Honeymooning in Kauai

Kauai is an island filled with amazing natural beauty. My new husband and I marvelled at God's creation -- coming from our midwest winter, it was a stark contrast to what we had just left. Our gray city of Chicago turned into blues and greens of tropical paradise, the naked bare wooden skeletons turned into lush and fragrant trees. It was truly enrapturous. We spent 6 nights in Kauai and then moved onto Maui (see Honeymooning in Maui).

Best things to do:
- Go on a helicopter ride -- we were told that this was an absolute must and it did not disappoint. I don't love to fly, personally, but it felt like we were floating. An incredible experience.
- Visit Hanalei
- Hike the Waimea Canyon
- Walk through the Princeville Hotel
- Visit Waimea Falls (the Fantasy Island Falls)
- Hike down to Queen's Bath
- Tunnels beach
- Pools of Molokea (if you can get there, you have to offroad a bit, which is REALLY bumpy!!)

Quick Tips:

DO purchase or borrow the Ultimate Guide to Kauai Guidebook! It is well worth the price. It is well-written and informative. We only disagreed with one of their restaurant reviews the entire time we were in Hawaii!
DO NOT go hiking on the Na Pali coast (the 2 miler) if it has been raining. We foolishly did that and I fell and twisted my ankle. The rocks get really slippery and it's quite a rigorous hike, up and down the cliffs.
DO NOT try to drive through Kapa'a during rush hour. The entire island of Kauai is connected by a 2-lane highway, which has kept much of the island virgin and beautiful, but it has also causes quite a bit of congestion, particularly around the city areas.
DO swim in Lydgate State Park, which has boulder-enclosed ponds which protected us from the tide. We went in February, which was the height of high tide season, so we only got to swim once.
DO try to get accomodations with a kitchen if you are at all on a budget. Kauai is known to be fairly pricey as far as dining is concerned (well, all of Hawaii is, really).

Best Way To Get Around:

Get a 4-wheel drive vehicle!!! I cannot emphasize this enough, some of the things worth doing are really off of the beaten path and it was so nice to have a Jeep Wrangler. A rental car is quite necessary in Kauai -- there is no public transportation of which we were aware, nor did we see any taxis nearby.

Best Things Nearby:

The Bali Hai Villas are smack dab in the middle of Princeville, a very lovely, but also very ritzy part of the island. It is about a mile from the Princeville Hotel, whose grandeur and sheer beauty when combined with its location on the cliffs of Kauai cannot be overstated. Just to put it into perspective, this is where Oprah Winfrey stays when she comes to Kauai. It's definitely worth walking through! Other than that, there isn't much going on in Princeville if you didn't bring your golf clubs.

The mall that is located at the entrance of Princeville is very pricey -- there is a grocery store, but we were warned in the Ultimate Guide to Kauai that it was overpriced and that better prices could be found at the Safeway in Kapa'a. I did like the seclusion of Princeville, however. After all of the stress of planning a wedding, I really felt like I "got away from it all" there!

I loved that Hanalei was close, however. Hanalei is a charming little bohemian town -- but there are very nice shops and restaurants there as well.

Best Things About the Resort:

The actual unit was all that we could have hoped for and more. It was big for the two of us, would have been perfect had we had kids or had another couple with us.

The pool area is beautiful, but very cold! It is not hot in February, just warm, which was not enough to heat the pool! However, one evening we did go for a dip in the whirlpool, which was more than roomy enough for four people, which was good because when we got there, there was another couple in there. We relaxed in there, stargazed and chatted. A wonderful ending to the day.

We also loved the free POG (pineapple, orange, guava juice) and continental breakfast that was offered at the clubhouse of the timeshare! We felt very attended to while we were there.

Resort Experience:

After we got our luggage from the baggage carousel, we were directed to the Pahio at Bali Hai greeters who gave me a lei, we filled out some paperwork, they gave us our key and we were on our way! This was wonderful as we didn't get in until about 9 pm and we were exhausted from travelling.

We loved our timeshare. It was huge! 2 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms for just the two of us. We really enjoyed having the full kitchen, it allowed us to make breakfasts and pack lunches for our daily excursions. It also had a washer and dryer (and laundry detergent and fabric softener were provided for us), which we also used.

We had a stunning view outside of our bedroom -- it reminded us each morning that we were in a garden paradise. A short walk out of the timeshare and you were able to see much of what Kauai had to offer.

The resort itself was clean, the service was efficient and friendly. I had absolutely no complaints whatsoever about any of it. We did not partake in most of the activities that the resort offered -- we were busy doing our own exploring of the island. Our unit was so big though, that I almost wish that there would have been some friends there to share it with us! Note that I said almost. :)

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

Fish Bowls restaurant is visible from the main highway, just south of Kapa'a. We never considered going there until the last evening, and boy are we glad that we did!

When we got to the resort on the first day, we received a coupon book filled with deals on restaurants, activities, and shopping. The Fish Bowls coupon was one of them -- a Buy 1 Meal, Get the Second Meal Free. Fish Bowls wasn't in our book (The Ultimate Guide to Kauai), so we were a little bit reluctant to go somewhere we hadn't heard of before (by this time we had become slightly too dependent on this book)! Still, we reasoned that a 2 for 1 meal was too good to pass up, so we decided to go and splurge.

