Post by formerlyak on Nov 28, 2012 13:51:06 GMT -5
I see you went to Kauai for your honeymoon. We are planning our honeymoon trip there now. Any tips? Must see things? Good restaurants? Hotel recommendations?
I know we want to do kayaking one day and scuba at least one day. Other than that we will be there a week and have no real plans.
Well depending on what type of luxury you are looking for, there are really all different price range levels of places to stay. There are three main parts of the island - North shore, east shore and south/west shore. We stayed in Kapa'a, on the east shore which was a central location to everything. It took about an hour and a half drive to get to the end of the north shore or the end of the west/shore to the Canyon.
Do you enjoy hiking? There are a LOT of hiking trails, so many that we didn't get to do half of what we wanted to do. I would recommend hiking at least 4 miles of the Na Pali coast and some of Waimea Canyon. I'd also recommend a dinner/sunset cruise to see the Na Pali coast. We did not kayak or scuba while we were there, do you know what time of year you are planning your honeymoon? The tides were just too high for us to do any water activities. A lot of the beaches (especially on the north shore) were too dangerous to swim in this time of year unless they had a protective reef.
We saw a lot of secluded beaches and went on a lot of cool hikes and saw some stuff off the beaten path because of that book. We stayed in a privately owned condo that was located within a 3 star resort (it is pretty common to find condos mixed in with the resorts). I booked everything myself so I got our room for something crazy like $79 a night plus a cleaning fee. We stayed for 10 days for under 1k. We wanted a condo so we'd have a refrigerator, microwave and toaster. It ended up being a huge money saver to make our own breakfasts and lunches (when we hiked) than eating out all the time. It was also great for storing extra booze. The food is expensive and a lot of it is local and not "fancy dining out" or chain restaurants. If you want a nice dinner, you have to do go to the resorts. A lot of the local food is fish plates or bbq plates. We ate a LOT of fish tacos and pork. The one nice dinner we had was at the Kauai Coast Resort, which was located right next to our hotel/condo. The benefit of having a condo within a hotel was that we also got to enjoy the hotel amenities like the hot tub, pool and pool side bar.
We also did a chocolate farm tour, a luau, toured the Kauai coffee place and toured the Koloa Rum place. Let me know if you want any other details. The south and north shore are very very pretty, we kind of wish we had the money to stay there, but it just wasn't possible with our budget. The only (negative) thing about staying at either of those locations is the travel time to get to the other location. There is only one basic road that connects the entire island from north to west shore. It is mostly one lane, it has two lanes in very busy places. A lot of the time the speed limit is 25, so you can get the picture that it is slow going.
I would recommend it though. Breakfast was our favorite meal to eat out. All the meals are pretty pricey. Some places let you BYOB.
Post by formerlyak on Nov 28, 2012 16:12:43 GMT -5
Thanks, I will definitely have to check out that book.
We do both like to hike, so I will have to see about good spots for that.
Right now, we are leaning toward staying at the Grand Hyatt. We've been saving for it and haven't been on a real vacation in as long as we both can remember, so we may splurge there. We like that it has access to the lagoons for kayaking right on the resort property and that it has a lazy river pool with a bar
We are going in late July. Not sure what that means for the tides, but I will look into that for sure.
Which luau did you go to? Was it a good one? I have been to a few on Maui, and they are hit and miss, so it's always good to get a recommendation. And I didn't realize there was a chocolate farm! I must go there as I am a chocolate fiend!
Oh that is a very very beautiful area, you will love it there. The tides may be strong in the south shore beaches in July, but not so much on the north shore beaches. Just read up on it and stay safe about it.
We went to the Smith's luau. It was okay, the show was kind of cheesy. I heard the other luau has a better show, but that Smith's was more traditional. The food and booze was good and they had very pretty grounds.
There are two chocolate places - they are both way overpriced. We went to Steelgrass. It was cool because it was a farm tour of their organic farm and introduced us to a lot of native fruit that you only find at the farmer's market. It was cool to learn about those and try them. Their chocolate trees are too young to make their own chocolate so you sample chocolate from around the world. I believe the other chocolate place actually makes their own chocolate. Each tour was about $60 a person.