Where to stay in Hawaii

By Thomas Curwen

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort, 1571 Poipu Road, Koloa, HI; (808) 742-1234, www.kauai.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp.

We started our trip at this 600-room resort, which gives its guests little reason to step outside the compound. The gardens are beautiful, but our room didn’t measure up; it had a jammed screen door and an overflowing toilet. But the staff was unfailingly kind and courteous. Doubles from $441.

Waimea Plantation Cottages, 9400 Kaumualii Highway, Waimea, HI; (800) 992-4632, www.waimea-plantation.com.

The one- to four-bedroom Waimea Plantation Cottages, once homes to the workers at the local sugar plantations, are historic gems. Restored, modernized, they have lovely sash-hung windows, wooden floors, rattan furniture and lanais. Through a grove of ironwood trees and a scattering of tall coconut palms, the ocean is a gentle murmur on the sandy beach, and in the morning, when the muggy air drops down upon Waimea, you feel like you’ve landed in an old Betty Davis’ flick, “The Letter.” Jungle fowl — wild roosters and hens — trot around the grounds. Banyan trees form canopies larger than most city blocks over the property’s wide stretches of open lawn. Cottages from $175.

Lodge at Kokee, 3600 Kokee Road, Kokee, HI; (808) 335-6061, www.thelodgeatkokee.net.

We found the rustic experience at the Lodge at Kokee less than wonderful. But the Kikiaola Land Co., the managers, said a handyman was working to repair the cabins. We also checked out the Lehua cabin, the newest, largest and most popular of the 12. If we had to do it again, we’d insist on staying there. Cabins about $75.