Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, the Hotel Review

The island of Kauai, one of the Hawaiian islands, is often called a “Garden Island” and is famous for its lush green forests and mountains, stunning beaches with crystal clear waters, and attractions. We realized it is becoming our annual tradition to visit Hawaii, and we certainly can not complain about it.

What could be better than staying in Hawaii using points and saving thousands of dollars on your stay? Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa is one of Hyatt’s oceanfront properties that could be booked on points and is perfect for a family getaway!

Booking

Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa is a Category 6 Hyatt Hotel that spawns over 50 acres of property. We booked 2 Queen Beds Standard Room using Hyatt Points and paid only 25,000 Hyatt Points per night.

That was a standard night rate; if you check the Points Calendar on the Hyatt website, you’ll see that the off-peak nights are 21k Hyatt Points, and the peak nights are 29k Hyatt Points per night. The cash rate at the time of booking was $4,888.32 for five nights, which meant the points redemption was 3.91 cents per point, an outstanding value!

💡 Good to Know

Did you know that initially built in 1990, Grand Hyatt Kauai was significantly damaged by Hurricane Iniki in 1992? Iniki was the most powerful hurricane Hawaii has ever seen! It took time and millions of dollars to repair the property from the damage.

Check-in

When we arrived at Grand Hyatt Kauai, we were immediately greeted at the entrance by the friendly staff and given a traditional Hawaiian lei. Baby Zoe looked at us like we all went nuts when a staff member started giving us flower necklaces 😅. The staff took care of our suitcases, and we left our rental car keys with the valet.

When you enter the hotel, you immediately immerse yourself in the lush green garden with colorful flowers and macaws on the tree branches. The girls were excited to meet the birds and ran toward them to see the macaws up close! Here is Duke and Rico enjoying their sunny afternoon.

We proceeded to the check-in area to see if our room was ready. The hotel had a designated line for the World of Hyatt members.

The concierge informed us that, as Globalists, we had been upgraded to the top-floor Ocean View Room and that the room needed more time to be ready.

They did not have any Suite upgrades available. To be honest, we might have chosen the initial Ocean View Room over a Standard Suite anyway, as it did not have an ocean view and only had a private lanai 🤷🏻‍♀️.

The girls were gifted cute little green sea turtle plush toys from the concierge, which made their day! Since we had a couple of hours to kill and were practically starving, we ventured to have lunch and explore the property.

Globalist Upgrade

We got a 500 sq. ft. top-floor (6th floor) Ocean View 1 King/1 Queen bed Room. That’s a setup you don’t see very often, plus there was a sitting area with a pullout sofa. We requested a crib for baby Zoe, and they brought it over with a little present – a Duke plush toy (remember the pet macaws in the lobby?).

At the table, the hotel staff left us a whole bunch of complimentary goodies, including a bottle of wine and a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, cookies, and chips!

The room featured traditional Hawaiian decor and was a little outdated, but the views from our balcony were stunning.

We were informed that the hotel did not offer daily bottled water but instead had several water refilling stations throughout the property and provided two complimentary water bottles in the room 👍.

The picture below shows the list of complimentary Globalist benefits at Grand Hyatt Kauai. As you can see, in addition to traditional complimentary breakfast, valet, room upgrades, and waived resort fees, they also offered 15% off at the Anara Spa Boutique and 20% off lunch at Ilima Terrace.

Bathroom

The bathroom featured a double-sink counter, a tub, and amazingly smelled coconut toiletries from the onsite Anara Spa. Word of advice, you have to try the body lotion; it’s so rich, moisturizing, and has a light tropical scent!

Dining

Grand Hyatt Kauai offers various dining options, from a casual bite by the pool to fine dining at one of the restaurants. Let’s take a look at all the dining options at this Hyatt property.

