We Left Our Hearts in Paradise Part 2: Kauai

We Left Our Hearts in Paradise Part 2: Kauai

Alright, here is our "itinerary".  We were there from Sunday June 15 about noon until the following Saturday about 10pm.

"Special" Things to Pack:
-GPS if your phone doesn't have one
-Kauai Guidebook as mentioned in my other post. The Ultimate Guidebook has good maps in it, but if your guidebook doesn't be sure to pick one up.
-Camera- just in case you forgot....
-Underwater camera...trust me.
-Extra luggage, we had backpacks from Eddie Bauer that zipped up small and were perfect for taking to the beach.
-Keens or other water sandals
-Sunscreen....the only time I got sunburned was on the fishing boat, when I was too sick to even think to put on sunscreen.  The sun is stronger in Hawaii...be smart.
-For the ladies- flowy dresses...it is humid here, its nice to have air between the legs. lol and a dress is easier to pull on over a wet swimming suit.  Speaking of swimming suits- pack a couple, they don't always dry overnight due to the humidity.
-Laundry soap---I packed some powdered soap so we wouldn't have to buy it-our condo had laundry in unit.
-We packed snorkel gear, but you can buy it on the island (or even rent it) for the same price...no need to pack any.
-Journal.  I wrote down what we did and what places we liked. And it was fun writing in it while my husband fished.
-Spices for cooking.  Our condo didn't have a lot of spices, so we brought small amounts of spices so we wouldn't have to buy it.  We did buy a spice called "DaKine Kona coffee rub" that is super good.
-Kite.  My husband loves flying kites so he brought one with him.
-Hat: if you thought you'd have pretty hair here, you were wrong.  Because it is humid, and rains off and on, and is windy at times, and all other things tropical your hair will be a hot mess. I rocked a French braid the majority of the time. It's cool, its not like you'll run into anyone you know...

Anyways, I'm sure there are more things, but do some research and look at other Hawaii packing lists.

Sunday: 
We arrived at 12pm in Lihue and went straight to Walmart and Costco to get food and misc. to take back to our condo.  Our room had a full kitchen, so we got breakfast foods and some lunch makings to take sandwiches to the beach.  We also purchased bamboo beach mats, sunscreen, snorkel gear, and misc. fishing supplies for my husband.
After that, we headed north to Princeville where we were staying.  We stopped along the way in Kapa'a and had lunch at the Shrimp Station (on your left).  From that moment on, we were pretty certain we weren't ever leaving...kidding.  But the shrimp there is amazing, and fairly priced.  $15ish got us a huge plate of shrimp, fries, and drinks.  After we got food in our bellies we continued north, taking in the amazing scenery all around.  We checked in to our condo, unloaded our luggage and put our bathing suits on.  We didn't really know where to go but knew we just wanted to relax for the rest of the day.  We ventured north from Princeville to Tunnels Beach (AKA Haena Park and caves) where we snorkeled and my husband fished (tons of fish AND turtles).  This beach is incredible.  It is a long stretch of beach and wasn't very crowded.  We watched the sunset and then packed up and went back to our condo where we popped a frozen pizza in the oven and went to bed early, we were exhausted.

Yes, we took this picture...this turtle was so close to us it bumped into my husband while we were snorkling.  Way cool.

Monday:
Eyes wide open at 5am...what is open that early? Beaches! We ate breakfast in our condo, packed some snacks and drinks, put on swimming gear, and headed out to Tunnels Beach again.  It was a short drive from our condo, so we went to Tunnels frequently.  We did some fishing and snorkeling some more, and then headed into Hanalei for lunch and walking around.  We had lunch at Puka Dog (sausage dogs wrapped in dough, with awesome mustard sauces) and Chicken in a Barrel BBQ.

After that we drove South a little ways. to try and find Anahola Beach Park.  It is very difficult to find, but once you do there probably won't be anyone else there.  We arrived and there were two other families there.  That's it.  Nice beach, shady parts.  We didn't stay too long because we were just checking things out.  We also located Anini beach, but it is really only good for surfing, at least that is what we observed.  Kind of cool though.  We headed back north as it was getting close to dinner time.  We stopped along side the road and bought some Lychee fruit from someone that was selling it out of their vehicle.  Turns out my husband is allergic, luckily just the itchy throat kind of allergic....lychee fruit is pretty good, very mild taste.

