Full points stay. Loved the free valet. Loved the free parking. Did not use the Anara Spa. Given a standard room, upgraded from mountain/garden view to partial ocean view. No complaints about the room.

The size of the hotel is huge, and your location to the club lounge/lobby/pool area should be more of your concern, as it seems you will be unlikely to get upgrade to a suite unless you can use a DSU here, and I don't know if I would trade a ocean view room far away from everything vs. a partial ocean view closer to everything (probably the partial open view).

The staff here are awesome. The pools are awesome, although one hot tub had no working jets when we were there. The grounds are maintained very well, and the only thing you might wish for is for the staff to clean the pool and the pool area more frequently.

Grand Club lounge worked for what it was, but I didn't stop in for things in the evening that much. Breakfast is just one hot item, and it usually is something with eggs - so don't expect bacon, sausage, pancakes, etc.

I would definitely come back to this hotel. It has set a new standard for me, with regard to what I come to expect in a beach resort hotel. Just too bad that most of the places don't put as much effort into their pools as the Grand Hyatt does.

Tidepools is pretty overrated we thought, impressive wine menu, but just mediocre food. I wouldn't dine there a second time, although you might want to try it once.

I thought Poipu was a good area to be in as well. You are away from Kapaa/Lihue traffic, near Waimea Canyon and the south shore Napali coast tours, so the only reasons you really head to the north shore is for snorkeling/checking out Hanalei and anything else you want to see.

As others note, the south shore beaches are a little more rough in the summer, and you might not be able to use the beach for casual swimming or snorkeling until the winter months.

And a side note - don't waste your time going to queens bath. It is a muddy trail that leads to basically a swimming pool in the summer. We would have rather not gotten muddy, and stayed in the Grand Hyatt pool, than spend the time waiting for a parking spot and walking the muddy trail to this place. Way overrated