Name: The Cabins at Kokee
Address: 4469 Halepule Road, Waimea, HI 96796, United States of America, Waimea, Waimea, Waimea, HI 96796, United States of America
Rating: 7.6

Smoke-free property

Gift shop

Express check-in/check-out

Garden

Private check-in/check-out

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

General

Concierge services

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Snack bar

Meals

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Hiking

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Free Parking on Premises

Parking

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

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At the guest house

Canyon Trail

Princeville Airport

Lihue Airport

The Cabins at Kokee

The cabins are rustic and old fashioned. They have been maintained and have comfortable furniture. It’s quiet and peaceful in the park. Close to the lodge for meals. Also close to hiking trails. I visit at least once a month in the summer as it’s a great place for a staycation.

Fantastic location to connect with nature. One of our favorite activities is traveling to the canyon for beautiful hikes. It was an absolute delight to get to stay overnight at the cabins and have the hikes at our front door. The cabins are truly for those who want to “get away from it all” — this is a cabin/camping experience so be sure to roll with that. This is not a high-end glamping experience. There is no Wifi or cell connection - which we loved because we really wanted to unplug. I feel the price to stay in the cabins was very fair for this reason & good value. 

The beds were remarkably comfortable and the shower temperate & pressure wonderful. We loved waking up and feeding the roosters (who themselves were up at 5 AM). We hope to come back one day!!

We go up there at least 3 times a year for a staycation.  It is great to get away with no cell service or TV.  Make sure you eat at the lodge, it has great food.  Be ready for the roosters in the mornings crowing outside your window.  And take cat food for the kitties that live under the cabins.

We’ve always enjoyed our stay at The cabins in Kokee especially during trout season the cabins are rustic but they do have amenities available. I think if your looking for some nice place to get away from it all and enjoy the beautiful nature of Kokee with all of its the serenity than this is the place to relax and enjoy the beauty of Kokee.

Our family stayed at the Koke'e Cabins in June, 2021. What a beautiful way to celebrate our emergence from the isolation of the pandemic with family!
The cabins were clean and comfortable, with full kitchen, great wood burning stove, and, of course, the breathtaking scenery and serenity of Koke'e!
We were able to sightsee, hike, and fish for trout during the glorious cool and sunny  days and, at night, to stargaze in velvet skies, undimmed by urban light pollution.
The bed and bath linens were ample--even extra blankets for the chilly nights! And the fire in the wood burning stove provided great heat.
Definitely a five-star experience! We heartily recommend it!
PS--I am considering the amenities at the Koke'e State Park as part of the "hotel experience" in my survey answers below.

We stayed here in February and recommend getting the extra wood for the wood burning stove. We ran out of firewood @ 3am and it was 45 degrees out. 

The cabin was adequately stocked for our basic needs.

We rented a cabin for our first two nights on Kauai to enable us to hike in Waimea Canyon. We were camping at county parks for the remainder of the week. Breathtaking scenery! The very helpful man at check in reminded us that we should take all of our groceries with us. They do have a small restaurant with pretty good food (but a limited menu) that's only open from 9-4.  It is a winding road up to the park that takes at least 30 minutes to drive, so you want to go prepared. Our cabin was definitely rustic, yet had amenities, including a clean, hot shower and full kitchen. We arrived at the end of a tropical depression and the second day it positively poured for several hours. We were warm and dry. It is about 20 degrees cooler up in the canyon and a cool breeze kept the cabin very comfortable. The price is less than half of the going rate for other accommodations in the area and the location is fantastic (trails and lookout points within a mile of the cabin). We loved the hike on the Canyon Rim Trail (to Waipoo Falls) although it is rated somewhat strenuous and can be slippery if it is wet. We couldn't be happier with the cabin and with the experience!

Excellent.  World class trails and views.  Cabin are rustic and comfortable.  Wood burning stove in the living room, wood available, every appliance worked and it never did rain!!!

Get the key in Waimea town, get the groceries there also, and drive upland for about 1 hour to the cabins.  Nice lodge restaurant for lunch and a charming gift shop.  

Can find yourself alone in this green park.  Wonderful. 

