Kauai

Last Updated 16 Sept 10
Copyright 2010 by Stephen Vermeulen

Sights

  • a listing of diving sites around the isle
  • County of Kauai web site
  • Linda Ching's photos of Kauai
  • vbushey's photos of Kauai
  • from www.travel-kauai.com this page on Anini Beach
  • and www.kauai-beaches.com has this page on Anini Beach
  • and www.kauai-beach.com (the little house Billie Jean King built) has an activities index
  • Vacation Kauai has an activities index
  • some aerial photos of Anini Beach from a kite
  • the Kauai Polo Club at Anini Beach
  • Hawaiiweb has a series of pages on the various beaches of the islands, here is Anini on Kauai
  • the algae page
  • Kauai Sports and Adventures for windsurfing etc.
  • The Austin Sierra Club's photos from a trip  to Kauai
  • Crater Hill nature walk
  • the farmers' markets are where you can get local fresh produce
  • Here are some maps of Hawaii
  • The Kilauea Point Natural History Association
  • The protected swimming lagoons at Lydgate State Park can be seen in this satellite view. The smaller pool is suitable for children as it does not get very deep, the larger pool gets about 8 feet deep at its deepest. A good place for a family swim especially on days when the surf is rough. Despite the rock walls there is a good variety of fish to be seen in these pools.
  • The main swimming beach at Poipu, most of the half circle in the middle is well protected from the surf and not very deep, on my last trip, while I was snorkling here, I saw a sea turtle swim by within about 10 feet of me. The public parking is in the two parking lots just north of the beach and there are toilets, showers and changing rooms in a few buildings in the park at the beach. The beach on the left side of the image has deeper water near the shore.
  • Ke'e beach on the North Shore, at the end of the road, is probably the most photogenic of the easy to access beaches. It has limited parking so you may want to arrive early in the day or be prepared to park inland at an overflow parking spot (the cars near the right edge of the image) and walk about 600 yards (0.6km) to the beach (you can see the dry caves along the road as you walk to the beach, they are difficult to photograph without a tripod as they are very dark). The Napali coast trail starts here.  The beach has a large pool which is reasonably protected when the surf is not too high. You can see this pool in the current image as a nice light blue area of calm water near the center of the image. Some cars are parked in the trees near this where the road ends.
  • The Kilauea Lighthouse is also a bird sanctuary, and makes an interesting side trip. Currently Google has low resolution imagery here, so you cannot see the lighthouse. It is on the main island just across from the small island off the shore.
  • The Queen's Bath is a large pool in the coastal lava shelf that rings the north edge of the Priceville Resort. Its roughly about 100 feet long by 30 feet wide, and when the tide is low is mostly protected from the surf (with the occasional wave spraying over the side. When the tide is high and when the surf is up it is dangerous and there have been some people swept out of it to drown in the sea outside the pool. In this satellite view there is a traffic circle, if you put a clock at the center of the circle then the Queen's Bath is between 10 and 11 o'clock on the lava rock near the foam of the surf. To get to it you hike down a steep, somewhat slippery, trail from the parking lot at the fork in the road which turns off to the traffic circle. The worst part of the hike is along the lava to the bath once you reach the shore line, make sure you're wearing good footware that will protect your toes!
  • Add info on some of the farmer's markets.


News


Accomodation

Kauai has some sort of local by-law that limits the height of buildings to "no higher than a coconut palm", or so I have been told. In fact there is one hotel in Lihue that is about 6 stories but everything else seems to be built to a maximum of 3 or 4 floors. There are also quite a few houses for rent, often close to or on the beach. These are the places we have stayed at: Here's how to get from the Lihue airport to the Anini beach/Princeville end of the island.

The following in an assortment of houses around the island (but mainly on Anini Beach) that I dug up by doing some searching. The following page also has a bit of a comparitive summary table I put together.

Food

Night Life

In a word: "none". Well with the possible exception of Hula music being played for the Luau guests.

Equipment Rentals

Pacific Island Rentals has motorcycle and Jeep rentals

Getting There

A plane is pretty well the only way. When we first went there Canada 3000 actually flew direct to Lihue from Vancouver (about twice a week), which is a great idea. Now it seems you have to fly into Honolulu and then take an island hopper to Lihue. Once you have landed you have to rent a car, there are several places at the airport (which is delightfully small). Naturally your rental car will be the current year's model and will be shiny clean - this will identify you as a tourist.
 

Guide Books

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