Poipu Shores — Hotel in Kauai

We just returned after a 9 day stay at Poipu Shores. It was our fourth visit, and certainly not our last. For those not familiar with Kauai, Poipu has better winter weather and swimming than you find on the East and North sides. Poipu Shores is situated atop lava rocks, a short quarter-mile walk from Brennicke's Beach a couple hundred yards further to renowned Poipu Beach. We booked through Castle Resorts and the wonderful property manager assigned us unit A201 for three of our four stays. The condo owners have done a great job maintaining their unit and we hope to be lucky enough to get the same unit on our next trip.||||Property staff is friendly and receptive. Towels (including generously sized poolside towlels) are provided daily, but full maid service is once every 3 days rather than daily. This schedule worked just FINE for us as we view the condo as a stay in a very nice home and not a pretentious posh hotel. The less-frequent service helped with a feeling of privacy for those days we just wanted to hang around. ||||The manager, Georgia, is a real jewel of a person. I took some time this trip "talking story" with her about local grocery stores (Ishihara Market in Waimea is a MUST for anybody headed to the west side), island traffic (pretty bad getting in and out of Lihue due to construction), and talking about 1992's Hurricane Iniki. She was at Poipu Shores during that time and they had to close for three YEARS to renovate...it took over a year just for the insurance adjustment (typical by island standards...as Georgia said, a 5 month highway project takes 5 years). ||||The unit itself was well-maintained. The master bedroom fronts on the water, about 30 feet from lava rocks, as do all of the condos at Poipu Shores, and the never-ending sound of the surf takes about a day and a half to get used to. Even though A201 is on the "2nd floor" it's actually on the same level as the parking lot...very convenient. The second bedroom is on the garden side, two twin beds, and since it's across the hallway from the stairwell, there's not much of a view through its window. Not a problem for us as we were staying as a couple. ||||We made full use of the kitchen this time around. Perhaps this is one area where there could be some improvement; the range had a burner which never got hot enough, but 3 out of the 4 burners worked well-enough. The knives were dangerously dull and impossible to sharpen with the provided sharpening stone. If we get this unit again (I really hope so!), I'll treat the owners to a new set of knives. :-) Admittedly, I'm just nit-picking here. In addition to the unit kitchen, the property also has a large communal kitchen and outdoor gas grills for guests' use.||||Recap:||Pros:||Location, location, location!!! Best in Poipu. ||Friendly, helpful staff.||Clean well-maintained units.||Reasonable prices compared to other Poipu properties.||||Cons.||Kitchen could use a LITTLE bit of work; range could use one or two new burners and maybe a new knife set! Only an issue if you cook.||Surf noise can be a little much for very light sleepers. (actually, this is really a Pro!)||Parking lot is cramped. Forget about renting a SUV!||For those who insist on being waited on constantly, go...

