We stayed in the Ishihara Home for 3 days due to its location at the beginning of Waimea Canyon Drive on Kauai. It is outstanding in its location for Waimea Canyon and the western side of the island. We loved the location of the house on a "cliff" hillside above the town in a quiet neighborhood. It is very open and caught the breeze well. So we were completely comfortable without any air conditioner. We slept well because of that, the outstanding bed in the master bedroom and the absolute quiet of the town and hillside at night (that is until the roosters begin to crow ... but by then it's time to get up and start the day ... lol). That was our introduction to the roosters of Kauai. They are everywhere along with their broods of hens and chicks. We found their morning crowing amusing. Their sound and other bird sounds filled the town below our hillside. After 1 day we were used to it ... but you might need earplugs.

Also quite nice was when we left my husband's favorite shirt behind, the management retrieved it. So we were able to get it the next day. No problem there.

We loved the little town of Waimea. It is more rural and local. That suited us just fine. The two little markets ... Big Save and Ishihara's had everything we needed. The Wrangler restaurant served a very nice meal one night.

The Ishihara Home is kind of historic but no written history about it or the family exists. We met a member of the Ishihara family who told us the house was moved from the beach to its current location and that it was built in about the 1940's. We think it is more like the 1920's.

The house came with a great supply of bath towels, shampoos and bath soaps; beach towels, chairs, snorkels, and a cooler. The plumeria bouquets and chocolates were welcoming touches too.

But there were some problems. The house has good bones but is need of upkeep by the management company ... both the house itself (replacing malfunctioning smoke alarms, repairing screens, burned out light bulbs) and the furniture (split seat cushions, loose coffee table struts, tv cable). Also, it would have been nice for there to be some salt and pepper, sugar and a small bottle of cooking oil for the kitchen.

We also had a bit of a communication problem with the management company. I emailed them of our arrival a week prior to the trip via AirBnB. The assistant did not know about it. They also did not pick up a voice mail we left about the malfunctioning alarm and the cable tv until 4 days after we notified them and 2 days after we had checked out.

I think when they take care of the above problems it will be a more stellar place to stay. We really, really did like the house.