To kick off our four weeks in Hawaii, we spent a week on the island of Kauai. Kauai is the oldest of the main islands in Hawaii and, to me, felt the most authentically Hawaiian of the four islands we visited.
Although there are resorts, chain stores, fast food restaurants, etc. on the island, it felt less commercialized than Maui, the Big Island and Oahu. Driving around, it also felt like the most natural of the islands and was, for me, the most pleasant looking scenery-wise.
Here’s a roundup of our week in Kauai covering where we stayed, how we got around, what we did and where we ate and drank.
Where We Stayed In Kauai
We spent the entire week at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa. It’s a truly fantastic property – beautiful grounds, great views, friendly staff, lots of amenities, all kinds of activities to do and more.
We received an upgrade to a room with a partial ocean view and my Hyatt Globalist status meant we had complimentary access to the hotel’s club lounge which meant our breakfasts and dinners were free, saving us money to spend on other activities on the island. Here’s my full review of our stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
How We Got Around Kauai
We flew into Lihue airport which is a 30 minute drive from our hotel. Knowing that we had several places around the island that we wanted to see, we rented a car for the entire week.
We rented from Sixt for a few reasons. One is that they were the most reasonably priced rental company for our dates that wasn’t some lesser-known company. Another is that the Capital One Shopping portal was offering something like 24%-30% back on Sixt bookings which would offset a large chunk of the rental.
The third reason is that I’d taken advantage of a status match opportunity a few months beforehand and so had Platinum status with Sixt. That made us eligible for better upgrades, so we were hopeful we’d get a fun car to drive despite reserving an intermediate vehicle.
That Platinum status came in clutch. For starters, we did indeed get an upgrade. They offered us 2-3 different vehicles, but as soon as they mentioned a convertible, we knew which car we’d pick! The thought of driving around Hawaii with the top down was too enticing to resist, even if its gas economy wouldn’t be as good.
The Platinum status also came in handy another way. Sixt Platinum status means you get a free additional driver in the contiguous 48 states, but Hawaii and Alaska are excluded. Despite that, the Sixt in Kauai added Shae as an additional driver for free. That seemed to be a one-off though, as the Sixt in Maui that we rented from the following week charged us for an additional driver.
What We Did In Kauai
Waimea Canyon State Park
Something that pretty much everyone we knew who’d been to Kauai recommended was visiting Waimea Canyon State Park.
It’s not hard to see why.
Waimea Canyon was formed more than 5 million years ago as a result of volcanic shifting and then water eroding the layers of basaltic lava. The canyon is more than 13 miles long, about 1.5 miles wide and up to 2,500 feet deep in some parts.
Koke’e State Park
We’d encountered some low clouds at Waimea Canyon, but it hadn’t impacted on our views too much. From there, we continued up to Koke’e State Park where those clouds had much more of an impact.
At Kalalau Lookout, we should’ve gotten to enjoy beautiful mountain views and the ocean in the distance as shown on the information board below:
This was our view instead unfortunately.
Waimea United Church of Christ
As we were driving along, Shae spotted a beautiful church and so we stopped by quickly. It’s the Waimea United Church of Christ; construction started on it in the 1830s, with the first service being held there in 1854.
Salt Pond Beach Park
Our next quick stop was at Salt Pond Beach Park which has some nice tide pools.
Sea Turtles At Poipu Beach
Our final stop that day was Poipu Beach. That’s a beach a short distance from where we were staying at the Grand Hyatt and which features sea turtles on its beach at night. That evening there were more than 40 of them, while when Shae returned the following night later in the evening there were almost 100 of them.
Shae wrote a separate post all about the honu (sea turtles) on Poipu Beach, so check that out here.
Anini Beach
Currents were strong at several beaches around the island while we were there, but Anini Beach on the north side of the island seemed to be protected from that.
The waves were much calmer, so Shae went snorkeling there. I was initially interested in snorkeling too, but the water was far colder than I was anticipating, so I sat it out and napped in the shade on the beach instead.
