hi everyone!
my boyfriend and i are taking our first visit to kauai in mid december. we are staying at the hyatt the entire time (i really wanted to do the princeville also but got scared off by warnings of rain). we will have a car the entire week so i plan on visiting the north shore a lot.
my questions are:
what are your favorite kayak touring trips.
my boyfriend loves sea kayaking but i feel like the kayak trip that appeals to me (on the north shore) is not available in the winter. are the south shore kayaking trips great also or should i book a trip on the river? (we are athletic so we dont mind a strenuous trip)

what is the best place to scuba dive if we are not certified yet? i have never done scuba before (i am deathly afraid of sharks!)
but he really wants to go.

we both are hikers/campers and i have read a lot about the Nualolo trail hike-
any other specific hikes we should do?

any other must sees-i do not want to do too many tours (i want to spend lots of time beach bummin and being romantic),
but i dont want to miss anything that will be a lifelong "best"

thanks so much!

Snorkle over at Tunnels Beach above Hanalei. (Where Puff lived.)


You need to go with a dive shop to do a SCUBA trip if you are not certified. The only shop I remember is Bubbles up. They do tourist dive stuff and would have a intro dive offering.

There's another that we used but we are certified so all we needed was gear.

We have made over 20 dives in the islands. Saw one white tipped reef shark. It was small (6") and more afraid of us than the other way around. Something I read somewhere, if you are diving and see a shark, make sure there's a guy between you and the shark.It was saw the shark will go after the guy first.

Do a google search for Kauai. It should give you all kinds of help. Try dive Kauai also.

Aloha

M

I stayed at the Hyatt on my trip to Kauai in November 2000 and found that getting to the North Shore was a Long drive.

The hiking in Waimea Canyon was fantastic and easily accessable from Poipu. The Na Pali Coast trail (on the North Shore) is a beautiful, tough hike. Even if you only do the first few miles (all that most people do) you really should start very early in the day and may want to find a B&B or something in Honalei to stay in the night before.

I don't SCUBA dive (not a strong enough swimmer), my husband does. We compromised on "Snuba" off the beach in Poipu. You don't need to be a certified diver, you get a regulator that is attached to a hose that is about 15 feet long, with the tank floating on a raft. You can't go down any more than the 15 feet of your hose, there is a certified diver/instructor with you and you get to see all sorts of neat stuff.

Have a great time.

Since you want to do it all, I would suggest you try this company -- highly recommended:
http://www.outfitterskauai.com

Hikng on Na Pali is breathtaking but in December probably not a good idea. Stick with Waimea Canyon - not as wet and muddy.

IMO, if you are hikers you absolutely have to do the Kalalau trail on the Na Pali coast - even if it is muddy!! My husband and I are big hikers and we still rate that trail as one of the most gorgeous trails we've ever hiked - the views down the coast are amazing and we didn't care that it rained on us - just make sure you don't care about your clothes being muddy! We've hiked it in June and November and to us, the biggest difference was just that you couldn't go in the ocean due to surf conditions once you got to the beach 2 miles in. The second two miles up to the waterfalls is also incredible and very romantic. Plan on the hike taking a full day if you go the waterfalls so you have time to sit and relax - start early from the south shore. By the way, the trailhead is at Kee beach which is a nice little beach as well (although probably not good for snorkeling in December).

thanks for all the replies-
lots of useful info!