The decor is very tropical, with wall murals of the ocean and its inhabitants. The dining room is open air -- in fact, there was a stray cat that came into the restaurant while we were eating! Despite the feline intrusion, I enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere. I really felt like I was in Hawaii.

My husband and I looked at their extensive menu and asked the server for some recommendations. He recommended the opah (not Oprah) fish, the Chef's special. He said it was similar to Chilean Sea Bass, a firm, yet tender white fish. I decided to get the combination fish and steak, while my husband got the crab legs and steak (we were splurging after all). The opah was out of this world delicious -- I had never heard of it before that evening and I would definitely get it again if I ever saw it on any menus here on the mainland. The sauce that accompanied perfectly complimented its texture. My husband also really enjoyed his crab legs (and both our steaks were good), but the opah stole the show for us both.

This place is a little pricier, but it was definitely worth it!

Ever since we knew we were going to Hawaii, my main culinary desire was sushi! I couldn't wait to get there and see how fresh the fish were when compared to the Midwest. One of the first things I looked up in the Ultimate Guide to Kauai was to see where the best sushi restaurant on Kauai was. They listed 3 as "ono" (which means "best" in Hawaiian). So, I picked Kintaro based on their review. My husband is not a big sushi eater and Kintaro also had cooked food for him.

We got to the restaurant, which seemed nice and classy with Japanese-esque decor (except it did seem a little bit dark, particularly as we were eating an early dinner--5 pm--and it was extremely bright outside). I ordered the Hanalei roll (on the book's suggestion), as well as a California roll, a tuna roll, and a spicy tuna roll. Nothing really out of the ordinary -- I geared up to have a sushi tasting sensation. Boy, was I disappointed!

The service was lousy. While the food came quickly (we were almost the only people there at that hour) our waiter hardly came by to check on us, leaving us without drinks (not a good idea when soy sauce & wasabi are involved in any combination). The sushi left much to be desired. The rolls were not tight at all and were difficult to eat. Most of the rice ended up in my soy sauce/wasabi combination than in my mouth. The fish, while it wasn't terrible, didn't seem very fresh to me. I made my poor husband try a little bit and he lost his appetite after that.

Perhaps I was expecting too much -- wanting Paris and getting Podunk, Michigan. I don't know. I do know that I have had better sushi elsewhere and probably could get some in Podunk, Michigan. Perhaps it was an "off day" -- their regular chef didn't come in that early. Either way, if we ever go back to Kauai, we would not spend our money there again. Incidentally, this was the only thing on which we did not agree with the authors of our guidebook on the entire vacation.

We came here not knowing what to really expect. The book (The Ultimate Guide to Kauai) had given it an "ono" (which means "best"), but we were unfamiliar with the "Mixed Plate" cuisine, which seemed to be fairly prevalent around Kauai. It was later explained to us (in Maui) that Mixed Plate refers to the collision of cultures that can be found in Hawaii--when people from all different countries came to the islands to work, they brought with them their different cuisines and would share their food amongst each other, creating a very diverse array of foods in a meal.

Anyhow, we drove around and tried to find this place, which is right off of the road next to the Ching Young Village, a large shopping complex. I expected to find a sit down restaurant, but instead found basically a food stand, with cafeteria-style service. The service was very friendly, the woman working behind the counter (who looked very much the part of the Hanalei bohemian) gave us some samples to try. I ended up getting the special pineapple-curry ahi tuna which came with rice and macaroni salad. My husband got the kalua pig sandwich. They were both amazing! His kalua pig was the tenderest that we had had the entire time we were in Hawaii, including at the luau (which was probably the worst). The prices were extremely reasonable, particularly for Hanalei. Definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, inexpensive meal.

The primary benefit of going to Kauai during high tide season is the ocean. It is stunning -- the power and force with which it bursts onto the shore is remarkable, especially when combined with the steadfastness of the mountains. We went to Queen's Bath and sat on top of the rocks for about an hour, just watching the ocean churn. It was spectacular.

However, it precluded us from doing any snorkeling or swimming in the ocean (at least on the north side of the island, we never tried to swim on the southern side, e.g. Poipu), which was disappointing. I had read that Tunnels Beach yielded some of the best snorkeling in the world, so it was a letdown to not be able to see that. However, instead of spending the day at the beach, we amused ourselves in other ways, such as hiking or going into town. It was really a perfect time to go hiking since the weather was about in the mid- to upper-70's the entire time we were there. Thankfully, we did get to snorkel in Maui, and tried to swim a little bit, but the tide was very strong, although less violent than it was in Kauai.

I was also disappointed to not see any whales in Kauai the entire time we were there. It is possible that our untrained eyes skipped over the whales that were out there. Happily, we saw many whales in Maui's waters, which sees more "whale traffic" than does Kauai, which is the most remote of any of the islands.

All in all, I loved getting away from the midwest winter! The next time we go to Kauai (I do hope there will be a next time!) I would like to go during the low tide season, to see what it's like and to be able to swim in those beautiful clear waters.