For every visitor to Kaua’i, with every level of fitness and athletic ability, expertise, energy, passion and adventuresome spirit, there’s a suitable choice for a Perfect Day of: walking, hiking, horseback riding, snorkeling, scuba diving, snuba, surfing, boogie boarding, helicopter rides, excursions in one- and two-person kayaks, ocean kayaks, rafts, and a variety of vessels for snorkeling, sailing, whale-watching (Dec-May), dinner cruising and more.
Since Perfect Days in Kaua’i aims to make it easier for you to make satisfying and safe plans for your vacation on Kaua’i, we’re pleased to be able to recommend that you research activities and tours on Kaua’i at http://www.tombarefoot.com. Tom Barefoot (yes, that’s his real name) has spent more than 25 years providing hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Hawaiian islands with the most enjoyable activities and tours.
Tom Barefoot’s activities are part of many Perfect Days. Here are some practical suggestions for selecting activities and tours as part of your own Perfect Days:
§ Use this guide to prepare a rough plan for your Perfect Days in Kaua’i.
§ At the same time, browse through www.tombarefoot.com’s huge (more than 600 pages!) Web site covering the best activities and tours on Kaua’i and Hawai’i’s other islands.
§ Select the activities and tours in Kaua’i that appeal to you, note whether they are morning or afternoon activities, where they depart, and for how long.
§ Bookmark these activities for future reference.
§ As you look at Perfect Days in this guide, you’ll find that all of the activities in www.tombarefoot.com are part of suggested Perfect Days and each of these activities includes a link to this web site.
§ Before leaving for Kaua’i or while you’re on the island, book your choices of activities either online or using the special toll-free number 1-800-621-3601.
Most of your Perfect Days in Kaua’i will be spent on your own walks and hikes, enjoying beautiful beaches, swimming and snorkeling, visiting spas, and shopping in Koloa, Kapa’a, Kilauea, Hanalei and elsewhere on the island. Discovering, exploring and enjoying many of Kaua’i’s best sights and activities on land and sea, however, will require the right transportation, equipment, guides and instructors -- fishing, hiking, horseback riding, seeing remote or inaccessible mountains and valleys by air and land, exploring underwater for marine life, and more.
Perfect Days #1 - #6
Perfect Day #1 - Kipu Ranch and Kawailoa Beach (South Shore)
On the way to Po’ipu, stop for a great expresso or cup of coffee at Java Kai in Kapa’a and design your own omelette across the street at Kountry Kitchen. Breakfast is an excellent choice at the nearby Olympic Café. Traveling on a budget with a hungry family, the huge, inexpensive breakfast at the Wailua Family Restaurant in Kapa’a may be the best choice. If you’re coming from West Kauai, you’re in luck for breakfast at Grinds Café and Expresso or Kalaheo Café & Coffee Company on Hwy. 50 in Kalaheo where you also can pick up a memorable picnic lunch for today's excursion.
Starting at 8am, take a leisurely ATV tour all morning on Kipu Ranch, one of Hawai’i’s most beautiful ranches. Travel on mountain trails, through river valleys, pastures and tropical forests, in the same landscape where Hollywood filmed "Jurassic Park" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." [Don’t forget to make dinner reservations.]
Afterwards head for beautiful Kawailoa Beach, our favorite among the South Shore’s "hidden" Maha’ulepu Beaches, for a quiet picnic, snorkeling and, when conditions are good, swimming. Excellent dinner choices in every cuisine category on the South Shore are too numerous to mention (see Taste of the Islands). Visit Kiahuna Plantation Resort, for example, and let Chef Brenda Silva-Morando completely spoil you at the Plantation Gardens Restaurant. May we recommend the superb shrimp and wasabi ravioli that brings together local shrimp with rocotta, goat cheese, lemon-grass and kaffir-lime. Otherwise just head for the Po’ipu Shopping Center to check out a handful of excellent restaurants in all price categories that simplify the choice of where to go and what to eat.
