior appearance.

Balcony has no real privacy as the balconies connect without privacy wall juat...

Booked a hotel + car package through Costco Travel for our honeymoon and was very happy with our decision to go with this smaller resort. It's nestled between the larger Wyndham property and another vacation rental property, kind of hidden from the main road, but still right on the beach. Doesn't get a lot of walking traffic (unlike the Wyndham, which was always loud and could pretty much be a public property), so it always stayed very serene and quiet. Didn't see a single family with kids, mostly just other couples and retirees. Loved the vibe by the pool of people just reading or snoozing, with no loud music; truly the perfect destination for a honeymoon! At sunset everyone came out on the lawn to watch the sun go down and then stayed to chill out around the firepits. Was a nice way to relax before dinner.

We had a partial ocean view room that faced the hedges between the Koa Kea and the other vacation rental property. While we didn't have a head on view of the ocean or the pool, I actually really liked the privacy. It also meant no direct sun, so perfect for sleeping in :) The room itself was nice; huge bathroom with a massive shower, comfy bed, a mini fridge to keep some drinks cold, and a closet with robes, slippers, and plenty of hangers. They dropped off a little bag with 2 Nespresso pods and 2 bottles of water every night, which did seem a bit excessive given they had filtered water stations everywhere to refill your bottle. There was also a bottle of red wine waiting for us when we checked in.

I loved that they had a coin operated washer and dryer on every floor ($1 wash and $1 dry), which came in handy towards the end of our stay when we realized we were showering twice a day and going thru our clothes faster than planned!

Never ate at the Red Salt restaurant at the hotel, as it was pricey and we prefer to check out the locally owned restaurants and cafes instead. I should warn you that almost everything shuts down by 8pm, and there aren't a lot of affordable food options near the hotel, so plan your dinners accordingly. Our first night we ended up at Bangkok Happy Bowl down the street and it was the most expensive mediocre food ever. We were lucky enough to discover Da Crack Mexican Grinds the next day, which is literally a hole in the wall taco joint that's owned and operated by a local family. Amazing, amazing food and highly recommended! Just get there before 7:15pm bec the place gets super crowded in the last 30 min before they close. Since it's just a takeout window, we brought our food back to the hotel and ate on the lawn chairs under the tiki torches. We also had dinner once at Keoki's Paradise, but note that you'll need to make a reservations a few weeks beforehand as it's the only sit down restaurant in the area that isn't super expensive, so it's very popular. Other dinner options are at least a 20 min drive away in Hanapepe or Lihue.

You will def need a rental car on Kauai, but keep in mind that this hotel charges $25 plus tax per night for mandatory valet. Unfortunately there's no way to get around that as there isn't any other parking option. But the valet crew is awesome, super friendly and always had great recommendations for places...