The Westin Ka'anapali Ocean Resort Villas

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

6140 reviews

• 

  Aloha Vibes.. Hawaiian Paradise.. 🌺

  100% Maui satisfaction at this resort! The rooms are lovely, the staff is exceptional, the grounds are perfectly well-kept and you can hear the ocean waves from your room. We most definitely will be back next year!

  Feb 02, 2026
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  Nice enough resort, but doesn't come with much else.

  Location: 5/5 Grounds: 5/5 Room: 3/5 Staff: 5/5 Amenities: 3/5 Food/Drinks: 2/5 Value: 2/5 Overall: 3.5/5 I'm rounding up to 4/5 because of the location and staff. My wife and I had yet to visit Hawaii, and we couldn't have picked a better location than the Kaanapali area for our first time. Kaanapali was beautiful, the weather was great, the beach was absolutely amazing, and we saw whales breaching from the beach. Really amazing views across the water to Lanai and Moloka'i. This resort stay came as a discounted offer from an acquaintance who had a timeshare they weren't using for 5 days. We got to stay in a one bedroom island view villa at a very good rate below the average booking rate by the resort. The cost is important because at our cut rate just over $400/night, it was a reasonable price given the location. Had I paid the full $700/night for the rooms, it wouldn't have been worth it. If this property wasn't beachfront on Kaanapali beach, it would be maybe a $200/night hotel. Substantively I think this is a decent property, and the location is superb. Kaanapali is a beautiful area and the weather was nearly perfect the entire time. This resort's location on Kaanapali beach is the biggest positive, as Kaanapali is among the top beaches in all of Hawaii. The resort grounds were well maintained and thoughtfully done to give an immersive tropical vibe. Our room showed some wear and age in certain areas like the sliding door, balcony and some parts of the interior, but overall it was in pretty good shape given that it's next to the ocean. They were very clean and kept clean by housekeeping staff. Staff got it cleaned early in the day and always did a great job. The bed was very comfortable and sheets appeared to look and smell clean. As for amenities, the pool was probably the best and was excellent. Having a water slide, hot tub and kids splash pad is an excellent option. There is a heavy demand for lounge chairs, and people do get out early with towels to reserve them. Fortunately you can usually find chairs near the back. In the middle of the day people were pretty good about vacating their lounge chairs if they weren't coming back. This is much better than I've seen at some resorts where people will leave towels on chairs for hours unattended (sometimes for half a day or more). With there being quite a few chairs, we really had no problem getting chairs. There weren't a ton of amenities here otherwise, but since this was Westin, you could go to other resorts like the North towers, Nanea and Westin Maui, which had additional options available. You just have to be willing to give up an hour of your day to go for something as little as a coffee shop. There were regular free shuttles down to Westin Maui, and to Whaler's Village, which was a nice option. Unfortunately at the end of the night the return shuttles from Whaler's Village get filled quickly and my wife and I found it much faster to just order an Uber instead of wait 30+ minutes for a 3 minute shuttle ride. My wife and I enjoy drinking on vacation, and we are used to all inclusive resorts where we can drink all day at no additional charge. Very quickly we learned how expensive alcohol is in Hawaii, and the resort price markups were definitely a thing here. Our first drinks we ordered were mediocre Bloody Marys at the pool bar and with tip that was something like $37. After that we wised up and went into Honoapiilani to a grocery store and bought our own alcohol. We were able to drink for the entire week for less than $75 buy buying local alcohol and mixers, and cans of beer. Westin have a mug drink plan where you pay $25 for an insulated mug to keep, and you get unlimited fountain beverages (non-alcoholic) and coffee. This is a good value because we had those constantly filled. Then we'd take it back to our room and mix in our alcohol and head back down to the pool. It's a great hack, and turns out that we weren't the only ones doing it. Halfway through the week we saw several people at the pool with liquor bottles in their pool/beach bags pouring floaters in their sodas and juice. At that point I just started bringing the alcohol bottles down with us to the pool and just kept them out of site. Nobody cared, which is nice that people just leave this alone. The food situation was also an issue. The first night we got there we went to Pailolo and we had to wait nearly an hour for a table. The service and food was mediocre, and the drinks were decent but again extremely expensive. Beer is really the only reasonably priced drink here. The rest of the time we couldn't get in to Pulehu, the Italian restaurant. We debated Auntie's Kitchen, but several other guests told us it wasn't worth the price and based on the food we saw when walking by, it didn't look all that great. We bought our own coffee at a nearby coffee shop because there's no coffee shop immediately at this resort. The Westin Maui to the south had a Starbucks, and there's no self-respecting coffee drinker that wants to drink Starbucks in Hawaii when Hawaii produces some of the best coffee in the world. We found a couple coffee shops in the area that were pretty decent, so all was not lost. There was a drip coffee maker in our room, though we had to go buy our own filters for it which was just another little inconvenience. Filters are dirt cheap in bulk, and Westin could easily provide complimentary coffee filters in rooms for pennies a day and it would make a world of difference for customer convenience. We wound up buying our own food to make breakfast and lunch in our room on most days. For the evenings we were able to make reservations at local restaurants. Fortunately we knew ahead of time to make reservations a long ways out for Mama's Fish House in Paia. The lobby concierge staff were very helpful, and they were able to get us a couple reservations. We also were able to secure a luau table down at Westin Maui, and that was a great experience. The front desk staff were very good, and the porters/valets were all very personable and friendly. Staff here overall was great. The parking is at a premium, but I had parking included due to my room being a timeshare. The cost is otherwise $35/day and while I understand that parking is at a premium, $35/day is excessive. I bring this up because there were also other things like beach equipment rentals and fees for not returning towels that could also add up and became this nickel-and-diming game. If a customer is paying $700/night for a room, why wouldn't you include parking as a perk? Or rent beach umbrellas for free? I visited the other Westin properties and both the Nanea and Maui locations were vastly better in a myriad of ways. Westin is an overall good product and I'm a Marriot Bonvoy rewards member for that reason, and while I do think that this resort is a decent product, I don't think it's the right product for people who are used to more traditional resorts with more amenities and options. If we came back to Kaanapali, we'd likely stay at the aforementioned Maui or Nanea properties. The Kaananapali property really is just a beachfront hotel with a pool and I think calling it a resort is a bit of a stretch. This is the first non-all inclusive resort we have ever stayed at, and frankly after this stay we both decided we were going back to all inclusives.

