Visiting Majestic Kauai, Hawaii: An Honest Review of My Trip

Aloha friends! We’re back from our recent vacation to majestic Kauai, Hawaii and I’m feeling refreshed with renewed energy. It’s amazing what warmer weather and sunshine can do for your soul. Today I’m sharing the highlights of our trip along with favorite and not-so-favorite things about Kauai. Hopefully you’ll find the information useful if you’re planning your own Hawaiian vacation. And if you’re not, enjoy the photos and pretend you’re there!

The above photo was taken on our last night on the island after dinner at Hideaway’s Pizza Pub. After enjoying fish and fruit all week, I was craving some pizza. I’m from Chicago where you’ll find some of the best pizza in the world – but THE BEST pizza I’ve ever eaten was at Hideaway’s in Princeville. The crust has a wonderful, smoky flavor. After dinner we walked over to the shoreline to catch this gorgeous sunset off the north coast of Kauai.

Below is a typical Hawaiian home in the resort area of Princeville, which is where we stayed. Princeville reminds me of the plantations on Hilton Head Island, if you’ve ever been there. Everything is lush and meticulously groomed. If I ever go back to Kauai, I’d stay in Princeville again. It’s centrally located to everything on the north coast. Although it’s a bit rainier on the north side, it’s prettier and less crowded than the south side of the island.

 

Here’s a collection of nice townhomes in the Princeville resort. This is right across the street from the Makai Golf Course which has a sidewalk running along the length of it so you can enjoy the beauty of the course even if you don’t golf.

 

The north side of Kauai, Hawaii has several amazing and uncrowded beaches. Unfortunately, they’re not all easy to access. Pu’u Poa Beach is what I call the secret beach. If you don’t do your research, you’ll never know about it. And in my opinion, it’s the best beach on the island. The only way to get to it by land is through Hotel Hanalei Bay, which has a guard at the entrance. So no driving your car and parking at the hotel. There IS a very small parking lot for Hideaway Beach which isn’t too far from Pu’u Poa Beach, but good luck in finding a parking spot. No kidding – there were about 10 spots in the lot. So we walked 2 miles from our vacation rental to the beach and left the car behind.

If the guard at the entrance of the hotel tries to keep you from entering on foot, simply tell them you’re going to the beach. It’s a public beach and legally, they can’t keep you from it. Here’s where you’ll begin your descent down several concrete flights of steps, around the back of the hotel, until you reach your beautiful destiny (which is well worth the 2-mile trek).

 

The hotel is adjacent to a small section of the beach, but if you wander further down the coast, you pretty much have the beach to yourself, with views of Hanalei Bay and the beginnings of the Napali Coast.

 

Wouldn’t you say this view is worth the walk? We put towels and water in our backpacks so we’d be well-stocked until it was time to leave. Nothing beats Pu’u Poa Beach!

 

Hanalei is a quaint island town that embraces the spirit of Hawaii. It’s a bit touristy but wasn’t too crowded during our February visit. I’m sure there’s more hustle and bustle during the summer months.

 

This Hanalei “shopping center” has a few stores and restaurants connected together, with beautiful wood work to set it all off.

 

And then there are smaller, more island-type buildings that house stores and restaurants. I love the quaint island appeal of Hanalei. It has a decent beach at Hanalei Bay so plan to visit this area a couple of times during your vacation at Kauai, Hawaii.

 

I thought this sign was cute and whimsical – the fish just needs the dirt wiped off his head.

 

Kalypso was our favorite Hanalei restaurant. I think we dined here three times during our stay. Hanalei is just a couple miles from Princeville and it’s a gorgeous drive.

 

The historic Waiʻoli Huiʻia Church is located right on the main drag in Hanalei.

 

Just beyond Hanalei is Haena State Park along the Napali Coast. I was determined to hike the trail to get up close to the wilder part of Kauai. However, you can’t just go to the park. You have to reserve parking, which is hard to do unless you make your reservation 30 days in advance. You can, however, park at the Waipa Park and Ride lot to catch the shuttle. But again, you need reservations. You pretty much need reservations to everything on Kauai, except stores and beaches (if you can find parking).

The trail was treacherous at some points. We hiked two miles to Haena Beach and two miles back. It seemed more like four miles each way due to the rough terrain and the fact you were constantly going uphill or downhill. I had to use my hands to climb some of the rockier areas – hubby did okay though. I highly recommend the use of a walking stick to help with balance.