We kept heading north, and stopped at Lumahai Beach for some fishing for Eric.  This is where I received my first injury.  So, Lumahai is a pretty cool beach because it is where the Lumahai River joins the ocean.  Eric wanted to fish from some huge lava rocks on the other side of the river, so he easily jumped up on the rocks when the tide went out.  Me, who is not a strong swimmer and kind of terrified of riptides, ran and jumped, and I was wearing flip flops. This is when I learned flip flops are just not smart to wear when fishing with Eric.  Crash, burn, scrape, cut.  Lava rocks hurt.  I was bleeding but sucked it up and handed my precious camera to Eric so I could climb up there after the waves stopped attacking me.  We stayed there until it started to get dark.

We then went back to Hanalei and ate dinner at Tropical Taco, which I've read can get pretty busy at times.  It was dead, we were the only ones in there, it was great.  Their food was great and the staff was super friendly as well.  Prices were good as well.  We avoided any expensive dining experiences aside from the luau that we attended.

After eating, we headed back to Princeville and got some Shave Ice from Kauai's Best Shave Ice and took their recommendations: get the macadamia nut ice cream in the bottom of the cup, and the shave ice on the top.  I believe we did passion fruit, blue raspberry, and guava for flavoring and it was incredible.  SO yummy.  After that, we headed back to the condo, we needed to get to bed early because the next day was deep sea fishing.

Anahola

Lumahai

Painful rocks at Lumahai

Tuesday:
We woke up early for deep sea fishing.  My husband made us an awesome breakfast and I made sandwiches to take with us on the boat since we would be on it for 6 hours.  We packed up and headed down to Nawilili Bay in Lihue to get on Captain Don's boat.  Nice guy, I was the only chick on this boat but it was fine, and they all called me a trooper by the end...keep reading.  We ventured out and within 30-45 minutes I was so very sick, I'll spare you the details but lets just say I was chumming the sea.  My husband helped.  There were 4 other people fishing with us and we each had a pole in the ocean.  Of course, my pole was the one that caught a fish first, so I told my husband to take it, since I was obviously close to death and couldn't move.  He was able to keep is stomach contents in while he reeled in a huge tuna, and then let it all out after posing for a picture with it.  The second pole to catch a fish was mine again....we passed it to some 15 year old kid to reel in.  Anyways, I'm pretty sure 35 hours passed and it was time to go in, and just as I can see the bay again we hook a fish.  I was cussing all kinds of words and thinking it will never end.  We spent another 2 hours reeling in the fish, another tuna.  Eventually, after 8 hours of fishing (hey we got our money's worth, right? 2 extra hours!) I was able to climb to land.  We were able to take some fish with us, about 6 lbs total of Ono whitefish (the 15 year old caught it) which is quite tasty.  So, deep sea fishing is not for us, but Captain Don was nice and if you don't get seasick then go for it.  All of the guys on board were saying how awesome I am because I didn't complain once or plead to go back to dock...I was too busy dying to even think of complaining, but thanks guys.  Note: even if you are fairly certain you don't get seasick, or have been deep sea fishing before and didn't get sick, take some Dramamine or other motion sickness medicine...we didn't.  Because we thought we were professionals and such.  Did you know Hawaii is a string of islands, and therefore there is no other land for thousands of miles making the waters REALLY FRICKIN ROUGH? Yep.  SO, do yourself a favor and take Dramamine the night before to be safe.  Also, we did not get to take any tuna with us, just Ono and it was split up between everyone on board.  I guess that is typical of fishing charters with any fish over 50lbs, it is taken to market.  Just so ya know.

After almost dying/fishing, I remembered we were signed up for a Luau dinner and show.  I called to try and reschedule for later in the week because I felt so sick.  They were booked up, we would suffer through as this is the ONE thing I wanted to do on this trip.  We went back to our condo, drank a bunch of water and took a nap.  It was time to go. We felt a little better by this time.  We attended the Smith Family Garden Luau in Kapaa on the east shore.  We booked online, a couple weeks ahead of time. We paid $78 per person for dinner and a show, it lasted about 3 hours or so.  Free beer, wine, and Mai Tai's and the buffet was amazing- traditional Hawaiian cuisine including a pit roasted pig.  The food was so good.  The show was awesome, it goes through the different styles of dancing in different cultures from traditional Hawaiian, to Tahitian, to other Asian cultures.  Really cool.  Kid friendly if you have kids.

