We will be in Kauai for 5 nights. We have a reservation for 3 nights at the Hyatt which my two girls, 5 and 9, will love. I also have a ressie for the Sheraton because I wanted to stay close to the shore...love to hear the waves crashing. However, I am now thinking that I should cancel the Sheraton and chose a place over on the East or North side since we will be sight seeing over there for a couple of days anyway. Our plan is to visit Waimea and the Poipu beach area while staying at the Hyatt. We also want to see the beautiful scenery in the North and visit the waterfalls, Lydgate Park, Wailua River, Sleeping Giant in the East. Which place would be best for us?I have considered staying at a Hanalei Bay condo or villa (382.00 for a one bedroom ocean view with car and bfast), or the Outrigger Lae Nani at the end of Wailua Bay (332.00 for a 2 bedroom ocean front suite with car). Can anyone give me some advice on which accomodations would be better or which area would be better to stay at based on the activities we wish to do? How long is the drive from Wailua to Princeville?
Thanks so much!

The drive from Princeville resort area to Wailua is about 25 miles and about 45 minutes. I think it is much more scenic up north and prefer the Hanalei/Princeville area over the East or South Kauai location, need to be ocean front to hear the ocean waves crashing in the north though.
For some of the activities you listed with children you may prefer the closer eastern kauai location of the Radisson or Marriott. Also you might want to take the Fern grotto river ride. Suggest you try searching for rates near LIH (Kauai's airport code)on www.expedia.com for example for many resorts in the area, have personally only stayed at the Coconut Beach Resort and can not recommend it, do not recall hearing waves crashing there. Also you can search this forum for "kauai radisson" or "kauai marriott" etc. for opinions.

You do not mention what time of the year you will be going. The North shore is very beautiful, but I understand that it rains all the time in the winter up there. We stayed in a condo on the North Shore in the summer and it was great. I think it took an hour to get from NS to Wailua since the road was crowded and it was a single lane in both directions.

We will be in Kauai the last week in December. Even if it was very rainy then, would it still be worth it to stay at the Princeville? What do people do there when it rains or is it so brief that it truly doesn't matter?

Hey Ashley,

Stayed at the Princeville this past February for a week's time (i.e., smack in the middle of the "rainy season") and it didn't rain for more than 15 or 20 minutes any day we were there.

I wouldn't let the slightly greater chance (and that's all it is) of rain stop you from staying on the North side of the island if that's where you want to stay. If you have other reasons to stay in Poipu or the East, that's a different story, but the potential for rain shouldn't be one of them (IMHO).

My wife & I so fell in love with the North side of the island in general and The Princeville in particular, that if we ever get the chance to go back we personally wouldn't stay anywhere else no matter what time of year it was.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree about the weather on the North Shore in February. Was there a few years ago for a week, and we had overcast skies and/or rain for all but 2 of the 7 days. It really put a damper on our week. We had been on the South Shore immediately preceeding our North Shore stay and the weather was great. Don't know if this was just that year, but I don't think it is unusual for it to rain lots in Feb. on the North shore.

The larger problem for us in Feb and March was not rainfall but high surf or rough ocean conditions during this period that prevented us from one of our favorite activities: snorkeling and whalewatching/touring Napali coast by boat. Fortunately Kauai is a small island and we found if you drive an hour or two to southern (e.g. Poipu Beach) or western kauai, we could escape the rain, and high surf.

There is somerainfall data on this website for Lihue: rainfall:http://www.wunderground.com/NORMS/Di...=none&IATA=LIH