ʻAuliʻi Lūʻau at Sheraton Kauai Resort

You eat dinner at ʻAuliʻi as the sun goes down over Poʻipū Beach, on the Sheraton Kauai Resort’s oceanfront lawn, with Kōloa Rum mai tais from the open bar, starting with the welcome cocktail. For an anniversary or a milestone birthday, it’s the Kauaʻi lūʻau we’d book, in Aliʻi Seating if the budget allows. Adult tickets start at $210 plus tax and fees. With those added, it’s the priciest entry ticket of any Kauaʻi lūʻau.

After the lei greeting come appetizers and drinks, then activity stations where you can pound taro into poi, husk a coconut, make a lei, play kōnane (a Hawaiian game played like checkers), stamp kapa (bark cloth) or get a temporary airbrushed kākau (tattoo) design. Dinner is a buffet with hula on stage. The Polynesian revue follows and closes with siva afi, the Samoan fire-knife dance.

The buffet has Kauaʻi fresh fish with sundried-tomato caper butter, ginger-shoyu grilled sirloin, kālua pig (shredded roast pork) with cabbage, ʻahi (yellowfin tuna) poke with ogo (seaweed), lomi lomi salmon (salted salmon with tomato and onion) and Hanalei poi. Dessert is haupia (coconut pudding), guava cake, pineapple upside-down cake and brownies. The menu can change. The operator posts an allergen chart on its site, so flag any dietary needs when you book.

Why book ʻAuliʻi: sunset dinner beside Poʻipū Beach

In TripAdvisor reviews, the sunset and the ocean come up far more often for ʻAuliʻi than for any other Kauaʻi lūʻau. Reviewers repeatedly praise the emcee, who gets the audience involved, and the live band’s harmony singing. It’s also the only Kauaʻi lūʻau where reviewers keep calling the premium seats worth the money.

TripAdvisor puts ʻAuliʻi at 4.3 stars across 1,888 reviews as of September 2026, and the reviews split on price: some one-star reviews call it the most expensive lūʻau and the worst, while five-star reviews call it steep and worth it anyway. When we priced Monday, November 2, checkout added $22.50 in taxes and fees to the $210 adult Aloha ticket. Our Kauaʻi lūʻau guide compares all eight by price and setting.

What reviewers complain about at ʻAuliʻi

Sheraton rooms and balconies sit directly above the lawn, so hotel guests watch from overhead, and people on the beach can watch the show for free. The stage is at the far end of the tables and doesn’t face the water, and the beach is over a berm. From October through February the sun sets during dinner; in June and July it goes down around the time the revue starts.

Reviewers often complain about the food: they call the buffet ordinary and say desserts have run out without a refill. Some reviewers found the open-bar drinks weak.

If bad weather is forecast, the show moves into the Sheraton’s Poʻipū Ballroom and the operator tells guests by email or text. A reviewer at a May 2026 show wrote that rain started during the show and there was no awning, so half the crowd ran for cover and the rest got soaked.

Aloha or Aliʻi Seating: what the upgrade adds

Both tiers include the welcome cocktail, an open bar (mai tais and Blue Hawaiians made with Kōloa Rum, wine and beer), buffet and full show. There’s no seat selection: the operator assigns tables by booking date, so within each tier an earlier booking gets a better table.

Aloha Seating: long banquet tables

Aloha guests sit at long shared banquet tables and pick up a shell lei at the standard check-in line. The pūpū (appetizers) are set out on a buffet: potato chips, edamame, pipi kaula (Hawaiian dried beef) and roasted purple potatoes. From the back rows, you’ll watch the revue over other guests’ heads.

Aliʻi Seating: the first four rows

Aliʻi guests sit at shared round tables in the first four rows facing the stage, with a specialty lei (fresh flower, shell or kukui nut, depending on the season) and a premier check-in line. You also reach the buffet first, and appetizers come to the table: ginger tofu salad, pipi kaula, tako poke (octopus) and cucumber kimchee. The adult ticket is $245 before tax and fees, $271.24 at checkout when we priced Monday, November 2.

The operator’s FAQ says that if Aliʻi is sold out, you can book Aloha and request an upgrade in the Comments box at checkout; the operator handles requests from confirmed Aloha guests before the general waitlist. To sit with friends on a separate reservation, book together or name each other in the “attending with” field.

Adult tickets are for ages 18 and up. Teens (13 to 17) pay $145 for Aloha and $170 for Aliʻi; youth (4 to 12) pay $117 and $142, all before tax and fees. Children 3 and under sit free on an adult’s lap. Buy a youth ticket to guarantee a child a seat. Strollers go to a designated area, not the table.

Nights, check-in times, parking and what to wear

ʻAuliʻi runs on Mondays and Wednesdays. From October through February, check-in is at 5:00 PM, dinner at 5:45 PM and the revue at 6:45 PM. From March through September, each moves 30 minutes later: check-in at 5:30 PM, dinner at 6:15 PM, revue at 7:15 PM. The operator notes that times may vary, and the evening runs about 2.5 hours.

Park in the Sheraton Kauai Resort’s event parking or hand the car to the free valet. The lūʻau is wheelchair accessible; tell the operator about any needs ahead of time. Wear aloha wear or resort clothes with a light layer for the ocean breeze.

Fresh flower lei, haku (flower crowns), crafts and professional lūʻau photos are sold on site. Book through this page and you can cancel for a full refund up to 48 hours before the lūʻau; after that, you pay in full.

Urahutia Productions, the family company behind ʻAuliʻi, is Native Hawaiian and wahine-owned (woman-owned). Founder Mi Nei Oliver-Martins trained in Tahiti and, at 18, became the first foreigner to earn a Tahitian dance diploma from Louise Kimitete at the Conservatoire Artistique Territorial in Papeete. She started the company in 1998 by teaching Tahitian dance in Anahola, a Hawaiian homestead village on Kauaʻi.

The company produced lūʻau at Princeville resorts between 2000 and 2018 and has run ʻAuliʻi with the Sheraton in Poʻipū since 2011. Mi Nei’s husband, children and sisters, and her sisters’ children, perform and work behind the scenes. Part of each ticket goes to Kauaʻi nonprofits, among them the Waipā Foundation, Hawaiʻi Land Trust, Mālama Hulēʻia and the Surfrider Foundation.

Booking through this page costs you nothing extra and is made directly with ʻAuliʻi Lūʻau. We earn a commission from the operator, not from you, and it is what pays for the research that keeps lovebigisland.com free and free of paid placement. We only list operators we would send a friend to. Details on our affiliate links are here.