We stayed 2 nights in a 2 bedroom cabin April 2019 - the cabin was rustic and charming, with high ceilings, and a wood-burning fireplace, which we greatly appreciated. We purchased the two bags of wood and it was the perfect amount to last all evening and in the morning it was still fairly warm. You are so close to all the hiking trails and the lodge, so staying up here you can really maximize the amazing hiking and viewpoints. We found the cabin to have the basic amenities and it was very clean considering you are in a rustic cabin! If you need fancy, then you might find it too basic. The lodge unfortunately closes early (5-ish?) but we managed to catch a quick couple of yummy drinks at Kokee Lodge - great ambiance and woodsy decor, and we chatted with the friendly owner/manager. Highly recommend Koke'e cabins!

These very rustic cabins are quite quaint and very secluded but so worth it. If your looking to be at one with nature and completely disconnected from the outside world this is the place to do it.  Very relaxing!

Waimea

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park access

This review of for our whole experience surrounding our stay at Koa Cabin. 

Just know this isn’t a 4 star “resort” rating…the stars are what I think the cabin deserves on a cabin scale. Haha
It is pretty good. The beds are the most important part imho, and the main reason for my above average 4 stars. 

The negatives 
Roosters. I forgot how many roosters live on the islands.  Starting at 4am (it’s 6:10 and still dark as I write this) these noisy jerks have been demanding the world start their day. 
I mean, earplugs (which I have and didn’t wear) would probably help, but it is SO peaceful and silent here and they are RUINERS! lol

No cookie sheets! We thought we would be easy and get some frozen crap to heat up, instead of cooking, and there was nothing to use! Not even any foil! 

The door! It closes but it is SNUG and so you have to muscle it open. (A hip check from the outside works but inside is a challenge to get out) and to close it… it SLAMS every time. With a “wake the neighbors” kind of slam. 

The “far” this is a GORGEOUS drive up the mountain but don’t forget anything (like foil) at the store or you’ll be driving 30 mins back down the mountain to hit up the grocery store at the bottom. 
And then back. Up. The. Mountain. It might be fun in a Porsche but it’s kind of a beating in a jeep. 
Do go to the grocery store in town for your sundries before you come up. Do buy trail mix there!
DONT buy frozen food at Walmart in Lihue before you drive in.  

Also, no measuring spoons or cups or a soft spatula for scraping.

There is also NO blow dryer which is not surprising but also rough when the cabin is cold af and you have wet hair and you want to light a fire but you don’t want to REALLY smell like smoke forever. Great hot strong shower but a gross looking floor, we just wore our flip flops in there.  Also it’s like a “spray everywhere” shower so if you’re trying to not get your hair or face wet 
That won’t work out for you.  Also, the little shampoo holder doesn’t work for small bottles and mine fell to the flood and the lid broke, so just put your stuff on the floor. 
Weirdly there is a wet patch in front of the shower… I’m not sure if the water drips down from above or comes up from below, but it was there before we ever showered- so watch your socks if you’re walking into the bathroom.

There IS a microwave, toaster, plates bowls, small mugs, glasses, great nonstick pans (I flipped eggs easily) and pots.  Tongs and a wine opener, a coffee maker, a rice cooker, cutting board and knives. A full fridge/freezer. And stove/oven. And a can opener, a peeler, and a rice serving spatula. And a colander. There’s a good sized pot with a lid too if you wanted to make a stew.  Lots of serving spoons, and knives of different sizes. - new thing of paper towels, scrubby sponge and dish soap.
Weirdly there is NOT anything left by other guests. Usually when I’ve stayed in cabins there is a collection of flour, sugar, oil, spices… as people buy things for their trip and then leave them for the next guests to use. This place is bare, except for a pepper shaker and some off brand Pam, so bring EVERYTHING you need! (Sugar and salt I’m looking at you!)

The beds are as advertised by other reviews and REMARKABLY comfortable! We slept great! 

There is  far too much light on the property for stars. Even if you turn your light off, there are still others on all the other cabins. Good for navigation bad for stars.  You might be able to drive/walk up to the campsites with better luck but we have been so tired we didn’t care enough.

