Kauai Favorites

Kauai! The land of beaches, Jurassic Park cliffs, fresh eats, and wild chickens. It’s magical and amazing and might just be my favorite place I’ve ever visited. We spent 11 days there for spring break (we ended up extending our trip by 3 days - it was that amazing!) and I thought I’d share our favorite things for everyone who’s asked. Really the answer is everything! but I’ll do my best to break it down.

I took a lot of our vacation photos with Daphne’s birthday camera :)

With all that’s going on in the world, it felt like an extra big privilege to get to travel right now. This was our first time taking a big family trip or getting the kids on an airplane in years and absence made it all the sweeter.

Kauai is magical and big and a constant you could live here for years and still find new and amazing things to do and see. So this list is by no means an expert’s guide. Just what we loved. Also we didn’t spend a single day away from the coast and I bet there are great hikes, gardens, and sites to visit on the interior of the island.

It probably comes as a surprise to no one, but Garrett isn’t much for sitting around. Thankfully Kauai is the perfect spot for exploring, snorkeling, doing…very much our speed (though I love a good lounge by the pool too and you can definitely do that here)! On most days we made breakfast in the condo (cereal for the kids and yogurt parfaits for Garrett and I) and then headed out to explore, find a beach, and play. We had a great cadence to our trip and I couldn’t have loved it anymore unless we had extended for another month ;)

A few things…

I bought the Hawaii Reveled travel app (thanks for the tip, Laurie!) and it was helpful when looking for restaurants and beaches. You can definitely get by without it (google maps and yelp gets you 90% there) but I appreciated the insider’s details with descriptions like how to get to the beaches, what kind of surf to expect, where the best spots on the beach were, etc.

A rental car is a must. And we used all available cargo space in our Pathfinder for beach gear.

There’s a Costco in Lihue near the airport and it’s the cheapest spot I found to get groceries (the North Shore is WAY more expensive). We stocked up on groceries day 1 and also bought boogie boards (they were $25/each) and sunscreen.

We brought 5 sets of snorkeling gear with us from Seattle and used it almost every day. I’m sure you can rent on island but it was easy enough to pack them, life jackets, and some extra gear in a large bag which we checked. At ~$50/set we definitely saved $ bringing them vs renting for 11 days and were thankful to have them on hand whenever we wanted. This was our favorite adult set and the little kids loved these training fins.

The weather was pretty consistently 70-80 degrees and even when our weather apps called for clouds, we still got plenty of sunshine each day. Except for our last day, when a tropical storm rolled in and warnings of flash floods closed the Hanalei bridge.

Hawaii takes their covid precautions seriously and it’s worth getting your CommonPass sorted out ahead of time and your Hawaii pre check braclet before boarding the plane. Since our family is all vaccinated (except Daphne, who’s only 4), we were able to skip any kind of testing or quarantine in Hawaii. Bring plenty of masks as you’ll need them to get into most businesses.

We stayed in Lihue at the Marriott in a condo through VRBO and then moved to Princeville when we extended our trip. Lihue is a little drier and sunnier, but the north shore was definitely a favorite and if (when!) we come back, we’ll stay in the Hanalei/Kilaua area or somewhere near there.

the Marriott in Lihue has a spectacular pool & protected beach access

What we did…

Beaches! - Give our kids sand and surf and they’ll play for hours and hours! Thankfully Kauai has a wealth of beaches all around the island and we spent our afternoons exploring them. Our favorites…Secret Beach, Ananai Beach, Moloa’a, Hanalei (see below for a fun way to get there).

Boat tour of the Na Pali Coast - highly recommend! We took a snorkeling trip with Kauai Sea Tours. The 45 minutes of snorkeling was only so-so but the whale-watching and scenic tour up the coast was a highlight! I’ve heard the Na Pali coast called one of the most beautiful places in the world and I whole-heartedly agree (you’ve probably seen it on screen in movies like Jurassic Park). Plus we saw more humpback whales and spinner dolphins then I can count. It was 100% worth the expense (over $900 for our family of 5) and giving up a whole day for. (psst: if you get motion sick, definitely bring something!)

Swimming with sea turtles!!! - We saw SO many sea turtles on our trip. They’d just swim near us while we were playing in the ocean. The most we saw in one spot (maybe 20 over a couple hours) was on the east end of Hanalai beach, near the river inlet. I spent hours watching them in the shallow water!

Hanalei Bay - Hanalei is a relaxed, shoes-optional kind of place, full of good eateries, shopping, and the most beautiful 2-mile long beach. I would live here in a heartbeat!

Snorkeling - snorkeling was a big highlight for us! Anini beach on the east side was a favorite of the kids as it has a long protecting reef making it a safe and relaxing spot to snorkel and play.

Hiking - we only did a little hiking, mostly just to beaches, but there’s a lot of great hiking on Kauai. Our favorite hike (walk? adventure?) was when we parked (and ate at) Nourish and then hiked down the hill to Hanalei Bay. We forged the Hanalei river at low tide and then posted up at the beach for a few hours. It’s a great spot to body surf and watch sea turtles and there were lots of beginner surfers there too.

What we ate…

Farmer’s Markets - we hit up the Tuesday farmer’s market in Lihue and it was a nice way support local producers but it’s just in a big parking lot. I bet some of the other island farmers markets have better locations.

Food trucks and markets - The food here is so fresh and healthy and we LOVED it! We did a lot of homemade breakfasts, picnic lunches, shaved ice, and quick grab dinners eaten on the beach or in our condo. Heathy Go (in Lihue), Nourish, Kileaua Cafe and Market were our favorite spots.

Acai bowls - we ate so many of these! The kids’ favorite came from Health Go market in Lihue and Garrett and I loved the loaded options at Nourish near Hanalei.

Poke - we got so much fresh poke! Our favorite was probably from the Fish Market (melt in your mouth ahi) or the Kileaua Market across the street, but we didn’t have a bad bit of fish on the trip!

Shave Ice - shave ice is a thing on Kauai and our kids tried to convince us to stop at every single stand. Their favorite was probably Wishing Well in Hanalei. Highly recommended getting a scoop of macadamia nut ice cream at the bottom of your shaved ice!

What we wore/brought

We lived in swim suits, sun hats, shorts, and sandals and it was fabulous! I mentioned before that we brought snorkeling gear and we also brought 2 swimsuits for each of us, which meant we always had a dry-ish suit to put on.

Here are some links for the favorite things we brought…