There’s so much at the Grand Hyatt Kauai that it was worth more than a single post. I’ve written about our room and how we had one of the best views the hotel has to offer. Here’s the rest of the story, from the beach/pool, restaurants, club and everything else.
Grand Club
Included with our club level room was access to the Grand Club. Located on the 3rd floor, we walked down two flights of stairs which are conveniently located just outside the club.
Access is limited to guests who have booked club level rooms, World of Hyatt Globalists or Explorists using a lounge upgrade coupon.
The lounge serves breakfast, then they offer cookies and sodas during the day until the evening when they serve light hors d’oeuvres, followed by desserts until closing.
When we arrived at the hotel, we dropped our bags in the room and headed to the lounge. We were tired and this was as close we could get to dinner.
There were greens, a pasta salad, bread, cheeses and steamed pork buns. The alcohol is from an honor bar where you fill out what you had and put a slip of paper in a basket to be charged to your room. We arrived close to the ending time of the service but I thought I might get a 2nd glass of wine so I kept my paper. When I went back inside the food and drinks were gone, including the place to put my honor slip. I apologized for being tardy returning to which the staff thanked me for my honesty. He said he’d “take care of it” at which time he threw the paper in the trash bin. 🙂
We stayed for the dessert service, which we brought up to the room. There were several small cakes but most were not memorable.
The next morning we headed to the lounge after we watched sunrise. Apparently, this is what everyone planned, as the club was packed and we couldn’t find a seat. We grabbed our coffee and food and ate on our balcony.
The next morning, we headed to the lounge before the sunrise, which was a much better idea in terms of crowds.
The spread was mostly the same every day. There was fresh fruit, salmon with fixings (tomato, onion, capers, cream cheese), various pastries, bagels and croissants, and a few hot dishes. Those rotated but for our three days, only one day included eggs. The other days had pancakes and potatoes with breakfast meats (bacon and sausage). There was a coffee machine for latte and cappuccinos, and a Keurig and assorted K-cups. There was also a juice machine with orange juice and POG, and a cereal station with individual containers and milk.
It was sufficient for a club breakfast and enough to keep us full for the morning. Most importantly, the coffee was fine. When we could find a table, we chose to sit outside. The Grand Club is located at a corner of the Poipu wing with great views of the property and the ocean.
Restaurants
If you’re staying at the Grand Hyatt, you’re rather isolated. There aren’t any restaurants besides the places on the property. If you don’t have access to the Grand Club, you’re going to be eating on-site or driving a distance to eat anywhere else.
Tidepools is the hotel’s signature restaurant. Given a prime location in the main wing, the restaurant is a series of thatched huts that are made to appear to be floating on the water.
We had just had an amazing Valentine’s Day dinner at Hemisphere in the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport, so we didn’t feel like another fancy dinner at the hotel.
The other nice dining location is Stevenson’s Library (Sushi and Spirits).
A friend on Facebook raved about the place when we posted that we were staying at the Hyatt. They weren’t wrong, and if for not having the most amazing Omakase meal later in the trip, it would easily be the best sushi meal we’ve had in a while.
Needless to say, we overordered, but we were hungry after spending the afternoon in the pool.
There’s a breakfast/lunch restaurant called Ilima Terrace, which felt like the generic Hawaii hotel equivalent of a coffee shop. The view’s amazing and you’ll spend $20 for a plain omelet or $25 for a Caesar salad (protein costs extra).
I know these places serve a purpose but we didn’t eat here during our stay.
There’s also Seaview Terrace, which is a real coffee shop that turns into a bar/entertainment stop in the evening. Every night of our stay there were musicians playing on the stage.
If we didn’t have club access, this is the place we would have used to grab a coffee and a snack in the morning before leaving the hotel.
The last food venue is the poolside restaurant, Hale Nalu. This is next to the main pool and near the activity desk. You can order here or at the Captain’s Bar (it’s the same food and you’ll get it faster if you order directly from the restaurant.)
Beach/Pool
The one major gripe about the Grand Hyatt Kauai is that while it is on the beachfront, it’s not the nicest beach for relaxing or for water activities.
This is the view from the Poipu wing, where the beach is mostly volcanic rock. As you walk across the resort, you’ll reach the sandy beach area which is called Shipwreck Beach. While the wreck is long gone, the name remains and understandably so because the waters by the resort are anything but calm.
For our entire stay, there was a red flag noting dangerous ocean conditions. I later noticed that “red flag” is the only one mentioned on the sign, so I suspect that might be the only one they ever use.
With a small beach that’s only good for lounging, the hotel had to make up for it somehow. Say hello to the saltwater lagoon.
Between the beach and the pool, there’s a huge saltwater lagoon complete with a sandy floor. If you can’t swim in the ocean, this is the next best thing. While it looked beautiful, it’s kind of boring to swim in since there are no waves to jump and therefore not really the ocean.
Fortunately, there’s also a massive pool complex.
Located in the middle of the Shipwreck wing is the hotel pool complex complete with an adult pool area, whirlpool hot tubs, lazy river, water slide, and a freshwater pool. Even with the hotel at near 80% occupancy, the pool didn’t feel overly crowded.
We didn’t get to the pool until the afternoon so most of the lounge chairs were taken. It took 20 minutes of walking around to find two chairs near the upper adult pool to drop our items.
Hotel guests can sign out pool towels from the activity desk which is also where you can rent or purchase tubes for the Lazy River (which is deeper than you’d think) and rent cabanas at the pool or beach.
We floated along the lazy river to find it was like a real river, meaning it wasn’t a circle but just ended. Strange. From there we could walk back to the other end but instead, Sharon went down the water slide (I walked down the stairs). From here, we were at the main freshwater pool. While pretty, we got bored pretty quickly.
Hot tub time.
There are several hot tubs around the pool area but we found that this one located past the adult pool was almost always empty or only had 1-2 other people in it (and it’s larger than it looks in this picture.)
Anara Spa
The Anara Spa is located near the Poipu wing of the hotel and the building is also the home to the 24-hour fitness center (which is included as part of your $40 resort fee.)
We stopped by to check out the prices. While this was an extra special anniversary trip for us, there were many other things we could do with the money the spa charged for a 1-hour massage. YMMV.
Final Thoughts
When I booked the Grand Hyatt Kauai for the first three nights of our trip, I couldn’t help but think it would be a huge waste of money (or in my case, Hyatt points.) Why book a resort hotel when I was only using it for a place to stay? I had activities planned for almost every day we were on Kauai. Would we be able to take advantage of all of the amenities the hotel had to offer?
It turned out that we ended up loving the hotel and we’re not totally sure why. All we know is that it’s now my job to make sure we have enough Hyatt points to stay there again, club room or not.
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