Anara Spa — Local services in Kauai

BEWARE CURRENTLY UNDER RENOVATION AND TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

We booked a couples treatment in one of the outdoor bungalows for our honeymoon weeks ago. Less than 48 hours ago a spa representative called to let us know they were undergoing “enhancements” and a bunch of vague information about the spa being a separate entity and our selected service no longer being available. When I called back, I was informed the spa is currently closed and treatments are occurring in hotel rooms and as such, there is a severely limited amount of services available, but they are offering a discount (a measly 15% and no sauna or steam room or pool access.)

Everyone spoke in vague platitudes and no one was in the least helpful AT ALL. It was borderline condescending the way the manager spoke to my husband (“actually, if you take 15% of a REALLY LARGE number, it’s a big number so it’s a lot of savings!!”)

The things I am most irritated by is that 1) they waited until the last minute to tell us this, in the middle of our trip. They didn’t decide to suddenly do construction overnight. If they had given us advance warning, we could have booked at Turtle Bay while we were on Oahu, because all we really cared about was having outdoor services. And 2) the totally lame script every single employee was forced to repeat verbatim. Don’t call it “enhancements” because it’s certainly NOT enhancing my experience at all.

I would never feel confident booking any treatment with this spa, after having the rug pulled out from under us like this. And while I’m not a loyal Hyatt customer, I will certainly hesitate to ever book with a Hyatt...

I am really surprised by the poor facial experience my brother and I had over the long holiday weekend! I stumbled upon this place a couple weeks ago- on my way to dinner at Stevenson's Library (which is arguably one of the best dinner experiences we've had in Kauai and why I am so surprised by this un-stratifying experience). To begin with the positives- the hotel is beautiful, likewise the spa and appearance of the facilities as well. Apparently you get full access to the facilities for the day if you do set a spa appointment/ experience. To begin most people get a facial and expect a cleansing of some sort or deep cleaning; while the expedience was comfortable, I honestly can not tell you that I felt nor looked any different. In fact, my face did not even appear as washed following the appointment rather was caked on with sunscreen. I usually like to learn about the products as they are applied; but I truly did not even feel- but one product being applied to my face to even ask. The one I did notice was a cooling cream that Rachelle (my esthetician) mentioned was an anti ageing cream from Hungry. To have paid nearly $500 I am incredibly disappointed and would not recommend this place for facials. What I did notice is that most were there to use the facilities or get massages. I can actually see their massage' being good as both my brother and I agreed that we were very relaxed and got more out of the massage portion of our facials than that of the facial its self. We were helped by Rachelle and Laola who seem kind enough. Overall my recommendation is a no go as I do not have any...

My partner and I had a couple’s massage here when we visited the island. After doing our research and determining that this spa was one of the best ones, we decided to go for it.

The massage was done in a repurposed hotel room, which they made the most of the room but it wasn’t exactly spa like. The massage itself was not good by any stretch of the imagination. Despite requesting medium pressure, the masseuse basically played patty cakes on my body. It was hardly a massage. I’ve had coin operated massage chair experiences that were better, sad to say. My partner concurred.

Booking a massage gets you access to the spa for the day, which was good. This includes access to a nice gym, a steam room, sauna, cold plunge and jacuzzi. The temperature difference between the cold plunge and jacuzzi was hard to tell. Complimentary tea and coffee were offered, which was a nice bonus. Staff were very accommodating, friendly and welcoming - they definitely channeled the aloha spirit.

Be warned that there’s a mandatory 20% gratuity charge for the massage, which was not clear on the website. For us, that was basically $100. It would’ve been a lot more palatable if our masseuses actually gave a proper massage instead of trying to win the “quietest bongo drumming contest in the world” award. It’s never a good feeling leaving a place feeling...