Andre Morris

Link: http://www.hawaiianair.com

Are you thinking about going to Kauai, Hawaii or know someone who is? I've written this blog entry with the hopes that it can provide valuable information to anyone thinking about visiting Kauai. We recently returned back home to Arizona from a week in Kauai and I want to share our experiences and pictures with you.

We decided to spend Christmas day in Hawaii and we chose the island Kauai as we wanted more relaxation and nature than anything else. We planed for our Kauai trip months in advance through Travelocity. If you schedule your trip for the week before Christmas, the difference is about $800 per ticket with the best deals revealed on the Hawaiian Airlines website mid-November. If we ever go back to Kauai, we will probably go a bit earlier for the warmer weather and cheaper airfare. Even so, the weather was warm and pleasant over the Christmas holiday, even during rain. The high most days was 75 degrees and the low 72 at night.

The flight to Hawaii was very relaxing, Hawaiian Airlines does a fantastic job of making you comfortable. I can tell you that Hawaiian Airlines provides the best in-flight experience of all the airlines I've flown. The seats are relaxing, they play nice mood music during departure, the staff is friendly and they have frequent beverage and meal service. They also provided us with an excellent (and free) pocket map of the island upon departing the plane which proved to be very handy. I would definitely fly them again! Especially since the flight is so long. From Arizona, the flight to Honolulu was roughly 6 hours. Then you have to switch planes for another 1 hour hop from Honolulu to Kauai. NOTE: Take extra care to schedule the layover, there isn't much to do in the Honolulu International Airport.

Upon arrival to the Lihue airport, we picked up our Alamo rental car. There's a counter at the airport for all major rental car agencies, but in order to get your car you'll have to take a shuttle to a parking lot a short trip away. No big deal, but something to keep in mind if you have a lot of bags. I highly recommend that you get a comfortable car for the journey, something big enough for your entire family. There's a LOT of driving involved if you want to see everything on Kauai and it's important to travel in style. The roads are 25 MPH almost everywhere, so you're going pretty slow then add in the fact that it rains a LOT, and you'll find that you're spending more time getting to a destination than you're actually spending at that destination. The island is so beautiful that the drive is always worth it, but you don't want to be squished in a tiny car. TIP: There are potholes everywhere on the island, even on major highways, so you should try to arrive in the day to get the feel for the roads before driving at night. The roads are also dangerous in some places, so drive slow and drive safe!

We didn't want to spend a lot of our time cooking so we decided to eat out most of the time and prepare simple meals other times at home. There's a Safeway Food & Drug Store, (808) 822-2464, in Kapaa that we visited to purchase most of our groceries. The store had everything we needed. There is a Costco, (808) 241-4000, on the island at 4300 Nuhou Street. We didn't get a chance to visit and it may offer better prices than Safeway depending on the items you'll need to buy.

We stayed at the Hanalei Colony Resort. Their brochure says "Recharge your senses, Unspoiled. Unplugged. Unforgettable." I can tell you there are no false promises there. This is about as remote a resort as you can get on Hawaii's most remote island. It is tucked far away on the North Shore of Kauai over seven one-lane bridges. I would recommend that you purchase either the Premium Ocean or Oceanfront units, well worth the extra money! We stayed in an Ocean View unit and while the view was spectacular, it would have been better to be directly facing the ocean with no obstruction of our view. This resort features a lush garden throughout and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. All units are a quick 3 minute walk to the beach and some are located directly on the beach itself. The beach is semi-private and secluded. The whole time we were there we never saw anyone on our portion of the beach that didn't come from HCR. There is also a restaurant on-site, the Mediterranean Gourmet which features a stunning view of the ocean from the dining area. Our stay at the HCR was nothing short of breathtaking and I plan to visit it again. All day and all night, even while sleeping, you hear the sounds of the ocean just outside of your room and the warm Hawaiian breezes blow through your Condo. The sights, sounds and smells you will experience during your stay are magical. The only bad thing about the HCR is also a big part of what makes the HCR so amazing - the location. It's a good distance away from most major services and many of the large tourist attractions on Kauai. It's about an hours drive to Lihue and another hour to get to the Southwest side of the island. Remember what I said about a comfortable car! Or, better yet, don't plan to do anything on Kauai than hang out on the beach and you won't worry about the isolated location of the HCR. One of my favorite days spent on the island involved nothing more than sitting on our porch overlooking the ocean, playing with the kids down on the beach and sipping on Pina Coladas.