Wednesday:

Because I suffered through deep sea fishing, today was my day to pick the activities.  I think my husband felt bad for that experience.  We ventured to the Oepeka Falls which is outside of Wailua.  it is really pretty.  We then wandered around Wailua and Kapaa for some shopping and eating.  We had HeeFat Shave Ice in Kapaa and it was really good, not as good as the Shave Ice in Princeville, but still good.  We had lunch at Bushida Sushi in Kapaa and it was very tasty and not expensive, After that we went to the Kilauea Lighthouse outside of Kilauea.  Note: they do have hours of operation so make sure to get there when they're open so you can go inside it.  There is a small fee to get in. $4 or so.  After that, we went back to the condo and made fish tacos with our Ono fish.  Yummy.  Pretty sure we went back out for more Shave Ice after that.  Don't judge until you've had it. HAHA.

Kilauea Lighthouse

Oepeka Falls

Thursday:

Today we went to Poipu/Koloa on the East/South shore.  Koloa is a very cute quaint little town with cute shops.  We had more shave ice at Koloa coffee company which was very good.  My husband had Ahi Poke at the Fish Market in Koloa.  We bought some yummy nuts from the Kauai Nut Company, very tasty.  They have all different flavors and free samples.  We saw the Spouting Horn  which was very very cool.  We also went to the Kauai Museum that is in Lihue (also has hours of operation, so make some phone calls to get exact times they're open).  Today we also ventured to Queens Bath, which is like a very large tide pool.  The jaunt down to it is treacherous, going in flip flops would be a bad idea. We had Keen sandals and it was still questionable.  Once you get there, it really does look like a huge bath surrounded by lava rock.  It is really incredible.  It is also dangerous at times.  It is super super important to go at low tide, and avoid it at high tide, do your own research before going to it, people have died there.  And no local that we talked to would talk to us about it including its whereabouts, but do some googlin and you'll find directions to it.  Its in Princeville. In the Queen's Bath, you'll see a lot of fish so bring snorkel gear.

Spouting Horn

Spouting Horn

Friday: 

We headed North from Princeville first thing in the morning to Ke'e Beach as we knew this beach filled up FAST due to the Kalalau Trail that people like to hike, the parking lot is what fills up fast.  We arrived right around 8am and got a close parking spot and walked down the beach.  My husband fished and I snorkeled.  Snorkeling here is nice because it is calm, shallow, and there are a ton of fish.  I suck at swimming so I bought a pool noodle to stick under me (husband's peace of mind) but here, I didn't need it.  There are a lot of chickens at this beach (and other places on the island).  They leave you alone though.  When we were heading out, we hiked up the Kalalau Trail about 1/4 mile where there was a lookout, very cool.  This trail is 17 miles or so, for the hard core hiker.  We aren't hard core, so we only went to the look out.  After that, we went to Hanalei and found the Hanalei Pier, where there is also a small beach.  It appeared this is where the locals go, so we didn't stay too long.  The pier is cool, you can look down into the water and see fish.  People were jumping off the pier into the water too.  We had lunch at L&L Hawaiian BBQ which was very tasty.

Hanalei Pier

Saturday: 

We (sadly) flew out Saturday at 10pm. So we packed up everything in our condo and headed to the West side, which was about an hour drive from Princeville.  We crammed a lot into our day: 

-Hanapepe Valley lookout along the highway

-Kauai Coffee Company: we did the tour and sampled a lot of good coffee, fun stuff.  FREE

-Waimea Canyon: the Grand Canyon of Hawaii.  It was beautiful, so awesome.  It is quite the drive up with places to stop along the way for photo ops. On the way back down we stopped and were able to see the Niihau Island in the distance.  

-In Waimea we ate lunch at Island Taco, very yummy. There was also a craft fair going on along the highway where we stopped and bought an awesome piece of artwork that was done on taro bark (I think).

-Glass Beach- In Eleele there is a beach that is covered in tiny pieces of glass, very cool to see.  It is off the Port Allen exit, left onto AkaUla Street, past a warehouse on Walalo.  

-Kekaha- we drove this way to see about stopping to fish, because Eric was still into that, even with no luck the entire trip...haha. There is a beach, looks like it is for locals.  There is also a beach at the very end of the highway that almost requires a 4x4 to get to, we didn't risk it.  

-We headed back towards Lihue and stopped at Kalapaki Beach for one last jaunt in the sand.  We ate dinner at a pizza place called Rocco's Pizza that was near Kalapaki Beach.  It was actually really good, for some reason we were craving pizza after a week of eating fish.  