Perfect Day #2 - South Shore Bicycling Adventure
Have an early breakfast at Kukui’s Poolside Restaurant at the Marriott Hotel in Lihue where you can freely indulge in the buffet before an all-morning bicycle tour. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/kauai/aloha_kauai_tours.html] Learn about Kaua’i’s history and culture as you bike through the Grove Farm Plantation, along scenic roads and byways that you’re not likely to find by yourself.
Afterwards, bike through Puhi to the Tree Tunnel to Koloa and visit an historic sugar mill and this charming village full of interesting shops. Koloa also offers several good places for a break to snack, have lunch or pick up a picnic lunch like Koloa Fish Market, Pizzetta and Tomkat’s Grill. Head down to the untouched Maha’ulepu coastline for a picnic lunch on one of the virtually deserted, beautiful beaches. [Don’t forget to make a dinner reservation.]
In the spirit of the day, plan to have dinner at Gaylord’s Restaurant in historic Kilohana, on the outskirts of Lihue, where you can dine on anything from rack of lamb to fresh Hawaiian seafood in the surroundings of a 1930’s plantation manager’s estate set in a 1700-acre sugar plantation. Come early, visit Kilohana Galleries, shop for handcrafted Hawaiian gifts, and have pupus and refreshments before dinner in the lovely courtyard overlooking green lawns and mountains. As an alternative, get a table on the lanai of the Café Portofino in Lihue and enjoy the restaurant’s Northern Italian specialties while watching the sun set over Kalapaki Bay.
Perfect Day #3 - Ocean and Waimea Canyon Cruising (West Shore)
Coast 12 miles down Waimea Canyon on a sunrise bicycle tour, stopping to take pictures along the way or while you watch the sun set over the island of Ni’ihau. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/kauai/outfitters_bike.html] If you’re willing to rise at around 4:30am for the drive to Port Allen in West Kaua’i, board HoloHolo Charters for a memorable 7-hour snorkeling trip to Lehua Island off the north coast of Ni’ihau. A full continental breakfast will be waiting for you on board the catamaran and at mid-day a very welcome gourmet buffet lunch. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/kauai/sunset_cruises_kauai.html]
Instead of seeing the sunrise from Waimea Canyon, view the morning sun light up Barking Sands and Polihale Beaches en route to dramatic saw-tooth ridges of the Na Pali coastline etched by deep valleys, waterfalls flowing down them. Accompanied by spinner dolphins, your ship heads for crystal clear waters in Lehua’s crater where you'll snorkel with an abundance of colorful tropical fish around healthy coral. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/kauai/napali_explorer.html and http://www.tombarefoot.com/Kaua’i/lahela_ocean_adventures.html]
After enjoying a buffet lunch, you'll head back across the channel with plenty of time left in the day to visit shops and excellent art galleries in quaint Hanapepe nestled in a lush tropical valley. As an alternative to the morning bike tour, you can bicycle at sunset down Waimea Canyon to Waimea Town. For good food, relaxation and thirst-quenching micro-brews, at the end of your bike ride to Waimea you need go no further than the Waimea Brewing Co. but the Kalaheo Steak House or Wrangler’s Steak House also are good choices for famished bike riders.
Perfect Day #4 - Kaua’i by Air, River and Luau Feast
Board a helicopter at Lihue Airport after breakfast, circle Kalapaki Harbor, fly over Po’ipu and Lawa’i to lush Hanapepe Valley and then above the incredible Waimea Canyon to Alaka’i Swamp, follow the jagged cliffs of Na Pali to the shores of Hanalei Bay and Princeville, and follow a dozen beaches and shoreline of the East Coast through Kapa’a back to Lihu’e. In about an hour, you’ve seen virtually all of Kaua’i’s amazingly diverse landscape.
From Lihu’e Airport drive northward on Hwy. 51 to Hwy. 56 up the coast to Wailua. If you’re in luck, it’s Friday and you can feast on a gourmet lunch in the backyard of Ginger Carlson’s charming Caffè Coco. Otherwise, have lunch out in the open at the Wailua Marina Restaurant with a great view of the Wailua River. Afterwards, take a Wailua River Cruise to the Fern Grotto. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/kauai/fern_grotto_kauai.html] [Don’t forget to make reservations for a luau dinner at Smith’s Tropical Paradise.]