Similar to Key West, Kauai has lots of wild chickens roaming around the island, with Anini Beach seeming to have the largest conglomeration of them that we saw.
Where We Ate & Drank In Kauai
To save money, we mostly ate in the club lounge at the Grand Hyatt. However, we did get out and about some to try a few different places.
Koloa Rum Company
You’ll find spirits from Koloa Rum Company in stores all around Hawaii. They’re based in Lihue in Kauai, so we paid them a visit to do a rum and spirits tasting one afternoon.
All the rums we tried were very good, but the experience itself wasn’t amazing. The guy running the tasting was nice enough, but the entire thing just felt like a nonstop sales pitch to buy bottles of their rum rather than an opportunity to impress guests with the rum, leading to them wanting to buy bottles as a result.
Koloa Rum Company is on the same Kilohana complex as several other activities including a plantation train tour, a Kauai safari, a luau and more. There are also a couple of restaurants/bars next door to the rum tasting called Mahiko Lounge and The Plantation House; I can’t remember which one it was that we went to after, but we had a cocktail there.
Puka Dog
Next to Poipu Beach is a fast food restaurant called Puka Dog that serves hot dogs with a twist. You can choose whether to get a polish sausage or a vegetarian one, then you pick a garlic lemon secret sauce.
The next step is your choice of a tropical relish which is either mango, pineapple, coconut, star fruit, papaya or banana, then finished off with your choice of ketchup, mustard and/or relish.
Rather than it being served in a split bun, they seem to have hollowed out the hot dog buns instead. The fillings got inserted, then the sausage slid in the middle. I got mine with the coconut relish and enjoyed it; it was obviously a little bit of a weird flavor, but it was fun to try. Shae wasn’t as big of a fan of having the fruity relish inside, but I’m glad we grabbed a Puka Dog to try.
Hanalei Spirits Distillery
A couple of days after visiting Koloa Rum Company, we visited Hanalei Spirits Distillery for a different rum/spirits tasting experience and this one was infinitely better as an overall experience. It’s a small, family-run distillery, with one of the owners running both the tour and tasting.
She was fantastic and her passion for their work shone through. The tour and tasting lasted close to two hours in the end which might sound like a long time, but we enjoyed every single moment of it.
We got to try 10-12 different spirits, all of which were excellent. Several were rums including white, dark and pineapple rums, plus there were other spirits like their Lilikoicello which is like limoncello but with passionfruit, as well as a vodka made with taro root.
The experience was enhanced even further by their sweet and friendly pups who seemed to enjoy having so many visitors.
If you visit Kauai, we’d highly recommend visiting Hanalei Spirits Distillery. You need to book the tour in advance; because it’s a small, family-run company, it’s not the kind of experience where you can just rock up on the day and join in. If you don’t have time for a full tour and tasting (which normally lasts 90 minutes), they do offer a 45 minute tasting experience. You can book both of them here.
Tip Top Motel, Cafe & Bakery
When we were picking up our rental car at Sixt, the incredibly friendly agent there gave us some recommendations of places to eat on the island. One of those was the Tip Top Motel, Cafe & Bakery. She said it’s a little janky inside, but that the food is excellent and authentic Hawaii. She particularly recommended getting the oxtail soup.
When you get a local’s recommendation like that, you don’t ignore it. Shae and I therefore went to Tip Top for lunch before our Hanalei Spirits tour. I don’t know if I’d necessarily have labeled it as janky inside, but it certainly didn’t look like anything special.
Breakfast is served from 7am-1:30pm, while lunch is available from 11am-1:30pm. We arrived just before 1pm, so we could select from either menu.
Seeing as the Sixt agent had recommended the oxtail soup, we got that to share. It totally wasn’t what I was expecting; I’d enjoyed Heinz oxtail soup growing up as a kid in the UK and from what I can remember of that it was like a dark, deep beef broth with nothing else in it.
