For planning this trip, I promptly went to the book store and went straight for a copy of Fodor’s travel book for the island of Kauai.  I highly recommend Fodor’s travel books, they are very detailed and normally have a detailed map which comes in quite handy!  After pouring over the book, we selected TONS of stuff that we wanted to do.  Obviously we wanted to hit the beaches, but Kauai has SO much more to offer.  Here is a list of the things we wanted to cover:

– Waterfalls

 – Wailua Falls

 – Opakakae Falls

 – Ho Opi Falls

– Hiking in the Na Pali coast + the Hanakaipepe falls trail

– Waimea Canyon (we weren’t sure if we wanted to hike in the canyon or drive the scenic lookout route)

– Kayaking trip

– Visiting Ke’e Beach

– Visiting Hanalei Bay Beach

– Kauai Coffee Company

– Luau

– Kauai Beer Company

It seems like A LOT of stuff to do in a 8 day trip!  But we found that it would be relatively easy to group different activities together to load up a few days and leave the rest as relaxing as possible.  We knew that we had to be pretty flexible with planning on the fly since the weather could be slightly spastic and it was hard to know what to expect.

Since Kauai has a huge range of ecosystems, terrain and elevation, the weather in one location could be completely different from a town 10 minutes away.  One of the locals told us “if you don’t like the weather, drive 10 miles or wait 10 minutes.”  I would just check the weather in 4 different locations to decide where we were going for the day.  Checking Hanalei for the north, Wailua for the east, Poipu for the south, and Waimea for the western-ish canyon.  The Na Pali (western coast) coast is inaccessible by road because it is ALL mountains, cliffs, and canyons for most of the coast line, so unless you were hiking or boating here, the weather didn’t really matter.  Where ever there wasn’t rain, we went!

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Waterfall Hunters

Wailua Falls and Opaekaa Falls were both fairly easy to get to.  They were both drive up falls, so we could get some pretty cool pictures but we couldn’t get up close to them.  Hoopi Falls was a different story.  This took a drive inland and some serious scouting skills (the trail-head gate is no longer yellow as the travel books say, but red and hidden beside a private home).  The hike was fairly easy and beautiful.  They say that there is another waterfall hidden further up the path, but all paths seemed a bit overgrown or they were marked as private property so we were pleased with just the one waterfall.

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Trail Blazers 

Hiking the Kalalau trail is no joke and is not for the faint of heart.

The first leg of the trek is about 2 miles and it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the beach.  After splashing our toes in the water (this beach is dangerous so I wouldn’t recommend much more) we set off for the ultimate waterfall hunt.  Hanakapiai Falls is located 2 miles from the beach and zig zags through the jungle, boulders, streams, mountains and mud of the Na Pali coast. This took us a whopping 2 hours to reach.  If you are doing the math in your head…yeah that’s only 1 mile per hour.  Was it worth it?  YES YES YES YES!!!!!  Take a lunch that won’t be effected by heat (like PB&J and chips) and enjoy at the base of the waterfall.  We made the mistake of leaving ours in the car.  Although it did make our 4 mile hike back extremely motivated, we made excellent time and got back in a little under 3 hours.  Be sure to take plenty of water.  We had camelback backpacks and they were lifesavers.  It was great to not have to stop every couple minutes to fish out a water bottle.  Needless to say, it was exhausting so we planned our next day to be a non-movement day.

