Hawaii Vacation Kauai

The historical shores along the southern side of the Kauai was once a commercially owned sugary farm.

Walk the Koloa Heritage Trail, a region that stretches from the old town to Poipu. On the way you will see a doze or more historic places, among them Spouting Horn Park and Koloa Jodo Mission. Hawaii's most northern isle is a subtropical heaven with luxuriant rain forests, waterfalls, streams and creeks.

Kauai's spectral landscape gives it the name of the Garden Island. While exploring the rain forests, you will see dramatic falls and sickles on the beaches, great for windsurfing, snorkelling or just relaxing.

7 days family vacation on Kauai, Hawaii

While we were enjoying life on Oahu, when my folks came to see me last September, we made the decision to go to Kauai for a few nights just to get things mixed up. I' ve had some folks tell me that Kauai is their favourite and we were eager to see the world.

The main activity was hiking a part of the Na Pali coast and kayaking on the Wailua River to the Secret Falls. Things worked out quite well when I said it myself. As we don't stay long in a hotel or resort, we decided to rent an AirBnb in Lihue.

Though I was looking into sticking to different parts of the islands, with a $200 clean-up charge we decided not to move. We had what we needed in the galley (maybe a little bit of edible fat would have been nice), supporters in all the rooms, and they had a trunk full of board games and sandy playthings for the schoolchildren.

As our guest Peter reacted and sent us shampoo/conditioner and additional sea clothes when we asked him. There was beautiful lighting at nocturnal hours and there was something reassuring about floating in the ocean while it was still darkness. We would definitely suggest his place if you are going on a holiday. Imagining Kauai is like a watch, Na Pali Coast is around 11:00, Lihue & Wailua around 3:00, Poipu Beaches around 6:00 and Waimea Canyon around 9:00.

It is not possible to travel all the way around the isle, so Lihue is a great place to set up a basecamp. Oahu's journey took only about 30 min, so we were hardly in the sky before we landed at Lihue International Airfield. There we set the children down with a film (don't you have to be worried, they were very excited) and the four grown-ups set off for our first adventure: a heliflight.

Much of Kauai is wild (both private and state) and there are many places that can only be seen by plane. We have a few businesses to chose from, but as my mum and dad gave us the journey as a gift, they had the honour to do so. So we went with them.

Many films were shot here (Jurassic Park anyone?), and we also flown over Tunnels Beach, where Bethany Hamilton had her sharks assault while windsurfing (If you've never seen soul surfers before, this is an absolute must!). But I knew that our children probably wouldn't like it, so I persuaded Sam to come with me on Saturday mornin'.

So it' a regular Hwaiian walking adventure. We did a great work with itineraries and map of almost all of Hawaii, so we followed their itinerary. When you' re not afraid of altitude, it's quite a spectacle. All I did was mention the Wailua River kayak and then the hike to Secret Falls.

It is the only way to get to these waterfalls and we are enjoying a good canoe anyway, so this was at the top of our itinerary. Wailua Kayak Adventures was a great place to rent a boat. You also gave us a chart of the stream, told us where to put our yachts for the walk, and gave us a route description for entering theiver.

Paddling up the creek was a bad 45 mins. "Last weekend we were kayaking the wonderful Wailua Riviera on Kauai and had a lot of fun! There was an amusing chat during the 45-minute paddling, especially when Cara chose to go backwards! Paddling is always the hardest thing for children, so we were prepped with a snack, but we were all still quite nervous to get to the take-out.

As we were told not to keep any of our belongings at the barge, we took our backpacks and our Ice Mule Coolerwith luncheon (this dryer has proven itself so often!) and made our way to the waterfalls. We have learnt that in Hawaii walking is best done in Chacos or other similar heels.

Being often slimy, there are usually current transitions, and sneakers are great for holding our legs guarded once we want to get to the events and ate. We hiked quite shallow, one kilometer to the waterfalls. Stay on your way and before you know it, come to the waterfalls!

It was not often that we ate (it totals if you include children), but we had been hearing good things about the Verde Restaurant and since it was already 5:00 pm when we returned the boat, we tried. Not even on vacation. So we opted for a big luncheon because we knew we'd be out later.

Fortunately, our children can literally drive a vehicle and are used to it. The hikes didn't really take us to the viewpoints, which was very good. I' d been told that it was almost sensational, but after some first research es we thought that it was not possible with our children.

I thought we'd take the 8 miles round to the Hanakapi'a Falls, but in the end we thought it was more important to stay with my folks and just go to the water. So we kept a slow tempo, which was okay for me because we were out of form ourselves!

It was a good place. I' m quite sure after a good walk that everyone needs a little shaving rice-- We' re probably back at least two more trips before we leave the entire outing. Then the children laze around the building and played with Granny and Granddad until Cara and I came back and we walked down to the bath.

The Lydgate Park is an artificial sandy spot shielded from riptids and rock. This is the ideal holiday night in Hawaii. We could go snorkelling AND bodyboarding on the shore. Now if you are acquainted with either, you know that they generally don't go together (one is better in still waters and the other you need waves), but it just so happens that Poipu Strand had great snorkelling and the neighbouring Brennecke Strand provides a powerful 1-2 hole-pier.

I' d taken our snorkeling equipment from Wild Horn (I can't go out of the house without it) and we hired equipment for my folks at Bob's in Koloa. After snorkelling for a few hour in Poipu, we took our things and walked over to Brennecke's, where the waves came in.

In the early afternoons we filled the sand and stoped at Puka Dog for a long lunch/dinner on the way back to Lihue. It' s a hawaiian dog that has been strongly suggested by a buddy and oh - so - delicious! The last of the days on the islands was chosen as a present from my family to the children for their birthday/Christmas.

There are not many places where 7-year-old children can zip up, but Koloa Zypline was fantastic. It was not only that all my children came to the medical school, they were alone for most of the while. We' re packing a whole bunch in our 7 day on the big outing and it was fantastic!

It felt like the first in a long period of vacation. I was not worried about my blog and the children didn't even brought a college with them. We' ve definitely enjoyed our Hawaii holiday and can't really say we like it!