Okay, this report is really really long, I just couldn't help myself. For those budget minded travelers, also included a few choices that worked well for us. I know it's been said over and over, but in a word, Kauai is simply "Beautiful!"

(And for you sticklers for pronunciation, please forgive any mis spellings or missed accent marks,etc.)

Day I
Arrived from LAX into HNL about 8:30p.m. Because there were no interisland flights to Kauai that late in the evening, and we wanted as much time as possible to enjoy Hawaii rather than waiting for shuttles, we booked a car through Priceline (got a compact for $17 with Hertz). We headed to the Waikiki Park Shore Hotel (also via Priceline at $60/nt.). I recently posted on the accommodations at the Park Shore, in a nutshell?I would not stay here again. Our room was very worn and downright ugly with huge carpet stains and discoloration. Even at the nearly half-off rate, it still wasn?t worth the price we paid. Some positives?.a great location across the street from the beach, and we had a partial ocean view. There was a mini-fridge and coffee maker with free coffee and the toiletries & soap were from Bath and Body Works. But, if we were staying longer than 12 hours, we would have probably moved to another hotel. We?re not picky travelers, but this was probably the worst looking room I?ve ever stayed in.

Okay, enough ranting, by the time we came back late in the evening, after having several cocktails at the Tiki Grill & Bar in the Aston hotel next door, we barely even noticed the green stained, rundown room. The live musician at the lounge was nice, though it was difficult to hear because there was a partying group of locals there for a bachelor party. They were fun to watch though, especially the guy whose ankle was chained to a huge bowling ball (I?m guessing he was the groom!) We shared the Island Nachos with Kalua pig, really yummy and the serving was enough for both of us. This was a fun place and though we?ve been to Waikiki a couple of times, was our first peek at the nightlife.

Day II
We woke up early the next morning and excitedly headed back to HNL for our interisland flight to Kauai. During the drive, we encountered a huge, bright rainbow; unfortunately this would be the only one of the trip. The flight to Kauai was short and sweet; sit on the 2-seated side of the plane for the best views, even got some decent pics from the plane.

As we deplaned a nice woman heading back to the mainland gave us some beautiful fresh flower lei?s, said she couldn?t take them onto the plane. Picked up our midsize rental from Alamo ($170 w/ taxes for the week - thanks to the Fodorites who posted about the 6T code). BTW, if you?re thinking about booking a jeep, it could be worth it to wait to see if they offer an upgrade at the airport, we were offered a Jeep Wrangler for only $10 more per day, but declined. On our way to the North Shore we stopped at Wailua Falls, 'Opaeka'a Falls and the Wailua River lookouts. The entire drive was gorgeous, so many lush green mountains and valleys to the left, including Sleeping Giant, and an oceanview on the right. Stopped at Bubba Burgers in Kapa?a for lunch. Hawaiian Air gave everyone a map of the island during our flight which had a free drink coupon, even with the coupon a corn dog and onion rings came up to $6. BF got a burger and frings, which was a lot better than my corn dog.

After burgers we stopped at the nearby vendors market, some nice stuff but most of it was overly priced compared with the International Marketplace in Waikiki. Continued on and stopped at the Kilauea Lighthouse. This lookout was a picture perfect site. There is an entrance fee (think it was $3 by honor system) to tour the lighthouse and grounds, but because we were eager to get to our condo, we passed on this.

Finally, on to Princeville. We checked into our studio, ?Tessie?s Place?, in the Sandpiper Village complex. This was a great place, lots of thoughtful touches including some interesting Hawaiian books and tropical décor. The bed was more comfortable than many hotels we?ve stayed at and the pool, jacuzzi and BBQ were just across the walkway. The owner is was very friendly and even made time to give us a tour to a few of the popular Princeville trails nearby, like Queens Bath and Turtle Cove. Would highly recommend for those who want a comfortable, clean little place that is easy on the budget.

After checking in, we went for a quick drive thru Hanalei and then returned for a long dip in the pool before getting ready for our dinner reservation at the Bali Hai Restaurant. Over the phone they tried to talk us into taking a timeshare tour for a $100 dinner voucher, but this was already a partial business trip for me and there was no way I was going to spend one more minute than necessary on anything other than vacationing! Dinner was expensive, but this was our only splurge meal of the trip. The lowest priced entrée was pasta with chicken for $20, and everything else was $27+. BF got the pasta, I chose fresh catch of the day...Ahi. The fish is prepared 4 different ways, I chose ?Tropical Breeze? which was sautéed with Papaya and Pineapple Salsa. Both our dinners were okay; honestly, the bread & butter and crab cake appetizers were the tastiest part of the evening. The true star of the night though, was the spectacular sunset we enjoyed from our dinner table, blues and golden yellows cascading over the ocean and Bali Hai. This was definitely worth the $80 price tag, for 1 night at least.