Recipe for Pinas:

• 3 oz light rum
• 3 tbsp coconut cream
• 3 tbsp crushed pineapples

Mix all ingredients together in a blender with 2 cups of crushed ice. Don't forget the umbrella!

We spent our entire time on Kauai and did not venture off to other islands. While we were there, the Super Ferry was involved in a legal battle to operate their ships on Kauai. There were donation boxes setup all over in Kauai local shops to fight the Super Ferry and shut them down, many locals on Kauai don't want a commercial service to spoil the isolation of the island. I can see both sides of the argument, but ultimately it's in everyones best interests to let the Super Ferry run. The ferry was not available for us as an option and we didn't feel like flying so it crippled our plans to visit the big island. If and when the Super Ferry does resume Kauai operations, it would be nice to be able to take your rental car to one of the other islands for a day.

Check out this short youtube video with Kauai beach & scenery on display.

I found some useful Kauai information on these websites:

• www.kauaiexplorer.com (Maps, guides & more)
• www.frommers.com/destinations/kauai/0011020149.html
• www.gohawaii.com
• The Garden Island Newspaper
• 101 Things to Do
• Visitor Magazines
• Kauai Travel Guide

The very best local resource I found was a magazine called the "Kauai Drive Guide". You should seriously considering ordering a copy of this before you go! The magazine features Kauai maps, places to go and things to do. We had it in the car with us the entire time and it guided us to many of the tourist attractions we visited.

I was impressed with how much native Hawaiian culture remains integrated throughout Kauai. There are only a handful of radio stations on the island and two of them usually play nothing but traditional Hawaiian music. You will also hear the familiar terms Aloha, Mahalo (thank-you), Mele Kalikimaka (during Christmas time). One radio station that we listened to most of the time on the island is available online, you can listen to streaming Hawaiian music via KKCR.

If you plan to be on the island of Kauai during Christmas, let me recommend my two favorite Christmas activities that we took part in during our stay. First, be sure to visit the Kauai Historic County Building in Lihue. They have it brilliantly decorated with Christmas lights inside and out and if you have children, they will be able to have their pictures taken with Santa Claus. Next, have your Christmas dinner at the Sheraton Kauai Resort. They are open for dinner Christmas night, their food was excellent and the service was outstanding. You also can't beat the view, right on the ocean overlooking the cost of Kauai! We sat outside and had a gorgeous Christmas day dinner while the warm Hawaiian air blew over us - it was superb. I would consider staying at the Sheraton Kauai Resort if the location wasn't so touristy. The beach was completely packed and the area seemed somewhat crowded for my standards, but admittedly, there is more to do on this part of the island.

Even though I had the time of my life on this island, there are some places I will avoid if I ever go back. Banana Joe's Fruitstand gave us poor service, the people who owned the place were rude and the smoothie they served was not good. The Kalypso restaurant also provided us with poor service. The waitress seemed rushed and could care less about our presence, they were out of half of the things listed on the menu, the food was sub-standard and expensive considering the fact! Many small town local shops did not get our business because they only took cash and no debit/credit, so be aware of this fact. One such place was Pizza Hanalei, a pizza place in Hanalei. Not only was the worker at the time rude about not taking cards, they wanted $54 just for two large pepperoni pizzas! We're talking about dine-in here, not delivery, and those prices combined with that service was unacceptable. I would not advise carrying around cash on Kauai as there is a high rate of theft. You will still be able to find plenty of businesses who do offer card processing so stick with them instead.

