Kauai 2003 - late summer

Quick Tips:

As far as tourist stuff, I'd suggest waiting to book any activities until you get to the island. If you're willing to sit through a timeshare presentation, you can usually get ~50% off any activities you may want to do. This includes boat tours, helicopter tours, fishing trips, and just about anything else. For us, it was worth the hour of our time, but it's not necessarily for everybody.

Best Way To Get Around:

The staff was very pleasant and the grounds immaculately kept and very attractive. This was our first stay here and we'll be going back to this particular resort many times in the future, no doubt.

• Unit Type: 2 Bedroom
• Activities: Good
• Amenities: Very Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

We didn't once make reservations, but on one night the place got inundated by a convention from the Hyatt. We ended up waiting a bit for a table but it wasn't long (20 minutes, maybe?).

On some nights, weekends I think (but I was on vacation, it was all one long weekend), they have live music, usually some sort of Hawaiian music. Very pleasant indeed. Being that it's an open-air restaurant, the sound wasn't deafening and carried nicely.

We love Keoki's and will continue to go back.

We were seated right on time in a nice booth in the lower section of the restaurant and had a righteous view out the side of the place. As the sun was going down, people started getting up and leaving their seats to go out towards the beach/water and have their picture taken. There were actually a lot of people about since, as I mentioned earlier, this is where people like to go to watch the sun set.

Something to keep in mind, my grand-pappy used to say that a picture taken of the sunset/rise in Hawaii must contain a palm tree or else it could be a picture taken anywhere. That said, there are a couple of palm trees on the other side of the beach that get beautifully silhouetted by the setting sun.

Food: oi… fantastic… absolutely fantastic. It was all amazingly presented and had incredible flavors. The service was also wonderful. The servers were there whenever you needed anything and were always right on task without hovering or being at all overbearing. We had a couple of drinks with dinner and then finished with dessert. It was all very elegant.

Will we go back? Almost guaranteed. It ranks very highly as a romantic dinner. I wouldn’t necessarily take my kids with me because I think a lot of the experience would be lost on them and I wouldn’t want to blow the bucks since the Beach House is in the higher cost range.

Attire should be reasonable. Don’t wear your swim trunks but you needn’t wear a tie either.

We had a leisurely ride up the coast and went into a couple of sea caves that have been carved out over a few centuries. The high point was coming out the the open-air cave (used in Popeye the movie for the octopus fight) and seeing one of the catamarans sitting out a touch, unable to get any closer due to their size. We whooped and hollered at them. They were jealous. After going most of the way up the coast, we started to head back with a stop made at a beach for lunch and some snorkeling. Water was a crystal clear blue. Amazing to say the least.

Now comes the part that makes this vehicle *ahem* "interesting"--the ride back. Once we went around the corner from the west side to the south side the seas changed drastically. The remainder of the ride back was rather *ahem* "exhilarating". It was bouncy, choppy, and being in a zodiac, you got to feel every wave, swell, and bump. We stopped a couple of times for people to relax their hands from gripping the ropes. For what it's worth, they did provide gloves.

The crew was awesome. Kalani and Jason were remarkably cool. They took very good care of us the whole way.

If you're an adventure seeker, the zodiac could very well be your cup of tea. I will probably opt for a catamaran next time. I've can say I've already had my experience on the zodiac. Regardless of your travel method, the Na Pali coast is a must see area. It's absolutely remarkable.

We got there a few minutes early and the crew was already at the boat prepping it for our trip. We were sharing this charter with four other people. They showed up a few minutes later. A few hellos later we were on the boat and on our way. Since we were there first, we were first to work the gear when it was fish-on time. Note to others: get there first!

Once we cleared the harbor, out went the lines--three larger outrigger lines and four lighter lines. It wasn't too long until we took the first hit on the lighter tackle. I guess this is sort of par for the course. At the time of the year we went, apparently there aren't as many of the big fish running, so we didn't expect to catch any. If you're looking for the "but we caught one!", no we didn't. If you do want to catch the big one, try going between May and July, not October. We did, however, catch a few smaller skipjack and, uh, something that looks like a skipjack. . .A'u. . .Aku. . .Apu. . .something like that. And, even though they weren't gargantuan, they gave the good fight and it was a kick in the pants!!

Anyway, we trolled our way up the coast a bit following the birds. All six of us brought in a couple of fish each and we all had a great time. Once we got back to port, the crew cleaned the fish we wanted for us and we headed back to the Embassy armed with some fresh fish for the barbecue and some sashimi. Mmmm mmmm good!

Bottom line: we had a great time and definitely want to do it again, just at a different time of the year when we can gamble on getting the big daddy on the line. I'd suggest that if you are considering going fishing, find out when the boats will be coming back into port and go meet them. Any fishing boat that is worth a darn will fly a small flag indicating what they caught that day.

Check 'em out and pick the boat that has the most flags or the flags for the fish you want to catch. Also, if you want a beer or snacks, take it with you. They provide drinks but no food or alcohol.