Kauai Hotels

Hard to believe that this luxury hotel (one of Hawaii's best) can get "grander," but the new multi-million dollar renovations have taken the hotel's ambience of casual elegance to a new level. One of Hawaii's best luxury hotels and one of the top-ranked tropical resorts in Condé Nast Traveller's annual readers' poll, this four-story resort, built into the oceanside bluffs, spreads over 50 acres that overlook Shipwreck Beach (which is too rough for most swimmers) at the end of the road in Poipu. The $250 million Hyatt uses the island architecture of the mid-1920s to recapture the old Hawaii of the Matson Line steamship era.

The airy atmosphere takes you back to the days of a grand plantation overlooking the sea. This is a comfortable, unostentatious place where you can bring the kids and Grandma. The rooms are large (nearly 600 sq. ft.) and elegantly outfitted. All have marble bathrooms and spacious private lanais; most have ocean views. Club floors have their own concierge and a lounge serving continental breakfast, drinks, and snacks. The hotel is next door to the Robert Trent Jones, Jr.?designed Poipu Golf Course. If you stay here, don't leave without a treatment from the ANARA Spa, the best spa on Kauai. (Also check out the large selection of classes -- some of them free -- at the fitness center.) There may be only 23 Grand Hyatt Hotels on the planet, but frankly, I can't image any of them are better than this.

Facilities: 6 restaurants; 6 bars (the partially open-air Stevenson's Library has mellow jazz Thurs?Sat nights); an elaborate freshwater fantasy pool complex, plus 2 more pools and 5 acres of saltwater swimming lagoons w/islands and a man-made beach; 4 tennis courts; one of the best fitness centers on the island; a 25,000-sq.-ft. ANARA Spa that is reason enough to stay here, w/lava-rock shower gardens, a 10-headed Swedish shower, and indoor-outdoor treatment rooms; 3 Jacuzzis; watersports equipment rentals; bike rental; extensive Camp Hyatt kids program; concierge; activities desk; car-rental desk; business center; shopping arcade; salon; room service; massage; babysitting; complimentary washer/dryers; same-day laundry/dry cleaning; concierge-level rooms.

- Frommer's