Hale Nalu

The Hale Nalu cafe is located at the poolside and offers casual dining, such as burgers, fish tacos, and chicken wings! This was where we would go to grab lunch and drinks on most days! You choose and order your food at the counter, pay, get a number, and wait for it at your table. Simple and easy!

They offered kid’s menu with grilled cheese, burgers, and cheese quesadillas. Baby Zoe approved the mac and cheese with a side of milk, and Sophia liked her burger!

Additionally, the cafe conveniently sold some snacks and beverages.

Lunch

This is what our lunch looked like; it was usually quickly prepared and did not disappoint. We always found an empty table, no lines, and reservations weren’t required.

Shave ice and ice cream

The Hale Nalu cafe also had a shave ice stand. Traditional Hawaiian shave ice is made by “shaving” a block of ice in special equipment and adding flavored syrup on top of the ice. They also offered delicious local ice cream in tiny cups at this stand!

Captain’s Bar

Captain’s Bar is the covered round bar on top of the property with ocean and pool views. In addition to serving drinks, they also offered lunch.

It was actually funny how it took us a couple of times to have lunch at Captain’s Bar until we realized that it was brought from the downstairs Hale Nalu. So, if you go downstairs and sit at a table by Hale Nalu, it will be the same menu and food, minus the waiter.

Ilima Terrace

Ilima Terrace is an onsite restaurant featuring an open-air concept and casual-style dining with a garden and small koi-filled pond views. It’s open from 6 am to 2 pm and serves breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast

Ilima Terrace offered a buffet-style served breakfast and you could also order from the menu.

We have to admit the buffet offered so many choices that it was hard to decide what you wanted, from traditional breakfast items such as eggs, bacon, and pancakes to Hawaiian Kalua pork hash and steamed pork and shrimp won tons.

Ilima Terrace had an omelet station where you could order a made-to-order omelet with any toppings you wanted.

Lunch

Ilima offered sandwiches and entrees such as grilled mahi-mahi and steak for lunch. While the lunch itself was not bad, we would say we preferred lunch at Hale Nalu over lunch at Ilima.

Seaview Terrace

Seaview Terrace is an open-space concept cafe to enjoy coffee and pastries in the morning and drinks and live music in the evening!

Stevenson’s Library

Stevenson’s Library is an onsite sushi restaurant that is only open for dinner from 5:30 pm to 10 pm. To ensure we had a table, we made a reservation on OpenTable before our trip. We were lucky to sit on the patio and enjoy the fantastic ocean view while having dinner.

The fresh and melt-in-your-mouth fish was absolutely delicious! We definitely recommend this restaurant!

On a side note, if you like us and want to order your kids Ebi (steamed shrimp nigiri), make sure to ask not to put wasabi inside 😂. Ebi is usually our go-to item for kids in a sushi restaurant, and it did not even occur to us to check if it was spicy for the girls.

Stevenson’s Library offered Kids bento boxes with a choice of sushi rolls, edamame, and for some reason, num bread (which Sophia happily chose to have)!

Tidepools

Tidepools restaurant is an onsite fine-dining restaurant with modern Hawaiian cuisine (serving only dinner from 5 pm-9 pm). The restaurant was located in several attached bungalows on a koi fish pond! Imagine enjoying your dinner and watching golden koi fish swim around and jump out of the water! It certainly was very amusing for the girls.

Here in the picture below is the menu from the Tidepools Grand Hyatt Kauai. Our favorites were the Hawaiian catch (grilled fish, prawns, and a lobster tail) and hamachi sashimi in the special sauce!

💡 Good to Know

We’ve read a few Tidepools reviews before our trip, and many people suggested making a dinner reservation in advance. The restaurant gets busy and might not have availability — especially when traveling with the little ones and dining earlier.

So we made three dinner reservations on OpenTable two months before our trip and did not regret it🤓!

If you look at the picture below, it’s actually only half of the Hawaiian Catch; the staff kindly split it into two plates as we shared a few items from the menu!