I had hoped there would be stuff to do (like board games) but there aren’t really any in Koa Cabin. There are a few books in a drawer and a deck of cards and a cribbage board with no pieces and one unusual game that looks like it might be playable.

It’s 53 degrees out and it is FREEZING in here. My nose is frozen haha, I brought a robe but I wish I had packed some slippers and a cozy hat.   We finally beat out the wood oven smell for the night  with some microwave popcorn, and didn’t have the energy to figure out how to make the hard wood burn  last night or this morning (since we are leaving shortly for a hike) so it is pretty chilly in here.  There are extra cozy blankets tho, and if you’re really chilly you can cram into one bed and use ALL the blankets together . 

We never did decide to light a fire. The smell in here is back and reminiscent of old fires and we didn’t want to add to it and then have to sleep in it. We just bundled up. But just wearing socks on the floor is COLD so you’ll want to wear your shoes or ideally bring some slippers.

I was dumb and didn’t realize that I should have printed out the hike information since there is no internet access here but we did manage to get 2 bars in the corner to the left of the door, if you stand in it like a naughty child. So that way you can slowly pull up the information you need without driving down the road. 

This morning we woke up at 4am with the roosters, but we made a good breakfast and then drove up the hill to hike the Pihea Vista trail- about 5 miles out and back. At 7am we were the second  car there and we gloriously didn’t see another soul till we were headed back. The sun was just coming up over the trees and it was clear and gorgeous. We wore layers and had a lightweight backpack to store them in as we got hot. Highly recommend the trail mix with chocolate/raisins/nuts from the store at the bottom of the hill. Best I’ve ever had. 

The first mile of the trail is a paved ride that’s blocked off, and it’s pretty boring, but the vista at the end of that part is beautiful.   I didn’t understand why all the reviews only had the same photos of the same thing for the hike, but that’s because no matter how far you go, the view is pretty much the same. So if you just want to see the pretty canyon and the water- and you don’t care about hiking, then stop at the viewpoint. The hike, however is really fun, it was super dry out and it was STILL wet and muddy, so I can’t even imagine what a slippery mess it is if it’s raining.  Lots of places to eat it or turn an ankle, but we made it there and back incident free.  We had a beautiful sunny day with clouds only far on the horizon, and we were back and headed to the lodge for breakfast by 10am. (I am slow)
Honestly the worst part of the hike was the final hill by the car. It was steep as all gtfo, and I was pooped by that point. 
I’m not sure if we ever actually made it to the official end of the trail bc at some point t it seemed like it just went on forever, and all the views were the same and we were beat. We did TWO of what we thought were final scrabbles to the top, but then it kept going and then just looked gross from there on out so we turned around. 

We cleaned up and grabbed a coffee and loco moco at the restaurant. Honestly we weren’t really impressed. It was okay, but the beef was ground kind or chunky and the gravy had a weird tang to it, like it had mustard or sauerkraut or pickled onions or something in it, we split one between the two of us and still tossed a few bites. It was a lot. 
We also tried a midnight (some word here) coffee- that was iced- 4 shots, condensed milk and vanilla. I loved it but it was too strong for my 18year old.  I would go back for another coffee if I hadn’t brought my own, but probably wouldn’t eat there again unless I needed food.

We did some more touring after lunch, drove down the hill again to a few beautiful spots on the “see the ocean” side that we had missed on the “see the gorge side” drive on the way up.  Then we stopped to get some dried marlin from the guy at the bottom of the hill. (He had some BEAUTUFLL pieces of tuna that I wanted but I had no cooler so we had to pass. Then we went to the coconut shack place for a mango/ice cream shaved ice.  (Shrimp place was closed at 11am) Then we drove a block past the shaved ice place and down to the dock to see the black sand beach. I thought it was beautiful but it felt a little sketchy, so we hopped back in the car and drove the other way past the shaved ice place to the white sand beach, and ate our dried marlin belly on the sand. It was pretty good except the last little piece that tasted like the gray part of salmon. Super fishy and gross. A little disappointing that ANY part of a 20$ 4 piece bag was off, but whatever, at least it was only the last piece and I would still go back there to get some tuna.
We had some fun playing in the waves there, there were another 10 or so people on the beach and in the water, and a lifeguard shack- not sure if it was manned, but it felt safe. 

