Koa Kea Hotel & Resort

Good overall experience for a smaller resort. Staff is very friendly and helpful. Rooms are fairly standard for a resort and the bathrooms looked to be recently updated. The resort is walking distance to other dinning options. That is important as there is only the pool bar and high end restaurant Red Salt on site. Only dined at Red Salt for one dinner due to the high prices. Ventured out for breakfast every morning for the same reason. The beach access is a little tricky as there is a maintenance issue and you have to climb down a ledge to reach it. There are signs that you enter at your own risk! You have to walk off the resort to the spent time at the beach. I would rate the resort 4 out 5, and not sure if would return.

We used our Chase/Edit benefit to book the Ko’a Kea and it didn’t disappoint in any way. The beachfront location, the service and the food was top notch. We loved it and would definitely recommend it. It’s intimate and quiet, our room was comfortable and we could easily walk around Poipu so didn’t need our car for the days we stayed to do that.

My wife and I stayed for five nights. For the most part we loved the property and the very friendly staff. We stayed in an ocean front suite. It was a beautiful room. Very clean. Koa Kea is an excellent jumping off point for visiting Kauai. There is a lot of convenient dining and shopping just a few minutes from the property. If you don't want to travel far, Poipu beach, just steps from your room, is beautiful. There were several things we didn't like that stood between a good stay and an excellent one. The resort has fallen into some disrepair. The most notable of which is the boardwalk. Accessing the beach requires descending a four foot pile of sand bags and rock. I saw at least two people fall and while their was no apparent injuries, one required assistance to recover. There is a stupid sign that says don't attempt this, but everyone ignores this because they came all the way to Kauai to access the beach not sit in their hotel room. The other thing that caused me anxiety was the weird tipping practices. Some of the services force a mandatory gratuity of 20% and some don't, but they try really hard to hide when they do. Your receipt calls it a service charge but you need to read the micro print signs posted throughout the property to figure out what is going on. It felt like a sleazy Vegas tactic to me. I should not have to worry about these things or have my wife point out I tipped 40% on breakfast tacos that were dropped at my door. I would not recommend staying more than 2-3 night, if only because eating well is a challenge. The Red Salt and neighboring restaurants are great but the food it very rich and expensive ($250-300 for two with 2x cocktails). There is no means to cook inside the rooms. Even if the cost is not prohibitive, the richness and similarity of the dining options wore thin by day four. The concierge wasted a lot of our time (over the phone) but it turn out they don't have one and it's just the front desk pulling double duty. I would avoid using them to plan your activities if able. There advice is not good, misleading at best.

We loved our stay at Ko’a Kea ! It was the perfect place to spend our honeymoon. Staff was exceptionally friendly, Red Salt was an amazing restaurant, and the location was really convenient to many places! We thought having valet service for the car was a really nice perk as well. Our oceanfront deluxe room was beautiful, with stunning views every day! We couldn’t be happier with our stay here and definitely want to come back!

Definitely our favorite resort in Hawaii. The location was perfect (right on Poipu beach), but it felt secluded and quiet. The service, amenities, hotel design, and views were all phenomenal; they have truly thought of every little detail. Such a restful and welcoming home base on Kauai. I highly recommend and look forward to returning!!