advice for travel to the Big Island and Kauai

[Ian S]

Thank you so much! I will check that out!

Question regarding Kauai:

How is it driving from the East Side to the north as well as to the south and west sides of the island?

I am reading Frommer's, and they are suggesting splitting your time between two locations to reduce drive time to the different sides of the island. They also mentioned traffic could be bad on the east side, especially during rush hour times (the morning wouldn't be an issue for us, but I expect we'd be returning from activities during the evening rush hour time).

We have 6 nights scheduled for Kauai. I would love to stay in one place, as it's so much more relaxing to not have to move! I'm not an early morning person, so it's hard for me to get out and about until after 10 a.m. If I could do that and reasonably see everything from an east location, that would be my preference.

However, I am willing to split it into two locations if it's more practical - say, a few nights on the east side (for easier access to the north) and a few nights in the south (for easier access to the west).

Bear in mind that there really isn't a road going up the west side of Kauai. We took a guided tour that took us south from Lihue to the coffee plantation then on to the Waimea Canyon Park. Had lunch at the Kokee Cafe and Bar which had great sandwiches and dessert. Had a stop in Hanapepe where we walked across the swinging bridge and shopped. That was a whole day trip which you could do yourself. On a different day, we did a trip to the north right to the end of the road then back down to the southeast through the tree tunnel and down to the beach at Poipu and to the spouting horn blow hole. With an earlier start to your day, you might be able to get in a visit to the Allerton gardens (reservations required). Traffic wasn't really too bad at any point (weekday). Try the Koa store north of Lihue for some unique woodcraft gifts.

 

[simple girl]

Bear in mind that there really isn't a road going up the west side of Kauai.

Oh yes I'm aware of that, but thank you! By "west" I meant the Waimea Canyon/Koke'e State Parks.

We took a guided tour that took us south from Lihue to the coffee plantation then on to the Waimea Canyon Park. Had lunch at the Kokee Cafe and Bar which had great sandwiches and dessert. Had a stop in Hanapepe where we walked across the swinging bridge and shopped. That was a whole day trip which you could do yourself. On a different day, we did a trip to the north right to the end of the road then back down to the southeast through the tree tunnel and down to the beach at Poipu and to the spouting horn blow hole. With an earlier start to your day, you might be able to get in a visit to the Allerton gardens (reservations required). Traffic wasn't really too bad at any point (weekday). Try the Koa store north of Lihue for some unique woodcraft gifts.

Happy to hear the traffic wasn't too bad for you! I read that it is worst between 6 and 9 a.m. and then 3 and 6 p.m. Maybe we'll just plan to do dinner partway home before the traffic areas to avoid rush hour and also to break up the drive on the way home.

I'm pretty sure I've convinced myself that we are going to just stay in one place. We'll either do Popoi or the East side somewhere - pending availability, oceanview, and price.

 

[Ian S]

Oh yes I'm aware of that, but thank you! By "west" I meant the Waimea Canyon/Koke'e State Parks.

Happy to hear the traffic wasn't too bad for you! I read that it is worst between 6 and 9 a.m. and then 3 and 6 p.m. Maybe we'll just plan to do dinner partway home before the traffic areas to avoid rush hour and also to break up the drive on the way home.

I'm pretty sure I've convinced myself that we are going to just stay in one place. We'll either do Popoi or the East side somewhere - pending availability, oceanview, and price.

On the way back from Poipu to our hotel in Lahue, Google maps took us off the main highway and onto a quiet road I assume to avoid the rush hour traffic.

We also prefer if possible to stay in one place and found the Lihue area pretty central for what we wanted to do. If our sunset cruise had not been cancelled (out of Port Allen), it might have been a tad more convenient to stay on the south side so when we go back we might do just that since we'd also like to revisit the Waimea Canyon (weather on our tour day was less than ideal for stunning vistas.)

Consider also the time of your flight out of Lihue: ours was pretty early in the AM and returning the rental car, getting to the terminal with your luggage, putting your luggage through the agricultural inspection, TSA, etc all takes time. That morning we were glad we were only a couple of miles from the airport!

 

[Koolau]

Bear in mind that there really isn't a road going up the west side of Kauai. We took a guided tour that took us south from Lihue to the coffee plantation then on to the Waimea Canyon Park. Had lunch at the Kokee Cafe and Bar which had great sandwiches and dessert. Had a stop in Hanapepe where we walked across the swinging bridge and shopped. That was a whole day trip which you could do yourself. On a different day, we did a trip to the north right to the end of the road then back down to the southeast through the tree tunnel and down to the beach at Poipu and to the spouting horn blow hole. With an earlier start to your day, you might be able to get in a visit to the Allerton gardens (reservations required). Traffic wasn't really too bad at any point (weekday). Try the Koa store north of Lihue for some unique woodcraft gifts.

