Kauai Adventure Travel Made Easy

Looking for some truly memorable physical activity in Kauai? Check out these activities, which are sure to thrill even the most cynical inner child.

Eco-Tours

The North Shore's answer to ziplining is an eight-zipline course with hiking, waterfall crossing, and swimming thrown in for a half-day adventure. On Princeville Ranch's Jungle Valley Waterfall Adventure, you can hike, kayak, and zipline through rain forests and picnic at a waterfall swimming hole. ($135 adults; $89 kids).

Mountain Tubing

Here's how it works. You recline in an inner tube and float down fern-lined irrigation ditches that were built more than a century ago to divert water from nearby mountains to pineapple fields. They'll even give you a headlamp so you can see as you float through covered tunnels. Ages five and up are welcome. Kauai Back Country Adventure's tour takes about three hours and includes a picnic and a swim in a swimming hole. Tours are $99 per person.

Sky-Diving

Ten thousand feet over Kauai and falling at a rate of 120 miles per hour is probably as thrilling as it gets while airbone. First there's the 25-minute plane ride in a Cessna, then the exhilaration of the first step into the sky, the sensation of sailing weightless in the air over Kauai, and finally the peaceful buoyancy beneath the canopy of your parachute. If this is for you, Skydive Kauai can set you up.

Zip-Linining

If soaring over a forest is your thing, check out the Kipu Falls Safari, from Outfitters Kauai. The safari takes you through treetops by traditional and tandem zipline, suspension bridge, and an innovative Zippel line that simulates rappelling. End up at Kipu Falls for swimming and a turn on one of the rope swings -- if you dare. ($120 adults; $94 kids).

Sailing 70 feet above the ground for 3.5 hours will take your vacation to another level of magic. Just Live offers one of the only treetop zipline programs in the state where your feet never touch the ground once you're in the air. Six zips and two swinging bridges make the "Tree Top Tour" the most popular choice. For the heoric at heart, there's the "Extreme Adventure" ropes course that includes two ziplines, a climbing wall, and a free fall from 40 feet.