The Royal Sonesta Kaua'i Resort Lihue

Not a 4 star hotel but any measure but a decent stay. I would recommend paying a little more for a better stay if you want a luxury experience.

Pros: nice pool, several hydrotherapy pools, tons of chairs, decent rooms, beach front access, staff seemed friendly

Cons: older rooms (including updated rooms like Ocean View rooms), lack of communication about daily hotel activities, room service is expensive and selection is limited, beach towels are incredibly thin (like a paper towel is better quality

Great staff!!!! I visited on a day pass prior to a night flight to Denver and onto Chicago. I inadvertently left my phone in the lobby restroom and realized it within 15 minutes. Went back and nothing. Belinda (guest services), a gentleman at check-in and Devin and his colleagues with Security went above and beyond checking with the cleaners, housekeeping, the Marriott next door and checked all the wastebaskets/bins in the vicinity. Thank goodness someone turned it into the beach bar a few minutes after we checked there. No one knew who it was other than perhaps a local but really want to thank everyone at this hotel for their kindness and willingness to help a non-guest. This was a phone wallet with not only my phone but my ids, credit cards, cash, boarding passes for my return flights and my parking ticket for my car parked at O’Hare.

This hotel is gorgeous; the grounds are meticulously maintained. The food and drinks are top notch.There is plenty of shops, restaurants and spas within walking distance (1/4 mile)

The Royal Sonesta is a beautiful hotel. The grounds are beautifully landscaped The pool is huge. There are plenty of loungers and umbrellas. You can choose beach, poolside or both. The atmosphere is relaxing. We were in Kauai for the day on a cruise ship. We purchased a day pass and it was a wonderful experience. Would go there again!

What a strange place. Giant dated white building set on a beach next to a port. It should be torn down and replaced with a nice resort and the port area cleaned up to be more attractive.

Our stay started badly and has not improved. The resort property is pretentious, oversized, overblown and difficult to navigate. The registration desk is invisible from the drive up entry, and staff are mostly indifferent. We arrived before our room was ready and instead of directing us to a place to rest and/ or providing a schedule of resort activities, they just cut us loose, saying they would call or text us when the room was ready. They didn't. Four hours later, after getting trapped in Lihue traffic and getting overpriced takeout from a Lihue deli, we still had not heard from them and had to return to inquire. The room (nearly $1,000/night) is in a remote tower requiring us to wind around the facility on foot with no guidance from staff. Yes, the pool is nice but the overall facility feels fake and pretentious, with design features having little to do with Kauai or Hawaii, and amenities including lounge musicians playing retreads of Neil Diamond. We will not be back. We feel greatly misled by your rating of this resort as a "real gem" (which we relied on when booking) and suggest you revisit and re-evaluate. Thanks. David Olson Email: cableczar1@gmail.com

Pictures online don’t do this place justice. Beautiful setting. Rooms looked recently renovated. Prperty extremely well kept. Helpful staff. On site restauarants good and short walk away (less than 1/8th of mile) many other restaurants. Great golf course. Free shuttle to/from airport which is 5 min. away. Kauai much more laid back than other Hi. islands and residents very friendly. Went to Beach House for our big dinner. Spectacular view/setting.

Worst service. Front desk staff not helpful and probably the least friendly in Hawaii. Ugliest hotel- looks worse than Hilton garden inn. No amenities in rooms and suites. When I asked for a kettle and cup to make tea in my suite, they said they don’t have ceramic cups, only plastic, and they brought a plastic kettle. The coffee machine doesn’t work. The towels have holes in them. Room wasn’t very clean, especially the bathroom. Kitchen in suite but nothing in the cabinets so it’s useless. Please go elsewhere. The Hyatt looks amazing and our lunch there was good. Places in princevilke also look good. Finally, it doesn’t look like a luxury hotel. It’s weirdly designed, takes ages to walk through the hotel, and doesn’t look like it was remodeled.