 

When we finally reached the beach, it was simply stunning! Absolutely worth the blood, sweat, and tears to get there. And yes, there were tears. A squall decided to dump rain and wind on us for about 5 minutes and that’s when I lost it. Thankfully, it didn’t last long and the sun came back out and all was well. At the end of the post is a video of this amazing beach. You don’t want to miss it.

 

Another beach we visited was Tunnels Beach, which is on the way to Haena State Park. Parking is very limited (of course) so plan to go early. You can also take the same shuttle that goes to the state park. The shuttle comes by every 20-30 minutes. I found this pretty stream that leads to the ocean at Tunnels Beach.

 

Another favorite beach is Anini Beach (below). We never had a problem finding parking here. There’s only one road that leads to it, so it’s quiet and peaceful. The only other beach we visited was on the south side of the island – Poipu Beach. It had lots of people and not my scene at all. The area is pretty, but is definitely more of a tourist hot spot than Princeville. You might like it though if you have kids who are looking to play with other kids on the beach.

 

On the southwest side of the island is gorgeous Waimea Canyon. Although it’s just 30 miles from Princeville, it took us almost two hours to get there. Kauai has one main road that extends from the north side of the island to the south side, so there’s heavy traffic at times and the speed limit spans from 25 to 50 miles an hour.

We drove through the towns of Kapa’a, Lihue, Hanapepe, and Waimea (and probably a couple others I don’t recall) to get to the canyon. Lihue is the economic center of Kauai where you can find your favorite department stores and chain restaurants.

Be forewarned when going to the canyon, there aren’t signs that lead you to the main parking lot, which -surprise – is very small in comparison to the size of the canyon. There’s maybe 20-30 parking spaces and we snagged one of the last ones. You do have to pay for parking. We only hiked a little bit because the trail was super muddy and slippery. The conditions are probably better in summer. Thankfully, the road around the canyon has several wide shoulders so you can get out, explore, and enjoy the views.

 

You can also enjoy roosters and chickens alongside the road. There are LOTS of them all over the island and they crow all day, not just in the morning. I’ll probably miss the birds of Kauai, Hawaii the most. They have no fear of humans.

 

This gorgeous albatross crossed our path back in Princeville as though she didn’t have a care in the world.

 

This red-crested cardinal landed very close to me in the backyard of our Airbnb. Like I said, no fear!

 

I can’t write a post about Hawaii without including a photo of the popular Nēnē, the official state bird and only found on the Hawaiian islands. It’s currently the world’s rarest goose.

 

The flowers are gorgeous on Kauai, like these orchids in the yard where we stayed.

 

Hibiscus are everywhere in Kauai.

 

Another place we visited during our stay was the Na ‘Aina Kai Botanical Gardens. We originally planned to visit Allerton Garden, but it’s on the south side of Kauai and I didn’t want to make that trip again, so we switched to a closer garden. There are plenty of gardens that you can visit. One thing I didn’t like was that you had to book a group tour of the garden. There aren’t very many self-guided tours, which is what I’m used to here in the Chicago area. I feel like the state of Hawaii is very careful about controlling tourists and visitors, which I can understand since they’d like to maintain the wild, tropical nature.

As I was getting more frustrated at having to reserve almost everything and deal with limited parking, I came across information that these obstacles are a statewide endeavor to limit tourists and preserve the natural areas of Hawaii. I can understand that, but just be forewarned that while beautiful, Hawaii is not the easiest place to go on vacation. Do your research ahead of time and make activity reservations before you even leave for your trip. Since we visited in February and I knew the weather could be iffy, we didn’t make reservations in advance and had to sacrifice doing a few things. No problem though, we found plenty of things to enjoy.

 

The one major disappointment was the sunset dinner cruise along the Napali Coast. We booked it for my birthday, only to have them cancel the day before, saying they had to do maintenance on the boat. We were leaving two days later and nothing else was available so we missed doing the cruise. But we did go kayaking on the Hanalei River so all was not lost.

Would I go back to Kauai? If I had unlimited funds and time, yes. But since there are so many other places to explore and money doesn’t grow on trees, I’d probably go elsewhere to take in as much of the world as I can.

Head over to my sister blog, Pond and Garden, to see the beautiful flora of Kauai, Hawaii.

And finally – here’s the video of beautiful Haena Beach that we reached after our treacherous hike!