Hi Friends!
It’s been a few weeks since I returned home from Kauai and I feel like I’ve now had enough time to really narrow down the places I want to include in my Kauai travel guide! Our trip was such a blast and we did so much in the time frame of a little over a week that I wanted to make sure I gave myself time to really process all the stops and pick my absolute favorites to share on the blog. This guide is going to include my favorite places that we ate, drank, swam, and visited! You know I’m big into wellness, so consider this kind of like your healthy/ active living guide to all things Kauai. During our time on the island, we stayed in Poipu on the South Shore because it was wintertime and we were wanting to avoid it being very rainy. My family has also stayed on the North Shore before, which they absolutely loved. However, it’s super rainy in the wintertime so we decided to stay in Poipu which ended up working out perfectly! I wanted to keep this post on the shorter side, so I only included the things we did that I absolutely LOVED. Hope you enjoy!!
It’s true that I have a slight coffee obsession… whenever I travel anywhere new, I make it my mission to find the best latte in town. Soon after landing in Kauai and driving through Poipu, we drove right past this ADORABLE light blue coffee shop, Little Fish Coffee. It turns out that the coffee shop was very close to the condo we rented so I was pretty excited about that! I’m pretty sure that we ended up going to Little Fish nearly every day of the trip. Not only do they have great coffee, food, salads, and açaí bowls, the place is absolutely adorable. I definitely recommend the almond milk latte and açaí bowl combo. YUM!
2. Tidepools Restaurant inside The Hyatt
If you like Thai inspired food, you will love this place. I kept telling my family that it was my favorite meal of the trip because I love Thai food more than anything. They called it Hawaiian cuisine but it definitely had a Thai flair in my opinion! Lots of yummy coconut, spices, and fresh seafood. The ambiance of the place is also incredibly cool because the restaurant was built basically on-top of the pools at the Hyatt. The restaurant is a combination of thatched roof bungalows and has alllll the vibes.
This healthy grocery store was our go-to stop for gluten and dairy free goods and fresh ingredients! Having a kitchen in the condo really came in handy for cooking and snacking, which I very much appreciate. (; The grocery store was small but I loved exploring the local foods and products. They even had a good selection of natural beauty products along with a little juice bar, right up my alley!!
5. The Grand Hyatt Beach/ Pool Area
Not to be basic, but laying on the beach while sipping a mai thai is pretty SWEET. Some of the bests times of the trip were spent laying on the beach, reading my book, & sipping a cocktail from the bar beside the beach. You can get that drink and be back on the sand in just minutes without any hassle. It also wasn’t very crowded or overly touristy when we were there which was a major bonus.
6. Waimea Canyon State Park Hiking
This was hands down one of the most standout parts of the trip for me. On the last day in Kauai, we packed up our belongings and decided to conquer the Waimea Canyon waterfall & lookout hikes! This was something that was so breathtaking and stunningly beautiful that it’s hard to even describe it in a blog post. It was little confusing figuring out exactly where to park and get started with the hike because there are so many different trails and the canyon is HUGE. We ended up doing the 3 mile hike to the waterfall, which actually felt much longer because a good portion of the hike is hiking through mud and bouldering. It was SO worth it though, because finally getting to the waterfall was the best feeling EVER. I highly recommend it, as long as you aren’t afraid of heights. LOTS of the hike was on a tiny trail where the cliff was right there and you could see all the way down the canyon. So exhilarating but a tad bit scary!!
7. Poipu Beach
This was another one of our favorite beaches of the trip. It was extremely private, we even had to do some off-roading to get to it, which was hilarious with the whole family in the car! It was all around just a very beautiful beach and I recommend it for a peaceful afternoon of reading or napping. 🙂
Overall, I definitely would go back to Kauai! I think next on my list will be visiting the North Shore during summer when it isn’t so rainy. Where are you planning on traveling this year? I would love to hear your travel plans and compare!
