Discovering Hawaii
Hawaii. The land of gnarly waves, breathtaking cliffs, beautiful waterfalls, vibrant ocean waters and more fresh fruit and fish than you can imagine. Of course we had to see for ourselves, so hubs and I hit the road to the airport. Nearly 24 hours later, we found ourselves in Princeville, Kauai.
It was late when we checked into our condo, but we were greeted with a fragrant flower lei for me, and a simple seashell necklace for the hubs.
We were so exhausted that we barely made it into the room before we passed out. We stayed at The Wyndham Bali Hai Villages and couldn’t be happier about our decision. It was in a great location between the hikes we wanted to do and the busy town with delicious food trucks.
HANAKAPIAI BEACH HIKE
Kauai is the wettest place on earth. They had substantial amounts of rain while we were there, making this hike a bit interesting from time to time. The paths consisted mostly of a muddy slip-n-slide, but the views did not disappoint, and it was definitely worth it. Hint– don’t bring your brand new shoes with for this hike. You might need to throw them away when you’re done! If I would have known in advance, I would have wore my Chacos, which would have made crossing this river a little easier as well.
The water didn’t get much deeper than what you see pictured above, so it wasn’t hard to cross. But if you don’t like to get wet or dirty, this hike is not for you.
OPAEKA’A FALLS
We were wanting to check out Wailua Falls instead, but the road was closed due to excessive rain. So we settled for this little detour instead.
Exploring Kauai
I’m married to a man that will do just about anything for some street food. So when we found out that there was a farmers market with some stands making street tacos, he made sure that was the next stop. We made quite a few food truck and side road stand stops. I have to say it’s some of the best (and cheapest) food you can find in Hawaii. We still talk about the breakfast burritos we had one morning.
Driving in Kauai is super easy, and SO beautiful. If you don’t like driving in big cities and get nervous renting cars on vacation, this is one place I would say you could do easily. Kauai is very quiet compared to Oahu. The vegetation makes the driving so pretty as well. Here’s a picture of our favorite little road that we drove numerous times getting from place to place.
After our morning and afternoon adventures, we found ourselves at our hotel, The Sheraton Kauai. We had enough time to enjoy a couple hours of sunshine on the beach before we went to find some delicious (and expensive) food!
My husband and I can agree on one thing when we are on vacation- it’s always acceptable to splurge on good food. So we did just that. There was this fun little downtown area that had a lot of little shops and great restaurants. Ask your concierge at your hotel what they would suggest. Based on what you like, they will be able to give you some great suggestions and let you see a menu before they make a reservation for you! We love seafood, so we are always looking for fresh fish when on tropical vacations. We went with Merriman’s Fish House the first night.
SUNRISES AT THE SHERATON KAUAI, POIPU BEACH
There’s nothing like a sunrise– when the morning is calm, and all the other vacationers are sleeping in. Since we had a hard time getting used to the time change, it was easy for us to go to bed early and get up before the sun. We had the beach to ourselves for quite a while, and then only had to share it with one or two other people, which made for such a peaceful, beautiful morning. We grabbed our coffees and headed down. That Hawaiian sky doesn’t disappoint.
KAUAI COFFEE PLANTATION
If you love coffee and want to sample over 25 different flavors and roasts, you need to visit the Kauai Coffee Plantation. It is the largest coffee farm in the United States and has over 4 MILLION coffee trees! You can get a free and informative tour of the grounds, or you can do a self-paced tour and eaves drop from time to time like we did. The grounds are beautiful. And I won’t ever get over how vibrant and beautiful the plants and flowers are!
My mom loves chocolate covered coffee beans and they had them here. I didn’t purchase them because I was sure I would find them cheaper somewhere else. I was wrong. We stopped at so many grocery stores, and nobody had ever heard of them. We ended up having to buy them at the airport for much more. So this is a great place to take home some souvenirs for your coffee loving loved ones! Once we sampled some of the coffee for ourselves, we hit the road again. We had booked a sunset dinner cruise of the Napali Coast, so we did a little off-roading on our way to the starting point.
