Once a Hawaiian fishing area, Poipu's four-mile stretch of dry, sunny coastline remained virtually ignored for most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with only local residents maintaining beach cottages along the shore. The construction and then conversion of the Prince Kuhio, a three-story condominium apartment, into a hotel in the early 1960s marked the first move toward tourism development of the area. The Waiohai opened in 1961, and other hotels and condominiums followed, establishing the area as one of Kauai's major destination resort areas.
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