Royal Sonesta Kauai

Stayed 6 nights due to a conference. Many complaints from colleagues. Arrived to dirty rooms, blood on walls, stains on curtains, wash cloth in bathroom, bug in bed, hairs on night stands. Due to being full, difficult to change rooms, you need to get on waitlist. Room service/cleaning is every other day. No leis or welcome music. The bellhops forget about your luggage, so you have to fetch yourself. Parking is very faraway. Make sure to get the wristbands from the front desk for pool usage! For 500$ a night you expect more from a resort. This felt more like a budget hotel that didn't care about you, but wanted you to write a nice review on TripAdvisor. The rooms are loud with noising furniture on wheels moving about and reverberating through walls. It sounds like construction is going on. Difficult to get a good nights sleep, although I do see many flight attendants checking in. Pool closes at 10pm. Free fire pits turned off early around 9pm, which has you going near Kukui restaurant fire pits. Only thing is, this is for paying guests of the KuKui restaurant bar. They don't care if you have a wrist band or not, you won't be able to sit in this area. The fire torches around the property turn off early at 9pm. There is a large cruise ship that docks nearby and supposedly the place gets flooded with cruise-folks for two days. If you want silverware for your room - go to Kukui's restaurant for it. The staff will tell you that you can only have plastic wear, untrue No restaurant service at the pool. We didn't get staff coming up to us with menu's asking if we wanted to order anything. Instead, you have to walk to the bar. The catch is, in order buy at the bar you have to cover up your swimsuit. My friend's daughter was asked to cover up in her swimsuit while she was ordering an Acai bowl. The waitress went further and gave her attitude. My friends daughter was visibly upset repeating the waitresses unkind manners. Very difficult to find a front desk-manager. The good points are the grounds are well kept and lovely. The staff at Kukui's is very nice. Service is good there. Eventually was able to speak to a manager, who was helpful in escalating the poor stay, but stay was already halfway done and very frustrating. Sharing my experience so no one has to deal with this for 6 nights. I think it is is more of a 2 night stay kind of place. I am sure with a shorter stay a dirty hotel room, disturbed sleep, and service with attitude is more easy to forget. I read poor reviews before staying, but I saw that Royal Sonesta Lihue had been remodeled. I figured I would give the hotel a shot. Unfortunately 6 nights was too long.

Very nice and relaxing place to stay. Positive notes: 1. Location is fantastic. Shops, restaurants and beach at your fingertips. 2. Rooms are spacious and nice. 3. The view from the rooms. 4. The pool is unbelievable. 5. Very good price from Costco travel, includes parking and late checkout. Negatives: 1. Shirt and crocs were stolen in broad daylight at 730 am. Same morning couple on beach had their belongings taken. No reaction or recourse by the hotel other than check with lost and found. 2. Parking, there were days we could not park in the lot by out tower, hotel does not enforce parking rules, local do what they want. Big Negative we are paying to park, if you park in front of the hotel it is quite a hike to the tower we were in. Overall I would recommend this hotel, they could put a few steps in place to make it a great place to stay, control parking, and have security.

We enjoyed all of our trip to Lihue. Our favorite side trip was touring the NaPali coastline via catamaran, on Makan tours. As well, the Fern Grotto trip is very nice. We enjoyed the Kauai farm and the Raptor tour, many options are available.

We have been guests at this property for over 30 years — first under Westin then as a Marriott, and now as the Royal Sonesta. What we witnessed on our most recent visit was genuinely heartbreaking. We understand there have been management changes in recent years, and we sincerely hope the current leadership reverses the troubling direction this property has taken. Here is what we found: • The stunning plumeria trees that defined this property have been cut down to six-foot stumps throughout the grounds, with orchids strapped to what remains. It looks nothing like the tropical paradise it once was. • The main courtyard — once a lush, showpiece landscape — has been stripped of most of its plants and replaced with lava rock. Each visit, there is less greenery than before. • A massive 18th-century painting of Hawaii that was a landmark of the property is gone. In its place throughout the courtyard are amateur-looking canvases that feel completely out of character for a resort of this caliber. • The beautiful hand-carved statues have been removed. Furniture around the courtyard has disappeared, leaving empty space where there was once character and warmth. • Pool towels are visibly worn — full of holes and fraying — unacceptable at $600+ per night. • The courtyard torches are extinguished at 9 p.m. The pool fountains only run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. These small decisions add up. • On Thursdays and Fridays, cruise ship passengers from the nearby harbor flood the property for two days. They are not resort guests, yet they freely use the amenities with no apparent effort by management to address it. • The daily koi pond feeding — once a charming, educational event — is now a staff member tossing out a tray of small cups and walking away. The koi population itself appears to have dropped by roughly half. - Landscaping lighting in parking lot on tall trees sloppy installation and not fitting the harsh LED lights for this wonder landscape. This is still a beautiful location, and a first-time visitor may enjoy it. But for those of us who knew this resort at its best, it is a shadow of what it once was. At these prices, guests deserve better — and frankly, this storied property deserves better too.

Multi-generational family trip to Kaua’i in June 2026. Ages ranged from 66 to 4 so needed a resort that provided access to wide range of amenities and activities. The Royal Sonesta Resort in Lihue Kaua’i fit the bill. While feeling expensive at first when put in context of the area and what was available the cost was in line with the other resorts we considered. What sealed it for us was the awesome pool, easy access to a beach and location. We did see the reviews regarding issues with service and friendliness of the staff. However, in our experience, the staff were absolutely fantastic, friendly and helpful. We had three rooms, two kings and a double queen. While fairly basic, the rooms were large, clean and adequately appointed. Our beds and bedding were very comfortable. The onsite restaurants were typical hotel restaurants. The food quality was variable with some dishes being excellent and others just average. However, there was a variety of options. Drinks at the bars were tasty but seemed pretty light on the pours for the cost. As mentioned at the beginning the pools and beach were the main draws. Be advised that there aren’t lifeguards at either. We had no issues getting beach chairs or umbrellas during our stay but this could vary. Cabanas were a bit pricy $250 - $300 for us but there was lots of availability. Location provided easy access to a number of activities in the area. One complaint - parking as in there is not enough convenient parking and valet is $$$. Also, someone else had recommended walking around the resort the first day to get the lay of the land - this is a great idea. After the first day it is pretty easy navigation. Have a great stay.