Travel + Leisure readers recently named their fave 20 hotels and resorts in Hawai’i. As someone who’s been a good three dozen times and has probably spent a year of his life in the islands, I have to say it’s a good list. But even a ranking of 20 top places to stay misses a lot of fine places to rest your head in the Hawaiian islands. With that in mind, I’ve got a list of my own places to try that didn’t make the Travel + Leisure list. I also have some thoughts on the T + L readers’ Read more
Hanalei
PRINCEVILLE, KAUAI – I almost thought I was in the wrong place. My wife and I recently pulled up in front of 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay on the lush north shore of Kaua’i. I stayed at the property eight years ago when it was a St. Regis hotel. I have a pretty good memory for places and hotels, but this didn’t look remotely familiar. As it turns out, there’ s a very good reason for that. The former hotel, which featured a pretty, enclosed lobby with a nice Hawaiian feel, was purchased by Starwood Capital in 2018 for USD$225 millon. Read more
KAUAI, HAWAII – Hanalei is a sleepy, laid-back town on the lush, north shore of Kaua’i. Hanalei Colony Resort is 10-15 minutes down the road, reachable by a curving road with several one-way bridges, surrounded by breathtaking beaches and luscious mountain scenery with hills so green they’d make the Irish weep with envy. If you’re looking for an ultra-quiet, almost throwback-style place where you can experience the tranquility of what may be Hawaii’s most beautiful island, this is your kind of place. There are 13 two-storey buildings on the five-acre property, which is fronted by beaches on two sides and Read more
If you love Kauai as much as I do, there’s great news. The Kauai Department of Land and Natural Resources says Ha’ena State Park, the incredible Kalalau Trail and Napali Coast State Wilderness Park will re-open in early to mid-June. They also say the north shore section of the Kuhio Highway is set to open May 1. The north shore of Kauai was hit by massive flooding in April of 2018, with significant damage to the Kuhio Highway west of Hanalei. In a story posted at www.thegardenisland.com, one local says the five landslides that took place on the 11-mile Kalalau Read more
Hawaii is open for business. I met with Hawaii Tourism officials on Monday at the IPW U.S. tourism event in Denver and that was their overwhelming message. Yes, there is some volcano activity on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii. But it’s limited to 10 square miles of an island that’s more than 4,000 square miles in all. Erin Kinoshita of The Anthology Group, which does public relations for Hawaii tourism, said there’s been no significant impact on the city of Hilo, which is only a half hour’s drive from the eruption site. It’s almost 100 miles Read more