I don't know if it's been made clear: There is no road that goes AROUND the Island. There is perhaps a 10 or 15 mile gap. Our only trip to Kauai, we had reservations in Lihue. When we arrived, they said. Sorry, we have no rooms BUT we'll put you up in our 4 star hotel up at Princeville. You'll like it much better. Knowing nothing about Kauai 40 years ago, we said "okay." Turns out, Princeville is the end of the road. To get to anything from there is hours and there's no way to get back without just turning around and retracing your path. So, we drove all the way around the Island (just a few miles from Priceville - by air) and then drove all the way back - all in one day. Get a good map, or better yet my recommended book on the Island before choosing a hotel. YMMV

 

[skyking1]

I completely missed the Kauai part of the title LOL!
I recommend going to see the Na Pali from the north shore. We went with Captain Bob, he ran the Captain Sundown catamaran out of Hanalei Bay. Apparently he is closed now. It was really cool as he lowered outboards and motored out across the break at Hanalei, then promptly set sail and pulled up the outboards for the whole trip. If anybody sails out there I think it is worth the extra it might cost.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Our first visit to Hawaii was in 1995 after we received an offer in the mail from Marriot for 5 nights at their resort in Lihue plus a car for only $559. The property was spectacular at the time and remnants of the damage from the hurricane were all over the island. Little did we know that the offer was a time share ambush. Every day we went out to explore the island and when we returned to the hotel, we would have several voice mails insisting that we check in with the resort director. After the fourth night and knocks on our door the hotel director insisted that we attend a 90 minute presentation. We told her that we wanted to go horseback riding. She said that she would pay for our horseback ride if we attended the presentation. So we said fine and attended this 90 minute presentation where they were done with us after 40 minutes. The horse back riding was nice and we were sure that we were blacklisted from future timeshare ambushes. But we were wrong. We received similar offers from the Westin in Maui, Hilton in Oahu, Sheraton in Maui, and to our surprise once again at the Marriot in Lihue in 2015. We took advantage of those offers and improved our time to get tossed out down to as low as 20 minutes. Every time we received a $90 resort credit that we applied towards an activity like horseback riding. Those offers still come but we ignore them. Life is too short to sit through time share presentations and deal with an angry wife for subjecting her to that.

A few years ago I had a friend who is a lawyer who used timeshare presentations as opportunities. She would attend, get the benefit, then start asking difficult legal questions and woul dget "released" very quickly.

 

[Koolau]

DW has "bought" into 2 or 3 different deals (no time share as I was with her.) Last one was a "travel club" which, supposedly offered 1000s in travel discounts. I marched her down to the hotel where she had signed up (at a cost of close to $10K) and told them we were canceling within 3 days. They tried to talk me out of it, but I "insisted" to the point of mentioning my best friend, the lawyer (he was a figment, but still useful.) They immediately canceled the contract and issued a CC credit. A year later, we got an official notice that the company was being sued by a class-action outfit. Did we want to join in? I thought about if for a couple of seconds, but didn't feel right about trying to recoup money we had already gotten back. But I was still mad that they had tried to take advantage of DW. (Full disclosure, I was still miffed at DW for signing up!) YMMV

 

[Freedom56]

Don't blame your wife. They use Jedi mind tricks to sell these deals.

 

[Koolau]

Don't blame your wife. They use Jedi mind tricks to sell these deals.

Apparently quite effective. Just before we got married, she bought a set of encyclopedias. No idea what she thought she (we?) would need them for. We went to a lawyer friend who said ship them back, tell them you're not going to pay for them. Don't bother me ever again.

Lawyer pointed out that (at least in dose days) once DW was married to me, her name would disappear and they couldn't come after her. I learned a lot about lawyers that day. YMMV

 

[samcat]

We've spent a week in Kona on the Big Island about 8 times with family.
1) Don't drive around the island in a day, unless you like that kind of thing. It seems like work to me. We stayed at a B&B in Hilo a few times and we recommend it highly. It is a great place to break up an island circuit.
https://www.halekaihawaii.com/rooms

We liked the Bamboo room the best. The sun comes up out of the sea out that window.
One morning we hear all sorts of laughter and loud talk, and found out that the locals would surf right below us to the right when the waves and tide are right
2) The cross island highway is a good one day over and back if you are based out of the Kona area. You can go to the visitor information station partway up the mountain, we enjoyed that. Beware of high altitude, if you are sensitive to that.
The saddle road tops out at 6765 MSL, and the Onizuka Vistor's Information Station is at 9300 MSL.
https://goo.gl/maps/YzrVtE1KwULFcryZ6
3) Do allow some time for the Kohala. It is mountainous and spectacular.
At the end of the road you find the Pololū Valley Lookout. Before you head back, take a look at the Kēōkea Beach Park. It was nice, big waves to watch and just a chill little park.
4) We enjoyed Waipio Valley. We've done wagon rides, rode ATV's on a trail above to the overlooks, and just enjoyed the history and tragedy of the area. It was devastated by the 1946 tsunami.
Now the valley is closed to all but locals due to slippage and failure of the road down into the valley, but you can still see the overlook.
There is much more to look at so ask away.

