Seeing Kauai on your own

Author: Karen
Date of Trip: July 2008

My husband and I flew to Kauai after getting off the Hawaiian cruise to spend more time there. We flew from Honolulu to Kauai and stayed at the Sheraton Kauai on Poipu Beach. The Sheraton is lovely and right on the beach. It was wonderful swimming in the ocean or their pool. We used their food court right there at the pool for lunch and although prices were steep, it was good and convenient! We stopped at a grocery store two evenings for breakfast items and put them in our mini-fridge in room. We ate dinner at Keoki’s Paradise in Poipu Shopping Village and it was our favorite! Delicious food, lots of ambiance and reasonable prices. Next night we ate at the Beach House Restaurant in Poipu and although we couldn’t make a reservation, we decided to take a chance on just showing up and see if they would take walk-ins and they did. Although the view is spectacular, the pork chops we both got were raw in the middle and it was the most expensive meal we ate. The banana dessert is scrumptious. Next night we ate at Scotty’s Beachside BBQ in Kapaa and it has an ocean view too, but not nearly as impressive as Beach House. The food was delicious, but this place is more like a casual diner. Carpet is dirty, barbecue bottles are greasy and dried barbecue on lids, and you look out over cars to see the ocean. Thought their prices were steep for barbecue pork too.

We went to see two waterfalls on the east side of Kauai, took Captain Sundown’s Catamaran Sunrise Tour past Na Pali Coast and it was great! We had a good time and thoroughly enjoyed our day. We took a sunrise bicycle ride tour down Waimea Canyon and it was not anything great. Outfitters Kauai is not well-operated and failed to have anyone show up to give us this tour at 6 a.m. It wasn’t until the manager showed up at 7 a.m. that he found two people to take us on this “sunrise” tour. We watched the sunrise in the parking lot! They use college kids from the mainland and they are not well trained or reliable. Any tour with a local or with retired people we found to be exceptional tours!

We loved our stay in Kauai and waited until the last minute to get out of the ocean! Sheraton gave us a hospitality room to shower in and get dressed and kept our luggage stored for us until we were ready to leave on the last day. Truly a relaxing trip!