This was our 6th time visiting Kauai & 3rd time staying at the Hanalei Bay Resort. 1st time without kid, just the little woman & I. The main lobby & building are being remodeled after a fire took out the Bali Hi resturant when it was being remodeled a few years ago. The staff says it will take 2 years to finish the Bali Hi restaurant. It had a beautiful view on Hanalei Bay / sunsets when we ate there before it shut down. The food was never great, just good, but was over-priced, even for Princeville.
The 3rd floor 1 bed room we had as a time share trade this time was sufficient for my wife & i. We asked for a top / 3rd floor after staying here back in 2010 in a 2 bed / 2 bath unit, with vaulted ceilings, makes the space feel much bigger.
They have a strech golf cart to help haul luggage & take you down or back from the beach, which is in front of the St. Regis next door. You can use the St. Regis poolside bar / broiler / restrooms.
Don't even think of walking back up the hill from the beach, make sure the phone at the bottom of the trail is working before going down, long steap walk back up.
The pool is cool looking, free formed with a few waterfalls

Everything the description said was absolutely true. The condo was lovely and had everything we needed. The resort is kept very well maintained and staff are friendly and responsive. Unfortunately, due to traffic, noisy roosters at 3am onwards and location, we would not choose to stay here again. For those who wish to be in the north of the island, it would be perfect. But we wanted more than just beaches nearby so getting anywhere north or east of us, the center of activity, took at least an hour in traffic. The condo was lovely in every way, but it seemed we spent half our time driving to the places we wanted to see. Our advice - know what you want to do and choose to stay near those places.

After doing our research we decided on unit #4222 at the Hanalei Bay Resort and were not disappointed in any way. Upon arrival we were greeted by the very friendly staff at the front desk and shown where to park our car and given a map of the resort showing where our condo was as well as the pools, hottub, trails to the beach, barbeque area and other ammenities. The front desk staff called a Bellman to meet us in the parking lot and in the blink of an eye "Kaipo" , the senior Bellman at the resort showed up in a golf cart to take us, our luggage and groceries to our condo. During our stay if we needed a lift down to the beach or back up, we called for his golf cart services and he was always there in minutes. He was always so pleasant to talk to and very helpfull. ( Make sure you tip them for the service they really do appreciate the recognition and will go out of their way to assist you in any way )
We were very pleased with our condo choice, upon arrival we found it to be spotlessly clean, very well equipped, had a good selection of music and dvd's, very roomy with beautiful tropical furnishings and had a perfect view of Hanalei Bay and Bali Hai. We would have breakfast on the lanai and enjoy watching the surfers in the bay and the family of chickens roaming the grounds, yes the Roosters start early but they are everywhere on Kauai, some say it is the national bird of the island.
The Beach at the bottom of the property is shared with the St Regis Hotel, it is clean, safe for swimming and had some pretty amazing snorkeling, we saw turtles there every time we went out. You can go to the hotel's beach grille for lunch and beverages but be prepared for a $21.00 hamburger, it was a good burger but not $21 good. Most days we made a lunch and packed it in one of the condo's coolers along with our beverages and had a picnic on the beach. Kaipo or one of the other bellman would drive us down with our chairs and beach gear and at the end of the the day pick us up, there is a phone box at the bottom of the trail that you use to call the front desk that will dispatch a driver.
The Barbeque area near the small pool is well equipped with three newer Weber barbeques plus there is a outdoor kitchen and tables as well, we just barbequed and went back to our condo for dinner on the lanai to watch the sunset over Bali Hai. ( Unit 4222 is very close to the barbeque area )
The main pool area is very large and has a good size hot tub as well, there is a dive operator at the pool that offers introductory scuba lessons and has a good supply of gear for sale and rent.
The resort restaurant that was lost to fire a few years ago is under reconstruction, it did not impact our stay in any way, work seemed to be done only during the day while we were away from the resort, we did not hear anyone complaining about noise or anything from the site.
Shopping is minutes away at the Princeville Shopping Centre, there is a good variety of shops as well as a Foodland store that has everything you need for groceries and spirits.
The Saturday farmers market in Hanalei is great and a must do... buy some of the small "apple bananas" they are so good.
Dinner out in Hanalei is very good there are lots of good restaurants to choose from, the Hanalei Pizza Company is great. We went to the Westin in Princeville for the thursday Prime Rib night, very flavourful, 16 oz cut of tender beef with mashed potatoes,asparagus and a beautiful demi glace for $34.00 they have a featured wine at 50% of, we had a spectacular Napa Valley syrah that was $100 on the wine list for $50.
We would highly recommend a Kauai vacation and a stay at the Hanalei Bay Resort, The unit #4222 that we stayed in was beautiful, but please book a different unit because we will be going back and don't want it to become to popular.

John & Karen, White Rock, BC

The grounds are nice with a beach access. No restaurant on site.
However, make sure you do not bring an iPad, Internet service only works pluged into your laptop, The first day my daughter was sitting pool side, she did not have the resort towel. Brittany the pool girl asked her if she was a guest. Yes, she replied " I am". Brittany advised her that she did not have a resort towel. She told Brittany that she was not using the pool only sitting by the pool for the Internet access and showed her the room key with the resort key chain. Brittany still wanted her name and room number. After that she walked by another group of young adults without a word? We stayed in the 1500's units and during the day leaving our room we had to walk under construction equipment. One day a worker dropped wood chips on us. On our last night we did laundry and asked the front desk for quarters but they did not have a bank that day. Then after driving to get quarters one of the dryers did not work. With all that being said, my niece had a nice scuba driving lesson. Sara and Mavi at the front lobby were so friendly. ( Mavi was so friendly and welcoming) The cart drives were also so friendly and full of local information. Gracias,