Mark W.
June 2024
Excellent property to get away from the crowded resorts. Very quiet area. Nice lagoon to snorkel. A bit of a drive to get to restaurants and shops with several one lane bridges, but we are on vacation.
Pj S.
June 2024
This is a great property with great location. It is very private and steps from the beach.
Everything is in good shape except for the a/c (as others have mentioned) no surprise.
It did get pretty hot and humid a few days which made us not want to be there.
Overall it’s excellent !
Sophie S.
May 2024
Great location, short walk to beach. Wonderful living spaces at the house, big open kitchen with nice outdoor spaces. Ice maker wasn't working. Cable not working, which was only relevant because we had two sick kiddos. Host responsive to all needs.
Leah H.
December 2023
This house surpassed expectations- I feel like the photos on the listing did not do this place justice. It is spacious, each room has it's own bathroom and the kitchen had everything to cook most of our meals at home. The beach was a very short, 2 minute walk away. Two things to note, the bottom floor had an extremely musty/moldy smell when we checked in. It took about a day to air it out with the windows open and air purifier going. Secondly, the key to open the door is tricky, and took some finessing each time we opened it. Otherwise, the place was a great getaway at the end of the road on the North Shore!
Sanette S.
May 2023
This is my favorite house on the North Shore. You really feel like you’ve in Kauai. It’s so green and on the beach. Swimming here is gorgeous. I loved walking down the beach path and going to tunnels beach and the hiking is amazing. It was the perfect vacation. Thank you Brian.
steve k.
March 2023
We loved the location of the house; a quick walk to the beautiful beach where we enjoyed snorkeling, swimming and long walks. The house was nice and spacious with plenty of room for three couples. The kitchen is very well appointed, we were able to cook many meals along with using the gas BBQ and enjoying the one outside deck. Unfortunately, the outdoor deck cushions and furniture were in poor condition and thus we were never able to use one of the upper decks; both decks could use a good power washing. We appreciated the laundry facilities and plenty of towels including beach towels. It would have been nice to have a few working beach chairs and snorkel gear. We purchased some new snorkel masks and left them there. Communication regarding arrival and the house was excellent. Overall a nice stay though I would agree with the previous poster that a few things should be improved/maintained to make it an excellent stay and worth the price.
Greg F.
February 2023
AC barely works, you'll roast in the summer. Ceiling fans are worthless. All the doors need fixing. Living room and kitchen furniture are worn out and stained. Great location, I guess you need to spend a thousand a day to have everything work. Place needs a lot of upkeep. Obviously the owner doesn't care about making it nice. Handy man Tom was great! Wouldn't rent this place ever again.
Jessica J.
January 2023
Located almost next to a beautiful beach that’s perfect for family to enjoy. Loved the home it suited all of our needs. We enjoyed our stay.
January 2023
We loved staying here. The one-minute walk to the gorgeous beach was very easy. The house is large and has everything we needed. One caution is that the air conditioning is not working. That was no problem for us in December as we used the fans provided.
CHARLES H.
December 2022
The perfect house for our group of seven.
Great kitchen, beautiful grounds and appreciate the off street parking. Beach a minute away. Not the best for swimming but pretty private. Great spot for relaxation. Twenty minutes from shops and restaurants but be aware of narrow winding road and one way bridges.
We loved it.
Isaac H.
December 2022
We had a great experience with a family of 7! We had plenty of room in the bedrooms and also in the awesome open concept great room with kitchen that was able to fit all of us. The two upper balconies felt very private and we enjoyed having our morning breakfast out there. The air conditioner was recently fixed before we arrived and work great for us during our stay! The beach was literally 1 min walk from the home and had calm waves since the reef breaks the big waves, so even our 5 year old was able to play. All of our group enjoyed relaxing on that beach and had tons of snorkeling with very colorful fish. The property owner was very quick to respond and made the instructions very clear for arrival. We had a great time and memories!
Patrick C.
November 2022
It was a very nice place with 4 bedrooms and 4 full baths, perfect for 4 couple in our 60s. The beach was a very short (1-2 minute) walk away and we could hear the ocean from the house.
Ashley A.
