Kauai Trip Report
Oct 29th, 2006, 06:28 AM
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Kauai Trip Report
Hope this doesn't go too long, I'm jetlagged!
Kauai Trip Report – Day 1: OK it’s 4:45 am. DH just woke up, that means I did too. But NY body clock says its 10:45 so I might as well sit on the lanai and start this since there’s no much else to do.
Some background. This is my 4th trip to the islands have already done Maui, Oahu, BI, Kauai & Molokai up close and personal. This is a quick one week trip to recharge the batteries, plus it’s our anniversary so why not. Wouldn’t’ reco a one week trip for a first timer, but we’ve done most of what we wanted to on previous trips.
Our Air: Used freq flyer miles from central NY. Worked best for us to leave Fri night and overnight in LA. Don’t usually like to overnight, hate wasting good vaca time along the way, but this allowed us to work all day before leaving. Flt out of LA left 9:50am arrive Lihue 12:35. Worked out better than leaving early with no stop over. Saw and smelled the wild fires before landing in LAX. All flights went well.
On Arrival at Lihue Airport: Picked up all the necessary travel brochures, coupons, maps, Kauai Gold, Kauai Today, 101 Things to do on Kauai, menu guides, everything you need located conveniently next to where you wait for your luggage.
Our Car: Arrived Kauai Saturday, Oct 27 to 80something, yay, snowed at home this week! Got our compact car, perfect size all we need to run around for two of us with 2 bags. Gas here looks to be about $2.99. No real need for 4WD or convertible since it sprinkles, suns, sprinkles, suns, all day long.
Our Hotel: IMHO don’t really car for big, beautiful resorts (for this trip anyway). Kauai is pretty laid back and I love that people don’t get all dressed up, they just hang out. Perfect. If I was at a big, beautiful place would probably feel compelled to get more duded up. Plan on doing hiking inland and north shore, so opted for Resort Quest Kauai Beach Makaiwa in Kapaa. Good location for us in the middle of all the places we want to go. Next to Coconut Plaza for casual dining and shopping. Right on a nice beach, more than ½ the rooms face the sea. Nice pool area with jacuzzi, nice restaurant, staff seems good, bar, work out room and good price point. We’re not here long enough to bother with a condo.
Our Restaurants: We were reaaaly hungry and love Thai. Have read posts on Mema in Kapaa, about a mile away. Food was good; pineapple in red curry with chicken over long rice noodles was very yum, as was Thai basil with mixed veggies and white rice. No bar, BYOB. Reasonably priced. They do lunches too.
Our Activities: Yesterday was a nice low-key day. Got in and unpacked and jumped in the pool and walked on the beach.
Got in the car and drove to the sleepy town of Kapaa for a pineapple smoothie at the Noodle Factory ($5), yum. Drove to some scenic overlooks and headed back to hotel. Cleaned up and went for an early dinner.
Today, Sun. Oct 28 since we’re up early, will head to north shore to hike along the Napali coast. Back at ya later.
Kauai Trip Report – Day 1: OK it’s 4:45 am. DH just woke up, that means I did too. But NY body clock says its 10:45 so I might as well sit on the lanai and start this since there’s no much else to do.
Some background. This is my 4th trip to the islands have already done Maui, Oahu, BI, Kauai & Molokai up close and personal. This is a quick one week trip to recharge the batteries, plus it’s our anniversary so why not. Wouldn’t’ reco a one week trip for a first timer, but we’ve done most of what we wanted to on previous trips.
Our Air: Used freq flyer miles from central NY. Worked best for us to leave Fri night and overnight in LA. Don’t usually like to overnight, hate wasting good vaca time along the way, but this allowed us to work all day before leaving. Flt out of LA left 9:50am arrive Lihue 12:35. Worked out better than leaving early with no stop over. Saw and smelled the wild fires before landing in LAX. All flights went well.
On Arrival at Lihue Airport: Picked up all the necessary travel brochures, coupons, maps, Kauai Gold, Kauai Today, 101 Things to do on Kauai, menu guides, everything you need located conveniently next to where you wait for your luggage.
Our Car: Arrived Kauai Saturday, Oct 27 to 80something, yay, snowed at home this week! Got our compact car, perfect size all we need to run around for two of us with 2 bags. Gas here looks to be about $2.99. No real need for 4WD or convertible since it sprinkles, suns, sprinkles, suns, all day long.
