The Perfect Kauai Itinerary

At the beginning of 2017, I visited Kauai, Hawaii with my family. Kauai was one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. I put a lot of research into what we visited. If you are someone who likes day hiking, this is the perfect itinerary for you!

If you don't want to read all this, there is a quick list of what we did if you scroll all the way down. Be sure to also read the tips at the end!

We reached Kauai in the night, and I don't know why but the dark was just so dark there. For me, it just felt like my eyes never adjusted to the dark. It is probably because it is not as well lit as home and NYC. 

First Tip: You need a car in Kauai. There is no way to see the island without renting a car. I would suggest getting a 4 wheel drive car just so you don't have any problems. We had a two wheel drive, and it was fine we did a lot of things, but we did skip one thing because our car would not be able to the unpaved roads. 

After landing, we got our rental car and we drove to our hotel. Our hotel was located by Poipu beach and it ended up being a perfect location since it was in the middle of everything we did. If you can afford it, I definitely suggest staying somewhere there. It is on the southern side of the island, and it is said to be the sunnier side of the island. Here are some pictures from our hotel.

Day 1:

So I had done a lot of research on what to do in Kauai. My family is pretty big on hiking. We don't really like swimming and we don't golf. There were a ton of golf courses and nice beaches, but we just stayed on the trails. If you're not a big hiker, I would definitely try a couple of the trails I suggest because they were beautiful. 

On the first day we did three major things, we went to the Wailua Falls, Lydgate Beach Park and we did the Sleeping Giant Trail. This was the perfect way to start out the trip mainly because while the latter two were beautiful, I think they would've been kind of disappointing doing it on a different day after we had seen more of the island. 

All of these things are on the east side of the island, and as you'll see we tended to do the island section by section. The Wailua Falls was an overlook, meaning that you drove there, looked at it, and were done. It was extremely beautiful, and it was a great way to start the vacation! The beach park was, well, a beach that had a pathway that you could walk or bike on. The pathway is about 2 miles one way. I don't think we ended up walking the whole thing but it was a nice stroll. After that we got lunch, and then we made out way to the Sleeping Giant Trail. The trail is called this because the mountain looks like the profile of a sleeping giant. I didn't really get it to be honest. But it was a fun hike! It had beautiful views of the ocean and mountains. Since you were going up a mountain, it was all uphill one way and all downhill one way. We got SUPER LUCKY with the weather and it only rained one day while we were in Kauai, so the trail was not muddy or slippery. We were fine in our nike shoes. Just make sure to bring water and food, it was quite hot. 

Wailua Falls

View from Sleeping Giant

Lydgate Bike Path

Day 2:

Day two was spent at the Waimea Canyon. The drive there is beautiful. As you drive up the canyon, you will see a lot of different overlooks. Stop at the ones that interest you! You will get some beautiful pictures and you'll see some beautiful views of the canyon and the ocean. We stopped at a few of the smaller overlooks and then we stopped at the Canyon Lookout and the Pu'u Ka Pele Lookout (Both major overlook points). Both these lookouts had bathrooms and you got beautiful views of the canyon. The second lookout is the start of the Canyon Trail. This trail is kind of long and it has a lot of ups and downs. However, the views at the end of it is beautiful. You basically end up in the canyon. The trail wasn't necessarily unsafe; however, it was slippery at times (like at the cliff part) which made it very scary. If you have proper hiking shoes and hiking poles, I think you will be fine. But in my nikes, I was mainly just sitting and purposely sliding down the hill to get to the end of the trail. At the end of the trail there is a small waterfall where people were swimming in. Also, along the trail you will see a sign for the Cliff trail. It's just a tiny (0.1 mile) trail that takes you to another overlook. I would suggest going! It was a nice view!

If you don't like hiking, I would still suggest going to the Canyon. As I said before, there are many overlooks and lookouts. You can drive there and stop at every couple of lookouts. I suggest going all the way to the end of the road for a beautiful view. I will be talking about that later though.

