Travel Tips – Kauai
RESTAURANTS:
- *Dolphin- Hanalei right on the Hanalei River. Open lunch and dinner. Great menu and great sushi. Gets crowded and no reservations.
- Pat’s Tacos – near Hanalei pier, awesome taco stand, must go. Cash only. 10-3 excepts Sundays. Steak & fish tacos!
- Postcards- Hanalei amazing vegetarian restaurant (serves fish but no meat) dinner only. Must make reservation
- Kilauea Fish Market – get the tuna wrap, it might be the best thing on the island
- Trilogy – breakfast and baked goods. All organic. In Kilauea. Juice place here too!
- Tropical Taco- Hanalei- every kind of taco, lunch only. It is a permanent structure but has the feel of a food truck. *Happy Talk – Fun Hawaiian Bar – good food/drinks.
- Tahiti Nui – best Mai Tais in Hanalei, great pizza and they play live music pretty often. They also do a luau on Wednesday or Thursday nights but have to call ahead and make reservation.
BEST BEACHES:
- Hanalei Bay and Pier- Hanalei very calm, beautiful beach. Rent paddle boards right near the pier and can paddle all the way up the river to the bridge. Also bring a credit card because you can stop at the Dolphin restaurant and get a mai tai and sushi roll.
- Secret Beach- Kilauea, you hike down to the beach, pretty fun spot to go adventure and cruise, just be careful because beach break can be pretty big there.
- Ke’e State Beach Park- Haena last beach on the north end of the island. Magnificent beach but parking can be difficult, and you will go when you hike Kalalau.
- Tunnels Beach- Great snorkeling beach, check out the enormous caves across the street from the beach, they are very cool. Lots of turtles. You cannot rent snorkeling stuff there so need to grab in town -Anini – Very calm and shallow, great snorkeling.
ACTIVITIES & ADVENTURES:
- Helicopter tour – drive to the south side of the island and do the Jack Harter helicopter tour, it’s an open door helicopter, its awesome, less than hour drive from Hanalei. I highly recommend that over the helicopter tour they offer out of Princeville. I have done them both and Jack Harter is by far superior.
- Polihale state beach (other side of the island). If you have an SUV or Jeep you can drive on the beach. It is the beach that is on the other side of the Napali coast. It is a mission from Hanalei though so might be better to just relax. The Waimea Canyon is also down there. But if you do the helicopter tour you will see all of this.
- Snorkeling – Tunnels and hideaway beach are the two best spots on the north shore, ideal time to go is if the surf is flat and calm
- Surfing – Drew Irons has a surf school right in Hanalei and if looking for something a little more intense Drew can take you too some spots to shred otherwise the surfing at pine trees which is at Hanalei Bay is beach bottom and fun to learn.
- Hiking – Kalalau trail but if want to do the smuggler of Hanalei its the first quick left after you go over bridge into Hanalei. It is called the Okolehao Trail and def worth hiking, won’t take long and offers great views of Hanalei.
- Queens bath – very cool if the water is calm, where the Hawaiian queen used to sunbathe, St Regis should be ale to steer you in that direction *Lost Dam – Secret Zen garden behind common ground (1/2 mile walk)
- Napali coast day hike to Beach (4 Miles RT) or waterfall (8 Miles RT)