Our Hotel: IMHO don’t really car for big, beautiful resorts (for this trip anyway). Kauai is pretty laid back and I love that people don’t get all dressed up, they just hang out. Perfect. If I was at a big, beautiful place would probably feel compelled to get more duded up. Plan on doing hiking inland and north shore, so opted for Resort Quest Kauai Beach Makaiwa in Kapaa. Good location for us in the middle of all the places we want to go. Next to Coconut Plaza for casual dining and shopping. Right on a nice beach, more than ½ the rooms face the sea. Nice pool area with jacuzzi, nice restaurant, staff seems good, bar, work out room and good price point. We’re not here long enough to bother with a condo.
Our Restaurants: We were reaaaly hungry and love Thai. Have read posts on Mema in Kapaa, about a mile away. Food was good; pineapple in red curry with chicken over long rice noodles was very yum, as was Thai basil with mixed veggies and white rice. No bar, BYOB. Reasonably priced. They do lunches too.
Our Activities: Yesterday was a nice low-key day. Got in and unpacked and jumped in the pool and walked on the beach.
Got in the car and drove to the sleepy town of Kapaa for a pineapple smoothie at the Noodle Factory ($5), yum. Drove to some scenic overlooks and headed back to hotel. Cleaned up and went for an early dinner.
Today, Sun. Oct 28 since we’re up early, will head to north shore to hike along the Napali coast. Back at ya later.
Oct 29th, 2006, 11:01 PM
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Trip Report Kauai - Day 2
Auntimaria, read your post too late, you aren't kidding. We headed north from Kapaa at about 6:30 am hoping the early morning sprinkle was just that. Just trying to be optimistic J Anyway we thought we find a place for breakfast and maybe the weather would clear up. Got to Hanalei and went to “Wake Up Café” the only game in town for breakfast at 7:30am on Sunday morning. I had some great custard French toast and DH had some sort of breakfast burrito that was just OK. Spent almost as much for this breakfast as we did for dinner last night at Mema Thai. It was interesting though, since our young waitress was wearing a hip hugger mini skirt that was so tiny the top of her butt crack showed.
Anyway, moving right along, the weather was still inclement, but we’re pretty hardy. Got to the Kalalau trailhead and decided that even though we wouldn’t have any trouble with it (we’ve done the whole trail with backpacks and camped) those incredible views we wanted to see just wouldn’t be there. We headed back east and went to see the Princeville Resort since we’ve never seen it before. Quite pretty. Walked along the beach (in rain jackets) and saw others like us who weren’t going to let a little rain rain on our parade. Stopped at all the beaches, walked along some trails next to the beach, visited the Kilauea Lighthouse overlook (and every other overlook along the way). Was hoping for a Mango Tango at mango mamma’s café, but we missed it somehow.
Kept heading south for a quick visit to Koloa then east to Spouting Horn to take some photos and on to Hanapepe. Ready for lunch by now and several years ago had a nice meal at Green Garden. It’s still there but looks like it’s been abandoned. Wanted to follow a reco by hikerboy to have lunch at Toi’s Thai but it’s closed on Sun & Mon. ended up at Subway.
Went to Salt Pond beach and did some walking and swimming because the sun was out – yay! Lots of people enjoying the day here. Went back east to Poipu. Haven’t been there since just before Iniki and wanted to see it again. More people here than we saw anywhere else all day. Walked from the Sheraton to Brennecke’s Beach and saw several Monk Seals. So cute sleeping in the sand. Lots of surfers out today and great wave action to watch and take more pics. Weather still fine down here.
By now it was about 6pm! Needed dinner but had put about 175 miles on our rental and actually filled up my 256 MB memory card. We were starting to fade and wanted a quick dinner. Ended up at Sukhothai in Kapaa. Yes more Thai. We don’t get enough of it at home. It was good, but Mema was better. What I really like about this area is that we didn’t have to go back to our hotel to change for dinner. Just go in and you’re fine.
Went to Coconut Market Place for a coconut ice cream at Lamberts. Mmm. There was live entertainment at Hula Girl, sounded good. Went into a gallery there and spoke with a guy working there. Quite a character. But that could be a whole new thread.