The oxtail soup at Tip Top on the other hand was a much lighter color, with noodles, ox tail and vegetables, with parsley and ginger on the side to taste. It was therefore much more like a ramen dish than we’d expected, but it was tasty nonetheless.
We also ordered a Tip Top Yokozuna Bento to share. This featured fried chicken, corned beef hash, ribeye steak, Goteborg sausage, shrimp tempura, rice and macaroni salad.
It was a ridiculous amount of food in conjunction with the large bowl of oxtail soup, so we didn’t manage to finish everything off. Despite that, it was a great decision as the meal was delicious. Their fried chicken in particular was some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, so if we ever head back there I’d probably order their Chicken Wing Dings which has seven of their chicken wings.
Our fullness wasn’t helped by the fact that we’d also ordered dessert at the same time as ordering our mains! I can’t remember what it was exactly, but it was some kind of banana pie. Thankfully it was fairly light and so we managed a few spoonfuls of that each too.
Kauai Island Brewing Company
Kauai Island Brewing Company has a couple of locations in Kauai – one in Port Allen and one in Koloa. On our penultimate night in Kauai we visited their location in Koloa.
I got their Alaka’i coffee stout which was good, while Shae got a cocktail. I think hers was the Cosmo Roxy which contained Pau Vodka, Cointreau, fresh lime, house berry shrub and prosecco float. Otherwise, it might’ve been their Smoke & Murmurs which contains Xicaru Silver Mezcal, house berry shrub, fresh lime, rhubarb bitters and house vanilla syrup. Either way, she liked it!
The following night – our last night in Kauai – we went to the Port Allen location. We met up with Tim who I work with at Frequent Miler and his wife for a quick drink as they were visiting the island at the same time.
Their Port Allen location was out of the stout, so I got their hazy wheat ale instead. Shae got a different cocktail which I think was their Mai Tai; unfortunately I forgot to make notes about the different drinks both times we visited.
Japanese Grandma’s Cafe
After that drink with Tim and his wife, the four of us went to dinner at Japanese Grandma’s Cafe – a sushi restaurant that several people had recommended, including the Sixt agent who hadn’t steered us wrong with Tip Tip Motel, Cafe & Bakery.
It looked dead inside when we arrived, but that’s because everyone was being seated in the garden at the back and that’s where we were seated too.
There was a lot on the menu we liked the look of, so Shae and I ordered four rolls and two sets of two pieces of nigiri. All of it was very good, but – like with Tip Top Cafe – it was a lot of food and so we struggled to eat it all.
What We Missed In Kauai
We tried to have a good mix of doing things in Kauai, along with having some relaxation time. That meant there’s lots more stuff that we didn’t get to, so here’s what’s on a future to-do list:
- Nā Pali Coast State Wilderness Park – you need reservations
- Pihea Trail
- Waimea Canyon Trail
- Waiahuakua Sea Cave – this has a waterfall, but you have to take a boat to access it
- Tunnels Beach – there are lava tunnels on the beach. We tried visiting, but the parking lot was completely full
- Queens Bath – this was closed off during our visit due to the high ocean currents
- Sushi Bushido – their Kauai roll came recommended
- Manawaiopuna Falls – this is an iconic location from Jurassic Park and is only accessible by helicopter
- Kauai Backcountry Adventures – you can go tubing through an irrigation system
- Rob’s Good Times Grill – another recommendation from the Sixt agent. She suggested the Cajun chicken sandwich.
- Shipwreck Beach
- Kalapaki Joe’s Poipu
- Break + Feast – another Sixt agent restaurant recommendation
- Kauaʻi Coffee Company – not so much for us as neither Shae nor I like coffee, but wee drove past it and I wanted to list it here in case you visit Kauai and would be interested
- Forbidden Island – accessible with Holo Holo Charters
- Hanapepe Art Night on Friday nights
[…] the north is just over an hour away, while Waimea Canyon State Park is a 45 minute drive northwest. Check out this post for everything else we did in […]