Add Kauai to your bucket list! This is why
Updated: Aug 18, 2023
6-11 October 2022
I didn't know yet that this trip was on my bucket list, until I started talking to my friend who was planning on going here later this year, and I fell in love! She send me some pictures and reels on instagram about Kauai, and oh my, this place is breathtaking! I haven't seen anything like this place before in my life!
And not only that the island is breathtaking, there is also soooo much to do and to see on the island.
Here you will see all the thing that we did! and where you can do them. I got so excited to go to Kauai and when I was there I couldn't stop smiling and I really enjoyed every minute I was there. I hope this blog is gonna help you to get more information about this beautiful island and what you all can do!
Kauai
First I will tell you a little bit more about Kauai. Kauai is one of the 8 islands of Hawaii. The island not at all as touristy as Ohao (the most touristy and busiest island of them all), Maui and The Big Island. The nature on Kauai is incredible, the west side of the island are all cliffs, called 'The Nã Pali Coast'. The road around the island isn't a circle like on the other islands, because of the cliff side, but a mirrored C. You can reach the cliffs on both sides, but only for viewpoints and hiking trails. The hiking trails don't go all along the cliff sides, because the cliffs are too steep to actually made a whole trail into them. There is one long trail that goes all the way into the cliffs and ends at a beach, it is more of a backpacking trip than a normal hike if you want to do the whole trail, because it's so long, but I will tell more about it later on.
Also Kauai is one of the wettest places on earth. It is raining a lot on the island, even more than in Washington state. That makes the island so green and beautiful.
Nã Pali coast - The East side
Like I mentioned before the whole east side of the island is just cliffs, beautiful cliffs. Both ends offers a lot of amazing views and hikes. The south side is where I went first. The road up there has many viewpoints where you can stop and enjoy the amazing views. I’m not gonna call out all of them, because to be honest I don’t remember anymore where we did and didn’t stop. But what I know is that the views were amazing. The ones I love the most of where we stopped for a long time are described below:
Waimea Canyon
One AMAZING viewpoint on that road is the Waimea Canyon Lookout. This view is literally breathtaking! It looks like the Hawaii version of The Grand Canyon. I personally liked the Waimea Canyon way more then The Grand Canyon. The colors are amazing, you can spend quite some time up there just enjoying the amazing view. There is a big parking lot next to the viewpoint. You have to walk up the hill a little bit with stairs or a zigzag road, where you will find different levels of viewpoints.
Pihea Trail
In the end of the road you will find the Pu’u O Kila lookout, this lookout gives you the most beautifull view from the cliffs. This viewpoint is the only one where you can see the cliff side from on land without a big hike. I was super excited to see the beautiful view of the cliffs from above, but unfortunately it was very cloudy when we got up at the Pihea trail so the view wasn’t as beautiful as I hoped it would be. Sometimes you could get a glimpse of the view when the clouds were moving around.
We hiked the Pihea trail. The trail starts at the Pu’u O Kila Lookout. It is a fun trail with some elevation, changes of trail views and some challenges. You’re walking on top of the cliffs what go up and down, there is also a part that goes into the woods. And the last part is my favorite, because it required to climb a little. Nothing too bad or too hard tho.
Kalalau Trail Nã Pali Coast
On the other side of the Nã Pali coast you find the Kalalau trail. The Kalalau trail is the one I was talking about earlier. There is so much to tell about this hike so I will start right away.
Important information about the hike:
The Kalalau trail is the trail that goes into the cliffs for 11 miles, the furthest you can get into the Nã Pali coast. It is one of the world’s most dangerous hikes, listed as number 6, if you were curious. It is a famous backpacking tail and a reason for many people to come to Kauai. To hike the Kalalau trail you need a permit, you can get one online. You need to get it a few days in advance, in order to get a permit. Another thing you need to know before going is to book a shuttle from Hanalei to the Kalalau trailhead. There is parking in front of the trailhead, but only locals can drive and park there. As tourists you aren’t allowed to park or even drive in that area. When you apply for the permit you can choose to include the shuttle into your reservation too. The shuttle brings you from Hanalei to the trailhead and anything in-between.
If you decide to do the whole trail you should count 2 or 3 days to hike all the way in and come back, while you have some time to enjoy the hike and all the beautiful spots it has to offer.
Be prepared, bring a lot of food and be careful.