Day III
This morning, after sleeping in for a bit, we packed up snorkel and beach gear, pb&j sandwiches along with a few other goodies we got from the Foodland in the Princeville Shopping Center and headed for Ke'e Beach. We quickly learned that meals out here were much more than what we've found on previous trips to Oahu, so we started every morning with cereal and fruit and most lunches were packed sandwiches. By the time we got to Ke'e there was no parking so we decided to drive back to nearby Tunnels. The water felt fabulous, there was some good snorkeling, lots of brightly colored fish, though the water was a bit cloudy. The beach wasn't crowded, and there were lots of trees and shady spots that offered a nice break from the beating heat of the sun.

Had to meet with client for the evening, so we headed back to the condo for our daily swimming, with a stop at the Hanalei pier for some pics along the way. Cooked dinner in this evening.


Day IV
Got up early to get to Port Allen on the South Shore for our heli tour at 9am with Bali Hai. The drive was enjoyable though we ran into some traffic through Kapa'a and Hanama'ulu. Picked up a couple of cream filled malasadas, first time trying them, yummy! The Bali Hai tour was awesome. We found a great rate, $100 pp for a 45min tour through activity world. The helicopter had 3 seated in back and 1 in front with the pilot. Small openings in the windows opened up which brought in fresh air and allowed for glare free pics. For some reason, I couldn't find this company listed in Kauai Revealed, but I would recommend it. The pilot narrated only when necessary and he made a point to swing the helicopter around with each site, so that passengers on both the left and right sides got great views. Unfortunately, even though the overall ride was smooth, the switching viewpoints caused BF to have a bit of motion sickness. What a shame because he had the best seat in the house, the front one! Even so, he enjoyed the tour almost as much as the rest of us. People say the lightest person usually gets the front seat, but that wasn't the case in our tour, it's more based on balance so BF got the front seat because most of us weighed about the same, while the lightest person, unfortunately got the middle seat. I don't think this was too bad though because she got to snap shots from both viewpoints throughout the trip.

After the tour we drove up to Waimea Canyon. BF was tempted to pass this up, since we had seen much of it via air from the heli tour, but I didn't want to miss out on anything so up the road we went. The canyon was gorgeous, and there definitely was a different feel from the lookouts versus a moving helicopter. We drove all the way up to the last stop, Pu'u o Kila Lookout, which Kauai Revealed touted as the best, but we couldn't see a thing through the clouds. A bit of a bummer!

After Waimea Canyon we stopped at the Shrimp Station, in Waimea and shared a plate of coconut fried shrimp and fries. It was $11 bucks and well worth it, was very tasty and had us full till dinner. We then drove to the South Shore and stopped at Spouting Horn, then on to Po'ipu beach. We also checked out the beach and pool area at the Hyatt. We found ourselves drooling over the huge pool and swimming lagoon, kids were actually kayaking in the pool! It was for guests only of course, but BF was trying very hard to talk me into crashing it. Honestly there were so many people around they probably wouldn't have noticed but it felt like a hike just to get there in the first place, we almost got lost along the way from the parking lot, and I didn't want to trek all the way back to get our swimsuits. Shipwreck beach, in front of the hotel looked nice too. IMHO, Po'ipu and the South Shore reminded me of Maui, unless it was to stay at the Hyatt for a couple nights, I'd go back to Kauai's North Shore.

Drove through the tree tunnel on the way out of Po'ipu and headed back "home". This evening we decided to go pick up some seafood from the fish market at Hanalei Dolphin for a BBQ at the condo. We got fresh Ahi, teriyaki steak kabobs, potato salad and a sushi roll for about $20 bucks. We grubbed by the pool, beers in hand and this turned out to be one of the best meals of the trip!


