There may only be one hotel on Molokai, however that’s not how it always was. Nestled among tall palm trees and an expansive empty beach is the home of another hotel, one that has seen better days. Above, The haunting Kalaukoi Resort. No beautifully manicured lawns here.
The story of the Kaluakoi Resort is a torrid one. It was built as the Sheraton Molokai Hotel in 1975. However after about 10 years, it started to be the potato in a game of hot potato; it went through a number of owners over the coarse of the next 30 years. All never really able to complete the project and open the doors due to financial woes, water woes, and public opposition.
Some of the development is still alive today and was sold and up-kept as private villas. However, these dilapidated hotel property standing next to the beautifully manicured lawns and properties of the private villas makes the abandoned buildings seem even more eerie.
It’s been hinted that it would be re-opened a number of times through the years, but it still sits empty and deteriorating today. However for me, it’s a photographer’s dream – wandering through the old property seeing the rust, and chaos – a scene I always love to capture. You can’t get into any of the buildings (I tried halfheartedly), and there are people living right next door to them – so it’s hard to go unnoticed. But you can walk around the property and take a few pictures of the crumbling hotel buildings.
And this isn’t the only story of an abandoned property; I was told there are more Molokai hotels that met similar fates.
Sherry Ott is a refugee from corporate IT who is now a long term traveler, blogger, and photographer. She’s a co-founder of Briefcasetobackpack.com, a website offering career break travel inspiration and advice.
Additionally, she runs an around the world travel blog writing about her travel and expat adventures at Ottsworld.com.com.