We had a few issues during our stay ie broken toilet, smell of mustiness in the room. They said they had no other rooms available even though their website states differently. We’re able to move rooms the next day. Volleyball tournament was going on for 3 days on the ‘private’ beach which woke us early every day which we were not warned about - not ideal whilst on honeymoon and wanting to relax. We were then woken very early to drilling and hammering from the room above us which no-one was warned about. We were told they would be finish by 5pm. But then, the next morning, the very same noise was happening right outside our door with again no warning! Upon check out the hotel manager confirmed we should have been given a food voucher card to check off our included spend. We were overcharged as we thought we had used our allowance which we hadn’t as apparently tips and tax aren’t taken off the allowance. We were promised an email within an hour confirming our new invoice to show correcting the food deduction as well as the resort fees due to the inconvenience and issues. We heard nothing. But they charged our card £265 unauthorised! 2 weeks later and we have still not heard anything from the hotel. Our third party provider have been fantastic in trying to mop up their messes. The hotel has also lied to them saying we were offered a room upgrade which we declined! They declined OUR request to change rooms. They also said they have refunded us which has still not credited our account. Be careful about this hotel. It is extremely overpriced for what the hotel is worth but worse than that, the customer service is awful. We are taking things up with the CEO of the hotel group.

The day before I arrived, I received a text asking what time I expected to check in. I said 2:00, and the response was that they couldn't guarantee a room until 4:00. Fine, I understand. But when you know to expect a guest at 2:00 you might at least try to have the room ready shortly thereafter? Instead, I was told at check-in that, if I paid an additional $400, they could "upgrade" me and give me a room sooner. This felt like an upsell. Instead, I waited in the lobby for 90 minutes until a room was ready for me--and then it was the wrong type of room. I had requested a standard king and was given two queen beds. So I called downstairs and was told the queen beds were an upgrade? (Not even a view, which was fine, since I hadn't booked a view, but definitely NOT an upgrade!) They did give me a new room right away, and it was very nice, but all the hoops I jumped through after 13 hours of travel were not welcome. Even though they gave me two huge bottles of water at check-in as well.

The room itself--once I got the correct one--was fine. Floor a little warped (it was a ground-floor room), water pressure and heat in the shower not great. Also a little sad I didn't have an upscale Japanese toilet (as I've had those before in Hawaii). But the room was spacious and I had a cute little lanai where the chickens visited me each morning. I actually liked being tucked in a corner because it felt private. I did pull down an extra blanket from the closet and it had holes in it. Not exactly top tier luxury.

I was also disappointed that the sundries shop was closed, so I wasn't able to get a couple things that would have been nice to have. No real ability to buy snacks, say, or sunscreen, or things like that. (I was told it would be reopening at some point, but that didn't do me much good in the moment.)

Restaurants were generally very good, Duke's being a favorite. Service everywhere was, shall we say, "leisurely," but I understand that's just Hawaiian relaxation.

The pool was especially lovely, and I enjoyed my time there and on the beach. Alas, I was there for a conference so didn't get to enjoy them as much as I might've.

Overall, not sure the cost was worth some of the hassle I went through.

We loved our time at the Royal Sonesta. We went for our honeymoon and I was worried at first that it wouldn’t be nice enough. I will say the property itself is immaculate and makes up for the rooms being a little more basic (but perfectly acceptable). We actually checked out of the Sonesta to go to the North shore, and then ended up coming back because we missed the pool, hot tubs, beach access, bar/restaurant, and other amenities. We even went to other hotels we considered in preparation for a trip back to Kauai, and safe to say, we made the right booking decision! We will definitely be back!

"Her name was Lola, she was a show girl, but that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show"
30 years ago this place may have been decent, it ain't no more.
Dust everywhere, filthy patio doors, musty smelling hallways and rooms, vacant shops. RIdiculous prices for an aging dump. Cocktails seemingly void of alcohol.
No water bottle filling stations, even though their documents say they do.
We cannot recommend this place. Awful.

Beautiful pool and beach area; restaurant was good

Beautiful resort with lots of flowers and pools. Relaxing environment. Shuttle always arrived within 5-10 minutes of our request. Check in was great and the entire staff was friendly and knowledgeable of excursions. Will definitely return!

We stayed in a room that had a pool and ocean view on the upper floor. It was beautiful. Rooms were great and the staff was kind. I loved the key bracelets, the water bottles and the proximity to the beach. They even have a guest laundry, which we needed. Thank you!

nice quiet pool area, close to restaurants, beautiful grounds

Gorgeous hotel! Staff is so amazing and kind to help or answer any questions or needs. Room was very spacious and clean. Wifi was a bit slow/spotty at times - same with the TV in our room (slow to navigate). HUGE pool with amazing food/bev service. Otherwise we enjoyed our stay and would definitely come back!

Our 4th time in this hotel. This hotel has gotten better since it split from Marriott

Resort and parking fees are very high.

Great staff. Perfect stay!