Hale O Nanakai Bed & Breakfast

We took a two day hiatus from our resort up in Pinceville to stay at the Hale O Nanakai B&B. Located on the south side of the island in a neighborhood with sweeping views of the coastline, it doesn’t get any better or closer to home than this! If you’re looking to tour the National Tropical Botanic Gardens, the Waimea canyon, take advantage of the unique, artisan shopping in Hanapepe, or spend some time at the south’s incredible beaches, Hale O Nanakai is ideally situated in the middle of the goings on. You can even zip up to Lihue very easily.
Sheila is a fantastic hostess — prepared for anything and has all the knowledge you need to do any of the magnificent activities on the island. She promptly greeted us when we arrived, and showed us our rooms on the second floor — explaining the breakfast spread, and all of the amenities available to us such as umbrellas, beach toys and really, anything that you could ever possibly imagine you would need for an outing on the island — rain or shine, beach or rainforest. She also spent some time with us, offering us a hiking book and some really great maps, with personal advice as to the activities we had planned. Going further, she even printed out the menu for both The Beach House restaurant which we had expressed interest in, as well as a local gluten-​free bakery for my Mom. Personal attention to the details? Check!
As I mentioned, we stayed on the top floor and booked the Kahili Suite and the adjoining Maile Room. We were fortunate enough to have the entire floor to ourselves which included an extra bathroom in the main area, beautiful living room, dining room and kitchen, as well as a huge porch with lots of places to view the fantastic view of the sea. The Kahili Suite is an intimate room with incredibly soft linens and pillows — plenty of room to stretch out. With a private bath and vanity, it was perfect for my husband and I. The adjoining Maile Room was perfect for my Mom — a single bedroom, also with plenty of room to stretch out, very comfortable. We were all very happy to finally have great showers, as our resort up north did not have the greatest showers with water pressure — no problems here, though! The main areas of the top floor are stunning, with many unique and interesting accents such as trinkets, fresh flowers, (heliconias) and local books galore. We really enjoyed sitting at the couch and flipping through the many books Sheila has — from botanical books to Hawaiian history, to hiking, to Hawaiian inspired comics. We also enjoyed eating breakfast with the fabulous view, and playing cards in the evening at the dining room table. I would also like to mention a very important point, free internet access. Not just free internet access, but GOOD internet access. Yay!
The morning breakfasts were more than ample for the three of us — offering almost everything you can imagine or ever want. Bagels, bread, cream cheese, butter, juice, milk, *amazing* coffee, teas, 3 different kinds of cereal, fresh fruit accented with flowers, (white plumerias) yogurt… I could go on. As an added touch, because it was noted that we were staying for our anniversary, Sheila and her staff provided champagne and a very nice card to my husband and I, it was wonderful! We also really loved the dishes — very Hawaiian, featuring red Anthuriums and bamboo accents. Neat!
There is a reason that Hale O Nanakai is rated highly not only on Unilocal,but on Trip Advisor as well. Sheila has created a simple, elegant, comfortable balance of accommodations that are truly a pleasure to enjoy. I can only hope that one day I will come back to Kauai, and if I do, I will certainly spend some time here again, as it was one of the highlights of our vacation. Thank you for everything Sheila!

We had a wonderful time at this Bed and Breakfast. My husband and I stayed in Laka’s room (downstairs unit).
The pictures do not do the place justice, the décor is really beautiful, and we were delighted to find the place nestled up a hill, away from neighbors, and with amazing ocean views.
It was fantastic to have a full kitchen at our disposal, we saved a LOT of money by making our own breakfastes and dinners. All in all, this place is really a good bargain for the price, as comperable places with a full kitchen can cost $ 100 more per day sometimes.
My favorite feature about the place is the air flow, lighting, and the views. You can feel cool ocean breezes and lots of sunlight enters through the large windows. If you want privacy, just close the blinds/​curtains. But this place is rather secluded, and there’s not a lot of people around, so that’s really not an issue.
My only recommendation is that I wish there were a washer/​dryer for guests to use (even for a fee), as the nearest laundry mat is quite a drive away. Also, I recommend folks make good use of the beach shoes, beach mats, ice boxes, back packs, etc. available for guests to use. But, most of the snorkeling equipment has seen better days and often leaks. We ended up renting top-​notch snorkeling gear in Poipu for a whopping $ 5/​day.
The B&B is conveniently located by Poipu, which is a tourist trap but does have have beautiful beaches and some of the best and safest snorkeling on the island. Definetely treat yourself to a steak dinner at the local steak house, you will love it.
The North Coast is a bit of a drive. If you leave after «rush-​hour» (yeah, right), you can get there is 40 – 50 minutes, but its nearly impossible to not take side trips and explore along the way…
We highly recommend the Hale O Nanakai Bed and Breakfast, and I hope we can come again next year!

Amazing place to stay. Breakfast was fantastic! This was our first stop during our honeymoon.
The three rooms are connected, so that if other rooms are not occupied, it feels like you have a totally large space all to yourself.

This is an absolutely gorgeous and relaxing place to stay. The rooms are beautiful, comfortable, and very relaxing. It’s in a quiet neighborhood that is easy to get to and fairly central to all of the south shore activities (boat cruises, waimea canyon, kauai coffee plantation, poipu beach, spouting horn, botanical gardens, etc).
Sheila & Simon make the best breakfasts; every day there were delicious fruits, cereals, bagels, and other things essential to a great breakfast. You get to eat breakfast overlooking a view of the island and ocean.
They also have snorkel gear, beach mats, and beach chairs that you can toss in your trunk when you’re heading out to the beach.
We couldn’t have imagined a better place to stay. Definitely worth it!!!