October 2022
We spent 8 nights at this “home away from home” with a multigenerational family, consisting of 2 grandparents, 4 adults, and 3 children. Kepuhi Beach was a 2 minute walk away, and we loved it for the simplicity and the fact that it was mostly guarded from the North Shore winter swells that came in (stayed Oct 7-15). Just stay to the left of the beach path (far left) and you’ll be safe from the scary channel to the right of it. My Dad said there is more live coral on Kepuhi Beach than at Tunnels!
The kitchen was well appointed and allowed for us to cook every night at home, which helped us budget wise. The air conditioning took some getting used to, but we got the hang of it. Just reset the timer every 6 hours. The interior bedroom doors have slats and aren’t solid wood, so with a young boy in the house, things could get loud, but we understood this to help with airflow throughout. Bathrooms were super nice and the beds were very comfortable (and I’m picky about beds). We used both foot shower faucets and the outdoor shower. The gardens are lovely. While the door handles and windows could use some maintenance, we figured it out and made them work for us.
There were plenty of beach amenities (toys, some snorkeling gear, etc.), but you might consider grabbing some of the nicer chair rentals from Boss Frogs or somewhere else. They have some, but I wish we’d rented a few backpack chairs. We also brought a collapsible ice chest and we’re glad we brought it, though there is a small ice chest in the beach closet downstairs. The refrigerator was large and accommodated a LOT of food and drink for our large crowd. We ended up buying ice in Hanalei a lot. The freezer ice maker worked but didn’t keep up with us. Overall, I’d stay here again. We made many precious memories at Hale Kinipela!
The area: Definitely plan to spend time in Hanalei, but only during the day! When it gets dark, it shuts down, and the drive into Ha’ena at night is not for the faint of heart! It’s heaven on earth, but not easy to get to with lots of one-way bridges. We knew this going in, being our 3rd stay in the area (that’s how much we love it!) but be aware booking a rental in this precious area of the island. The views are breathtaking. You won’t regret it. Just be ready to be home at dark or drive very carefully. We went to Smith’s Luau (amazing!!!) one night and we made it home safely, with lots of slow and careful driving.
Mahalo for sharing your piece of paradise.
Sally J.
October 2022
The location is awesome, the kitchen is well equipped and the island itself affords many wonderful opportunities for an enjoyable vacation. The house was also very clean. The main reason that it was not a residence that I would spend the money to stay there again was the lack of properly functioning air conditioning. To make matters worse, the windows on the second floor were not operational and in fact had signs on them to prohibit opening them. The temperature in the house hit a low of 79 once. It also hit a high of 92 degrees. If any of our party had had a heart condition, or serious breathing problems, it would have been dangerous to their health. The first floor had a musty smell but when I made the mistake of running the dehumidifier, the room that my grandchildren were sleeping in heated up as though there was a furnace. To make it clear, I reported the air conditioning issue and another issue shortly after our arrival on the first day. Although there are fans, there is little relief when cold air cannot be drawn in. If there had been one issue only, it would have been tenable. The lack of proper air conditioning, and broken windows, was not at all what I would have expected especially for the cost of the rental.
Logan S.
August 2022
So quite and peaceful at this location and right next to the beach. Had a wonderful stay.
Philip F.
July 2022
This was a great rental for our family’s trip to the north shore of Kauai. Brian was a good communicator and the price was great for the location. The only complaint we had was that the air conditioning was not working, and the house was typically in the mid to upper 80’s in the afternoon and evening. If you don’t mind it hot, it’s a great stay.
Jessica F.
June 2022
This is a 100% honest review as I am host myself...
I would have given this property a 5 star review as the property was beautiful, fit our family, and was very close to the beach, but the listing wasn't 100% accurate.
We had a place booked previous to this but due to unfortunate events the owner had to cancel our booking 6 days prior to our stay. We were fortunate enough to find this house, but the reason we booked this house vs another was because it stated it had air conditioning and the other didn't (this was important as we had an 80 year old great grandmother with us that has some breathing issues and AC helps her breath much easier.) When we arrived the house was 86 degrees F. It was very hot, especially coming from a climate that was 50-60 degrees F. We contacted the cleaning lady asking her how to turn the AC on, she said "it hasn't worked for 2 weeks didn't they tell you???" We then tried to open all the windows, but there were multiple windows that had tape on them saying not to open them. The cleaning lady then said there are only certain windows you can open as the window hardware is broken and the windows won't open. We contacted the listing agent about to speak about our issues and ended up having some hiccups with him (we found him to be very unhelpful and unprofessional, I hope you have someone that can be VERY tactful when speaking with him......,) after we smoothed things out with him, he ended up bringing us some house fans that helped circulate the heat. The house never got below 80 degrees F. There were multiple things that were broken throughout the house. With the price we paid we expected for things to be in order, sadly they were not!
