Dave

We are going to Kauai for the first time in May. We want to take a helicopter tour of the island, but there are a bunch of choices. Does anyone out there have any feedback to steer us in the right direction? Also, we'll be staying in Princeville -- any other recs for restaurants, etc. would be appreciated. One more thing, will the weather be decent on the north shore in May? Thanks!

Julie

Get the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook. It has reviews of all the different helicopter companies and it's a great guidebook. I can't remember which company we used, but I know we got it from the guidebook.

xx

or use the text search. don't want to sound grouchy but it's been discussed numerous times. i think interisland and jack harter were the top choices.

ryan

There is a helicopter company that operates out of the Princeville airport, whihc is less than 10 minutes from the PV Hotel.

My wife and I took the 1 hour tour in June and thought it was great. (Well, at least I did.) We were in the back and she was stuck in the middle seat in a "3 in the front, 4 in the back configuration." Her view was less dramatic and it became uncomfortable after 40 minutes.

I would use the company again. But, I'd make sure I was on four passenger trip. There are company's on the island that do run smaller copters.

A one hour tour is worth the extra money.

Most restaurants were decent. (I know there a plenty of posts with recommendations.) The one I'd say to avoid in the PV area is the Bali Hai Restaurant. They ran out of rice (in an Asian restaurant!) and the mashed potatos came from a box. Big mistake.

Tracey

I took inter-island helicopters in September. We landed at a waterfall and had a picnic lunch. It was really quite beautiful and would do it again, even though it was more pricey than a regular tour. The helicopter held 2 couples and had no doors on it, on our request. We got some really great photos after my initial fear stopped. There web site is: http://www.hawaiian.net/~interisland/index.html. Hope this helps.

been there

If you're staying at Princeville then you should definately use heli-usa, the company that flies out of Princeville Airport. We took the 60 minute tour and loved every minute of it. The scenery was unreal, the staff was very professional and myself and my wife felt very safe the whole time. Don't bother driving all the way down to the south shore, you're just going to end up flying north where all the real great scenery is.

http://www.heliusa.com/default.htm

FYI- we stayed at Princeville in late November (technically the rainy season) and we didn't see one drop of rain and it only got a bit cloudy in the late afternoons. You just never know. . . But from what I've heard, May is pretty consistently sunny.

jenn

Be aware that the safety of some of the helicopter co's is not that good. The salt air requires a lot of maintenance of the equipment and most co's don't bother. Throughout our several trips, we read about accidents (none fatal) in the local papers.

joan

I went to the websites for both Inter-Island and HeliUSA. It looks like HeliUSA has 7 seats in all their copters. When my family and I toured Alaska by copter, those 2 in the middle of the back seats were disappointed. And the "no-doors" availability, with four people...WOW! It would really make a difference, but I don't know if it's enough to compensate for the drive from the north shore where we'll be staying...

Been there, where did you sit? Was it worth it? I like the idea of combining the air and sea tour.