1 Hotel Hanalei Bay: Kauai’s Newest Luxury Resort

There’s nothing wrong with letting loose on vacation: ordering Mai Tais with breakfast, counting trips between the pool and the poolside cabana as your exercise for the day, and maybe even getting reacquainted with your old friend, gluten. But we all know the post-vacation blues hit harder when you return home and feel, however unfairly, like you have to work to regain homeostasis. If you book a stay at the new 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay, though, you might just find yourself feeling even better at checkout than you did when you first landed in Kauai.

One of the newer properties from 1 Hotels (a sustainability-focused brand that has proliferated since its 2015 debut in New York City and Miami), this hotel commands a stunning section of oceanfront on Kauai’s north shore.

The moment your car pulls up to the foliage-framed entrance, thoughts of your full-day flight dissipate. Staff members take your bags, place a carved kukui nut necklace around your neck and, while you check in, present you with a cool hand towel and recycled bottle-turned-cup filled with passionfruit, orange and guava juice (spice it up with a splash of coconut rum).

Look around and you’ll realize you’re surrounded by thousands of plants, 70% of which are endemic or indigenous. Even in lightless corners of your room, they thrive.

Salvaged furniture and fixtures, natural materials (reclaimed teak, Puka lava stone) and such sustainability hallmarks as complimentary reusable water bottles are further reminders of the brand’s founding principles.

But the hotel doesn’t just stop at what’s good for the planet. With a 10,000-square-foot fitness center and a spa nearly twice that size, the 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay has dedicated an awful lot of square footage to improving your mental and physical well-being, too.

Even when it rains on the Garden Isle, which isn’t uncommon, you won’t be bored during a stay here. There are plenty of pods and chambers dedicated to halotherapy, meditation, cryotherapy, sensory deprivation and more. Guests may even visit with specific wellness goals in mind, and new wellness programs include rooms stocked with everything from healing crystals and sage to high-tech compression boots and infrared PEMF mats can help them get there.

The intention? To encourage meaningful change you’ll carry home like a souvenir. A card in your room, for example, suggests you return lighter by leaving behind an article of clothing that will be donated.

Yes, you switched to island time when you landed on Kauai, but even guests interested only in the healing powers of PTO may return home to discover they have new (better) habits, renewed senses of balance or maybe completely healed guts.

The former Princeville Resort (and before that, the St. Regis Princeville) was upcycled to create the 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay. Unlike its predecessor, with its gleaming white facade, stately columns and Murano glass chandelier, the 1 Hotel feels like it was carved from the landscape itself, thanks to the profusion of plants cascading down the exterior.

Like the experiences of its guests, the hotel itself is an exercise in transformation. 

The Room

Whether your room overlooks the forested mountains or the glittering ocean, the 1 Hotel’s spacious accommodations all feature cozy sitting areas and lava stone-lined showers that evoke the waterfalls outside. Windows slide open to let in the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore (and the early morning crowing of the island’s abundant wild roosters). Wicker headboards, live plants in bowls, pots and baskets, and natural fiber rugs, ceilings and wall hangings add to the sense that the room itself was coaxed from the rainforest just outside.

What stands out is the array of amenities, including a wood-handled razor, all-natural toothpaste with charcoal (upon request) and hooded cotton robes laid out on the bed during the evening’s turndown service. Minibars are stocked with CBD sleep patches, organic Hawaiian fruit leather snacks and a candle fragrant with the property’s signature scent (tree moss, eucalyptus, cedar, oak, musk). What you won’t find? Hula dancers, pineapple prints and other kitschy Hawaiian motifs.

The Features

Don’t miss: Sunset views over the bay at Welina Terrace. Request a table on the terrace and be sure to make a reservation in advance.

Standout features: In addition to the extensive 24/7 gym, the 1 Hotel also has an outdoor jungle gym with weights and other fitness equipment hewn from invasive albizia wood. And then there’s the Hala studio, where complimentary fitness and wellness classes such as hot yoga, Pilates, plyometric training and cardio boxing are held every day. Even if all you can bring yourself to do is roll out of bed and pull back the curtains to review the bay views beyond, you’re in luck: Every room has a yoga mat in the closet with a handy carrying case encouraging you to breathe, stretch and “be at 1.”

Can’t stop thinking about: There wasn’t a single disappointment on Welina Terrace’s Japanese-inspired menu, but two cold plates were standouts: The signature chili hamachi (with ponzu, fresh chili pepper and chili garlic) and the kanpachi crudo, served smoking in a wooden box with goma misodare and red onion. 

The Lowdown

The highly specific reason you’d come here: You want to achieve a tangible or esoteric wellness goal or two (boost your immune system, lower your cholesterol, improve your mental clarity) and, also, come home talking about how you ditched plastic and saved the planet.

The celebrity you’d see here: Quite a few, actually, all of the deeply bronzed and enviably fit variety, including an Efron or two. A pregnant Kourtney Kardashian Barker tagged the hotel while staying there in 2023—perhaps she was awakening her sacral chakra during a hāpai pregnancy massage.

What might surprise you: Despite the laidback, organic vibe at the hotel, it seems to be a popular coworking space. Laptops come out before sunrise at Neighbors, the early-morning cafe where remote workers gather to sip complimentary coffee and deal with their mainland coworkers.

Do it for the kids: Even if you don’t have children, it’s hard not to be endeared by the super sweet programming for kids at Seedlings, which promises to make the hotel’s youngest guests wellness-minded, planet-protecting warriors with activities that have included wa’a canoe races and “green thumbs” plant care.

What are you packing? A matching athleisure set with On Cloud sneakers and all-natural bug spray that doesn’t work particularly well, but makes you feel better.

Fast Facts

• Number of rooms: 252 rooms and suites
  
• Number of pools: 3
• Fitness center? Yes
• Spa? Yes
• Salon? Yes
• Number of bars/restaurants: 6, including Wai'oli for shave ice and a juice bar
• In-room dining? 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Childcare and kids club? Yes

Booking With Chase Travel

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