Hanakapiai beach
Along the trail you can find some amazing stops. The first 2 miles in you will find a beautiful beach called, Hanakapiai beach. Hanakapiai beach is the first stop into the hike. It is a wide beach with an amazing view. Many people come here. We did the 2 mile (3,2 km) hike to the beach and then walked back the trailhead. The hike to the beach is already beautiful and a little challenging. It has a lot of elevation in a short hike and you have to count on spending half a day for the hike at least. Even if you want to hike to the first beach you need a permit. The second stop, a stop where many people go as well, is a waterfall. If you would like to do a part of the hike, but not everything the Waterfall is a good compromise. It is a 4 mile (6,4 km) hike in and 4 miles out. I haven’t done this part so I don’t know what the waterfall or the hike too it from the beach is, but I heard good stories about it. And I know that many people do that hike. If you want to hike the Halalau trail you should apply for a permit, use this website to do so:
Poipu
Poipu is the town we stayed in for our first days on the island. It’s is a nice little town, not like Hanalei with little stores but the beaches are nice. You can find many resorts or accommodations here. Poipu beach is a beautiful small beach where you can find turtles laying on the beach. This beach is a resting area for turtles. Also you can do some snorkeling here, and then watching the sunrise on the beach is beautiful too.
Hanalei
Hanalei is one of the little cities, also i would call them cities, they are much smaller. But Hanalei is a fun place to get food, there are many little boutiques and stores where you can get souvenirs, gifts, clothes and much more. Here you can also find one of the best shave ice places! Jojo’s shave ice! Hanalei is for sure one of my favorite little towns on the island.
Lihue
Lihue is a town in the east side of the island, close to the airport. Here you can find many stores, restaurants, activities, and resorts/accommodations. Many activities that you can do in the island start in Lihue, or somewhere close to it. Like the helicopter tour, tubing, zip line, kayaking, ect.
Kapaa
We stayed in Kapaa for the other half of our stay in Kauai, there was a small shopping center and a beach next to our accommodation. We woke up every morning to a beautiful sunrise on the beach and we’re close to the north side of the island and to all our activities.
Activities
There is soooo much to do on the island! We did as much as we could, but we couldn’t do all of the activities, of course. I’ll list the things that we did and where we did it to give you an idea of the things you can do in Kauai.
Helicopter tour
Half way our trip we did a helicopter tour around the Island. It was absolutely incredible! I think the best view of the island is from a helicopter, especially from the Nã Pali coast. The tour was 1 hour long and we saw the whole island from above. We flew over the little town, flew over Waimea Canyon and to the Nã Pali coast. He also flew us over to the wet side of the island where nobody can go, not even hiking. We flew to the highest mountain in Kauai and to the wet side of the island.
During the helicopter flight our pilot was telling us things about the island, showed us amazing waterfalls and made sure we got good looks of the beautiful views out for the helicopter.
We did a helicopter ride with the doors on, but if you would like you can decide to take the doors off and you can see more clearly the view of the island.
https://helicopters-kauai.com
Kayaking
We also went kayaking into a river to a secret waterfall. You can choose on doing this on a tour or by yourself. We decided to do it by ourselves. It was an easy way of kayaking trough a river down to the trail for the waterfall. The hike to the waterfall was only 1 or 2 miles long and pretty easy to the forest. The waterfall was beautiful and amazing to see. The waterfall falls into a little pool where you can swim in and you can even take pictures under the waterfall! The whole kayaking + hiking took us a couple hours, it’s definitely a half day thing.
Mountain tubing
Another cool original thing to do in Kauai is to go tubing into the hand-caved waterways of a historic sugar plantation surrounded by beautiful mountains and the Waialeale Crater. It is a popular thing to do in Kauai, but I think it’s pretty original in general. You take a shuttle bus to the beginning of the waterway and take it all the way down on a easy Water flow down to the end where they will pick you up again, have a sandwich bar ready and bring you back to the facility. It was actually really fun and you’re just floating around those waterways, on an easy past and with some interesting things in between. So will you cross 7 tunnels along the way and there is a little water slide. They will provide you helmets with headlamps, gloves and a tube to relax in.
Here is where we booked it, they also offer zip line tours:
Transportation
We flew in the morning from San Jose International Airport, California to Kauai, Hawaii. We rented a car on Turo for the whole week we were there. We took a shuttle from the airport to the Turo parking lot
Turo is an app where you can rent cars from particulars, instead of companies. This way the cars are sometimes cheaper and it might be easier to rent a car you want. I use this app all the time to rent my cars in The United States. It might be hard for people under 25 to find a company that rent out cars to them, but Turo is one of the places you can still rent a car without being over 25 years old. The only thing is that they will ask you for a young driver fee.
There are also busses driving in Kauai, if that is more your way of transportation. There is a bus that goes all the way from Kekaha, in the south/west of the island to the north of the island, Hanalei. There is an app TheKauaiBus app for all the information you need for the busses in Kauai.
This was my Kauai blog, I hope it is helpfull to you and you will have an amazing time when you go to Kauai!
Doeii,
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