Guided Tours in Kauai - The Garden Isle
♦ Routes (free): Detailed travel itineraries in USA
Kauai is the greenest of the four main Hawaiian islands and also has the most gardens and vegetation. It is easy and friendly to tour independently in a rental car, but it is highly recommended to also integrate several guided tours to places that cannot be reached otherwise or to experience sites in a unique and in-depth way. Among the guided tours I recommend here are a cool and amusing mountain tubing trip, an interesting and delicious chocolate and tropical fruit tour, a fascinating helicopter flight over the island, and a tour of tropical botanical gardens.
Another article of mine on destinations and attractions in Kauai: Trip to Kauai, the Garden Isle
♥ Recommended Hotels in Kauai
It is recommended to stay in the sunny Poipu Beach area.
The most recommended hotel of all:
♦ Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa
A 4-star hotel located on the beach within tropical gardens with a large pool, 7 different restaurants, a Luau show with a buffet twice a week, a water sports center with equipment for rent, 3 tennis courts, a golf course, and free internet.
Another recommended luxury hotel:
A 4-star hotel located adjacent to the best beach on the island, Poipu. Features a restaurant and pool.
Cheaper hotel:
A 3-star hotel on the beach near Poipu, features a beach activity center, 2 pools, and free parking.
Or even cheaper, apartment hotels:
A 3-star apartment hotel with one or two-bedroom suites and a fully equipped kitchen. Located about 600 meters from the beautiful Poipu beaches. Features a pool, jacuzzi, and tennis courts. Free internet and parking.
Or: ♦ Castle Poipu Shores
A 3-star suite hotel. 2-bedroom suites with a fully equipped kitchen on the oceanfront (rocky shore) within 750 meters of the recommended Poipu beaches. All suites have sea views. Features a heated outdoor pool, free parking, and free internet.
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Tour of Allerton Garden
Allerton Garden is an impressive garden located in the Poipu area on the south shore, which can only be visited on a guided tour. The tour lasts about two and a half hours and departs from a visitor center called: South Shore Visitors Center, located across from Spouting Horn. The tour includes a bus ride to the gardens through a magnificent view of a hidden beach that can only be reached by boat. This beach was a particular favorite of the Queen of Hawaii, who often vacationed there.
The gardens feature rich tropical vegetation including giant trees, sculptures, and waterfalls. Due to their photogenic nature, many Hollywood movies and TV series have been filmed there. The most famous scene of all is the one with the giant trees in Jurassic Park.
The gardens were declared by National Geographic magazine as one of the 50 Places of a Lifetime. Adjacent to Allerton Garden are other lovely gardens: McBryde Garden, where tours are self-guided, but reservations are still required in advance as access is also provided by shuttle from the visitor center.
Helicopter or Light Aircraft Flight:
Kauai is, in my opinion, the best place in the world for a helicopter flight.
The easiest and most convenient way to see the Na Pali coast cliffs, which are not accessible by car, is by a helicopter or light aircraft tour.
Na Pali cliffs in northern Kauai:
Many companies operate helicopter flights over the island. There are flights of about 50 minutes on a route that passes over all the attractive areas on the island, where the highlight is undoubtedly the flight over and between the Na Pali cliffs. There are many other beautiful views on the route.
Ordering recommended boat tours to Na Pali from Viator:
Short video of a flight over Kauai:
Mountain Tubing Adventure
A unique and cool experience where you float in a group with guides in tubes through canals that were hand-carved in the past to help transport water to all the farmers on the island.
You float through a series of canals, some covered and dark and others open within lush vegetation. Sometimes the current is gentle and sometimes fast, and occasionally there is even a small whirlpool or a little waterfall. The tour includes a drive in a large safari vehicle to the mountains in the heart of the island with impressive views of high green mountains and waterfalls.
During the drive, you hear explanations and amusing stories about the island, its crops, and its residents. Near the first canal, each participant receives a tube and enters the refreshing, cool water. Everyone also gets a helmet with a headlamp and special gloves. The group is accompanied by three skilled guides. In the last covered canal, the headlamps are turned off for a few minutes to float in the tubes in complete darkness.
At the end of the float, a picnic including a light meal and drinks is held in a tropical green landscape before returning by vehicle to the starting point near Lihue.
This is an extremely popular tour, and it is advisable to book it at least a week before the tour date (in high seasons much earlier!).
The tour duration is about three hours. Only one company organizes these tours: Kauai Backcountry Adventures This company also organizes a zipline tour called Zooming! X-Zilerating! Zipping! which includes a course of 7 ziplines through a tropical forest.
Chocolate and Tropical Fruit Tour at Lydgate Farms:
Lydgate Farms is a huge farm in eastern Kauai that specializes in growing many diverse tropical fruits, but its main specialty is cacao trees and producing chocolate from them.
The farm conducts three-hour tours where you will learn everything possible about chocolate—how it grows, how various types of chocolate are made from cacao beans, and above all, you will taste many kinds of chocolates including "The Great Chocolate Test" where you taste many types of chocolate produced in different places around the world and have to guess which chocolate it is, its cacao percentage, and from which company. You will even taste chocolate tea.
Cacao fruit and cacao beans from which chocolate is produced:
But the farm tour is not just about chocolate; you will tour on foot through a small bamboo forest and especially among tropical fruit trees, many of which you have never seen before. You will pick fruits like longan (from the lychee family) and starfruit from the trees.
And you will taste many diverse types of fruits while hearing fascinating explanations about the fruit, its origin, uses, and benefits. As a known lover of tropical fruits who has traveled in Asia and Central and South America, I must note that there were fruits I encountered there and tasted for the first time in my life.
WAIMEA CANYON
Waimea Canyon is located in western Kauai and was dubbed by Mark Twain: "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It can be visited independently or on a guided tour.
♦ To book a day trip from Viator to Waimea Canyon with pickup and return to selected hotels:
Kauai Waimea Canyon and Koke'e Tour