We stayed at the Westin in a 1 bedroom villa on March 12-14 to spend some time on the North Shore.  Here's what you need to know:

The Good: relatively spacious suites, very large bathroom with jetted tub, amazing water pressure in dual shower head shower, nicely equipped kitchen.  There is a welcome package of dish soap, dish scrubber, dishwashing detergent, laundry detergent which is nice.  We booked an island view but ended up on a room which overlooked the parking lot and neighboring golf course but had ocean views which was great.  Excellent and fast wifi access. Washer and dryer combo.  Food and service at the restaurant onsite (Nanea) was very good and the ambiance was warm and the outdoor seating area was lovely in the evening.  Amazingly, the restaurant has a separate vegan menu with several choices for apps, entree, dessert... woot!  Updated decor and furniture.  Staff was uniformly friendly and helpful-  Beautiful grounds in and around the hotel.  There's a walk/run/bike path that leads out of the hotel property which is nice (running maps available at the concierge).  

Make sure you check out the hidden beach (Hideaways) that is accessible after a walk/drive to just before the St. Regis property.  Park at the tiny lot next to the Puu Poa condo tennis courts. There's a dirt path that leads to an overlook and super steep steps/short trail leading down to the beach.  Note that this will be challenging to anyone with ambulatory issues and possibly very small children but should be doable for anyone else if the ground is not wet and slippery (although it requires a bit of a scramble and there are only rope railings for the most part).  Not a good swimming beach but beautiful for relaxation on the beach away from crowds. (see YouTube link I found which shows the spectacular beauty of the beach, as well as the condition of the path to get down to the beach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8GX486ym9Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player). 

There's another beach accessible on the property to the right of the lobby, next to the parking lot (it's marked by a small sign).  It's a relatively easy walk on a wide path (5-10 minutes) to the beach which had gentle water and easy snorkeling,

The Bad: No housekeeping, even though our rate was to include daily housekeeping (and we were not given the option of trading housekeeping for the vouchers other reviewers have mentioned).  We were there for only 2 nights so by the time we realized it wasn't happening, it  wasn't worth it for us to ask for it and didn't make a difference but if you have a family or it's otherwise important to you, you should confirm with the hotel.  Paying for self parking at a hotel in the middle of nowhere is really pretty terrible.  Finishings and appliances at the property were not really high end, if that sort of thing matters to you.  A lot of ceramic tile in the bathroom (although granite counters), perfectly functional but dated black appliances in the kitchen.  Reeeeeeeally uncomfortable couch.  Walls are pretty thin, the unit next to ours had a family with small children and we could definitely hear entire conversations and people sneezing... There's also construction going on at the pool so the noise was a bit of a distraction pool-side although you can kind of tune it out.  The 11 am checkout and 4 pm checkin are pretty ridiculous.

The Ugly: The room seemed pretty clean upon arrival, but I discovered the following icky items: clean sheets but with some stains and there was a clearly used bar of soap and half empty shampoo bottle remaining in the shower from the prior guest which had not been cleaned.  Ick.

Trip Tip: in retrospect, because we stayed for the majority of the time on the east side in Kapaa, which is central to Poipu and the North Shore, it really wasn't necessary to stay on the North Shore (it was about 45 minutes from Kapaa) so you may want to skip a stay as well.  You can really see everything you want to see in a daytrip without the necessity of staying over.

I will start by saying that we had visited Hawaii, Maui to be exact, six years ago and really hated it. It was full of tourists and the horrible honeymooners. If I heard a conversation at breakfast about how one of them didn't know that the other liked eggs, I was going to puke.

So, we had owner time with our Westin ownership and we decided, based on comments from our friends, that Kauai may be better for us. Our experience was much better and Kauai is certainly better suited - quiet, less touristy, less commercialized and fewer egg discussions. We will probably not go back to Hawaii for awhile, though, as we really are more Caribbean people.

That said, it was a very nice property. We had the small one bedroom, studio. It was okay sized for the two of us, but we did have some challenges. But on the whole, the pluses far outweigh the negatives.

Prior to going we read a bunch of reviews on TripAdvisor. We noted the comments, especially the complaints. So to do this review, we will address these:

Plusses:

1. Quiet, very quiet. Yes there was construction noise due to the redoing of the children's pool. But this was only during daytime hours and it needed to get done. If I owned the place, I would choose low season to do it, and that is just what they did. Would you rather have a place that is falling apart??

