It’s been about a year since it was sold again. What’s up now at Coco Palms.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
488 thoughts on “Infamous Coco Palms Kauai | Why It Just Won’t End”
Comments are closed.
It’s been about a year since it was sold again. What’s up now at Coco Palms.
Get Breaking Hawaii Travel News
Comments are closed.
I am celebrating the 50th year anniversary of my stay at the Coco Palms. My first wife and my friend and his wife (8 months pregnant) spent a long weekend there. We had rooms at the end of the lagoon from rooms that showed up as backgrounds of Blue Hawaii! We spent days just touring around the island. Memories are bitter sweet for me in the condition of Coco Palms and divorce of my first wife. But when I close my eyes sometimes the beauty of the memories of the Coco Palms and my first wife flood over me. I do hope that someday Kathy, Jack and Gloria find my words and know that I still love you all.
Aloha, ❤️💞That is very Beautiful, such a Wonderful memory you hold in your Mana✨..it can never be replaced! the islands are magical in everyone that visits..it’s something else that’s for sure, and touches us all so far..and so wide, ..it cannot be broken once you have the Aina in you..ever, ..they know trust me, you are loved and have a very special and good place that started it all😊💖🌴🌊🌴🌺💖keep watering your feelings.. ..it connects us all✨💞
If I recall didn’t the powers that be just declare imminent domain on acreage on the north shore? Why not declare this and merely take it and allow the good island citizens to clean it up for free? You know Malama Aina.
Eminent domain doesn’t mean it’s free just means they are going to take it and pay sum for it, the owners still have to receive fair market value. So where is that money coming from?
My brother went through this with a highway dept in Illinois wanting to build a freeway through a house he owned. They made a low-ball offer which of course he turned down, the State then stipulated they were going to take the property and only pay their price. Basically they forced him out of his property, NEVER did build the road and offered to sell his former house BACK to him 15 years later at a hyperinflated price! He told them to pound sand.
I went to Coco Palms 44 years ago. I’ll never forget it. Old world charm. Pig roasting in the pit all day. The fire ritual at night. I can still remember laying on the beach at 6 in the morning. Thanks for the unending memories. My daughter is on her way to Hawaii for her honeymoon and I’ve told her all about the best resort ever.
I remember the beautiful torch lighting ceremony narrated by Grace Buscher in the evenings among the palms. It was a very beautiful resort. I had the privilege of escorting travel agent fam trips from Seattle to Kauai for Northwest Airlines. Coco Palms was a real highlight of the tour.
Sad to see it in such a state of ruin.
An aunt took me to Kauai when I was in the fourth grade and I fell in love. Freckles Smith himself took us up the river to the Fern Grotto because our flight was late. He gave us his own personalized tour of the river and grotto, then returned us to the Coco Palms, where we stayed for a week and immersed ourselves in the “old Hawaii” being showered with Aloha from everyone we met, every day.
Decades later, there was no better way to introduce my new wife to Hawaii than to return to the Coco Palms, where General Manager David Ueno invited us to evening appreciations of hula and Hawaiian music.
When people say “There are too many hotels”, they maybe aren’t thinking of what a restoration of the Coco Palms might do for the Aloha of Kauai.
We first visited Kauai in 1994 two years after Inki. On our last visit in 2017, it was so sad to see Coco Palms just decaying. Wish the county, state and developers could reach some agreement. A park would be beautiful and the history of the site could be remembered.
the book on the coco palms is great….i bought it years ago on one of our trips….& refer to it often to bring back memories of what a wonderful place it was…especially the small zoo with the gibbons…i’d go talk to them every day….
I was at the Coco Palms Resort in 1994 on vacation with my family. The resort was already abandoned. We went there after playing 18 holes of golf at Wailua golf course. My entire family were big Elvis fans and just to walk on the property was nostalgic. Would have loved to see it restored but it now seems an impossibility.
There are probably a couple hundred people who have commented on these BOH pages about the happy memories they have of staying at Coco Palms. You folks might enjoy the book The Story of the Coco Palms Hotel, The Grace Buscher Guslander Years, 1953-1985 by David P. Penhallow. It was published in 2007 by Rice St. Press. It’s a big (8 1/2 by 11 inches) book, with lots of photos, and is 368 pages long. My copy is autographed, but I can’t remember when or where I got it. Probably some craft fair or local event years ago. It’s a great addition to a Hawaiian library.
