Top 3 things to do in Kauai?

Walking along the tree-root infested edge of the Waimea Canyon is pretty exciting - we had a tour guide who liked to talk about the locations where people fell to their death as he led us along the 'scenic walk'.

 

A couple of suggestions: take a drive up to Koke'e Park in the center of the island, see Waimea Canyon. Great hikes there, get a guidebook at the museum. Drive to the end of the road on the Northshore and snorkle at Ke'e Beach. While there, if you're a hiker, go the 1.5 miles (each way) into Hanakapai Beach. That little hike will give you a sense of the Na Pali coast. Try dinner at the Dolphin in Hanalei. Or better yet, food wise, the Hukilau in Kapaa. If on the Westside (Waimea), eat at the Wrangler steakhouse. Have fun!

 

Do the inner tube ride in the water irrigation ditches. It also goes through tunnels made through the mountains. They give you an inner tube and a helmet with a flashlight so you can see while you float through the tunnels.

 

Princeville is exquisit! We were there last year and I had an Enzo sighting during a downpour. The short hike down to queens bath is cool. The greenish lagoons were awesome!
If you're staying up north be sure to make your way down south too. We ended up splitting our trip, half up north and the rest down in Poipu. The beaches in this area are amazing and dinner at the Beach House is a must. One of our favorites was taking a boat ride out and around the west side of the island. It lets you see from below the end of the road of the canyon drive. Enjoy and I'm sure you're wife knows about the "blue book". I spoke with a local and they can't stand those books because it gets tourists a little too close for comfort in thier secrets.

Oh, while we were on the catamaran run we saw a flying fish!!

Brian

 

Another suggestion: go to the beach; the nicest beaches in the state are on Kauai (sorry Maui).

 

It is an incredible island paradise, for sure.

I believe it was where they filmed the island scenes for Jurassic Park.

No live dinosaurs wandering around, but plenty of wild chickens! They are in all the bushes around the hotels, if you look.

 

The first Jurassic Park movie was filmed here. Don't know about the sequels. Wild chickens are everywhere, roosting up in the trees on our property. The other islands don't have nearly as many birds, including chickens. This can be attributed to the fact that there are no mongoose on Kauai. Mongoose are notorious bird egg eaters and a pest that was introduced on purpose to control rats, a pest that was accidentally introduced. On the islands with mongoose, they still have rats, and now thousands of mongoose. And not many birds...

 

Go snorkeling at Tunnels Beach.

 

Did that today with some mainland guests. Highly recommended; breathtaking setting.
See Body Heat, the final scene with Kathleen Turner. That's the place.

 

All interesting tid bits - I'm heading to Hawaii in November around Thanksgiving. Kaui, then Maui, then Oahu.