I have narrowed my search down to five possible choices for our anniversary trip in 2008.

My choices are as follows:

Jungle Cottage in Anini vista North Shore
Hale Maluhia in Princeville
Paradise Found on the Beach Moloaa Bay
Mango Cottage Anini Beach
Jasmine Nights in Kilauea

Can anyone help me with comments about the above listed properties?? The web sites look wonderful.

I am in planning overload!!!
Thanks
Diane

Just a "heads up" for anyone planning a Kaua`i vacation. There are specific Visitor Destination Areas (VDAs) on our island -- Princeville, Po`ipu, and pockets of Kapa`a and Waipouli.

Homes/cottages/B&Bs which are currently being offered as vacation rental properties OUTSIDE these VDAs, are targeted by our County Council to be shutdown before year-end -- as they are operating in violation of our County Code.
OhioDi:
If you want to rent a house or cottage, I would suggest that eliminate Anini Beach, Kilauea, and Moloa`a from your list. Would hate to see you book a place, only to lose it when (if) the County Council lowers the boom on these illegal rentals.

In Sept '06, we stayed at Hale Maluhia based in part of a review by a fellow Fodorite and loved it. Not sure when you're planning to go in '08 but the North Shore, where HM is located, can be pretty wet in the winter months. Anyway, you can read more about HM in my trip report here:
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34881697

auntie, please don't tell me they are going to target Hanalei too! Ack.

Holy cow, auntie-- it ain't April, so I guess you ain't fooling. What's going on? If it were happening here in the Philly suburbs, it would be some kind of political game playing-- as in, the County Council would be angling to make the homeowners so desperate not to be closed down that they'd settle for some kind of tax.
Is there a story behind this story?

it's about time they stop talking and take action.

should've busted them long time ago.

The VDAs were firmly and clearly established in the Kaua`i Master Plan 30 years ago. Anyone and everyone who owns (or sells) a vacation rental abode OUTSIDE the established VDAs is blatantly thumbing their nose at the law -- because "everyone does it". Erk!

Enforcement has been lax -- and the County Council is fully aware of that, with plans to expand the enforcement crews...soon, I hope.

It's so sad to drive through Wainiha and Ha`ena -- which used to be loaded with kids and bikes and island families -- to now see only transient vacationers.

Kaua`i is losing it's neighborhoods -- and a bit of aloha spirit is going, too.

If vacation rentals homes/cottages are confined to the VDAs, perhaps their is a chance for our island neighborhoods to be home for full-time island residents again. 8-)

Ooops, forgot to add...:

Hale Maluhia is a unit at the Hanalei Villa condo complex -- well within the VDA here.

auntie,

Thanks for the background. I have been doing some online reading since your first post. I guess it has the potential to get pretty nasty if the County starts to get serious about enforcing the VDA ordinance after not doing much about it for 30 years. It is hard for me to imagine the long-range consequences of all this, but I hope it will work out to benefit local residents.

I agree with you about how sad to see areas like Ha'ena, where island families used to live, now all built up with vacation homes. I have only been visiting the island for 20-some years, but can see very big differences--physically, of course, but also, as you say, in the aloha spirit.

Thanks for the heads up! I will heed your warning!! Can certainly understand why this is being done. Neighborhoods need to
be salvaged from building rentals on top of rentals. This certainly takes away from the charm.

For example, we have been going to an island in the Caribbean for 10 years and recently a major hotel chain built the largest, ugliest, concete place on one of the prettiest beaches and completly drove out all the local vendors. What a shame!!

Auntie, Thanks for the heads up -- I was looking for a cottage for January.

But what about all the people who will rent a cottage -- what will happen to them and their money????

Also Auntie,
Where can we go to find a place in a "legal" area?

OhioDi we too rented Hale Maluhia and I can't say enough great things about it. I'll let my photos do the talking:
http://picasaweb.google.com/maggiwun/Kauai2002

Auntie,

That is interesting info that you provided. Sounds like rentals in Princeville are still ok though, right?