Back at Makaeiwa they were having a luau. Lots of people there. It ended with a guy with fire torches doing his thing right under our balcony so we got a free show. Ended the day catching up with you guys. Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but you know what? We’re not home working.
Auntimaria, read your post too late, you aren't kidding. We headed north from Kapaa at about 6:30 am hoping the early morning sprinkle was just that. Just trying to be optimistic J Anyway we thought we find a place for breakfast and maybe the weather would clear up. Got to Hanalei and went to “Wake Up Café” the only game in town for breakfast at 7:30am on Sunday morning. I had some great custard French toast and DH had some sort of breakfast burrito that was just OK. Spent almost as much for this breakfast as we did for dinner last night at Mema Thai. It was interesting though, since our young waitress was wearing a hip hugger mini skirt that was so tiny the top of her butt crack showed.
Anyway, moving right along, the weather was still inclement, but we’re pretty hardy. Got to the Kalalau trailhead and decided that even though we wouldn’t have any trouble with it (we’ve done the whole trail with backpacks and camped) those incredible views we wanted to see just wouldn’t be there. We headed back east and went to see the Princeville Resort since we’ve never seen it before. Quite pretty. Walked along the beach (in rain jackets) and saw others like us who weren’t going to let a little rain rain on our parade. Stopped at all the beaches, walked along some trails next to the beach, visited the Kilauea Lighthouse overlook (and every other overlook along the way). Was hoping for a Mango Tango at mango mamma’s café, but we missed it somehow.
Kept heading south for a quick visit to Koloa then east to Spouting Horn to take some photos and on to Hanapepe. Ready for lunch by now and several years ago had a nice meal at Green Garden. It’s still there but looks like it’s been abandoned. Wanted to follow a reco by hikerboy to have lunch at Toi’s Thai but it’s closed on Sun & Mon. ended up at Subway.
Went to Salt Pond beach and did some walking and swimming because the sun was out – yay! Lots of people enjoying the day here. Went back east to Poipu. Haven’t been there since just before Iniki and wanted to see it again. More people here than we saw anywhere else all day. Walked from the Sheraton to Brennecke’s Beach and saw several Monk Seals. So cute sleeping in the sand. Lots of surfers out today and great wave action to watch and take more pics. Weather still fine down here.
By now it was about 6pm! Needed dinner but had put about 175 miles on our rental and actually filled up my 256 MB memory card. We were starting to fade and wanted a quick dinner. Ended up at Sukhothai in Kapaa. Yes more Thai. We don’t get enough of it at home. It was good, but Mema was better. What I really like about this area is that we didn’t have to go back to our hotel to change for dinner. Just go in and you’re fine.
Went to Coconut Market Place for a coconut ice cream at Lamberts. Mmm. There was live entertainment at Hula Girl, sounded good. Went into a gallery there and spoke with a guy working there. Quite a character. But that could be a whole new thread.
Back at Makaeiwa they were having a luau. Lots of people there. It ended with a guy with fire torches doing his thing right under our balcony so we got a free show. Ended the day catching up with you guys. Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but you know what? We’re not home working.
Nov 2nd, 2006, 07:38 AM
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Had trouble continuing on with my TR live from Kauai. Internet connectivity issues. Anyway, I'll get to the good stuff later. For now I'll just say one word RAIN! Maybe three words, Rain, Rain, Rain!
Auntie M, thanks for your north shore hospitality. Ended up having the best day of your stay there. We did get to do the first 2 miles of Na Pali and more on Tuesday - Spectacular!!! More on that later too.
Right now on Oahu. (Thursday) where the word here is Rain too. I'ts not even 7am yet, so we'll see how the day holds out.
If anyone is on Oahu now and has heard of a little stash of sun, pls let me know ASAP.
Will report more later.
Auntie M, thanks for your north shore hospitality. Ended up having the best day of your stay there. We did get to do the first 2 miles of Na Pali and more on Tuesday - Spectacular!!! More on that later too.
Right now on Oahu. (Thursday) where the word here is Rain too. I'ts not even 7am yet, so we'll see how the day holds out.
If anyone is on Oahu now and has heard of a little stash of sun, pls let me know ASAP.
Will report more later.
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