My daughter spends every summer with her father, but every other year I get about 10 days at the end of the summer with her before school starts. Vacations every other year are always the biggest and best I can afford. I start paying for them a year in advance. This year, we went to Kauai.
I have been dreaming of going to Kauai since I was a little girl. I experienced Hawaii for the first time 2 years prior when I went to the Big Island with my parents and Melia, but this was the island of my dreams.
Here are a few things I learned and would suggest about visiting Kauai.
- The number one thing we did was take a helicopter. It went around the whole island and was really fun!!
- There are coupon books everywhere you look. In stores, along sidewalks, etc. Those came in handy
- There’s a free hula show in Kapaa at the coconut marketplace. Much cheaper than a Luau and it was great!
- There are tons of beaches to choose from and we went all over. The 2 that were best for kids swimming around were Salt Pond Park in Hanapepe and Anahola Beach Park north of Kaelia
- The North Shore at the end of the road is very busy. We opted to not even park and stay as there were so many people. I would suggest not going at Peak hours
- Queens Bath is a popular spot but the parking lot is tiny and you will have to wait for a spot. Plus this time of year the tide was low and the water so stagnant, no one would even swim in it. It didn’t seem that impressive at all to me.
- The cheapest place we found chocolate covered Macadamia nuts is at Foodland in Princeville. I think under $9 a bag.
- Everyone there drives realllly slow….so it takes a while to get places.
- Waimea Canyon was awesome. The hike we chose was Cliff Trail which was short, but the trail to get to the trail was steep and slippery.
- Shopping at Costco did NOT save us money. If you have a kitchen, I would suggest just buying from Safeway. If you are not buying premade meals there, the prices are fairly close to on the mainland.
- There’s a little known cave near Poipu that turned out to be really awesome. It’s called Makauwahi Cave. If you google it, it may say “closed” but that’s because a guy sits down there and tells you of the history. You can still hike down there when he isn’t there.
- I WISH we had tried the right kind of shave ice. The ones with real fruit are in Kapaa.
- I wish I had the money for a catamaran tour of the Na-Pali coast but I opted for the helicopter instead. If I had to choose again, I’d probably still pick the helicopter. 😊
- Don’t forget sunscreen!! The sun is so much stronger there.
- I wouldn’t suggest going to Kekaha Beach Park. It was horribly windy, a sharp dropoff and smelled like dead fish.
Another bucket-list item is to have photographs of my daughter and I in matching clothes. My grandfather passed away this March. At his memorial, we watched a beautiful slideshow of him and family. I saw that my grandma (who has also passed) would make matching clothes for her and her daughter. I fell in love with the idea. I had a friend of mine make dresses for Melia and I and send me the pattern. I was able to successfully make the blue dresses you see below.
hi mom