I would love a memory lesson! When I was 19, I went to Kauai with my girlfriend and we went to Kauai with some guys from California that were doing some ocean photography. We were 2 innocent Cdn. girls who were a bit bowled over by these California hotties but I'm trying to remember where my gf and I stayed. She remembers it was close to the airport and they were separate units right overlooking the ocean (I just remember the pounding waves all night) The insides were really lovely - kind of like 'old Hawaii, all bamboo furnishings). She seems to think of it being around Poipu. This was in 1969 and all I remember is a small chinese restaurant - there was nowhere else to go! I'd love to know where this was because I'm going back to Kauai this yr. and would like to take a trip down 'memory lane'.Does anyone have any ideas where I could find out some history, etc.?

yes, but i was only 4.

I was not in Kauai yet, that far back, but do travel to Kauai. The airport is in Lihue, so it was not Poipu you stayed in, as that is 25 min. away. (unless she remembers wrong)

You could do a search on this site to see if any of the places in Lihue look like your separate units.

http://www.wizardpub.com/kauai/kauaerials.html

Sadly, Kauai has changed enormously since 1969, and not all of the change is for the good. I doubt that the hotel you remember still exists, and you probably won't recognize much on the island.

My husband and I spent a week of our honeymoon at the Poipu Beach Hotel in 1978. It was erased by a hurricane several years later. We returned to Kauai in 1996 and had a lovely time, but it was completely different.

I remember going to Kauai in 1973... just a few years after you. The main place I remember (and where we stayed) was the Coco Palms... but I don't recall it having any separate units.

Maybe we'll hear from some of the Kauai history experts!

Carole

Well, Micah 3... you got me interested in old photos of Hawaii hotels... check this out:

http://www.arkivatropika.com/cgi-bin...otel%20room%22

There is one Hawaiian theme hotel in San Diego... but the others are all from Hawaii.

What a trip!

What a fun site that old hotel photos was. I've stayed at many of them.

We were in Kauai last month, and they are rebuilding the Poipu Beach Hotel, finally. We also stayed there prior to the Hurricane Iniki and at Coco Palms, too. Both have been in ruins for years.

If you click on the site I posted above, and check Kiahuna Plantation and Marriott Waiohai you will see the old Poipu Beach hotel. (not yet refurbished)

I loved the "postcard" photos..they brought back beautiful memories.

CocoPalms..the first time 1971..priceless.

Thanks so much for the replies - I love the postcards too! I did email the library system in Kauai and am hoping that perhaps that might help as well.

So none of the Kauai hotel postcards looked in any way familiar? Drat!

Let us know what the library says!!

Maybe the old Waiohai at Poipu? (My spelling may be a bit off).

Just thinking back a bit more, maybe there were two hotels together, Poipu Beach Hotel and the old Waiohai? One was old bamboo style set farther back from the beach, lots of tropical gardens. Right on the Beach. Near the old Beach House restaurant?

38 years ago, the only oceanfront hotel close to the airport was the Kaua`i Surf -- where the Kaua`i Marriott Resort now sits (on Kalapaki Bay).

I had to call a friend of mine about that Chinese restaurant though -- and he remembered it! "The Chop Suey House"...long gone now though.

Our little island actually has two great resources for the old stuff:
http://www.kauaihistoricalsociety.org/
http://www.kauaimuseum.org/

I am thrilled to get as many responses as I did from this request. And a special thank you to Auntie Marie for the websites. I've emailed them for information as well. This is a great forum and I appreciate that everyone can help one another out.

That site with the old hotel photos is really cool!

aloha - I liked the menu section on that site too.

The 1956 lunch menu from the Willows Restaurant in Honolulu is great! "No service under 35 cents"!! We used to love their coconut cream pie.

Thanks ever so much for the replies to my query - I emailed esssr@librarieshawaii (thanks auntiemaria) and he promptly got back to me. He said that the Lihue library believes the most likely place was the Kauai Surf, a hotel on Kalapaki Beach (now changed and called the Kauai Marriott). Apparently at that time, the Surf consisted of 2 hotel towers in back of the bay, not on a cliff. the left arm of the bay as you look seaward is a cliff on which there were several privately owned cottages reached by a dirt road & sometimes rented out by the SUrf on behalf of the cottage owners. These cottages are still on the cliff and most are vacation rentals rented through real estate managers. Realtors now call the area Pali Kai. I will definitely go there when I am in Kauai and see if my old brain cells remember this place!! Thank you once again for responses.

My family and I stayed at one of those cottages in 1970. I remember that the airport had no terminal. You exited the plane via stairs onto the tarmack and then walked over to retrieve your luggage under an open air thatched roof pavillion. One of the highlights of that trip was driving through the cane fields, then hiking a little further to a natural lava slide that dropped you into a pool of water.