Coco Palms Resort

Coco Palms Resort was a resort hotel in Wailuā, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi. The resort was visited by numerous movie stars and was also used in scenes of Elvis Presley's film Blue Hawaii. Scheduled to be restored and reopened as a Hyatt resort in 2018.

Originally opened on January 25, 1953, the Coco Palms Resort had 24 rooms, two guests and four employees. Under the management of Grace Guslander, the Resort grew to contain 416 rooms by the mid-1970s. However, by 1984, the number of rooms had been reduced to 393. In August 1985, Wailua Associates acquired the resort from the Guslander/Amfac group. Grace was well known for her ability to embellish and create myths, stories and facts surrounding her resort. Under Grace Guslander's expanded interpretation of the Hawaiian practice of "akua" or replenishment, many noteworthy people took part in planting of new coconut trees in akua ceremonies to replenish the grove.

Some of these included Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion, Duke Kahanamoku, the von Trapp Family Singers, Bing Crosby and the Prince and Princess of Japan. These and many other trees are marked throughout the property with name and dated plaques. Grace helped foster the belief that the loko iʻa (fish ponds) on Coco Palms were once the "Royal" fish ponds of the Kauai Rulers.

The Coco Palms Resort achieved early exposure and fame in the 1961 Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii. Most of the last 20 minutes of the movie was shot on and near the grounds of the Coco Palms.

The ceremonial torch lighting ceremony "Call to Feast," which took place every evening at 7:30pm, for 40 years (until September 11, 1992, when the devastation of Hurricane Iniki struck the island of Kauaʻi), was featured in the film. This torch lighting ceremony was the original such event, copied in recent years by many other resorts and hotels in Hawaiʻi. An additional scene was the conch shell-blowing doorman greeting them upon check in at the lobby (which was modeled after an ancient Hawaiian Canoe Lodge).

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