holly

My friend and I are planning a trip in January are debating between maui and kauai. Is one of them drier / sunnier than the other? Coming from NY, we want sun sun sun!

been

Maui.

xxx

Poipu area of kauai.

Erin

If you will be there longer than 5 days, try both. I think it is difficult to recommend one over the other. If I had to choose, then Maui.

Have a great vacation!

sunny days

Holly, January is one of the wetter months of the year in Hawaii. Kauai is the garden island and has about twice the rain as Maui. For the best sunny weather in January, go to Maui and stay in Wailea(south). You may want to go to Kauai for a few days and stay in the south or west island. Log on to hawaiiweathertoday.com and check out what's up with the current weather today with Glenn James. Also, this year el nino should help the weather be a little dryer than last year. Good Luck!

Sarah

Maui is known for whales in January/Feb. If there is any time you are going to go to Maui inmo it would be Jan.Feb.

Ditto comments on Kauai weather in January. Unless you are going to greet the albatros or see some whales on a stormy coast. I would head to Maui that time of year.

South side of Kauai is sunnier in the winter months and some on this forum have seen great whales there. Nevertheless any photography you have seen with whales in Hawaii were by and large taken on Maui in the Jan/Feb.

holly

Thank everyone for all your help.
We've decided to do BOTH maui and kauai in january. We have 8 days so we're going to try for 4 on each island. I hope we're not stretching ourselves too thin....any thoughts on that?

kal

Alooohaaaa and Happy Monday?
holly, 4n4 is "do-able" but will be hectic and as mentioned above, when you go to Kauai, your best bet at good weather is the SoShore/Poipu area.

We've been over numerous time in Jan and have been lucky with the weather (we stay on the CocoCoast).

As for looking for whales, we got some great views from upstairs at Brennekke's one lunchtime. The best was from the beach between the Sheraton and Kiahuna Plantation. The beach drops off close to shore sop they came in well enough to see one winking at me! I swear!!! ;-)
We did an ATV sunset tour and wound up on a point o'looking all of Poipu and you could see about 3"pods" (?) spouting off shore. Good views from the Whaler Brew Pub up on the point past the Marriott o'looking the entrance to Nawiliwili Harbor/Kalapaki Beach

You can drive the island in day but it would not do it justice.
41 mo' days until our 11th trip over-and we'll keep going until we get it right!!! Any Q's feel free.
Mucho mahalos,
Kal

ps There was a thread about luaus on Maui/Kauai that seemed to have vanished. It was stating if "TahitiNui's" luau on Kauai had closed? Since a friend of ours went over just about 2 months ago and went there and had a good time, I sent an
e-mail to them at the website addy and later I heard from Tahiti Nui that "reports of their demise are greatly exaggerated". ;-D
Anyone else been to T-N luau? Comments?
11th trip over and Mrs Kal and I are "luau-less" Shame on us!!!

holly

Thanks so much Kal!
I actually was just today on the website for tahiti nui. It didn't seem to be closed though? Interesting.
I hope we get lucky with weather. Fingers crossed. And thanks for all your advice!
Holly

kal

Holly,
No problem. If you're there during the 1st 2 weeks on Jan, mai tais on The Kals!
39 and counting.
Mucho Mahalos,
Kal

pele

January in Kaui man, gonna be wet.Da little things dat crawl in the night, dey luv da rain. Gonna be dark, dark in da daytime.

e

Be prepared Kauai can be NOT HOT in Jan. What I mean is that it is the northern most of the Hawaiian islands-- and when we were there in Jan, it was 65-72 most days. And though that sounds nice, it was not the "tropical" experience we were looking for(in fact with the rain, it was sometimes cold). We were happy to get over to Maui and into the low to mid 80's.