-Kauai Beer Company- not sure why we didn't discover this until the last day.  Eric is into beer, trying different kinds and all of that, so we came across this place.  He said it was pretty good.  It is pretty close to the airport on Rice Street

-Ninini Lighthouse.  It probably took us a good hour to track this sucker down.  Once we got there it was a good view of the coastline near Lihue, but that's about it.  It is a tall skinny thing, free because it really isn't kept up by anyone in particular.  It was a good adventure at least. LOL   We did see a pretty rainbow while we were there.

-It was getting close to the time to take our car back so we stopped at a gas station and vacuumed out the pounds of sand in the car and reorganized all of our stuff and headed back to the rental car place. 

Glass Beach

Ninini Lighthouse

Kauai Coffee

And the rest is history.  We flew out at around 10pm on the red eye...we didn't sleep a wink and were crabby the next day. Worth it? Yes.  But next time I will book farther in advance and get a daytime flight.  Below is a recap of what we did and saw and enjoyed on each shore.  Enjoy your trip! We can't wait to go back!

North Shore: 

Hanalei Bay beach/pier/overlook/town, good food, fun town.  Try Puka Dog or Chicken in a Barrel BBQ or Tropical Taco for good cheap food.

Haena/Tunnels Beach for snorkeling, also a cave right across the way.

Anini Beach- surfing, some books say you can snorkel but we didn't due to the surfers.

Ke'e Beach- great shallow calm water for snorkeling.  Get there early for easy parking, otherwise it is a nightmare.  

Kilaeua Lighthouse $5 entry fee.

Queen's Bath- only go low-mid tide. Wear tennis shoes or Keen-type sandals for hiking down, very slick, but short hike-less than a mile

Princeville: Kauai's Best Shave Ice next to Foodland shopping center.  YUM.

Lappert's Hawaii- ice cream.  There's one in Princeville, but also other parts of the island.

East Shore: 

Anahola Beach- once you find it, quiet beach lots of shade. 

Kalapaki Beach- smaller, close to the airport.

Kauai Museum- $10 entry, can't remember if it is per person or group.  Very cool stuff, fairly large.

Oepeka Falls in Wailua

Smith's Tropical Paradise, Smith Garden Family Luau in Kapaa.  $78 per person for food and show. AWESOME highly recommended.

Wailua Falls-near Lihue

HeeFat in Kapaa for Shave Ice

Kauai Beer Company in Lihue

Rocco's Pizza in Lihue

South Shore: 

Beaches: a lot of the beaches we came across down here were pretty crowded so we rarely stayed.

Spouting Horn outside of Poipu-at the end of Lawai Road. VERY cool to see.

There is a Puka Dog in Poipu.

Koloa Rum Company- we didn't go, but I hear it is fun if you like rum.

Koloa Coffee Roasters- in Koloa, has good shave ice.  but they also have ice cream and coffee.

Fish Market-  There are a lot of Fish Market restaurant's on the island, they are kind of like a take out place, fresh food like Ahi Poki.

West Shore:

Hanapepe Valley overlook

Kauai Coffee Company: FREE tour and FREE samples.  Can't beat that! 

Lucy Wright Beach in Waimea

Waimea Canyon

Island Taco- In Waimea

Glass Beach

Misc. Notes:

People: you will read that there can be theft on the island, but that is true in any touristy area.  Kauai doesn't feel touristy but don't be naive.  We always took caution and left my purse at the condo and only took what we needed that day.  In general, people are VERY nice.  

Driving: we read online and in our guidebook about driving here.  Don't be in a hurry, enjoy the drive, don't speed, don't be an a-hole on the road, chill out and go the speed limit.  We did this and it was hard adjusting back to the mainland drivers... :-)

Chickens: there are a ton of chickens.  Don't bother them and they won't bother you.  If they're in the road, try to swerve away from them...it is probably bad juju killing a chicken.  

Souviners: there are a ton of stores in each little town and they pretty much have the same stuff.  For T-Shirts we found that the ABC stores have the best deals but it was still fun to drag my husband into 100 stores with "all the same stuff". :-) 

Farmer's Markets: There are Farmer's Markets in a variety of towns all over the island....we got a printout when we checked into our condo with the locations and times.  We went to a couple, but the only things in season were Lychee fruit and these tiny bananas that were a mix between apples and bananas- very tasty.  

Do your own research, there are TONS of stuff to do on Kauai, we didn't have time to hit them all and our newlywed budget didn't allow for it.  We had an amazing time and are itching to go back.  We felt like we were in paradise the entire time we were there (except that awful fishing trip...haha). Happy traveling!