We have an Hawaiian library as well. Having just finished the first book about Ruth born in the Kalaupapa settlement where she was ripped from her Hansen’s diseased parents and now we are on the sequel where we follow her life (the first one followed her Mom). Very good reading!
I don’t regularly play the lottery, but I spent $40 on the big one last week. And one of the first things I was going to do with my $550M was buy the Coco Palms and make it what it was. Alas, I didn’t win….
We stayed there when it was dream place to stay. We have visited Kauai many times even 2 weeks after Iniki had reservations in Princeville. It broke our hearts.😭
I have been seeing some work activity and heavy equipment at the old Coco Palms Hotel; can you please give us an update? Thanks.
Hi Kristi.
We’ll update again as soon as possible.
Aloha.
It is largely to do with the adjacent road work.
I was just on Kauai last week and saw that the Coco Palms was even more of an eyesore than ever. So saddened by this. I also saw all the heavy equipment, but believe that is used for the roadwork that takes place at night.
It breaks my heart every time I come back to Kauai (about a dozen times) to find my beloved Coco Palms (lucky to have stayed there in 1988) still languishing.
To see and hear, for my first time, the shambles that the property is currently in really gives a Twist to Blue Hawaii, very sad. As I read the article I couldn’t resist seeing in my Minds Eye the Myriad of possibilities for the property. The State could have purchased it and made it into many beneficial things. The Price of $22 MM would have been about 1.1% of the $2 Bn wasted by Ige and Green on Homeless with No Results! Too many mistakes and missed opportunities because of Mismanagement. $2 Billion, just the interest alone could have paid for the sale and what needs to be done.
Sort of, Ernie. Remember that being able to afford the regular maintenance of a place that size is way more than the cost of purchasing it. And remember the $22M was the price of the default, not the actual property value. I doubt that the state or county could ever stay above water trying to manage anything they come up with for Coco Palms. Not without murdering the taxpayers with huge tax increases! No, this needs to be a well orchestrated contract buy for one or more financial heavy hitters who have to run it a certain way.
And again, it needs someone(s) with very deep pockets to be able to run it as a proper museum and tourist attraction.
Coco Palms resort was more than a resort. It was part of the history of Hawaii and the culture of Kauai. The local employees at the hotel offered the Spirit of Aloha to every guest. It wasn’t a show, it was in their hearts. I was fortunate to have been an employee at Coco Palms in 1969 and 1970. I believe it was one of those once in a lifetime places that can never be replaced. Grace Guslander was the queen and without her the place could never be the same again. The day I left the employees circled me, placing flower leis around my neck while they sang Aloha. The tears have dried but the memories will last forever. It would be my wish the grounds go back to the locals, to share the Mana with their children.
We were married at the Coco Palms in 1981. It was a beautiful place and holds a warm and loving memory in our hearts. It is so sad that this beautiful place has fallen into such disrepair and is becoming a forgotten thing of the past.
I don’t know how much you have watched BOH, Eleanor, but Coco Palms is anything but forgotten. Residents and visitors, both past and present talk about it incessantly. Someone needs to print the whole thread out and deliver it to Mark Zuckerberg. He is one of the few who can rescue it single-handedly.
Years ago I stayed at the Coco Palms. I stayed for 7 days and it was awesome. Every night they had the torch lighting ceremony, and a personal invited cocktail party. I was heart broken when I heard about the destruction that the hurricane did to the property. I always hoped that someone would rebuild it the way it was. I remember Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii was filmed there and it was an awesome hotel. I was surprised to read that no one had done anything in all these years.
Archaeological cultural information at the Coco Palms site must be recorded prior to any future use of the property. The State Historic Preservation Office should expedite the selection of a company to perform an archaeological inventory survey and a cultural landscape record of the site before any future plans are made.
Post-shutdown property sales zoomed so high the county has lots and lots of money now. Mr Mayor, want another term? Step up and start fixing this! Be partners with one of our wealthy citizens or groups — or just go it alone as a county financed, non-profit native heritage center. Please, make it happen!~
I have done work at Hotel King Kamehameha in Kona on The Big Island. There was a real Kahuna who lived as a native in a grass shack and performed in ceremonies.