A lovely oceanfront property on Kauai’s south shore, an easy and scenic 35-minute drive from the Lihue airport. It’s in a great location for exploring Kauai. See the end of this review to see why we think it’s best to stay on the south shore when visiting Kauai. Grocery store shopping is limited in this area, so stop off at Safeway in the Lihue mall that’s on your way to Poipu. We loved our two-bedroom-two-bath condo here – comfortable beds and living/dining room furniture, modern kitchen with plenty of kitchenware, nice bathrooms (walk-in shower in the master bath). Newly repainted. Lovely view; wonderful at sunset time. With ceiling fans and a layout that lends itself to ocean air breezing through, there’s no need for AC. The oceanfront porch is set up with a table/chairs for meals or writing postcards and enough space to put out chairs for sunning. You can see up the coast – look closely to the west and you’ll see the Spouting Horn. We loved the sound of the ocean and waves crashing on the lava rock shore out front. Great for sleeping. They have a small but pleasant pool area that is built right on the rocky cliffs, and some barbeque stations that have grills that are clean and in good condition. Parking is a bit tight for anything larger than a compact. Poipu Shores has a wonderful, very efficient staff. A repair project started about mid-way through our stay. Projects like this “happen” when you have an oceanfront property. It was very noisy with drilling sounds coming through the walls so, as we were booked for over another week, we asked to be moved. They didn’t have anything available on-site but, after a very long day of making calls around the island to find comparable accommodations, the manager was able to re-locate us to an upgraded Castle-managed property nearby. She and her assistant kept tabs on how we were doing for the rest of our stay on Kauai, which we thought was over and above what most would do in terms of customer care. Thank you to Jenny and Nicole for making sure we enjoyed our visit. We were happy in our new situation just down the street but, given the chance to return to Kauai, we’ll make a beeline back to our first choice, Poipu Shores. This property is ideally located for exploring Kauai. In 10 minutes of less, you have shopping in the Koloa area (including a Long’s Drug, affiliated with CVS), ziplining, and the national tropical botanic gardens. Kauai Coffee and the start of the Waimea Canyon road are just beyond that. One of the best swimming beaches is a ten-minute walk down the road. We thought about staying on the north shore. Glad we didn’t. To get there, you go through lots of lights and slow traffic on the east side of the island and lots of touristy stuff on the north shore. We found it better to relax most of the time on the South Shore and make two day-trips north – one to go along the north side road to see the beaches and the other to visit the lighthouse. It would have been a challenge to do the drive to Princeville or Hanalai for lodging after a long flight. It was very easy to make our way to Poipu, relax and then venture...

A lovely oceanfront property on Kauai’s south shore, an easy and scenic 35-minute drive from the Lihue airport. It’s in a great location for exploring Kauai. See the end of this review to see why we think it’s best to stay on the south shore when visiting Kauai. Grocery store shopping is limited in this area, so stop off at Safeway in the Lihue mall that’s on your way to Poipu. We loved our two-bedroom-two-bath condo here – comfortable beds and living/dining room furniture, modern kitchen with plenty of kitchenware, nice bathrooms (walk-in shower in the master bath). Newly repainted. Lovely view; wonderful at sunset time. With ceiling fans and a layout that lends itself to ocean air breezing through, there’s no need for AC. The oceanfront porch is set up with a table/chairs for meals or writing postcards and enough space to put out chairs for sunning. You can see up the coast – look closely to the west and you’ll see the Spouting Horn. We loved the sound of the ocean and waves crashing on the lava rock shore out front. Great for sleeping. They have a small but pleasant pool area that is built right on the rocky cliffs, and some barbeque stations that have grills that are clean and in good condition. Parking is a bit tight for anything larger than a compact. Poipu Shores has a wonderful, very efficient staff. A repair project started about mid-way through our stay. Projects like this “happen” when you have an oceanfront property. It was very noisy with drilling sounds coming through the walls so, as we were booked for over another week, we asked to be moved. They didn’t have anything available on-site but, after a very long day of making calls around the island to find comparable accommodations, the manager was able to re-locate us to an upgraded Castle-managed property nearby. She and her assistant kept tabs on how we were doing for the rest of our stay on Kauai, which we thought was over and above what most would do in terms of customer care. Thank you to Jenny and Nicole for making sure we enjoyed our visit. We were happy in our new situation just down the street but, given the chance to return to Kauai, we’ll make a beeline back to our first choice, Poipu Shores. This property is ideally located for exploring Kauai. In 10 minutes of less, you have shopping in the Koloa area (including a Long’s Drug, affiliated with CVS), ziplining, and the national tropical botanic gardens. Kauai Coffee and the start of the Waimea Canyon road are just beyond that. One of the best swimming beaches is a ten-minute walk down the road. We thought about staying on the north shore. Glad we didn’t. To get there, you go through lots of lights and slow traffic on the east side of the island and lots of touristy stuff on the north shore. We found it better to relax most of the time on the South Shore and make two day-trips north – one to go along the north side road to see the beaches and the other to visit the lighthouse. It would have been a challenge to do the drive to Princeville or Hanalai for lodging after a long flight. It was very easy to make our way to Poipu, relax and then venture...