2. Full size fridge. For the size of the unit, this is a big plus. Plenty of room to store stuff.

3. Good bathroom. Functional and well sized.

4. Parking - It is free for owners and it was NOT that hard to find a place. The reviews made it sound like you had to walk a mile to park. From what we saw, most of the people could use the walk.

5. Convenient to a very good market. The food store in Princeville Shopping Center was great. Sure its expensive, but it is Hawaii. The selection was very good and they had a great meat and produce department. The beer and wine prices were as expected.

Side note: Avoid going to WalMart in Lihue - its like going to Cambodia.

6. Great Happy Hour and specials.

7. Clean and functioning BBQ's. We had read how the BBQs didn't work and were dirty. We noted that every night they removed the grills and they were spotless the next day.

8. Sales Presentation - We did not feel pressured or anything. We did our "owners update", collected our points and had a nice chat in less than 60 minutes.

The Bad:

1. The lounge chairs at the pool are just not comfortable. No way around this one. They are clean and in good repair, just not very good to sit in.

2. AC noise - we agree with the complaints. It was bad. And worse, the vibration due to the AC unit in the adjacent units. Poor design. Did it ruin our trip? NO, but it was a noticeable thing.

3. Unit lighting - they went minimal on it and better tasking lighting in the kitchenette would have been good. Another design problem.

4. Cheap pots and pans - Really hard to clean if you burn something in them. Come on and step up to some non-stick cookware. Go to IKEA and do it cheaply.

A few additional comments:

Beach - we walked down to Anini Beach. It was a simple walk, the trail is a bit rough in spots, but it is easy to navigate. The people who complain about the walk are the same ones that complain about walking to their cars.

Beach II - we didn't go to the St Regis beach, as we saw that the one that you can walk to is much larger and the water is calm for swimming.

There are some good restaurants in Hanele Bay, but if you are looking for 5* dining, you probably should stay on Maui.

Thats it.

We were quite disappointed when we found out that the beach access was a steep 10 minute trail hike to the beach. The resort was beautiful and our room was even better. The resort lacks in places to eat though. They only have one restaurant and the outdoor grill by the pool, which had a very limited menu. They did have a complimentary shuttle that took you down to the little shopping center that had a couple of great places to eat and a grocery store. We ate breakfast in our room every morning and cooked outside on the grill one night. They also have a little market by the lobby with a lot of food but very pricey. Service was okay, not great though for what we paid. Our kids really missed the beach so probably won't stay here again for awhile.

First off, I really like the location of this hotel. I wanted to hike the Na Pali coast, spend some time in Hanalei and go to the beach. While there is no beach on premise, Anini beach is a short walk down the trail behind the hotel and Hanalei Bay is a short drive away. The concierge will tell you to absolutely not go to the beach down the trail and I have no idea why. It is a short, wide, well groomed, if moderately steep trail. If you have a car and children, it is better to drive, but the trail is totally safe.

As for the service, by the end I was more than a little annoyed by little things that after 7 days just seemed to be out of character for a luxury brand.

First, throughout my stay many of the pools were out of service. Usually this type of maintenance is called out on booking, and sometimes there is a discount, and this time it unfortunately was not. As mentioned by others, this is potentially annoying, because the main pool is not the least bit relaxing due to all the children. I ended up spending a lot more time in my room or on my balcony than anticipated b/c of this.

Additionally, I did this trip by myself and chose Kauai largely due to safety. The fact that I usually saw no less than 5 staff on any trip from my room to lobby should have been comforting. However, it was in fact strange b/c the staff spent more time watching what the guests were doing than working, and if they were working (taking garbage, laundry, mulching, doing security, etc.) they often got in a guest's way -- which is a huge pet peeve of mine.

Finally, the main role of the concierge (and there are a ton of concierge) appears to be to get the guests to go do the vacation ownership presentation. When I asked for any other help the level of help they gave was moderate at best, and my concierge even made me miss a shuttle to the St. Regis trying to get me to do the presentation when I explicitly told her I had a deadline. I ended up needing to wait an hour for the next one b/c as I was told by the bell hop the shuttle is "only allowed to go to the St. Regis once per hour." If you are both Starwood properties how does that make any sense?

Finally, I also got the strong sell into the green choice program. I'm totally OK with that as I make little mess. However, on the one day that I did get service, they really only swapped my towels. They didn't swap sheets and they didn't wipe down the bathroom at all. If you're only going to get service once in a week, it'd be nice to get more than a towel swap (I could have asked the front desk for new towels).

In the end all minor, but when it builds up over a 7 day stay, worth noting the oddities here.