Consider this, Mark Z:
Negotiate an acquisition with demolition and create an authentic Hawaiian tribal ground across from a lagoon where tourists pay for restaurant and torch lighting/ceremony views. I think it would support itself and spread real Hawaiian culture.
The govt should sell the coconuts and juice. It’s good against Covid. Then use the remaining as decorations or as a flooring. Use the leaves as a fan- the govt can the fans as a decor in the house or anywhere .
It should be returned to the native Hawaiians, and they should pay all back taxes.
The property should be returned to the Native Hawaiians.
If you can watch the program “Mysteries at the Museum” Season 9 Episode 10 (the most recent) the last segment is about the Coco Palms, VERY interesting story.
Recounts how it started, with 24 rooms and 5 employees, the owner hired a lady from the East Coast, with no knowledge of Hawaiian Culture, to run it. She developed it into what it became.
Told about there was a sugarcane train track between the resort and the highway which would go through blowing it’s horn several times a day even at night. The guests complained so the lady took a chair and set it in the middle of the railroad and waited for the train, she refused to move until the Sugarcane train owner agreed to not blow the horn at 3 AM! Great program with, photos and video.
Thirty years?? Thirty years and nothing can be decided?! What an example of government/state inefficiency in it’s prime. Can’t believe 30 years.
Ever since I saw Elvis in “Blue Hawaii” as a child, I dreamed of visiting this tropical island some day. Well, that day would finally came many years later (in November of 2008) when I visited Oahu and Kauai. My friend and I enjoyed the movie tour, and of course, our guide took us to Coco Palms. Some tourists broke down in tears, recalling their honeymoon there or visiting years ago. Scenes from “Blue Hawaii” flashed into my mind as I walked the destroyed grounds of Coco Palms and stared at the lagoon, where the famous wedding scene took place at the end of film. I was so hopeful that this special place would be restored to its original splendor and was thrilled to see beautiful plans in photos. It seems a miracle would need to happen now.
As we are talking about Kauai we have noticed that the Beach House restaurant wants to expand. Normally I would think it was not such a bad idea, but there is no room for additional parking in the area. People are already parking in places they shouldn’t be parking. The Beach House is a special kind of restaurant. Can’t help but wonder what their plans are and what would happen to the grassy area around the restaurant. There are a good many weddings done there.
Aloha guys.
Hi Roy.
What grassy area? Ha.
Aloha.
Coco Palms. Sept 11 1992. I would buy it if the county did the demo, paid the insurance and put in a multi use park and maintaned it.maybe in a cutural way generate some income to suppory it’s self. Weddings, concerts, family gatherngs, museum, shelters pavillions, parking parking for food trucks. No permanent retail. Maybe something like Spoutting Horn. Then again I spent all my money on gas and food. Maybe next year. It will be 30 years in Sept.
Aloha – just wondering where you posted your most recent drive-by video? Mahalo
Hi Debi.
It is within the post, near the very bottom.
Aloha.
So sad, my favorite Elvis movie was Blue Hawaii, just because of the amazing nature and the resort that I thought that everyone deserves to experience once in their lives. It was the place that I wanted to get married. It would be so nice to have it partially restored for pig roasts, luaus and weddinh venue’s. It could be opened as a park with a large restaurant and event area to pay for itself and employ native Hawaiians to dance, cook, also take care of the native flora… Make it beautiful again.
I heard that somewhere… LOL
Hyatt, swoop in and take it.
My parents first visited Kauai in the 70’s and stayed at the Coco Palms. Their absolute and over-the-top ravings were the still ringing in my ears when we took our first trip to Kauai. Unfortunately, our visit was just after Iniki and we were disappointed in seeing it so damaged.
Our disappointment grew after our subsequent trips and saw the further decay and hearing about the aborted attempts to reopen. Redevelopment seems hopeless.
It has reached a point that I wonder why Kauai doesn’t take it back under eminent domain since the commercial value is nil. Clear the property and use the material to create an artificial reef in an appropriate location then return the land to the survivors of the Kingdom of Hawaii’s overthrow as reparations?