NA PALI COAST
What to bring: Sunglasses (if they are expensive, hold onto them tightly!), swim-suit, waterproof jacket, waterproof camera or a GoPro. For a lot of the trip, we are cruising right along and you WILL get wet if you are on the deck. Trust me, you want to be on the deck. We saw a group of humpback whales, and also a pod of spinner dolphins (babies included) — so cute!! You don’t want to miss things like that!
We made sure there were bathrooms on board, and remember how I said we love our food? We also made sure that the chef prepared the food onboard and didn’t prepare it earlier and just warm it up on board. The food was DELICIOUS! They also have inclusive drinks. I would love to tell you more about this tour operator. This was our favorite part of our entire trip! Please ask me about them!
WAIMEA CANYON
The next morning we took a drive to Waimea Canyon to see Waipoo Falls. I’m glad we got there when we did. It was pretty rainy that day and by the time we were done taking some pictures, the clouds had moved in, which made the falls almost impossible to see. Here is a slideshow of a few of the pictures from the Canyon.
OUR LAST NIGHT IN KAUAI
This was our last night in Kauai, so we decided to splurge on some great food again. This time, we chose Beach House. The concierge told us that the restaurant we chose had stadium seating and you wanted to be sure to get there right away so you could get the best view of the sunset. He was SO right. We had the best meal of our entire trip at this restaurant, and the view didn’t hurt!
From Kauai, we caught a regional flight to Honolulu, where we would spend a few more nights before heading home.
PEARL HARBOR
My husband is a history buff, so this was definitely a “must-see” on the list. We rented a car again, which made it easy to come and go as we pleased. Honolulu traffic is NOT like Kauai traffic though. So if you don’t like busy traffic, then you might want to look into other options. You can definitely spend several hours here if you like reading and viewing all of the information. I would suggest grabbing a bite to eat before you go though, as there isn’t much more than soda and chips once you’re in. Also- leave your bag in the car. They do not allow backpacks, purses, etc inside.
THE NORTH SHORE
My husband LOVES snorkeling, and I’ve always wanted to swim with a sea turtle. The water in Kauai was really choppy from the wind we had over there, so we weren’t able to see very well the few times we went snorkeling. If you visit Oahu, do yourself a favor and take a drive to the North Shore. In my opinion, it’s way better than the big city. There are a ton of delicious food trucks and even a shrimp farm if you like that sort of thing. The beaches are beautiful, and you might even find a few fun places to snorkel. We really enjoyed Shark’s Cove.
Our last stop on our drive was Lanikai Beach. We weren’t blessed with calm days while we were in Hawaii, so we didn’t really get to enjoy a true “beach day.” But I am stubborn, so I was determined to get at least one. We hung out at this beach for a while, but it was so windy that we could only manage an hour or so. The color of the water is insane. So even if you can’t enjoy a beach day like us, it is definitely worth the drive to get some pictures and enjoy the beauty.
Once we had enough of the wind, we went back to our rental and got ready to find some food. We did some research and found supposedly the best lobster. Holy crap, was it delicious, and HUGE!! Yes, the bibs were completely necessary.
HANAUMA BAY
If you love snorkeling, or are new to it and don’t want to go into waters too deep, you need to check out Hanauma Bay. There is something for everyone, and if you don’t want to go out too deep, there is plenty of shallow water with activity.
It is a State Park, so there is a small fee to enter and they make you take a short class before you’re allowed to enter, but it’s in a vibrant little cove with a lot of sealife! It also isn’t open every day, so make sure you do your research before just heading that way.
Of course, it was once again windy, so we weren’t able to get out deep enough to see my sea turtles!! But we did see group after group of fish.
This was our last day in Oahu. We quick drove back to our rental to shower before our long flight back home.
Hawaii is such a fun place to vacation. Writing this blog has allowed me to re-visit it again almost a year later. Thanks to all of my reminiscing, I’m now craving some delicious island food! We will be back, Hawaii!
If you are thinking about a trip to Hawaii, I would love to help you!
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