Do something different - stay in a B&B on Kauai
Written: Jan 06 '02 (Updated Apr 28 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Romantic setting with beautiful ocean view rooms at extremely reasonable rates
Cons: If you like resorts with alot of people and activities, a B&B isn't for you
The Bottom Line: Staying at Gloria's Spouting Horn B&B on Kauai is the perfect place for a romantic get away.
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| twunschl's Full Review: Kauai |
I wanted to write this review to give everyone an alternate type of accommodation to stay in while on Kauai. There are over 100 reviews that can give you information on other places to stay, things to see and restaurants to eat at. There are some excellent reviews by diverpam, lordbalfor and mswitt that I suggest you read too. I hope that you enjoy this review. Thanks for reading.
Deciding Where To Stay
Three years ago, my husband and I got married. The decision to go to Kauai and Maui for our honeymoon was easy to make, but deciding where to stay was a difficult one. There were so many different accommodations to choose from: High End Resorts, Low End hotels, Condominiums, B&B’s, the North side, the South Side, how would we choose?
First of all, we knew that we wanted to be right on the ocean. My idea of vacation is falling asleep at night, listening to the ocean. Since most hotels were on the shore, this didn’t narrow our options by very much. But one thing that we immediately discovered was that hotels offered ocean view rooms for a very substantial amount; anywhere from $600 to $1000 per night. This seemed outrageous. The next thing that we decided was to stay on the South Side of Kauai. I had read that it rains all the time on the North Shore in the winter months and since we were going in March, this made our choice easier. So now we knew that we wanted the South Side on the ocean, but this still left us with about 50 places to choose from.
I started doing a ton of research. I looked all over the Internet, I got travel magazines, I sent away for brochures, I looked at every travel book available at our local library. I still could not make a decision. I finally decided to go to Barnes & Noble and read through every book on Hawaii in the place. I found a book titled The Best Places to Kiss in Hawaii. Hmmm, I was planning on kissing while in Hawaii, it was our honeymoon after all, maybe this book would have some ideas. The first section that I turned to was the Most Romantic. The first place in this section was Gloria’s Spouting Horn B&B. The book went on to describe the romantic setting, the views of the ocean, the three bedrooms with private baths that did not share any walls and the award winning breakfasts. This sounded more like the place that we were looking for, so I wrote down the information and went home to do some more research.
I immediately sent an e-mail to Gloria’s Spouting Horn B&B requesting more information. I found their website on the Internet and found that their rates were definitely what we were looking for. An ocean view room had a rate of only $200 per night, a far cry from the $800 that we were looking at. Once we received the color brochure showing the three rooms, we knew for certain, this is where we were going to spend part of our honeymoon, I called and made our reservations right away. We had to send a check for one night’s stay as a deposit and then we received directions from the airport and the house rules.
Time went by fast, and our honeymoon had finally arrived. We landed on Kauai at about six at night. We followed the directions that took us through Tree Tunnel Drive and along the South Shore of Poipu Beach. We were immediately greeted by Gloria Merkle and shown to our room, the Komohana (West) Room. I was thrilled because I had requested an upper floor room; I had heard that the views were better on the second floor. We were told that the other two couples that were staying there were already checked in. In the Hikina (East) Room, the other room on the second floor, was a couple that had been coming to the B&B for years and were celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. And on the first floor, in the Punana Aloha (Love Nest) Room was another couple celebrating their honeymoon. Gloria recommended that we stay awake as long as we could so that we could get used to the five hour time difference. We decided to just drop off our luggage, go get something to eat, and then check out our room and unpack later.
Location
Gloria’s Spouting Horn B&B is in an excellent location. We went to very nice restaurants that were all within 15 minutes of the B&B. We ate at Roy’s, The Beach House, Brickhouse Pizza and Brenneckes Beach Broiler. The B&B got it’s name from the famous Spouting Horn that is just a few miles down the road. Poipu is also in an excellent location to visit Waimea Canyon (which we did twice). Although it took us a while to get to the North Shore, the views along the way are spectacular. Pick up a copy of The Kauai Guide for some wonderful driving tours of the entire area.