How could any entity even consider buying develop the property until the highway is fixed in front? The cart has been before the horse the whole time, IMO.
Stayed there in 1987 and had a great time. Miss that place soooooo much.
Elvis Museum? Affordable housing? Senior living center/health care services?
I have visited Kauai three times and I love the island. Coco Palma was the first place I wanted to visit because of the movie, Blue Hawaii. It is such a beautiful place. I wish someone would either restore it or build a new hotel. It would be a wonderful place for weddings.
The rules have changed but not all sights are up to speed. I read that they dropped the Health questionnaire for Safe Travels on some of the travel sights for Hawaii. However, some sights state you still need to fill it out 24 hours prior to departure; can someone please clear this up?
Hi Dawn.
There is no longer a health questionnaire.
Aloha.
Reading these sorrowful facts again tonight 1/30/2022.I cry again also. My first Honeymoon 1968. I worked for Island Holidays,Tour operator. Been to Kauai 45 times. I knew Mrs. Guslander personally, had many meals with her at the CocoPalms. She Loved the Island & it’s people as if she were the Heritage blood-Line. I was married again 1989 in the Coco Palms Chapel, December 18th. Wedding Danced on the Lagoon Barge to song “You are the Love of My Life”.
Honeymooned there in 1969 and met Elvis Presley. I shudder every time we drive by it’s bare bones. Kauai officials have put pen to pad countless times…they know it’s too expensive, no beach access, etc,etc,etc. I live on the north shore. You can’t expect Zuckerberg to buy, demolish, reinvent, or any of a multitude of options. He’s got teams of accountants and lawyers showing him the property’s pitfall’s.
Maybe we should just let the existing owners deal with it.
As I wrote on another thread, I think it would be cool if Zuckerberg turned the Coco Palms into a museum of the 1961 Elvis movie “Blue Hawaii.” That way he would only need a facade of most of the place but authentic lagoons and restaurant/bar complete with music and torch lighting rituals. It would attract tourists from around the world, because they saw Blue Hawaii.
As a wanna-be local who has only been able to visit once a year, I’d love to see a park in that location. As it isn’t beachfront, hotel guests would probably try to cross the road. Even if an overpass was put in place, some are scofflaws or simply stupid. Open space would be a boon to all ages, kids to olds. Limiting the number of beds available keeps the status quo from reading the outer limits. Heck, you could even name it Presley Park…
Wake up Kauiai who made Hawaii popular, it was one man and one man only Elvis Pressley, what he did for those islands no man has ever done before or will ever do, so stop asking for someone to buy it and give it back to you, that just sounds so greedy, move on, and let’s get rid of the eyesore what ever it should be …..
Tim is quite correct. There is no “magic potion” for living in today’s Kauai that doesn’t include the generation of funds to pay for it. I believe in ancient ownership but not for squatters with no income smoking pakalolo. Asking Mr. Zuckerberg to be philanthropic here is a good idea, but not demanding he do it. Mark might, in fact, be equivalent to royalty of the past who helped Kauai. He should be respected provided he has earned the respect.
Stayed at the Coco Palms in 1986. Had made my third and what I anticipated would be my last trip to Oahu (had been laid off after making my reservations) saw a good deal on a flight/hotel/rental car package to Kauai, so I took it. So glad I did. Not fully appreciative of the history of the Coco Palms at the time–it was a wonderful experience–visited the Fern Grotto, had the Slavonic steak at JJ’s, drove around the lovely island. Have been back to Oahu many times; Kauai once.
We honeymooned in Kauai at Princeville when they were filming “Uncommon Valor.” Kind of eerie to have Hueys (helicopters) flying so low overhead before we found out it was a movie. Drove by the rice patty scene. Watched the torch lighting ceremony and ate at The Coco Palms and visited the Fern Grotto (remembered big guy starting every sentence on PA with “now over here”). Needless to say, fell in love with Hawaii. Got a great job on Oahu and moved to Hawaii within the month. It was at that job that I had to inspect Coco Palms for replacing the telephone system. It was then we discovered the terrible foundation decay already in 1984, so it was no secret before Iniki.