Then we decided to head back up the alternate route. We did a little driving around to try and download a few shows to our phones for the evening, and the road PAST the white sand beach, is ugly and nothing once the ocean stops, and the second road to the mountain is also not worth doing- a few (maybe 3 quick beach shots, but nothing different or better than the main road up- so if you’re sightseeing definitely take the main road bc it is SO much better. 

We have talked a lot about what we would recommend to people, and I sort of think I would recommend camping one night rather than paying for the cabin for two, BUT you would really need warmer sleeping bags and blankets that what we rented later in our stay from pitch-a-tent, AND we had GREAT weather so we got to see EVERYTHING immediately. It probably is better to rent the cabin, stay warm and plan 2 full days here like we did, in case you have heavy fog one day and you can’t see all the amazing stuff.

It was SO great to wake up and have a short drive to the top to see everything early when the weather is best.

Cozy beds, funky wood smell

Comfortable beds & stunning hikes at your doorstep

The Cabins up Kokee…

This was quite an experience!! We stayed at a remote cabin #4 in Waimea Canyon called Iliahi cabin at Kokee Lodge. It had a large kitchen with a gas stove and frig and sink. There was a small table and chairs and a couch in the sitting area with a “pot belly stove” that we had to start with firewood we bought at the check in place. That was the only source of heat. Thank God my husband got it started! The fire lasted til about 2 in the morning and we had plenty of comforters to keep us warm . We were not able to start it again in the morning because we needed more small starter pieces of wood. The cabin had a queen bed in one room and bunk beds in another room. It had a bathroom with a toilet and sink. The shower was not useable because it was in bad shape and needed repair.
We sat outside at night and looked at all the stars- it was magnificent!!
We would love to stay again for more than one night and we would bring more fire starter!!

Quite an experience!!

So some might call the cabins rustic, but lets face it, they are shabby and remind me of the cabins I used to stay in as a kid in the 60s--  That being said, around the shabbiness, and visible wear and tear of the place, it was overall clean (but for some dust in the corners), the water was hot, the shower was hot; the water was potable; and the bed was comfortable.  I like open windows and snuggled into the comfy bed with, for me, just the perfect warmth of comforter.  It poured rain one afternoon, and the stove fire cheerfully kept me company (I bought wood from the woman who gave me the key to the place--off site in town).  The lighting was decent, but not great for reading, so I listened to books on tape contemplating the warm flames, after some excellent nearby hikes.  I did no major cooking--just heated water and drank a lot of hot beverages and dehydrated soups; plus snacks and fruit--but there were some pots/pans and kitchen utensils.  My one big quibble with the area, was that the parks charged $10/day + $5/person/day.  That has nothing to do with the cabins, but going anywhere else in the park and parking for hiking resulted in the expense.  Otherwise, for location, can't be beat!  There's plenty of chickens to keep you company and make sure you don't sleep in.  I'd come back again.

Sweet location and cozy hang out.

Being a field biologist, I liked the rustic simplicity of my cabin #12 in Koke'e State Park. It was perfectly located for me to go birdwatching, hiking, and sunset watching over Kalalau. I can see how lodging in the Cabins of Koke'e is not for everyone. I, however, enjoyed a break from technology and enjoyed the peace and quiet of nature.

Note: Kitchen items were a little scarce, yet it was interesting to be creative when cooking!

Enjoy Nature in a Rustic Cabin

Location truly cannot be beat, which almost brings my review to 5 stars. This cabin is exactly as advertised – do not expect anything fancy. I wasn’t sure how this stay would go, but we were really glad that we stayed here as it allowed us to watch sunset over Kalalau, see the stars at night, and be the first ones on the trail in the morning. However, as others note, the roosters start crowing very early in the morning and the amenities are simple (though sufficient). Glad we stayed here and would definitely do it again, just wouldn’t want to stay for days on end. Plenty of linens, towels, and blankets were provided to make our stay comfortable.

The Cabins at Kokee

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