We were glad to see the kid’s menu offered some great healthier options! Our girls loved the grilled chicken and mahi-mahi, and a side of pineapple was obviously their favorite part 😅.

The Grand Club

Grand Hyatt Kauai has a Grand Club where guests can enjoy complimentarily food and beverages. It is a great option to grab a bite for free, especially when traveling with kids.

💡Good to Know

If you are a Globalist, the Grand Club is the place you can get your complimentary breakfast at. Unfortunately, the designated area for Club’s breakfast (Dondero’s) was closed, and the hotel served breakfast in the Club itself. Hence, the breakfast area was a little cramped and crowded.

Breakfast at the Club

This is the picture of the buffet-style breakfast at the Club. The choices included some pastries, fruits, eggs, and smoked salmon to fix yourself a sandwich.

Dinner at the Club

We only checked out the dinner at the Club once since we already had prior dinner reservations at the other restaurants. In addition to a pasta salad, miso soup, and chicken quesadilla, they offered fresh fruits and veggies.

There was a little DIY drink station where you could have a glass of wine or fix yourself a cocktail. Just fill in the information on the provided paper and be charged later, $5 for a glass of wine and $7 for a cocktail.

Amenities

If you are looking for a hotel to enjoy a day by the pool, you are in luck since Grand Hyatt Kauai’s property is filled with acres of the multi-level pool. In fact, we could not tell on our first day where the pool ended, and the lazy river began or how the koi pond differed from the swimmable saltwater lagoon.

So if you see some golden fish swimming in the waters, we advise you not to attempt swimming there 😃.

💡Good to Know

Great news, the pool at Grand Hyatt Kauai is open 24 hours!

All guests must obtain a pool wristband daily at the towel station. Yes, every day, you need to get a new wristband!

Main Pool

The main pool sure did look inviting, surrounded by tropical trees and conveniently placed lounge chairs with umbrellas. It was colder than we would have liked, and you needed to brace yourself to go in. We don’t think it was heated and probably is much warmer in the summer months.

Lazy river

Can you believe this was our first time being introduced to the concept of the lazy river? A lazy river is a type of pool that mimics a river by its shape and even has a slow current.

Adult only pool

The hotel has a separate 14+ adult pool.

Saltwater Lagoon

A 1.5-acre saltwater lagoon with a sandy shore and shallow waters was perfect for the little kids, it was a little colder to our liking, but it might have something to do with the winter months.

Waterslide

The 150-foot waterslide was Sophia’s favorite place to be! She could not get enough of the rides and begged us to try it too! We could not resist, and we admit the ride took longer than anticipated, but it was so much fun! On the top of the waterslide, a hotel staff member was overseeing the participants and giving the go-ahead to ensure it was safe to go down.

Spa

There were three jacuzzis on the property. A hot tub was rather spacious and was Zoe’s favorite spot to hang out. She called it a “hot swim” and would only ask to go there 😃.

The Shipwreck Beach

The hotel is located right by the shore on Shipwreck Beach. Now, we’ve read about people going for a swim there; however, it was nearly impossible to enjoy the waters this time. Not only due to the rough waves but the beach was covered in lava rocks, and it was hard to find a sandy patch.

Apparently, the beaches in Kauai could be less or more swimmable depending on the year’s season as the tides wash away or bring the sand back. So we would not say that the beach is not swimmable per se, you might get luckier than us if visiting in summer.

Area Attractions

There was a paved path along the shore, and you could take a walk right from the hotel. We decided to explore the island and rented a car.

You can read more about the kid-friendly things to do in Kauai here.

On Points With Kids Summary

For five nights at Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, we paid 125,000 Hyatt Points. The cash rate for five nights was $4,888.32 ($977.66 per night on average, including taxes and fees), which equals 3.91 cents per point, an outstanding value!

You can apply for the following credit cards to earn Hyatt points that can be redeemed at Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa:

• Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card application
• Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card application (Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to the World of Hyatt program)