***Bear with us as we have been wanting to start this for a long time and are getting all of our trips and info added, this site is very much a work in progress.***
When trying to decide on a hotel for our honeymoon, we narrowed it down to the Sheraton Resort in Kaanapali or one of the resorts in Wailea. We ended up choosing the Sheraton in Kaanapali for a number of reasons including a better price and better access to places we wanted to visit and restaurants we wanted to try. Saying that, we were not disappointed with our choice. Below, you will find a detailed pro/con list for the resort.
Click through the below slide show to see the beauty around the hotel grounds.
Pros:
-Using some of our existing Bonvoy points to supplement our payment, we were able to get a nice room and then an upgrade to the Moana Oceanview rooms utilizing our Suite Night Awards. The room itself was nice and had an excellent view of the ocean. It was very nice to be able to sit on the balcony and enjoy the cool ocean breeze as daylight broke as well as being a nice spot to view the sunset.
-The Moana building has convenient private parking nearby that can only be accessed by your room key.
-The location of the resort is perfect for most things we wanted to do. It was close to Kapalua Bay where we got married at, it was a short walk to a number of restaurants we wanted to visit, and it is close to Lahaina and the luau we had planned as well as several other beaches we wanted to explore.
-The beach at the resort is wide and sandy with plenty of space for everyone. The waves are gentle, and the water is clear. Activities like snorkeling, scuba diving, and cliff jumping are popular. Additionally, the staff can help set up other activities throughout Maui and there were additional vendors for snorkeling, parasailing, and kayak rentals just a short walk down the boardwalk.
-Speaking of the boardwalk, there is a sidewalk connecting the resort to Whalers Village and beyond. Whalers Village has a number of restaurants and shops within a ten-minute leisurely stroll from the resort. Some must try restaurants in the area are Hula Grill and Leilani's. There are also some quick counter service places and a food truck. The shops in Whalers Village are predominately higher end, but if that is not your thing, there were a couple of souvenir places as well as an ABC store to get drinks, snacks, and things like sunscreen, beach towels, etc.
-The grounds throughout the resort are beautiful and well maintained with an abundance of tropical foliage and flowers as well as numerous water features.
-Activities are plentiful as mentioned above, but there are also several pools connected with a lazy river, a hot tub grotto, and a game room.
-Although we didn't eat at the resort itself, there are a number of restaurants and breakfast seemed to be very popular. There are also a couple of bars with quick service food as well as a place to get drinks and sno-cones.
-The staff was helpful and friendly, and our room stayed immaculate throughout our vacation. Our bellhop gave us an excellent tour and description of the services. We did not use it because of the private parking for our building, but there is valet parking is available.
-There is plenty of hidden sit-down spaces throughout the resort that can be used for family meetings or get togethers and there were also private rooms available for business or wedding functions. Additionally, if you are looking for a large wedding or business venue there is a ballroom and a large outdoor space that we saw used as both a luau and wedding that is just off the beach.
-The resort has a pretty good gym for hotel standards. The gym here is well stocked and has treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, upper and lower body machines as well as a cable machine, adjustable incline benches with dumbbells up to 50 lbs, medicine balls, resistance bands, etc. If you are a big gym rat you won't be able to get the best work out of your life, but it will suffice to get you through your vacation.
-Each floor had nearby water filling stations, so it was nice to be able to fill our Nalgene bottles. The hotel also provided additional water bottles at check-in which allowed us to keep a decent amount of water with us without having to lug a case of water around constantly.
-Although we went out and explored the island every day, the resort coupled with Whalers Village lends itself to be a self-sufficient place that you don't have to venture out of if you were just looking to relax in one place.
Cons:
-The pool hours are not ideal. The pool area closes at 8 pm which seemed early to us. We assumed it was done for quiet hours since everything seems to die down early, but it was somewhat insulting for an employee to force middle aged people to get out of the pool at 8:15 pm in the midst of a DJ'd wedding reception and a very loud Hawaiian Catalina Style Wine Mixer. It could be for legal reasons due to there not being a lifeguard or something, but we were not privy to that. The hours just seemed silly to us.
-Depending on where your room is, it can be a maze to get around until you figure out your way around. When parking in the parking garage it took 6 elevators and a 10 minute walk to get to our room.
-If you are in the Moana building, the private parking lot fills up early at night. Twice we came back around 8 pm and there were no spots available, so we had to take the long walk from the parking garage.
-The resort is too far away if you intend to spend a majority of your time in the Wailea area. Saying that there was an hour plus drives to visit the Lava Fields, Makena/Big Beach, Road to Hana, and the observatory at the Haleakala National Park. However, to be fair, Road to Hana and Haleakala National Park are likely to be over an hour from any beach resort and would only be close if you were staying in Hana itself or in upcountry Maui.
If you made it this far, thank you for taking some time to look at our pros and cons for the Sheraton in Kaanapali. We enjoyed our time here and in Maui immensely and would highly recommend staying here if you are undecided about where to stay. The location and amenities far outweigh the few negatives we encountered. We had a great time and if visiting Maui again would love to stay here again.
*Our visit was in mid-October 2022.
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