(5 out of 5)
What would make Hale Emmalani completely perfect is putting it on the beach, yet my family just loved the space the home offers and we thought the location and the surrounding neighborhood was fabulous! It was a special treat waking up to the mountain peaks with their incredible waterfalls. Plus, several fantastic beaches are a walk or a short car ride away, so we really felt like we had the best of both worlds. Moreover, the house offers plenty of space for two families of four to find places to retreat to, or participate in a game of pool, or play in the fabulous private pool when you wanted to. The Princeville Shopping Center provides nearby grocery shopping and CJ's Steakhouse serves a mean steak and excellent seafood. Additionally, Hanalei Bay is just 10 minutes away. Lots of great little boutiques and terrific restaurants here, not to mention the glorious beach and mountain peaks' backdrop. Kauai is absolutely awesome, yet the North Shore wherein Hale Emmalani is located really rocks (a true paradise!). The best part of the island indeed! We hope to visit again... soon!
This was an amazing home and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the pool and hot tub, the kitchen, and the living areas were so great!!! The rental company was great and responded quickly to any repair needs. The best part of the trip was that all of us were able to be together, and finding some of the beautiful beaches. I would definetly recomend this house for a large family or several couples or friends. It had it all including a washer and dryer. The best advice I could give is leave for any activity early because the traffic pace is slower there, and be careful of the waves against the lava rocks. On my next trip I would like to explore the west side, because of time we didn't have time to visit much on that side of the island. Thanks again for a wonderful trip and a beautiful memory.
The pool was actually a lot nicer than it looked in the picture(s) I found online. You might want to consider re-shooting the pool (if any of my pictures turn out well... I'll send you a copy). The binder in the house said that pool would be cleaned on Wednesday... that didn't happen and the pool got fairly dirty with leaves, debris and bugs by the time we left. I would have been only too happy to have been able to clean the bottom of pool myself... if you could provide some kind of idiot-proof tool that would allow me to do so (that sounds like a hard thing to find).
The house needs a new kitchen faucet, toaster, coffee machine and better frying pans. Everything else was nearly perfect. Oh... the toilet in the second master was leaking, we called the number in the binder but the plumber never did show up (while we where there).
The layout of the house was wonderful; very family friendly and, with the playstation, pool table, big tv and high-speed internet... there's always something to do. I can hardly imagine a nicer place to have stayed.
I loved the north shore, even though it was winter (or maybe because of it)... it's less busy and touristy than the south end of the island (which is less busy and touristy than the other islands). Anini beach, 5-minutes from the home, was beautiful, uncrowded, safe to swim and snorkle at... we even swam with sea turtles.
My advice to somebody else staying here: skip the luau's (any of them, all of them... plastic lawn chairs and buffet diners are not, in my opinion, "authentic", nor worth $50 -$90 a plate) but check out the Olympic cafe in Kapa'a... the fish taco's really are (as the menu claims) the best on the island.
We absolutely loved the Hale Emmalani rental. Very spacious, lovely location, the pool table was a hugh hit, as was the rnlarge TV, and the home was very nicely decorated. We would definitely recommend this rental to our friends and family.
