Sheraton Kauai Resort: Bottom Line Review

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My wife and I have spent a fair amount of time traipsing around the Hawaiian Islands over the past 20+ years, since most of her family lives there. During a trip at the end of 2025, we had a couple of days to fill in on Kauai, and two Marriott 85K certificates were staring us in the face. We decided to use them at the Sheraton Kauai, an older property in the Poipu area.

Walking in, my impression was that the Sheraton was of an older property in need of a facelift, but with an excellent location. That’s exactly what we found.

Sheraton Kauai Bottom Line Review

If the Sheraton Kauai Resort was in any other location, it would be an unremarkable, older convention-style Marriott property that’s showing it age. But it happens to be one of the closest hotels to the ocean on Kauai that you can book with points. There’s a lovely pool area besides a quite sandy beach. The sunrises and sunsets are delightful, and falling asleep to the sound of the waves was a delight. That would be almost enough to give it a thumbs up, but the aging facilities, mediocre food, poor elite breakfast and ridiculous resort fee had us leaving more ambivalent than we should have been. One thumb up, one thumb down

Price: ~85,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night in December 2025, but we used two Marriott 85K free-night certificates and paid an additional 1,000 points out of pocket. The cash price was ~$750-800/night, not including taxes.
Value: When we were there, the value was good at over ~0.9 cents per point (we value the average redemption of Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.73 cents each).
Location: Located in the Poipu-Koloa resort area in Southern Kauai. It’s towards the west end of the resort strip, so relatively quiet (not that much in Kauai could be described as “noisy”). It’s within easy reach of the various restaurants and shops in Poipu and Koloa. In contrast to Koloa Landing, another Marriott property down the road, it is delightfully oceanfront. Kiahuna Beach is right in front of resort’s pool, and Poipu Beach is a short walk down the waterfront.
Room: We booked a standard room and were upgraded upon arrival into an oceanfront double room. The room itself felt like a dated Marriott convention hotel. It was relatively spacious, but unremarkable. However, the “oceanfront” lanai (patio) was marvelous, ~50 feet from the water, proximity that’s not common in big Hawaiian resorts. We loved leaving the sliding door open in the evening so that we could fall asleep to the waves crashing on the rocks below.
Parking: Valet parking is $20, while self-parking is included. We were given free valet parking as an elite benefit, but the self-parking lot was closer than the front desk where the valets are, so we only used the valet once.
Resort/Destination Fee: $48+tax per day. “Includes:”
- Self-parking
- Activities and fitness classes
- Sunscreen
- Not much else.
Internet: Good throughout most of the property, except for the fitness center, where it came in and out.
Service: There’s actually a fair amount of Aloha here, and most of the folks we encountered were warm and friendly. Nothing was terribly fast or efficient, but hey, you’re on vacation, right?
Turndown service: None.
Dining:
- RumFire: Dinner only restaurant with superlative views of the water and sunsets. Prices to match. Open for dinner Thursday – Sunday from 5 pm-9 pm, with happy hour from 5-6 and again from 9-10.
- Lava’s on Poipu Beach: Open-air, all-day restaurant located right behind both the pool and beach. Lovely views down the coast from those seats that have them. The food is passable, if unexceptional. Open daily for breakfast, lunch, and dinner from 6:30 am-9 pm, with drinks served until 10 pm some nights.

Spa: There has been a spa here in the past, but when we visited, it wasn’t operational.
Fitness Room: There is small-ish fitness area with enough equipment to do cardio and resistance workouts.
Marriott Titanium Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We booked a standard room and were upgraded into an oceanfront. Note that we did have to specify that we didn’t need a king bed in order to get the upgrade.
- Free Breakfast: Served daily at Lava’s. There is a modest selection of “included” options, whose portion-sizes and quality is befitting of the price. There are many more options that can be ordered for a $14 per person “upgrade” fee. The loco moco was pretty good, while the benedict and burrito were underwhelming. Coffee and juice is included regardless of what you pick.
- Club Lounge: None.
- Late Checkout: When we asked, we were told to pound golden sand.
- Welcome Amenity: A box of macadamia nuts that any visitor to the island will know well.
Would I stay again? Probably not? Given the price, I’d prefer the Grand Hyatt Kauai or a vacation rentals in the area, despite the fact that the ocean proximity here is stellar.