On the positive side, the property fit our family size of 9 with the pull out couch, it was about a minute walk to the beach, it had great balconies to hang out on, it felt very secluded, and had nearly all the amenities necessary for a week long stay.
I don't think I would stay here again for the price we paid unless all the broken issues were resolved.
Connie R.
June 2022
The home is exactly what we wanted in a beach house on the North Shore of Kauai. Beautiful, roomy beautifully furnished and comfortable for all 8 of us. The beach was semi private for the neighborhood, only two houses away. Perfect! Excellent snorkeling in the protected reef.
Karen T.
January 2022
We had a wonderful time! Wainiha was the perfect place and location for our family of 8. Everyone had their own space and bath, and the kitchen / living was the perfect hang out area. The beach, it was just fabulous!! I can't imagine a better situation. Coffee, sunrise and shells started our day and star gazing ended each night. Thank you for making your abode available!
Sara F.
January 2022
The north shore is my favorite part of Kauai and I’ve stayed in this exact neighborhood 3 times now. It is a very quiet, low key area that lends itself to peace and enjoyment of the natural surroundings.
My family (grandparents, my husband and I, and our kids) all stayed in this house for a week in December. There was plenty of room for all of us. The house is located a short walk from the beach which is perfect for watching the sun rise.
The house itself is beautiful with wood floors and ceilings and a spacious, open layout. It has a well equipped kitchen and a closet full of beach gear. There is also central air which is extremely uncommon on Kauai (in our experience, at least). One note - the a/c runs on a timer so be aware if you use it that it will only run for 6 hours and then must be re-set.
Overall, it’s a great, well maintained property in a gorgeous setting.
Deb Z.
December 2021
We spent a week with our adult children to celebrate our wedding anniversary! Everything was exactly as promised! Beautiful home, proximity to the beach… it was a wonderful location!
Matthew A.
December 2021
Low key rental property with direct access to Kauai’s most prized beaches. Plenty of room for 6 people to relax and savor everything the north shore has to offer. It was a great home base!
Sarah C.
November 2021
Perfect place for our party of 10. Two minute walk to the beach, quiet, lush. Would definitely recommend and will stay again.
Donna S.
September 2021
Haena is definitely one of the most gorgeous places in the world. This house captures the beauty and brings it in from outside. It is a beautiful house, really comfortable for a group of 6 or 8 with all the amenities of home. It is surrounded by big palm trees and beautiifully landscaped. And just a quick walkway to the beach where you can snorkel, or a walkable mile to Tunnels. A really memorable vacation for us!
Trace L.
August 2021
We loved staying in at this home! SO close to the beach and such a quiet neighborhood! It was absolutely perfect for our family of 9 including our 3 70+ year olds. The house was very clean and comfortable, and well equipped with anything we needed including beach chairs and coolers. We loved spending time on the decks in the evenings just looking at the stars and listening to the ocean. We would absolutely stay here again!
July 2021
This house is at an amazing location. The secluded beach just a minute away had the best snorkling of our entire trip! We loved the outdoor shower, gas grill, two lanais. Beautiful grounds. Brian was very communicative and helpful as a host. Well stocked kitchen appliances. Good beds.
The only negative was that we were surprised at the impact that bugs had on our stay, we had been reminded that there are a lot of bugs in paradise so we did our best to keep the house as clean as possible and food wiped up, etc. We were surprised to still get dozens of flying termites in the house each evening, especially around lights. Brian was kind enough to send someone over to check it out, this guy noted that it's hard to avoid these bugs at this location, and his advice was to take advantage of the AC in the home and just not open the windows in the evening. That fixed the problem, on closer inspection there are several screens that could use replacing and had gaps that allowed the bugs to come in when we had lights on at night, but keeping the windows closed seemed to address that issue.
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