Day V
Headed to Pu'u Poa Beach by the Princeville Resort. This was a nice little beach, the water was pretty warm and there was decent snorkeling. A good spot to just relax for a while if you're staying in Princeville. That afternoon we went to Zelos for happy hour, tempted by the signs we had seen earlier in the week touting $2 fish tacos, tostadas and beer. Many of the items on the lunch menu, were in the $8-10 range, like nachos and burgers but happy hour was 3:30 - 5:30, all the drinks were a dollar off and Budweiser was only $2 bucks. The fish tacos and ground beef tostadas were really good. BF liked his burger too, though we thought it was overly priced at $12.

We finished the day by catching another wonderful sunset from the cliff's edge near the Princeville hotel followed by an evening swim and jacuzzi time.

Day VI
Drove to Anini Beach, which we heard had good snorkeling but unfortunately, once we arrived we didn't know where the good snorkeling spots were because it was empty except for several people swimming laps out to a distant reef. Decided to go to Ke'e instead, since we missed it earlier in the week. The tropical, jungle like setting surrounding the lagoon at Ke'e was very surreal, this was a beautiful beach, our favorite of the trip. We spent the first half of the day swimming, snorkeling and sunbathing there. It was about 9:30 a.m. and there were only a few people in the water when we arrived. Only minutes after we got in the ocean, we were surprised by a school of about 12 or so large sized fish swimming between us. Like all the beaches we had been to on Kauai during the trip, there were many colorful fish, only in greater numbers and with better visibility here. We even saw a good-sized crab scurrying on the floor of the ocean, chased by a flounder fish (I think?) camouflaged in the sand. Every few steps it would pause for a few seconds then continue on. It reminded me of a scene out of a Disney movie.

Having been to Oahu a couple of times without trying out shave ice on the north shore, I knew I finally had to taste what everyone raves about, so we stopped in Hanalei at Shave Ice Paradise. We enjoyed coconut/pineapple shave ice over Mac-nut ice cream and shared one for about $5 bucks but if we knew how good it was going to be, we would have gotten 2 because we slurped that down within minutes. Back at Princeville we took the trail leading to Queens Bath where there were only a few others around. BF jumped in from one of the rocky cliff edges along with some of the other guys there, getting their testosterone dose for the day I guess. I chickened out and just plopped in from the easy side. The water was cool and refreshing, and there were a few fish swimming about. Getting out was a little harder since most of the rocks lining the bath had a slippery mossy film over them. There were nice views up the coast from this spot. It was so hot and the trail back up was a bit steep so we cooled off under a small waterfall along the way.

After cooling off again in the pool, we picked up another sushi roll from the fish market and a Chinese chicken salad from Foodland, grabbed some champagne and enjoyed a sunset picnic on the beach at Hanalei Bay. The food wasn't the best choice, and unfortunately our last sunset had quite a few clouds, with the sunset barely peaking through, but the view of Bali Hai and the pier at twilight was still very pretty leaving our last evening in Kauai a memorable one.


Day VII
The final morning we took a Princeville trail to Turtle Cove (I think this may also be called Sea Lodge Beach.) Except for someone's tent, it was empty, not even a turtle insight. We didn't stay long, just walked the little stretch and dipped our feet in the cool water. After checking out of the condo, we stopped in Kapa'a for lunch at the Shack where we used our 2 for 1 coupon from the entertainment book. We had the chicken cheddar sandwich and guacamole burger with curly fries and a salad. The tab with drinks was under $25 and the sandwiches were hearty and good, a nice deal overall. Took a quick walk through the Coconut Marketplace without a single purchase. We thought all of the shops there were overly priced so our last stop was at Hilo Hattie's, near the airport to stock up on souvenirs. The prices weren't as bad I expected here and we found quite a few nice knick-knacks to take home.

While back in Honolulu waiting for our flight to the mainland, I kept feeling like something was missing'I kept wondering why I wasn't on cloud nine after such an awesome trip and then of course, I realized it was because it was now over. Hopefully, I'll get to visit this beautiful island again, Kauai truly is a paradise unlike others.

Nice trip report

Mahalo, ggrtist, for sharing your Hawaiian adventure with us. Made me want to be there, for sure....

Aloha gg!

How wonderful for you to travel to Kaua`i AND O'ahu this year!

Loved your report... especially "... we decided to go pick up some seafood from the fish market... for a BBQ at the condo... we grubbed by the pool, beers in hand and this turned out to be one of the best meals of the trip!"

My fav way to dine in paradise.

Glad you had such a nice time!

