Aston Kaanapali Shores Condo

Stayed here for 4 nights. Got upgraded to a two bedroom garden view room. The view from the room was amazing. Birds chirp at night and in the morning. The hotel is minutes away from Lahaina and some really good restaurants and beaches around. Onsite there really is no beach to do anything. Their hot tub temperature is subpar and the cleanest of their rooms were a little old and faded. But their customer service is amazing. They have great activities to do everyday such as lei making and ukulele lessons. The price matched what we got for a 3.5 star hotel. So I thought the value is fair.

We stayed one night here. The room was very comfortable with all the great amenities. Washing machine, dryer and DVD hire, great for family holidays. Very close to the shops and very easy to get buses around the Island. The reception staff were 50%excellent and 50% really didn’t want to be there. Overall, a very comfortable stay and worth it’s fees.

Aston Kaanapali was a surprisingly disappointing and expensive stay based on our experience. The pictures in the website do not show the true state of this hotel. As seen in the photos, the room was understandably old, but they are maintained pretty clean. This was expected. We did upgrade to have an Ocean View room and honestly did not think it was worth the extra $$$$. What was surprising was to see (1) basically no sand beach access from the hotel, (2) a dirty hot tub with visible bubbles laden with sunblock from previous guests, (3) a "resort" pool with missing tiles on the floor deeming it hazardous for unsuspecting feet, (4) a horrific gym stuck in the 80s and falling apart, and (5) a daily fee per guest to even use that horrendous gym. The staff were nice and let us do a late check-out without additional fees. But sadly... our last moment with Aston Kanaapali Shores will be of one of the bell boys ruining a recently purchased poster (that I tried so hard to keep flat) by loading up our luggage on TOP of that poster (who knows why). The resort rates and EXTRA fees (daily parking fee, daily resort fee, daily gym per person) are enormous for the things that you get. Though the booking process with costco travel was great, the product it delivered was not.

We decided to take a break from Puerto Vallarta and instead spend February in Maui. First of all, if you have not figured it out as yet, Maui is about twice as expensive as a similar long term stay in Mexico. Everything is more expense than home (Edmonton, Alberta) except for gasoline and wine. The resort is clean and well-maintained except it needs a complete make-over: the suites and hallways are rather ‘drab’. The resort contains many ocean view suites. And the views are stunning. Having said that, the former beach in front of the resort has washed out. It is somewhat exposed at low tide. To access a ‘real’ beach, you can either walk or drive to a public beach either north or south of the Resort. Note that public beach parking is limited. Difficult to obtain on weekends with the locals taking advantage of them. Despite no immediate beach access, we liked the resort’s location adjacent to a community just north of Kannapali Beach. We had easy walking access to all amenities in the marketplace across the street. Our biggest surprise was the resort and parking fees, especially since we were not advised of them. They added an additional $1,000US to our stay cost. Having said that, the service is friendly, efficient and competent. The resort restaurant is adequate and compares well to similar in the area. In our opinion, it is not a ‘go to’ restaurant for a special night out. You should also know that we suspect my wife’s credit card was stolen from our suite. We are pretty certain we left it on the night table forgetting to lock it in the safe: a lesson learned that we will not forget! Would we stay at the Kannapali Shores again: Quite possible. Now that we know the area, we would investigate other long term accommodation to determine whether similar or better might be available at a lower price. Having said that, we are already booked to return to Puerto Vallarta next February.

We have stayed here with our 2 teenage children three years running because we love the feeling at this resort, it has a wonderful vibe. Met a lot of friendly people there and the staff is wonderful. The restaurant is amazing with great views of the ocean while you dine on some pretty great, well priced food. The grounds are beautiful, yes (after reading some reviews) the birds that come to roost at night are loud, but only briefly and it's nature!!!! Are there some bugs, yes it's the tropics. Everything is kept clean by the hard working staff. The rooms are everything you need with a nice kitchen and washer and dryer. My only criticism is the beds could use some updating especially the pull out couch and some extra blankets would be nice. Mahalo to all the staff there for making us feel right at home. Counting the days until we can go back