After doing the Canyon Trail we decided to go back to the hotel and we did the Mahaulepu trail. To get to this trail you have to park by Shipwrecks Beach. The trail isn't super obvious. If you're facing the ocean, walk all the way to the left of the beach and you'll see this sandy trail. THIS IS A MUST DO HIKE. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. It was the easiest hike, there was no up and down. It was amazing. Go during the evening, you will not regret it. I don't even know how to explain this trail, it was just gorgeous. There are many different trails, so you can walk along the ocean or going through the trees behind it. You got amazing views of the ocean with parts of the island in the background. Just go. It's not even a hike, it's like a walk, and it's worth it. 

Mahaulepu trail

View while driving Waimea Canyon

Waimea Canyon

Mahaulepu trail

View from Canyon Trail

Day 3: 

This was the day that we ended up not doing much. We were supposed to take a plane ride over the island; however, the forecast said it would rain. We woke up to a pretty sunny morning, so we didn't change our plans. In the morning, we walked through these small botanical gardens that were by our hotel. We were able to see the natural flora and fauna of Kauai. Afterwards, we drove back to the airport, and that's when it started raining. When we got the place for the plane ride, we decided to move it back to our last day. The people working at this company were so nice and flexible! There was no fuss about moving our day. After that, we drove back to our hotel area and drove to the Allerton Gardens. When we got there, we saw that it was $30 per person for admission. We thought it was quite a lot, especially when we could not spend a whole day there. Apparently these gardens are beautiful, so if you're into that I would definitely go, but do not go so late in the day. It was only open until 5pm. After, we decided to drive to Kauai Coffee Plantation since both my parents drink coffee. That was a really fun place! You were able to walk through a part of the plantation and taste different types of coffee. It was informative and it had a lot of jokes. If you need something to do to fill up a short time slot, I would definitely come here! We were probably there for an hour. After that, we drove to the Spouting Horn. The spouting horn is pretty funny. Basically it's a hollow rock and when water hits it with a huge force, it "spouts". It didn't spout that much for us. Also it was a pretty meh experience. If your  hotel is in the Poipu area like ours, then sure stop by. Otherwise, you could totally skip this. We spent the rest of the day just hanging around our hotel!

Flower from the local botanical garden

Day 4:

I think this was my favorite day. So, if you've researched a little bit of Kauai, you might have seen that there is this world famous super hard 11 mile (22 miles round trip) hike that is really gorgeous. You have to get a permit to camp and usually people take three days to hike it. Well, people who don't do the 11 mile hike can still hike the first four miles (8 miles round trip) to a waterfall. This hike is said to be pretty treacherous. The trail is the Kalalau Trail.  

Now, I had always planned to attempt the first two miles of it. However, after my dad read the reviews he was like nah. Then, one of the guys at the airplane company suggested to do the first mile, and my dad was like okay sure. One of the many cool parts of this hike is that it starts at a beach which is at the end of a major highway. So basically, you're going as far as you possibly can when you reach this beach. In Kauai, you can't actually drive around the whole perimeter of the island. The Na'Pali Coast (where this 11 mile hike occurs) has no roads going through it. So we went as east then north as possible and you end at Ke'e Beach. It was fun going all the way to the end, plus I felt like I really explored the island.

The trail starts at this beach. During this day it had rained a little bit, but by the time that we were hiking it had stopped. The hike started out pretty alright. It felt pretty safe. It was also the MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. I can't even describe to you how beautiful the trail was, and the pictures don't do it justice. No joke, this is the most beautiful trail I have walked through/seen in my life. You are walking in luscious forest on the side of a canyon that looks out into the ocean. It was gorgeous.

Anyways, so the first 1 mile was fine. We were trying to make it to the beach which was a 2 mile hike. However, as we got closer and closer to the 2 mile mark, the trail started getting muddier and muddier. It became very very slippery. It was kind of scary because again you were on a cliff, and you wouldn't necessarily fall and die because there were so many trees, but it was still scary. We kept going hoping that the mud would end, then my mom just straight up slipped in the mud. Like her whole side was muddy. Thankfully she didn't hit her head on rock or wood. That's when we decided to turn around. It also helped that these two ladies who were coming back to the beach said that it wasn't worth it and the beach looked like any other beach in Kauai. Our shoes got ridiculously muddy on this trail and we were very lucky we each brought two pairs of shoes. If we had hiking sticks and hiking boots I think we definitely could've reached the 2 mile mark. We just did not have any grip. But again, IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL.

