Hawaii Islands (Kauai)

Kauai is known as "the Garden Isle". It is the fourth largest and one of the most beautiful, fascinating islands of Hawai'i.

I feel so lucky to have been there. This is a perfect vacation place for families with small children. If you like the beautiful beaches you can rest on the coast, play with your kids in the sand or watch the gorgeous see life.

Where To Stay On Kauai

This is a very green island because of frequent rain showers. We stayed in Po'ipu which is a small vacation spot on the South part of the island. The reason why we stayed here because there is less rain than on other parts of the island. Kauai has an interesting microclimate influenced significantly by the 

prevailing trade winds and the high (now extinct) volcano called Mount Wai'ale'ale. The trade winds consistently blow from the East bringing with them moist air which rises rapidly as it hits the mountain and results in heavy rainfall. This makes the windward sides of island much wetter than the leeward ones.

We rented a really nice, well equipped two bedroom apartment at Makanui at Po'ipu Kai resort. We had a balcony, a big living room with a nice kitchen and two nice bathrooms. One day when it was raining almost the whole day and we were stuck in our condo it was very helpful not to be staying in a hotel room. The kids had enough space to play and we had a usable kitchen too.

What To Do On Kauai

• Go to the beaches

We had a guide book with us called The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook from Wizard Publications Inc. If you take a look inside what you'll find is descriptions of many different beaches as you can't imagine. Here is a link where you can easily find beaches.

One day we went to the Northern tip of the island on the North shore. We found a very nice beach with gorgeous view of the mountain called Tunnels Beach.

It is a great spot to go snorkeling, scuba diving or surfing. The fish are so unique and my husband was able to swim with a turtle. Good buddy for a nice quiet morning swim. :)

The best beach for us was the Po'ipu Beach Park, one of the closest to our resort. There is a natural shallow lagoon area sheltered from the sometimes heavy surf where all of the kids could play safety.

One part of the lagoon was only around 5 inches high and there were absolutely no waves. My daughters' favorite thing was to play on the boogie board (which we also found in the condo). They laughed and giggled so much and had lots of fun.

On this beach is a very good snorkeling spot too where the water is deeper. We were swimming with turtles, watched the sea life and the cute Hawaiian monk seals who rested on the beach almost every day.

The Hawaiian monk seal is the only seal native to Hawaii. The small population is threatened and only 1100 individuals are living so please don't bother (or approach) them .

• Snorkeling

I love the type of fish near the Hawaiian Islands. They are so different, beautiful, colorful animals and you can watch them so close. Even my 4.5 year old daughter was able to learn how to use a snorkel and breath quietly under the ocean.

• Hiking

We didn't hike so much as we wanted but I can really recommend a nice, interesting trail. This is in the Waimea canyon area in Koke'e State Park.

One afternoon when it was drizzling we decided to hike with the girls. We couldn't hike too far because the rain started to be very strong but still we hiked for one hour. It is always challenging when you have to go down first because it is much easier to go down than to come back on a steep trail. If you visited a canyon usually you have to go down first as here too. The view was stunning. I know if we could have  gone down more it would have been much nicer but still we liked the view from our turnaround spot too.

It was not easy to find the start point of this trail. We went on road 550 and between the 13 and 14 mile posts was the trail head there was no sign on the road. The name of the trail was Kuku'i Trail which is 2.4 mile one way, 5 miles total.

Our second hike was in a rain forest. The weather was really crazy. We hiked in very heavy rain which was interesting, but our older daughter just hated it so we had to keep it short.

This trail was the "Kuilau Ridge Trail". It is on closer to the East shore of the island not far from Wailua.

This hike was close to the Wailua River so we were able to take pictures from a viewpoint too. There is also a nice waterfall called the Wailua Falls.

•  waterfalls

We saw two Waterfalls on Kauai which is not too much, there are many on the island. One is called Wailua Falls.

The other one is the Opeaka'a Falls. These are beautiful falls which you can see from a viewing spot on road 580.

• Arboretum

If you like flowers and tropical trees you will definitely like the McBryde Garden  which is on South shore of the island not far from Kukui'ula Harbor.

A small bus bring you into the garden where you can take a tour, walk an hour alone and look around.

• Other interesting spots

If you have time you can visit the Spouting Horn blowhole. This is on Kauai's South Shore near Poipu.

You will hear a roar when the water comes out from the small hole between the lava rocks.

If you like the lighthouses you can find one at the North Shore. It is the Kilauea Lighthouse and is a 45 minute drive north of Lihue.

• Hula on Kaua - Free Hula Dance Show for kids

We were so lucky because on Saturday evening we could enjoy a Keiki Hula Show at the Grand Hyatt Kauai (Seaview Terrace) at 7 pm. The dancers showed us how nice the Hawaiian traditional music and dance is. This show was special for children. My older daughter, Sophie really loved the show.

I also found a good website if you would like to go to Kauai and would like to decide what to do there.

(1 week- 2013. April)