Our third stop was the Coco Palms Resort best known as the place where the wedding scene took place in Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii, but also used in such films as South Pacific and Pagan Love Song as well as the TV series Fantasy Island.
The Coco Palms Resort was once "the" resort to stay in on Kauai. In its heyday it was filled to capacity with honeymooners, repeat visitors and numerous celebrities. I still get mail almost every month asking about the resort - mostly from couples who stayed there on their honeymoon.
Coco Palms was in a decline by the early 1990's but no one could have imagined that the resort would be destroyed on September 11, 1992 when Hurricane Iniki struck Kauaʻi with its Category 4 winds. The main hotel building lost it's roof and was flooded. Most of the cottages were severely damaged as was the wedding chapel and interiors of the huge bars.
The resort has been closed since Iniki and access to the property is severely limited. Hawaii Movie Tours is one of the few ways to see the property up close.
What remains today is mostly a shell of the former resort. The 2,000 tree coconut grove still thrives and the fishponds still are there. In fact, several weddings are still held on the property each month.
The property had been purchased by a group who intended to rebuild the resort as close to the original as possible (as required by the terms of the sale.) Construction was to begin sometime in 2006, but in September 2007 the developer decided to put it up for sale, partly blaming the county Planning Commission after it rejected a plan for a full-scale fitness spa.
There is now some hope that the site may eventually be made into a public park.
