Want to find a great way to ruin that special holiday? I've found the perfect place, the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas on the stunning island of Kauai. The Westin Princeville has it's scam strategy down perfectly, let me explain:

1. Housekeeping - expect after checkout to be charged $10 for bottled water. I did not consume any water yet housekeeping seem to think I did. No empty bottle, been there for 3 days, obviously the typical housekeeping scam, and they decided to charge it to the former credit card placed on file not the one which was used at checkout. I believe the front desk are in on it too and executive management.

2. Rip off parking - how about $13 for parking - this place is in a suburban area of of Northern Kauai. There is absolutely no need to charge for parking. Whilst there isn't a resort fee, this is their tricky scam to extort further money out of guests. There is no excuse for charging for parking at a property like this. Just charge a resort fee. It's a joke.

3. 10am checkout - so they are a timeshare property - so this means they can tell you to checkout at 10am. This is a completely joke at a resort property. Factor that in vs say a 12pm checkout and consider that you should be paying 10-15% less considering you have less hours if it's a 1 or 2 night stay

4. Limited food - i mean it's a joke, only one restaurant, their response - oh go to the St Regis, etc. People like to 'self cater'. Forget it, try a proper resort like the Hyatt.

All in, never again, just be warned... oh and they automatically try to offer you no housekeeping and a voucher which you must use within 24 hours for $10 or so... it's a joke to keep their costs down.

This is a joke of a hotel, if you want a joke of a holiday and to ruin it, choose the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas - the perfect horror holiday. If not, listen to my advice and choose somewhere else.

If you want just to relax and get away from it all this might be just the place to go. Beautiful hotel, nice pool, but just remember Princeville is about a 45 min. drive north of Lihue so if you want things to do or more restaurants you do have to drive. You do have access to the St. Regis beach, but my family really liked the pool at the Westin better.

The only reason why we chose this place was because we got a really good deal through the Starwood preferred guest program.

We had to check-out of our Poipu hotel by noon and arrived here by 1 and our room wasn't ready yet so we tried to kill time by checking out the Princeville shopping mall and the town of Hanelei. We found out very quickly that there wasn't much to do here and headed back to the Westin to see if our room was ready or if we could use the hospitality room. Neither was a possibility so we asked if there was another room available that we could check into right away and we ended up getting an accessible room.

The room was smaller than I expected; it had a washer and dryer, full sized fridge, a 2 element cooktop (but the exhaust fan did not work), really small sink with garbage disposal, small dishwasher, cutlery, pots and pans, plates, cups, coffee maker, microwave (the touch screen didn't work), tv, sofa bed,bathrobes, ironing board, umbrellas and small bath towels. The room did have a small lanai that fits 2 chairs to have your morning coffee.

To get your pool towels, you exchange your towel cards at the towel hut and exchange them back for your cards. Since we just came from the Koa Kea hotel in Poipu, we found this place a step down. The loungers by the pool don't have cushions and it was very busy around the pool. I was looking forward to doing yoga here and saw that yoga was not offered every day (they post info at the activities desk).

Since we found out there wasn't much to do, we figured we would cook all our meals in house and we really enjoyed this...finally some more veggies! The kitchen is equipped with everything you'll need. Just buy/bring your own spices. Warning...the bbqs were empty most of the time and we figured out why when we tried to use them...majority of them are broken!

If you opt out of housekeeping, you get a $10 voucher to use within the hotel, however, there are alot of rules to read over (certain places at particular times, no alcohol, etc). Make sure you do!

The next day, we found the path leading to Annini beach that I found on TA (it is between buildings 1 and 2 by the parking lot). Make sure you wear appropriate footwear...it is pretty steep most of the way down (about a 5-10 minute walk); a lady in front of us took quite a spill down the hill. The beach is very small compared to beaches on Maui and there wasn't much sand but the water is very shallow for a long way.

We wanted a home base while we were in Princeville so we wouldn't have to drive back to Poipu but I wished we stayed in Poipu instead.

Stayed here December 2012. The resort is very well tended, the grounds very clean, the pool and hot tubs very nice. Very little view from most of the rooms; they are all considered island view, although their views vary greatly. The rooms on the north side are definitely ocean view rooms; our had mostly a view of the AC units and parking lot, although could see the pool area looking north..
The rooms are standard Westin vacation rental rooms - very well kept and comfortable. The studio side of the 2BDR lockout has a very small kitchen, but enough for two people to cook. The outdoor grills are very nice, but we had a difficult time finding ones that worked, as did many of the guests at the time of our stay.
The service staff at the Westin Princeville was excellent. Everyone was polite and helpful. We had maid service every three days, and the service was very good.
There is no beach access directly from the Westin, but it does have free access to the beach at the St. Regis which is beautful. Get there by hourly shuttle service or a quick drive and valet park there, which we found more convenient. There is also Hidaway Beach right outside of the St. Regis - a stunning beach although a sketchy walk to it for the less than fit.
Location is great - there is a grocery store minutes away, and Hanalei is 5-7 minutes by car. The area is quiet and absolutely beautiful.