Is anyone else having vacation withdraws? I’m sitting here flickering through some old beach pictures, imagining me sitting on a shore with a yummy drink in my hand and basking in the sun. The photo album that I’m actually shifting through is one of our many trips to Kauai. Kauai is one of our, Ryan’s and my, favorite islands. It’s just a very peaceful, laid back, beautiful piece of land surrounded by blissful waterfalls and blue ocean. This island is definitely not the place to go if you’re looking for some good night life. Kauai is geared more towards relaxation, quiet time, and a great place to escape to for some good hard core rejuvenation time. With all that said, my husbands and my first time here, we overloaded our agenda with activities; to the point where relaxing was dismissed more than half of the time.

Our first time setting foot on this beautiful island, we stopped off at the concierge desk and were just overloaded with excitement on the limitless things to do here, for whatever reason, we felt that we had to do all of them in one visit. My advice to you, is to NOT do this to yourself. Prior to your vacation, do a little research and decide on maybe 2-3 things to do within a week’s stay. The island is fairly small, and there is a lot to see. Spend the remaining of your days, outside of your activities, relaxing and exploring the beauty of the island.

We went for a total of 7 seven days. In those seven days, we went snorkeling, horse back riding, zip lining, went to a luau, took a boat excursion, took surfing lessons, flew over the island in a helicopter, visited their mall, checked out their local shopping centers, and of course drove around, visiting all of their beaches. CRAZY, right?!?!?! As much as it was all so eventful and tons of fun, don’t do this to yourselves. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in Coconut Beach; it was a awesome location, we’ve actually stayed at this hotel three times. It’s right on the beach, they have a mini bar there near their pool area, and it’s kind of in the middle of the island to where either way you turn, right or left, there are things to do and sights to see.

Out of the million things that we did, I recommend that you visit a luau. A luau is a great place to catch a glimpse of their culture through watching a play, listening to music, and eating; they’re a lot of fun!! They have a bunch to choose from, based on your mood & personality, sift through a few brochures to see what would accommodate your style. I have personally visited, Smith Family Garden Luau, and Luau Kalamaku. We took our kids to the Smith Family Garden Luau, it was full of beauty; I will say that I enjoyed everything leading up to the play the most. There was a Wailua River Tour and a tram ride leading us to the banquet. The river tour was really nice, especially with kids. Along the way, we stopped off and watched a luau dancer, she was amazing, after the river tour, we hopped on a tram that took us the rest of the way up to the garden area. The garden area was full of all sorts of Hawaiian plants; this garden was beautiful! Although the food was great and the play was amazing, I will say that I personally enjoyed the performance put on by Luau Kalamaku more. Luau Kalamaku, I felt was a little more intense with fire throwing, drums, and mood setting lights. {BOTH FANTASTIC THOUGH!!!}

Smith Family Garden Luau

My most favorite activity on this island was the boat excursion. Deluxe Na Pali Snorkel Tour On Kauai With Optional Scuba, is the one we took. This boat trip took us far out to where we seen dolphins swimming along side of us and stopped off at a place to where we all were able to jump off the boat and snorkel for a bit. This excursion served drinks, 21 and over, as well as providing a lunch. It was choppy, so if you have any medical issues or have a hard time on bumpy trips, I wouldn’t recommend this trip for you.

Aside from the Luau and the boat excursion, which was my personal favorite, plan on planting a chair down on the beach and just relaxing. Even though I loved everything that we did, we were pretty beat at the end of each day. One of the days, we did drive down to the North Shore to snorkel, they had amazing fish along the reef; we came home with some pretty cool underwater pictures. On one of our trips to Kauai, we rented some gear at Bob’s Snorkel Shop. The first time we visited the island, we took a trip to K-Mart and bought a snorkeling set, a cheap beach chair, a Styrofoam surf board, and an ice chest. I think that Bob’s Snorkel Shop basis their prices on the amount of days you plan on having the snorkeling gear, maybe buy a cheap set if you think you’re going to use it the whole trip. Prior to getting on the plane to come back home, we gave our items that we purchased at K-Mart to another couple. I do know that some Hotel’s rent these items out as well.

North Shore

I can’t really say that this is our trip in a nutshell, because that would be a lie. There’s so much to tell and share, and advice to give, but we would literally be here all night if I shared my day by day. I will leave you with, this island is BEAUTIFUL, and if you are looking for a trip of pure relaxation, give this island a visit, you won’t be disappointed!

Helicopter Ride over the island

Horse Back Riding

Zip lining