What's your budget? We rented this condo:

www.kauaidreamer.com

...and loved it. Great location in Princeville - walking distance to the resort (and restaurants) there. We thought the food in Princeville was average...we much preferred the drinks and views from the Living Room. And Kauai Dreamer had a great patio with ocean view and grill for staying in for the evening.

Kaua`i VDA areas are:
Princeville
Po`ipu
and beachside in Kapa`a

FYI -- that kauaidreamer site is a condo at Pu`u Poa here in Princeville...the priciest condos on the northshore. Just a parking lot away from the Princeville Hotel. Wanna buy a Pu`u Poa condo? You can pick up a 2bd/2ba this week for just $2.195 million. 8-)
http://tinyurl.com/259ds5

Maggi -- your pix are gorgeous!

I WANT THAT CONDO!!! I'd buy it in a Hanalei heartbeat -- if it only had one less zero on the end of that price ....

Songdoc, it's hard to take a bad picture in Hawaii - just point and shoot!

Hey, if you want, we can split the price (with 8 other people) and share...

We stayed at a home/condo in Princeville that we rented thru REMAX. It was a 3 bed/3 ba home that was beautiful.
This was during the first week of Jan.'05 and our rent was $185./day for 6 of us.
Our course, that price was an exception because there was construction going on - but we didn't mind for that price.

After reading Auntie's response to OhioDi, "Homes/cottages/B&Bs which are currently being offered as vacation rental properties OUTSIDE these VDAs, are targeted by our County Council to be shutdown before year-end -- as they are operating in violation of our County Code," I decided to do a little research into this, as I had already rented a little cottage outside the VDAs for March 2008.

Auntie is correct - change appears to be afoot for these non-VDA areas of Kauai. However, IMHO I'm not so sure that anyone should worry just yet about renting a cottage in a non-VDA area and having it not be available when they come to visit Kauai - at least in the next several months. (Remember that it's always a good idea to do your own research and arrive at your own conclusions, though - don't just take my word for it.)

Back in 1982, the county passed an ordinance to keep tourist growth in only the VDA areas. However, this ordinance was vaguely written and apparently, poorly enforced. As a result of the problems that Auntie pointed out, the county is trying to "control" some of this growth rather than stop it entirely.

So far as I can tell, the planning committee of Kauai has yet to actually pass the ordinance that has been discussed. It appears that it's gone back and forth with several suggestions for quite awhile.
The latest version of Bill 2204 is posted on the web at http://www.kavaassociation.org/. Note in particular subsections 8-17.10(c)and 8-17.5. Also take a look at a recent newspaper article at http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2...ion/edit02.txt.

These subsections shown above of the draft Bill indicate to me that the committee is certainly considering the needs of the rental property owners as well as tourists who have already made reservations or soon will for these non-VDA areas, prior to the potential passing of this Bill. The draft Bill at least provides a grandfather clause for all transient rental propertys in non-VDA areas that have been continually rented since 1982. In addition, the draft also looks like it provides an opportunity for property owners in these non-conforming areas to apply for a certificate of non-conformance that would allow them to keep renting out their property so long as they meet certain qualifications (for example, if their property is zoned for agricultural use, they wouldn't be able to get one of these certificates). In the bill, it states that these non-conforming use certificates would need to be acquired by the land owners by 31 Aug 08.

What that says to me is that the county realizes that there are tourists who have already paid money and made vacation plans for the upcoming year to stay in these non-VDA area. It looks to me like they wouldn't really start cracking down on people until Fall 2008. But, the bill is very clear that no new rental units would be permitted in these non-VDA areas.

Again, this is just my read from reviewing the draft of Bill 2204 online. Since I already rented a place in Anini prior to hearing about any of this, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope for the best (and find a Plan B place to stay just in case).