A few restaurants that we ate at with good food on the island:

• Scotty's BBQ (Good food, Great view!)
• Bubba Burgers (Tasty hamburgers (808) 823-0069)
• Java Kai (Delicious coffee, try the Shark Bite or the Coconut Dream and make it a Tsunami!)
• Panda Kitchen (Nice Asian food, open late even on Christmas, friendly staff)
• Eggberts (My wife loved the food and the service was good)

PS: You're really going to want to take in some of the local foods after a drive through Kapaa. There's a tent set up on the beach most days where they have massive grills cooking Hui Hui chicken and it smells unbelievable! I plan on trying this recipe soon but if you have an authentic recipe for hui hui chicken, please email it to me!

If you're interested in shopping, my wife and daughter really enjoyed shopping in Hanalei. There are a lot of small stores selling a variety of island gear. One of them sold my daughter a beautiful Hawaiian dress that she wore for Christmas dinner. We also enjoyed the Coconut Marketplace in Kapaa, which offers a free hula show every Wednesday night.

Since we visited the island with a toddler, there were many activities that we didn't get a chance to do but will probably look into the next time we visit Kauai. They include boat tours, river rafting, ziplining, hiking, surfing and helicopter tours. You should book these types of activities well in advance. We did not get a chance to tour the Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens. I'm pretty let down over this, I wanted to see these gardens as they look amazing but the tours were sold out two weeks in advance and we couldn't reserve a spot. Also, the Smith's Garden Luau was booked a month in advance. Even so, we came for the beach, the ocean and the scenery and it did not disappoint!

The island offered amazing natural scenery. Every little inch of Kauai had something new to see. My entire family agrees that the best scenery of all the places we visited was located at the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge & lighthouse. Absolutely stunning ocean scenery and local wildlife. Following behind in close second was the Spouting Horn (Lawa'i Road, Po'ipu, South Shore), complete with a pair of sea turtles who were swimming along the shore that day. Our third favorite part of Kauai was the Opaekaa Falls (Easy to reach by car) followed by the Tree Tunnel drive along Highway 520.

One afternoon, my wife and I took lawn chairs down to the beach on a sunny afternoon and laid back to enjoy the ocean and the breeze. We looked up after being on the beach for about ten minutes and noticed that we were surrounded by dozens of "Ghost Crabs". They were all over the beach! They had been buried in the sand but came up as the tide went back and the sun came out. We watched them for some time. Several minutes later, a seagull swooped down from the sky landing directly in front of us and ate one of the ghost crabs whole. It was just like a documentary on the Discovery Channel only better because it was real life happening right in front of us!

We witnessed the sunrise from the beach at the HCR. We watched the sunset near the Spouting Horn. We walked along the Waipouli Beach, in my opinion the softest sand of any beach on Kauai. On the drive past Hanalei we saw huge fields of taro (the local plant used to make poi). We took in magnificent ocean cliffs, tropical plants, mountains shrouded in mist and island streams. Some of the types of wildlife we encountered included horses, roosters, seagulls, goats, Hawaiian Geese, and much more!

The sound of the ocean 24 hours a day was the best part of the entire experience in my opinion. After about 6 days on the island I realized that I have never in my entire life felt more in-tune with nature than I did at that moment. This island has a way that reminds individuals that human beings are pale and insignificant in comparison to the powers of the Earth. I could live on Kauai, but it's expensive and there isn't much industry outside of tourism on the island. If you want to stay in Kauai long-term, make sure you arrive very wealthy! An acre of land with no home was selling for over 1 million according to the for sale brochures we saw while driving around.

Overall this was the best vacation I have ever had and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get away for a while to experience some of the best raw nature that planet Earth has to offer.

More pictures taken during our Kauai Christmas vacation: