Hyatt Regency Maui Reviews | Overview
The Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa is located in the masterplan of Ka’anapali. Located around forty-five minutes from the airport, this master plan includes resorts from many of the big hotel brands along with a large mall and 36 holes of championship golf. The Hyatt property sits on the very south end of the development.
Location
To start, I highly recommend renting a car while in Maui. While the Road to Hana is the most famous drive on Maui, driving around the western side of the island from Ka’anapali back to Kahului is fantastic as well. I highly recommend it.
Location wise, the Hyatt sits on the Southern edge of Ka’anapali. Its location means that you must walk a bit to reach the Whaler’s Village Mall or some of the other resorts. This really isn’t much a problem since there is a fantastic path that runs along the water and easily connects the entire area.
Service & Check-In
We arrived around noon and were given leis upon entering the lobby. As a Hyatt Diamond guest, Jasmine was able to check-in at a separate desk and was given an option to choose a few different rooms.
Our first option was a Regency Club room in the Atrium Tower. The Atrium Tower is in the middle of the property and sits farther from the water.
Our second option was a top floor room on the end of the Napili Tower. This tower jets out towards the water and our room was much closer to the beach as a result. We chose the Napili Tower, but this meant that we did have to walk more and had quite a trek to the Regency Club.
The service across the property was pretty good. Staff in the Regency Club was always friendly and seemed to do their best to remember guests who had been at the resort for awhile. We also found that the bartenders and staff at the pool were very nice. I don’t want to say that the service was over the top friendly, because it wasn’t, it was just pleasant. The most I can say in regards to service is that I have no complaints. It was a great experience.
Rooms
As I mentioned before, based on the recommendation of the front desk receptionist, we took a Deluxe Ocean View Room in the Napili Tower. There are so many opinions about which is the best tower at this hotel. All I can say is that we loved our room and view. I loved that it was basically sitting right over the water and was glad I chose it over the Atrium Tower for that reason.
Our King room was large and quite beautiful. The decor put us in the island mood and I loved that the bed faces out to the lanai and the ocean. Waking up in Hawaii to that view is truly magical. My only complaint about the room was that the bathroom felt a little small. This is a small nitpick and not something that would keep me from staying at the Hyatt Regengy Maui again.
Grounds
The Hyatt Regency Maui is a fairly large property. The three towers are spread out and contain many places to wander around and get lost. Besides the beach, there are several gardens, a large pool complex and many animal enclosures. We enjoyed seeing the penguins every morning as we headed up to the Regency Club.
One of my only complaints about the Hyatt’s pool is the rock work. The pool area contains a large rock complex which houses a swim up bar with waterfalls. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like they have repaired this rock work in twenty years and it shows.
In several places they have placed cheap patches which are a different color than the rock. There are also several large holes. A hotel which charges up to $500 a night shouldn’t have these issues.
Food
We usually don’t spend $100+ on a meal and thus didn’t eat at any of the fancy restaurants at the Hyatt Regency Maui. With access to the Regency Club, we received breakfast for free every morning and appetizers in the evening. The food in the Club was average I would say. They had a rotating selection of two hot items at each meal along with other small snacks. Beverages were available for free all day long. There was no complimentary alcohol during happy hour.
The only other things we ate on property were a hamburger one day for lunch and our Diamond welcome gift. The Diamond welcome amenity we chose was a tuna tartare appetizer and it was delicious. There was a small hiccup with getting it delivered to us (not sure if they forgot or not), but once we called, it was there within 20 minutes or so. Overall it was a nice bonus.
In regards to food, we did eat at several restaurants in the Whaler’s Village Mall. The mall sits in the middle of the Ka’anapali resorts and is about a 10-15 minute walk from the Hyatt Regency Maui. We found that most of the restaurants had decent food and great happy hours. Overall the prices were better than at the resort and we enjoyed the atmosphere as there were usually bands playing and cheap drinks on special!
The town of Lahaina also has several good places to eat including delicious Hawaiian plate lunches. We used Yelp to scout out a few locations and had wonderful food at each. I recommend the stall Local Food (yes that is the name) for cheap and delicious plate lunches. If you aren’t looking to drop a lot of money on a meal, this is a good place to go.
Miscellaneous
We didn’t have time to visit the spa or review it. Based on talking with other guests, most people seemed to enjoy their time at the spa, however the prices were very high. More than one person I spoke too made mention of the cost and how it effected their perceived value. There is also a dedicated area for a Luau at the Hyatt Regency Maui. After reading reviews, we decided to skip it. Most people recommended the Old Lahaina Luau in the nearby town.
The Hyatt Regency was just starting construction on their new tower during our stay. I have seen some complaints of noise, but we did not notice any when we were there. The new tower will sit near the Napili Tower, so keep that in mind when booking.
At the time of our visit, the Hyatt Regency Maui was a Category 6 property which meant it cost 22,000 points per night. Recently with the release of the new Hyatt chart and the opening of the Andaz Maui, it has been downgraded to a Category 5 property and costs 20,000 points per night.
Conclusion
The Hyatt Regency Maui is an older property that has been maintained fairly well. In many ways this is a family resort and not an ultra luxurious resort like the Four Seasons or Fairmont. With that said, our stay was wonderful and as a couple traveling without our child, we found plenty of quiet spaces to enjoy a sunset or sit and stare out at the ocean.
Now that there is another Hyatt on the island, I would guess that the Hyatt Regency will have to work to differentiate itself for those looking to stay loyal to the brand. While the Andaz brand is less family oriented, Wailea is a beautiful resort and one worth visiting as well. On our trip we split time between the Hyatt Regency and the Grand Wailea hotel. If the Andaz had been open, we likely would have stayed there.
In the end being able to spend time in Maui with my wife was wonderful. We used miles and points to fly and stay for free. Without the use of miles and points, our six night adventure would have cost over $4,000. Our cost was much much lower than that. (I did a full analysis and breakdown of our costs for this trip here.)
Have you ever stayed at the hotel? Provide your short Hyatt Regency Maui reviews in the comments!
More Photos of the Hyatt Regency Maui
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We love maui and go every year, for four weeks. Booked august for this Hyatt and also the Westin Villas. My husband lived on oahu for years, and refuses to go back due to the traffic there. To us it is all about having the family together, 2 grown kids with their spouses and 3 grandkids under the age of 4 will all be together! Maui is the oerfect spot for us. Thanks for a great review.
Thanks Karen! I agree that Maui is definitely more beautiful and certainly more relaxing that Oahu! I have heard great things about the Westin Villas so I am sure you will enjoy your time there! It sounds like a fantastic family get together.
We stayed here back in 1989 and it was wonderful. We visited a few years (stayed at Ritz) and it was horrible. Swan Court was dismal, horrible experience where in 1989 it was the best. Place was just jam packed with people (back in 1989–there was no walkway in between hotels and ocean and quite frankly I prefer that). We had to drive to the hotel next door–you could not walk because of rocks jutting into ocean. I was so dismayed to see what it had become in those intervening years. Shame on Hyatt! I agree–the restaurants at Whaler’s are fairly good and fun (esp. Hula Grill) but there are much better options nearby (such as Pineapple Grill in Kapalua). I don’t like the Wailea side (no shade and too far away from everything), I doubt we will return to Maui–ever. Stayed twice at Ritz and it’s nice but it rains more there, it’s so windy at beach and it’s a long haul from the resort. Plus Maui is too built up–I actually prefer Oahu now over Maui because at least they have the highway infrastructure to accommodate the traffic. I can recommend no hotel on Maui.