Thank you for a wonderful trip report. We leave for Hawaii in 18 days I am so excited I can hardly wait. we are staying 2 nights at the Hyatt and will definately experience the pools there. Then we go to the north shore for 3 nights staying at Hanalie Colony Reosort in an ocean front condo. I am soooo excited. I wonder if anyone know if we can walk from the resort where we are staying to either Kee or Tunnels beach so we don't have to worry about parking?

AGain thanks for the great report!

Very nice. I'm glad you had a great time.

It reminded me though that as a former resident of that island, I really do take a lot of it for granted. I think you did more in a week than I've done in years there!!

Glad you enjoyed it.

WHAT!!! A good time on Kauai?

How can this be done when we all know it rains all the time, nothing to do and no nightlife?

Thanks for a great report..Did you go through vrbo for your rental on Kauai?
My Kauai countdown # is on my calendar at work, but I think we have about 268 to go....

111 until we have Playita!!!

Great report! I loved reading it! Mahalo.
321 days unitl malasadas and Pono Market chicken!
-Bill:

What are these malasadas and where are the best ones?

Glad you all liked it, just trying to do my part to keep the memories of paradise alive!

Makai1..yes, I consider myself very lucky to have been able to go 2x in the last several months, this was worked out with partial business deal so airfare & stay was only $300.

Kaymit, I remember passing Hanalei Colony resort on the way to Ke'e and though it was probably only a few minutes drive, I don't think I would want to walk it. Might be walkable to Tunnels. Will look forward to reading about your stay at the Hyatt, bet you'll be living the high life there!

iceeu2, yes, Tessie's Place is on vrbo, there were actually lots of affordable places on there.

Kal, having heard about the "terrible" lack of night life on the island, I was shocked to see a commercial airing daily for a hot spot in Kapa'a that was open till 1 am! Wasn't tempted one bit!

Malasadas are like really large donut- holes and they melt in your mouth when they are fresh and warm. I heard someone call them the Porteguese verion of a beignet. Think a donut-hole on steroids. They are covered in sugar. Some are filled with cream, some have black beans in them too. The best ones I had were at the food tent at the Koloa Plantation Days food/art festival in Koloa. They were hot and so yummy. Apparently there is a woman who sometimes makes them in a tent in the parking lot of the True Value hardware store (I think this is the one) in Lihue. We drove by three times while we there in July and never did see her. The other place we got them was at the Kaua`i Bakery and Cinnamons in the shopping center that has the K Mart in Lihue. They were great there too, but the pickins are slim if you are there after 9am or so.
-Bill

I found your trip report refreshing, especially the economizing aspect of it! I was beginning to think I was the only eco-minded traveler visiting this site! (Having noted some of the huge prices for rooms in the nicer hotels)!

I'm interested in your opinion of Sea Lodge as a lodging place, since you visited the area? I hope to conserve lodging fees so that I can do a helicopter tour, among some other "splurges". However, if possible to find something economical AND beachfront, that is what I'm hoping for.

I like what I've read about the Annini beach area and really think I'd prefer it if I'm able to find the right price. But was wondering if the Sea Lodge area wouldn't have better flexibility to visiting both the north and south shores?
Will need a bed and a sofa sleeper or two beds. Was Tessie's sofa a sleeper? Thanks! OSB.

OldSouthernBelle:

Sea Lodge is perched on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Princeville...on the north shore. Each unit is individually owned, and some are better than others.

Tessie's Place is in the Sandpiper condo complex is just around the corner from our house -- located on the main road into Princeville. No ocean views.

auntiemaria you were only around the corner!? that's like having a celebrity nearby with all the great advice you share on here. As auntiemaria said, Tessie's Place doesn't have oceanviews and the sofa was not a sleeper (the place is just right for 2). After making sure we've had oceanviews on past trips to Hawaii, it wasn't a priority for us this time since we're usually only in the room to sleep. IMO though, if it's a first time trip to the islands, oceanview is a must.

I wish there were places to get malasadas on the mainland once in a while, the ones we picked up were in a little convenience store on the way to Hanapepe, wasn't too warm, but still yummy.

OldSouthernBelle -

My husband and I stayed at a Sealodge condo in July. http://www.nakearentals.com/ (the Kai Nani) for the ridiculously low price of 105 a night (now it's 115). There's pics on their site of the actual condo. Eating dinner on the balcony was the best. The views are amazing, even from bed! It was awesome and definitely saved some $$ so we could splurge on Maui.


It was clean and all that, I'd recommend it!

amelie

What a great report. It gets me even more excited for my upcoming trip to Kauai! Only 170 days left!