Which hotels on Poipu, Wailea, and Kona have the best beaches?
 

From my other posts, you can see that I am thinking about going to hawaii in early Jan. Can't decide between Maui, BI, and Kauai given the time of year. While I am excited about volcanoes, beautiful scenery, etc, my DH is really looking forward to walking out of his hotel and being right on a nice beach. We are likely looking at Westin, Sheraton, Marriot, Hiltons, unless we find great deals (which are unlikely) at Fairmonts, Four Seasons. They don't have to be chains either, but would love any thoughts on this topic! Thank you!

I'm not sure if this area interests you, but we thought the Hapuna Beach Prince on the BI had a gorgeous beach. On Maui, we loved Wailea - our hotel is no longer there, but the beaches were very pretty.

For Kauai, the hotels with the best (by that I mean usually swimmable) would be Sheraton or Marriott.

The Marriott is actually a timeshare resort, run like a hotel. This is a good thing, in that all the units are complete apartments - 2BR, 2BA, Kitchen, Living Room. Lovely grounds, but if you go, be sure to get a room that looks out on the gardens, not the back (the first room we got overlooked the parking lot!).

In between the Marriott and the Sheraton, on the same run of beach, is Kiahuna Plantation, a wonderful condo resort.

On the Big Island, many of the beaches are disappointing because the island is so young. Probably the best beach hotels are the Hapuna Prince and the Mauna Kea. The last time we were there, however, we could not swim because of a Man of War infestation.

On Kauai, I do not like the Poipu area and the beaches elsewhere are very dangerous. Kauai is a beautiful island and many of the beaches are gorgeous but it's not the best island for a beach vacation.

Maui has the best beaches for swimming, snorkeling, and just relaxing. Our favorite hotel is the Maui Prince which is all by itself in Makena but there are a number of fine hotels with nice beaches in Wailea, Kapalua, Kanaapali, etc. I'd skip Kihei if you are looking for upscale.

On Kauai, it's important to specify which Marriott (one is on Kalapaki Beach in Lihue) The Marriott Waiohai is the spacious timeshare which is beachfront Poipu, adjacent to the Kiahuna and the Sheraton. Unlike Marginal, I love to swim/snorkle at Poipu Beach in January AFTER the Christmas crowds.

Sorry marginal, make that supercilious.

We stayed at the Marriott in Lihue, and agree the beach isn't that nice there. We really only chose it because we had enough points to stay for free.

We didn't like Poipu for anything including swimming. There was a small area by the Sheraton where you could swim but Kauai is not the best place for a holiday where you can swim in the sea.

Check out the website http://www.wizardpub.com/main/home.html You can see aerial views of all the resorts on Maui, BI and Kauai on the site.

If you're interested in erupting volcanos--Kiluea on the BI is the only one.

We stayed at the Hilton Big Island April 2006, and there is no real beach on property. It is a lagoon beach. (You can swim with giant turtles in the lagoon). The Marriott next door has a beach. The Marriott was being renovated while we were at the Hilton in 06.
The Hilton was huge and we really enjoyed our stay there. It was probably the largest/nicest Hilton we have ever stayed at. The Hapuna Beach is nearby and we did drive there for body surfing the waves.
Great snorkeling on the Big Island. We drove all over and snorkeled in Kona, etc.. The giant turtles were wonderful. It is a very unique island.
Have been to Maui-Wailea area many years ago and the beaches/hotels were nice. We stayed at a Marriott, but I think it changed hands.