Our Room
We couldn’t have been happier with our beautiful room on the second floor. We later found out that our room had been decorated when PBS came to the B&B to do a special. The king size bed was custom made from elephant bamboo that Gloria had hand picked. The bed was triple sheeted and had big fluffy pillows and was positioned in front of the balcony door so you could wake up each morning with a view of the ocean. All of the rooms had a small desk with a phone and a journal where everyone had written little notes about their stay. There was also a TV and VCR and outside the room with a large armoire that had a large variety of movies to choose from. There was also a mini fridge and small sink in the bar. Crystal glasses and china were available in your bar in case you wanted to eat breakfast in your room.
The Bathroom
Each room had a private bath. There was a large closet, complete with a chest of drawers, safe and a variety of kimono style robes to use while at the B&B. The vanity had double sinks and there was a large walk in shower. The best part though, was the japanese style soaking tub. I had never even seen one of these before. It was a very deep tub that went into the floor and was long enough to sit in comfortably up to your armpits in water. There was bubble bath available and each day, you were given new bars of wonderful glycerin soap.
The View
I can only say, Breathtaking. We would sit on our balcony, that spanned the entire length of our room, for hours. There were tall captain style chairs with a small table, a lounge chair and one normal size chair on the balcony. We normally sat in the captain’s chairs to watch the humpback whales and spinner dolphins right outside our room. At night, we would watch the ocean crash on the rocks below our room by the full moonlight. We often wondered if we could even hear the ocean if we had decided to stay at a resort for $800 a night.
The Amenities
Since this is the home of the Merkle’s, we were surprised that there were so many things available for our use. There was a large sitting room for your use with a small bar stocked with alcohol. A small pool was located just outside the back door and beyond that, was a small man made beach with lounge chairs for lying in the sun. When the tide was low, you could carefully step out onto the rocks to the tide pools and you could sometimes see small fish and turtles. There is also a hammock to lie in and a romantic outdoor lava rock shower.
The Breakfast
The best part of our stay had to be the award winning breakfast. Each morning we ate with the other couples and exchanged stories while eating fabulous breakfast. We had breakfast pizza with banana cream sauce, homemade breads and jams, peach stuffed french toast and terrific breakfast burritos. There was always coffee, juice and milk available and there was always papaya with pineapple to eat with breakfast. I also got to try apple bananas for the first time that I fell in love with and have craved ever since. I loved breakfast so much, that I bought her cookbook and have made many of the recipes at home.
The Other Rooms
Since we had gotten to know the other couples over breakfast and our daily whale watching, on the last day of our stay, we all took tours of each other’s bedrooms. All of the rooms were identical except for the bed. The first floor room, the Love Nest, had a very unique bed. It is made of willow branches that formed a canopy over the bed. The East Room had a beautiful handmade hawaiian quilt on the bed and was made from Hawaiian koa. Of all the rooms, I liked the East Room the best. Since it is past the stairs on the second floor, you never get traffic in front of your door and the views from the east windows seemed to be better than our west room.
The Information
Current rates are listed on their website. We were told that they book up almost six months in advance and have a 99% occupancy rate.
www.gloriasbedandbreakfast.com
e-mail stay@gloriasbedandbreakfast.com
Gloria’s Spouting Horn Bed and Breakfast
Bob, Gloria or Amos Merkle
4464 Lawai Beach Road
Koloa (Poipu Beach)
Kauai, Hawaii 96756
Phone (808) 742-2850
Fax (808) 742-2850
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Dec - Feb
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twunschl
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Location: Wishing I was back in Tahiti
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Our Tahiti pictures and video are on-line. Go to www.tahiti.wunschl.com
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