I second Pololu Valley and Waipio Valley.

We also like the Mauna Kea Resort. You walk into the hotel and feel like Elvis should round the corner. There's a nice patio lounge and at night, you can go down to the water where they attract manta rays with lights.

 

[anothercog]

Oh my goodness, this looks TOOOOOOO fun! Will definitely be investigating this - thank you!

I second the tube tour in Kauai. Book in advance. My friend is there now and couldn’t get a spot. They go out rain or shine.

 

[meleana]

Hi all.

I'm currently planning a trip to Hawaii, combining the Big Island and Kauai.

I have a companion pass on Southwest that will be expiring Feb 2023, so I need to travel before then to take advantage of it. It's looking like the best timing for our schedule and the other couple meeting us there will be either the last week of December (over New Year's, just after Christmas) or one of the first two weeks of January.


How many days (not including arrival/departure days) would you recommend on each island? I'm seeing wide variations in recommendations thus far per my online research. FYI, we love nature, so we plan to do multiple short hikes (long hikes are out due to hubby's knee) and are also definitely interested in seeing Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

I also welcome any other advice regarding this trip. Thank you!

Years ago we did this trip and we spent 10 days on Kauai and 8 days on the Big Island.

The time flew by! We were always busy doing stuff or relaxing on a beach.

Definitely do this on the Big Island:

https://maunakea.com/

 

[HI Bill]

I'd go with 10 days on the Big Island and 5 on Kauai (some folks love Kauai, and it's stunningly beautiful, but it's too slow for me, and now, has too much traffic). YMMV . Of course, if you had an itinerary planned out, it would help! I've have two sets of visitors to the BI this year, and 5 days was barely enough time to show them much!

 

[simple girl]

We'll have 8 days on the Big Island (including arrival/departure days) and 6 days on Kauai. We'll be by ourselves on the Big Island and then will meet up with friends on Kauai.

Our friends and I have decided to stay in the south (Poipu) on Kauai, as it should be drier (going in the rainy season). Found a very lovely two bedroom townhouse right on the ocean. We are soooooooo excited!

Still have to figure out lodging for the Big Island, but one step at a time. Travel planning takes so much time! I'm also trying to finish up details for our Yellowstone trip in September.

Oh, such big problems to have!

Early retirement is GRAND!

 

[skyking1]

DA and DU had a timeshare at the Kona Coast, just down hill from the Keauhou shopping center. It proved to be a great base of operations for us.
https://www.extraholidays.com/kailua-kona-big-island-hawaii/kona-coast-resort
We'd get fresh fish and what have you, and use the outdoor grilles sprinkled throughout the place.
Other traditions: We went to the farmer's market and get really good pineapple and papaya and all sorts of bananas, and had breakfast in. Kona coffee, of course

 

[simple girl]

DA and DU had a timeshare at the Kona Coast, just down hill from the Keauhou shopping center. It proved to be a great base of operations for us.
https://www.extraholidays.com/kailua-kona-big-island-hawaii/kona-coast-resort
We'd get fresh fish and what have you, and use the outdoor grilles sprinkled throughout the place.
Other traditions: We went to the farmer's market and get really good pineapple and papaya and all sorts of bananas, and had breakfast in. Kona coffee, of course

Thanks for the link, will check it out!

Your traditions sound much like ours. We love to cook, especially fish and fresh market foods. Fun! On our 10 year anniversary to Maui we cooked on the BBQ at the resort we stayed at - definitely wonderful memories!

 

[skyking1]

If you like Macadamia nut pie, go get one at Costco. Seriously. You'll spend the price of 3 little slices in a diner on it and have it in the condo with your select Kona coffee.

 

[SecondAttempt]

If you like Macadamia nut pie, go get one at Costco. Seriously. You'll spend the price of 3 little slices in a diner on it and have it in the condo with your select Kona coffee.

Lol, I totally agree. But Costco is a madhouse right after arriving flights. Precovid I had a list of daily arrivals from the mainland (there are not that many) so that I could avoid Costco for an hour or two after each flight! But Costco is a great place for lots of local stuff as well as the usual nationwide stuff.

 

[SecondAttempt]

DA and DU had a timeshare at the Kona Coast, just down hill from the Keauhou shopping center. It proved to be a great base of operations for us.
https://www.extraholidays.com/kailua-kona-big-island-hawaii/kona-coast-resort
We'd get fresh fish and what have you, and use the outdoor grilles sprinkled throughout the place.
Other traditions: We went to the farmer's market and get really good pineapple and papaya and all sorts of bananas, and had breakfast in. Kona coffee, of course

I used to have a rental condo in Keauhou very close to the Kona Coast Resort. It is a great base because there is a supermarket (KTA) and Longs (CVS) right there.