  Jan 28, 2026
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  Better than EVER!

  I felt compelled to write a review given many people have been critical of this resort. We have been coming here for at least five years over Christmas, and I can honestly say this was one of our BEST stays. The staff is very friendly, even at check in when they are incredibly busy on a Saturday. Daily the housekeeping staff is quick to deliver anything needed, detergent, towels, coffee, and always show up with a smile. The grounds were as clean and beautiful as they have ever been, and other than the annoying towels all over the hotel chairs at the early morning hours, which every hotel deals with, I can say we had the best trip! They do make an effort to clear towels off chairs that are not being used, but it's a non stop process. Snorkeling off the beach at this location is literally the best you will find, anywhere. We saw an eel, two rays, and so many turtles, mom's, babies, which we have come to expect from this location. The beach always has space when we walk down with beach chairs, and having the vendor market right outside your door two days during the week is an added bonus. We are a family of six, and rent a two bedroom lock off, and it is the most perfect way to vacation over the holiday. We can watch Christmas movies from the main living area as it's comfortable for a group, and our balcony provides hours of entertainment people watching. I realize there are more "five star" locations to stay at, but if you want space, family and all that Maui has to offer this location and property cannot be beat! Counting down until next year!

  Jan 09, 2026
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  Don’t waste your time or money on this resort

  Checked in today to what was billed as ocean view studio. When I booked it indicated balcony. When I received confirmation it indicated Juliette balcony. I called and was told studios only have Juliette balconies. I went with it. Checked in and room has a view of the parking lot. If you crane your head to the right out of the non existent balcony you can see the ocean. This is not an ocean view room. Staff in evening said the place was full and said he would call me to see what he could do. He called and said he could switch me but I’d be without a room for most of day tomorrow 8 am to at least 4 pm. Why would I pay for a room that I couldn’t be in.

  Jan 08, 2026
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  Excellent property, but some things need improvement

  The Pros The grounds continue to be maintained beautifully — always a pleasure. The fitness center is terrific. It has everything we needed. The equipment is top notch, and the chilled towels and complimentary earbuds are a nice touch. The Cons The magnified makeup mirrors in the bathrooms have no light, and the light in the room is insufficient for personal grooming. Other resorts come with illuminated makeup mirrors. The Westin needs them too. And for the love of God, they need to provide better quality paper products! The caliber of resorts like the Westin, and the people who buy and stay there, expect and deserve better than "Professional" (commercial) grade toilet paper, facial tissues, and paper towels. The Westin isn't Motel 6. They should charge more if they have to, but they should stop pinching pennies with inferior paper goods that people use every day in the suites and on their bodies. We’ve enjoyed staying at the Westin for years, but everyone would enjoy staying there more if the suites didn't come with cut-rate paper products.

  Jan 04, 2026