If there’s time, visit a couple of unique art galleries and gift shops in Kapa’a. Otherwise, right next door to the Wailua Marina, wend your way through a mile of garden pathways within the 30-acres of Smith’s Tropical Paradise, a botanical wonderland on the Wailua River that offers the best luau on the island. Following the Imu Ceremony, gather with other guests for cocktails, music, conversation and a traditional luau dinner. Entertainment consists of music and dance from virtually the entire Asia Pacific.
Perfect Day #5 - Diving, Beachcombing and Relaxing
Have an ample kine local breakfast at the Eggbert’s in Coconut Marketplace, Dani’s Restaurant or Barbecue Inn in Lihue or Camp House Grill in Kalaheo on Hwy. 50 before checking in at the dive shop in Koloa. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/Kaua’i/fathom_five_divers.html] In summer, arrange to dive the incredible walls, lava pillars and enormous caves of Ni’ihau Island. Any time of year, see endangered green sea turtles, unusual volcanic sea formations and an endless stream of colorful tropical fish during one- and two-tank ocean and shore dives.
After diving all morning, you'll be ready for a relaxed, delicious lunch at Bennecks’s Beach Broiler or Joe’s on the Green at the Kiahuna Golf Course followed by an easy afternoon of beachcombing. Explore beaches from Maha’ulepu to Shipwreck Beach in front of Po’ipu’s fabulous Hyatt Regency Kaua’i Resort. Watching surfers, body surfers, windsurfers and boogie boarders, you may decide to take surfing lessons the next day at the Kaua’i Surf School in Po’ipu. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/Kaua’i/Kaua’i_surfing_school.html] [Don’t forget to make reservations for dinner.]
But on this Perfect Day you may be content to stroll around the Hyatt’s lush, exotic grounds, dip in the saltwater lagoon (without waves!), and end up relaxing in the Hyatt’s Seaview Terrace Lounge, have a drink and pupus, mesmerized by the waterfall down below. If you want a romantic evening, book ahead at the Hyatt’s Tidepools restaurant and request a table next to the freshwater lagoon lighted by flickering tiki torches. Comparable fine dining alternatives include Casablanca at Kiahuna, Beach House Restaurant or the more casual Poipu Bay Grill & Bar.
Perfect Day #6 - Kayaking, Kaua’i Art & Crafts and Dinner
Several of Kaua’i’s most beautiful freshwater areas are accessible only by boat, including Wailua State Park and Fern Grotto, Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, Hule’ia Stream and the Menehune Fish Pond. Even non-swimmers can take an unforgettable kayak trip into the Hulei National Wildlife Refuge on Hulei Stream, including a 1½ -mile hike through verdant tropical rain forest to waterfall pools for a picnic lunch in one of the last habitats of endangered bird species on Kaua’i. [See http://www.tombarefoot.com/kauai/kauai_kayaks_surfing.html and http://www.tombarefoot.com/Kaua’i/outfitters_kayak.html]
After this memorable kayaking excursion, visit the Kaua’i Museum on Rice Street, in Lihue, to see the permanent collection of Hawaiian artifacts, photo exhibits and art and crafts of some of the best artists on the island. For more artists and exceptional hand-crafted gifts, don’t miss the Kaua’i Products Store in Lihu'e's Kukui Grove Shopping Center. At least half of the artists and local crafts people of Kaua’i exhibit and sell their products in this store from time to time. (Taste a sample of the store's famous macadamia nut fudge).
End the day and evening with a special dinner near your lodgings. For a memorable splurge dinner, make a reservation the day before or earlier in the day at The Bull Shed, Hukilau Lanai or Coconuts Island Style Grill & Bar, Lemongrass Grill & Seafood in Kapa’a or at The Lighthouse Bistro Kilauea.
posted by arno @ 8:17 AM
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