The resorts along the Kohala Coast (Marriott, Hilton, Fairmont, Mauna Lani, Mauna Kea, and Westin Hapuna) are nice but you will be very isolated and their prices are sky high right now.

Just so you know, my condo always booked up solid January to March often a full year in advance. You might already have trouble booking for 8 days since most owners can book 30-90 days that time of year. I would suggest you get your lodging booked very soon.

In Keauhou there is also the Outrigger Hotel. It is not the same one most people are familiar with. The former Outrigger next to Kahalu'u Beach Park is being demolished. Outrigger bought the old Sheraton recently which is a very nice property. There are a few other hotels in Kona that have mostly been mentioned - Courtyard King Kamehameha, Royal Kona, and Holiday Inn Express. There is also Uncle Billy's and Kona Seaside, both attract a local crowd but are convenient, safe, and clean.

Very few options between Keauhou and Volcano except a few vacation rentals.

I can't speak to Hilo. I know a few hotels but don't have any good current information.

Personally I suggest Keauhou but if you are the kind that like to stroll around a quaint town then the Royal Kona or King Kamehameha are right in town. If you will be spending a lot of time hanging out at the beach or around the resort, the Kohala Resorts will be appealing. For 8 nights I would spend 2 in Hilo and 6 on the west side.

Finally, if you have already booked your interisland flight, don't fret if you need to change it. It is undoubtedly on Hawaiian Air even if it carries a flight number for United, Delta, or whatever. They are very good, especially right now about changing flights or even switching from Kona to Hilo.

 

[Ian S]

Finally, if you have already booked your interisland flight, don't fret if you need to change it. It is undoubtedly on Hawaiian Air even if it carries a flight number for United, Delta, or whatever. They are very good, especially right now about changing flights or even switching from Kona to Hilo.

In May, our flight from Maui to Kauai was via Southwest. The downside was a change in Honolulu but it was cheaper (even more so when you consider the free checked bags) and a tad more convenient timing for us.

 

[simple girl]

If you like Macadamia nut pie, go get one at Costco. Seriously. You'll spend the price of 3 little slices in a diner on it and have it in the condo with your select Kona coffee.

Now that's just wrong. Why did you have to put that idea into my head?

It sounds divine!!!

Last time we were there I discovered coconut syrup...and proceeded to have it every day on my oatmeal...and of course, with Kona coffee!

Oh my so excited about this trip!

 

[simple girl]

Lol, I totally agree. But Costco is a madhouse right after arriving flights. Precovid I had a list of daily arrivals from the mainland (there are not that many) so that I could avoid Costco for an hour or two after each flight! But Costco is a great place for lots of local stuff as well as the usual nationwide stuff.

Oooooooh, excellent info - thank you so much for that insider knowledge!

 

[simple girl]

Just so you know, my condo always booked up solid January to March often a full year in advance. You might already have trouble booking for 8 days since most owners can book 30-90 days that time of year. I would suggest you get your lodging booked very soon.

Good to know....continuing my cramming planning for Hawaii...whew!!! LOL I saw just how packed Kauai was in January...eeks!

Finally, if you have already booked your interisland flight, don't fret if you need to change it. It is undoubtedly on Hawaiian Air even if it carries a flight number for United, Delta, or whatever. They are very good, especially right now about changing flights or even switching from Kona to Hilo.

Thanks for the detailed lodging advice, very much appreciated!

We are flying with Southwest on points, so I can modify that interisland flight easily. Excellent suggestion to stay flexible, pending what I find available in lodging. Now, I just hope that the two days I pick for Hilo end up being somewhat decent weather for visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park...no way to predict that! Fingers crossed!

 

[simple girl]

In May, our flight from Maui to Kauai was via Southwest. The downside was a change in Honolulu but it was cheaper (even more so when you consider the free checked bags) and a tad more convenient timing for us.

Yes, Southwest for us, too. It's a drag to have to change in Honolulu, but it's free for us (points) and yeah the free two checked bags is a BONUS too!

 

[Koolau]

Good to know....continuing my cramming planning for Hawaii...whew!!! LOL I saw just how packed Kauai was in January...eeks!



Thanks for the detailed lodging advice, very much appreciated!

We are flying with Southwest on points, so I can modify that interisland flight easily. Excellent suggestion to stay flexible, pending what I find available in lodging. Now, I just hope that the two days I pick for Hilo end up being somewhat decent weather for visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park...no way to predict that! Fingers crossed!

Yep, last time I was there it was fog and earth quakes. YMMV