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Canyon Scouts and Coffee Connoisseurs 

So after an exhausting hike we were very unmotivated to do any type of real physical activity the next day.  We chose to do a island road trip.  Driving up through the Waimea Canyon…wow is all I have to say.  There are plenty of stops along the road to take pictures of the various views.  Keep an eye out for the little Red Waterfall on the west side of the road.  Originally we had considered doing some canyon hiking, but after the 8-mile round trip hike in Na Pali the day before…we decided against it.  But for those of you who would like to do that, they have several trails throughout the park ranging from 1-6 miles.  As we got higher into the canyons, the view became a bit blocked by the fog and rain moving through the canyon that day.  We did wait to see if it would clear up but after about a half hour, we decided to begin the descent.  After galavanting in the canyons we saw the sign for Kauai Coffee Company and decided to stop in…very good life choice.  They have self guided tours around the little plantation area which gives you tons of information on how the coffee is grown and processed.  When the path spits you back at the beginning I would suggest going in.  The shop has tons of cool stuff as well as their famous Hawaiian coffee of course!  The prices of Kauai coffee are much more reasonable than Kona coffee.  They offer to ship anything you purchase in the shop to your home.  We took advantage of the option which made life much easier when it came to repacking our bags.  They also have a sampling area where you can try all of their roasts for free!  Sugar and sweeteners are provided but if you need milk/cream, you have to pay.  I may have been slightly over caffeinated for the rest of the day.

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Beach Bums and Beer Testers

You can’t have a trip to Hawaii without talking about the pristine beaches!  We visited about 3 different beaches while on the island but we had 2 favorites.  Kee Beach was the first beach we ventured to.  The beach is literally located at the end of the road on the northern shore.  If you are planning on coming here, arrive early and try to avoid the parking lot unless you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  We nearly got our mid-size rental body hung on the jagged rocks in the parking lot!  Kee beach is renowned for its snorkeling.  We didn’t actually snorkel but the view was pretty and we basically had the beach to ourselves!  Our favorite beach by far was Hanalei Bay.  OH.MY.GOODNESS.  Bright blue water, easy waves, and a decent shallows area.  We went on a weekday (key to getting a parking spot) and the closest person to us was at least 60 feet away, talk about a peaceful beach day!  Sunscreen is the key here.  If you’re like me at all, then you may tend to scoff at sunscreen.  BUT we learned the hard way that Hawaiian sun is WAY stronger than Ohio sun.  Just for reference, up here in OH the UV rating is 7-8 in the summer time…Hawaii reaches upwards of 14-15!!  I normally wear SPF 4, but I had to up it to a 16.  So wear a decent SPF and turn frequently.  My poor hubby got fried and we had to get him some “blue goo” as we call it, not to mention a bottle of SPF100!  When our favorite hotel bartender saw him she started giggling and said “you gotta huli the chicken baby!”

After a hot day at the beach what tastes better than an ice cold beer?  Well if you are like my hubby and me the answer is…absolutely NOTHING!  We absolutely LOVE trying new beers and seeing what local breweries come up with.  The Kauai Beer Company was about 10 minutes from our hotel so we stopped in a few times to check it out.  Their bar is stocked with 8 different house brews and they make excellent soft pretzels.  A flight of 8 generous samples will run you about $16.  With the great beer, good food, cool atmosphere, and super friendly bartenders it is worth the stop!

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Kayak Explorers

So I already said that we had decided to do a kayaking trip.  We had 2 options, either a paddle up the Wailau river and do a hike to some secret waterfalls…or tackle the Na Pali Coast by sea-kayak.  Well we decided to go for the ultimate adventure and did the grueling 17-mile and 10 hour long sea-kayak trip.  Speaking from experience, even if you have no prior tendencies to sea-sickness, take Dramamine BEFORE you begin.  I on the other hand found out after an hour at sea (in a tiny swaying kayak) that I get extremely sea-sick in that situation.  But alas there was beautiful scenery, sea turtles, hidden caves, swimming holes, and mountain goats to see!  Nobody’s got time for sick!  Finally after the first 6 hours of paddling, we came to a beach where someone mercifully gave me some Dramamine.  I was able to lay down, drink some ginger ale and get to feeling better which made the last couple of hours MUCH better.  If you get sea sick at all, this probably isn’t the best choice for you.  However, if you still want see the Na Pali Coast (which is an absolute must in my opinion) there were constant boat tours running back and forth along the coast.  We used Outfitters Kauai and we couldn’t have been happier with the guides.