A TROPICAL PARADISE
Written: Sep 18 '02 (Updated Sep 18 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful and relaxing with gorgeous views of the mountains and the ocean
Cons: Humidity and costs
The Bottom Line: A kick-back relaxing island with beautiful scenery and modern conveniences.
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| Mawsqaw's Full Review: Kauai |
Kauai is part of a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean that is known as Hawaii, the 50th state in the United States. The northernmost of the islands, Kauai is also known as the garden island. It is not the biggest, nor is it the smallest of the islands, but it is one of the richest as far as beautiful scenery. The temperature was in the low to mid 80's during the day and dropped to about the low 70's at night. I don't know the exactly % of humidity, but it was high!1
The main airport is in Lihue, which is just about center of any place you would want to go on the island as the extreme northwest side is not accessible by car. You either go north as far as you can go, or southeast from Lihue as far as you can go, but you cannot drive around the whole island.
On the northwest side of the island is the Napali coast. This is beautiful when viewed from a boat. There is excellent scuba diving and snorkeling and you can swim with the dolphins and turtles. The boats leave early in the morning from Port Allen and you have about six hours on the ocean, including lunch. It is a beautiful tour.
Each little beach area on the island has it’s own name. I can’t remember them all, but there is Tunnel beach, which is excellent for windsurfing, Ke’e beach, Kapa’a, Hanalei Bay and many others. Each has it’s own distinct purpose. Surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving wind surfing, exploring the wet and dry caves, or just lounging around enjoying the sun and the ocean.
The northern end of the island is more lush as it gets more rainful. In fact, I believe that is where Jurassic Park was filmed. Every day that we were there we had rain of some type. The area is so green. It was amazing to be in a beach house looking at the Pacific ocean and then turning l80 degrees and viewing a dense jungle. This area was called Hane’a. The homes on this part of the island were almost all built on stilts of some type. This is in case of hurricanes I was told, and flooding. Right on the ocean, but you had to walk upstairs to get to the front door. It was work, let me tell you.
The Hanalei Valley was so beautiful. Our resort had an excellent view of Hanalei Bay as well as the beautiful Bali Hai mountain range. The area was known as Princeville, and from what I could see, it was a very exclusive area. There was the famous Princeville Country Club golf course and tennis courts and homes that looked like mansions. Everything on this part of the island seemed quiet and low keyed.
I was told that they roll up the streets at 9 a.m. on Kauai and this was almost true. It was very hard to find a restaurant that was serving dinner past 9 p.m., except in the small area past Hanalei Bay. There is a small shopping center and mall and it was opened later than anything else I came across, but this may not be true for the whole island, only what I saw.
The traffic on the island was not bad, but the main highway from Lihue to Princeville and beyond was terrifying to me at night. I do not like one lane highways, especially in the dark when there are no lights at all. Past Princeville, there are bridges on which only one car at a time may use, so you have to stop and let the oncoming traffic cross before you cross. This wasn’t too bad because every one at this point was going slow and had to stop. The people in the area like it that way and don’t want to change it, but I personally don’t want to go back if I have to travel it at night.
Some of the sites we visited were the Fern Grotto, which was a beautiful trip up the Waimea River to the Grotto which were natural caves in the mountains. We were serenaded by locals on the trip back. The Waimea Canyon, which is the Grand Canyon of Kauai was spectacular. The drive up into the Canyon was beautiful and exhilarating, and of course, the boat trip up the Napali coast.
We attended a wonderful luau at one of the hotels, but like everything else on this island, it was expensive. Breakfast for 6 people was always over $60 and dinner was always over $100. To some people, this may not seem expensive, but to us, it was quite costly. Even the famous burger place along the highway was expensive for burgers and fries. I don’t recommend going to this island if you are worried about finances.
All in all, we did enjoy our trip, and I would like to go back someday, if I could just lounge around the pool drinking tropical drinks, or relaxing at the beach snorkeling and enjoying the sunsets, and not trying to get in too much sighseeing, which at my age was terrible exhausting.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
Mawsqaw
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Member: Sharon
Location: Southern California
Reviews written: 192
Trusted by: 68 members
About Me:
PRAYING FOR AMERICA!! GOD BLESS THE USA!!
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