10 Kauai Roadside Stops

Wailua River Lookout

Visiting Kauai is all about enjoying nature on the garden island.  While your days will most likely be filled with hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, and other outdoor adventures that can take up the majority of a day, it is also enjoyable to take little road trips around the island making lots of stops along the way to view waterfalls, rivers, beaches, and more.  Here are 10 of our favorite things to see in Kauai when driving around the island.  Each stop is listed in order from the farthest point on the north shore to the farthest point on the west side of Kauai.

Set a Course for Kauai Lagoons Golf Club

A common question asked during a round of golf is, “How long you been playin’?”  I like to say my game is of legal drinking age.  So, as a seasoned golfer, I have mastered the art of the excuse after a mediocre round on a fantastic course.  My handicaps for this particular round of golf at Kauai Lagoons Golf Club were as follows:

Two Epic Hikes Along Kauai's Na Pali Coast

Na Pali Coast views from the 1/4 mile marker of the Kalalau Trail.

Kauai is a nature lover’s paradise.  Travelers to Kauai will spend very little if any time indoors during the day and instead will be exploring the great outdoors.  Kauai’s outdoor activities include snorkeling, fishing, golfing, kayaking, swimming, hiking and more.  We love hiking in Hawaii, and Kauai has two epic Na Pali Coast hikes for active travelers to enjoy. 

Touring Kauai's Na Pali Coast with Napali Catamaran

One of the activities we love to do in Hawaii is snorkel.  The water is warm.  The fish are colorful.  If you’re lucky you’ll get to see a turtle.  But when we visited Kauai over nine years ago we had bad luck with our snorkeling.  The water was cloudy and rough and we didn’t see many fish.  We didn’t want that to happen again, so we decided to join Napali Catamaran's snorkeling tour in hopes we would be taken to better snorkeling spots than we had found on our own.  Plus we had seen Kauai's Na Pali Coast by air and by land, and this would be a good chance to see it in a third way, by water. 

Hotel Review: Living in the Lap of Luxury at Marriott’s Kauai Lagoons

Marriott’s Kauai Lagoons’ accommodations are luxurious with a capital “L.”  But the luxury experienced at Marriott’s Kauai Lagoons isn’t the kind of highbrow luxury with silk curtains, butler service and tea and crumpets served at noon.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that kind of luxury, but it would probably be a little at odds with the hang loose lifestyle of Kauai.  A villa at the Kauai Lagoons is more like a home away from home, except your home has a wall of folding glass doors that open the living room to an ocean view, sounds of the island, and an occasional chicken pecking in the lawn. 

Tasting Kauai’s Tropical Fruits and Island Cuisine on a Hawaiian Food Tour

Some familiar and some exotic fruits tasted on the Tasting Kauai food tour. 

I love food tours.  So far I've joined a Baja food tour, Beijing food tour, and Shanghai food tour.  But what would a Hawaiian food tour involve?  Loco moco, plate lunch, pineapples, spam?  I stumbled across Tasting Kauai on Twitter while researching our last minute trip to Kauai and was intrigued.  When I learned the Taste of Kilohana tour included riding a train, touring the Kilohana Plantation, snacking on exotic fruit, drinking a mai tai, and devouring a three-course island lunch, I was sold.  I sent Rome golfing at the Kauai Lagoons (he’s allergic to pineapple after all) and joined Tasting Kauai’s food tour.

Spirituality and Structure at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery

A temple in progress.

When thinking of things to do in Kauai, visiting a Hindu monastery is probably not the first thing that comes to mind.  Many visitors to Kauai don’t even know the monastery exists.  I think the unusualness is what appealed to me when I first learned about the monastery.  We visited nine years ago on the recommendation of a friend and found it fascinating.  The experience intrigued me so much I was drawn to visit another Hindu temple, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills.  Kauai’s Hindu Monastery is a work in progress.  While there is a small temple and monastery already on the grounds, a much larger temple is being built, which they've been working on for years.  On our recent trip to Hawaii we visited Kauai’s Hindu Monastery again to check on the progress of the construction of the Iraivan Temple.