I would highly suggest attempting the first mile of this hike. I would almost say it's a must. If you come prepared you definitely could hike the first two miles. Also, bring a pair of sandals to change into when your done. Coming back, we ate in Hanalei which is a small town close to Ke'e beach. It was very nice and the food was good! So that is definitely a good place to stop on the way. 

Kalalau Trail

Kalalau Trail

Kalalau Trail

Day 5:

Our flight was at 10:30 in the night, so we tried to make the best use of our last day.

We decided to get up super early to go back into the canyon because I had found a trail that was apparently very beautiful. Today we went all the way to where the highway ended but on the other side. I personally thought it was cool that we had gone end to end and we had explored everywhere. The last two lookouts were beautiful. The last lookout is called Pu'u O Kila. If you just keep driving, even when you think you should stop, you will reach the lookout. The whole way is paved and our 2wd car made it perfectly fine. We reached probably by 9:30 am. We did part of the Pihea trail which started at this lookout. The overlook and the trail was beautiful. I think it is a must do. We didn't make it as far as we wanted too because again it was very muddy and slippery but we realized that all the views looked pretty much the same so definitely don't push yourself. After this, we drove back to the airport area and we took our airplane tour of Kauai. We took a Wings over Kauai air tour and it was so beautiful and amazing. We were lucky to have really good weather and everything was super clear! One note though, my mom and I did get very motion sick even after taking medicine. But we get motion sick very easily. This has nothing to do with the type of plane or even the pilot, it just happened. We were very happy with the tour and this company gives the cheapest tours, so y'all should do it!

View from the plane

Pihea Trail

The last Overlook

AND THIS WAS THE END OF THE TRIP. IT WAS AMAZING. GO TO KAUAI.  Here's the itinerary of when we did with some notes: First Day: (This is a really good first day itinerary) Wailua Falls (Must do it!) Lydgate Beach Park (do it!) Sleeping Giant Trail (do it!) Second Day: Canyon Lookout (Must do it!) Pu'u Ka Pele Lookout (Must do it!) Canyon Trail (starts at Pu'u Ka Pele Lookout lookout) (Must do it!) Other smaller lookouts (do it!) Mahaleupu Trail (One of my Favs!!) Third Day: Allerton Gardens (do it if you want) (keep atleast a half day to get money's worth) Spouting Horn (eh you can skip) Kauai Coffee Company (do it if you want) Fourth Day: (do NOT do this if it's rainy, do it when it's sunny) Kalalau Trail (One of my Favs!!) (Attempt the first mile if not prepared) Hanalei Town (do it if you want) (Good place to stop on the way to Kalalu Trail) Fifth Day: (Try to go to these lookouts when there are no clouds in the sky aka the morning) Pu'u O Kila (One of my Favs!!) (It's an overlook) Pihea Trail (One of my Favs!!) Wings over Kauai (One of my Favs!!)(Be aware that you may get motion sick)

Some tips: -Get a 4wd car if possible -Bring multiple pairs of tennis shoes -I would highly suggest bringing hiking boots (we didn't have any, it was okay, but we could've done more if we had them) -PRAY for good weather (We only had one sort of washed out day, and it was only washed out for a couple of hours) -Food is really EXPENSIVE. To save money, buy bagels and water from a grocery store for breakfast and hiking! -Really make use of the sunlight. You can't do much in the dark in Kauai. So sleep early and wake up early! We were sleeping by 9:30 (i don't know why so early) but we were up by 7! We were able to do so much because of this. -Play things by ear. Be flexible with your plans. If it's rainy in one area, it's probably not rainy in the other area, so go there.  -Use Google Maps. Google maps was a lifesaver. Anything on the itinerary can be put into google maps. Extra Tip: Star all the locations you want to go, and download the Kauai map so it can be viewed offline. This was so helpful. Our connection was pretty good over the island, but occasionally we wouldn't have signal. I can't even tell you enough how important google maps is.