Hawaii in August....where, which island, which resort?

[Noah930]

Souk,

If you want a guidebook, I'd recommend this one. I used it (or at least the Hawaii one) for my trip to the Big Island, and found it pretty much spot-on. Good restaurant recommendations, interesting historical perspective, and lots of adventures/points of interest. Whatever you do, have a blast.

[MotoSook]

Looks like a good guide Noah. Thanks!

[Tim Hancock]

Not to highjack, but is there a best time of year to go to Hawaii? The wife would appreciate it the most if it was in the dead of winter back home here.

[scottmandue]

If you end up in Hanalei the little market in the local town village is good for most stuff but if you need a supermarket there is one five to six miles up the road in Princeville.
I know you said you are going to cook but Zelo's in Hanalei has good food - if you like calamari you MUST try it there (but the ribs suck) and a nice bar... the sushi bar is good - they have a menu of cooked food - no air condition but they are upstairs with lots of big windows and live music most nights (one guy with a guitar). There is a little place in the village that has a walk up window and picnic tables that has GREAT food - lots of surfers eat there (always a good sign) - right across form the raised pavilion and parking lot. Tropical taco is good but get there early because a line form quickly. The Dolphin restaurant on the river just as you enter Hanalei has the best seafood in the world - they also have a little fish market around the back if you want to buy it and cook your own.
I'm getting hungry!
Good snorkeling at the end of the road.

[Flatbutt1]

Originally posted by Gogar
And good company helped too.


Good luck in Kauai!

OK you win this round. Wow!

[MotoSook]

Scott, Zelo sounds like a great place. I'll try it. I'm allergic to shell fish But the sushi should hit the spot with a wash of beer. Tough to mess up sushi...especially when it was swimming off the coast the day before I'm sure we'll eat out a good part of the week, so the suggestions are great! Thanks.

[Gogar]

Yeah, I am pretty handsome.

[Moses]

Dang, Jeremy. Beautiful girl. (I think she likes you!)

[p911dad]

this is a good spot for shave ice, very near Hanalei on the main road. the owner is a little like the "shave ice nazi", but the shave ice is very fine.

[MotoSook]

Note to Souk:

-Don't touch the Ice Nazi's poles.

-If the wedding is a bust, look for Jeremy's girl when vacationing by self because Hauai is already booked.

[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Souk
Good suggestions guys. I want to advoid crowds....and more than anything just want to chill on the beach and eat a package of raman in the middle of the day if I feel like it. (Nice Alfred)

Why would you eat rahmen on your wedding???

Go to Lihue and then meander up and down the East coast of the island. Nice place to get married on the NE tip of the island. Can even give you the email of a minister who did the last wedding I attended there...

Souk, marry her or send her to Arizona...

[MotoSook]

Joe, I did it!

(Here’s my review of our honeymoon trip)

Thanks to the tips from you guys we ended up going to the north shore of Kauai, and we were not disappointed! If I was a dot com millionaire, I would have just bought a place there and stayed. The rental link you guys posted was great for finding a place. If anyone is planning to go to Kauai, I wouldn’t recommend staying in Princeville. If you want to stay at a condo and play golf, go to some other vacation destination. Find a vacation rental anywhere but Princeville and rent a convertible. If you rent a convertible, be prepared to pull over to raise the top, ‘cuse the rain will always start after 15 minutes or so of driving. We found that the top goes up much faster when it’s not raining.

We ended up staying in the Moloa Bay area and didn’t mind driving to Hanalei to the north or Kappa or Lihue to the south. It was actually nice not staying at one of the crowded stripes. Getting any where is a short drive which we didn’t mind since the road was nice with great views around every corner.

We drove all over the island and were always pleasantly surprised everywhere we went. We hardly spent anytime in our cottage during the week we were there. “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook,” that one of you guys recommended was just great for finding places. The maps in the book were the best we were able to get. The author(s)’ food review wasn’t that helpful, but it has a lot of information in it that will make a visit to Kauai more interesting.

Hanalei is a nice little town with as much human traffic as we were expecting, not too much human traffic nor too touristy, with the locals mixed in.

The food on the island wasn't all that great, so we stocked the refrigerator at the house with enough food to where we didn't have to eat out every meal.

We tried Tropical Taco, Polynesian Café, Bar-acuda and Sushi Blues in Hanalei. Tropical Taco was OK for the island, but Heather and I are spoiled from the great local Mexican food we get here. The Polynesian cafe was OK, but it wasn't great. The price is high, but it was high at all the other places. Their Poor Boy was anything but a Poor Boy (I'm use to Louisiana Poor Boys). Bar-acuda was a nice tapas place with great flavor, but the portions were tiny for the price, so it makes them a once per trip restaurant. Sushi Blue was also just OK. The waitresses are cute (but I'm married!)and the sushi wrap selection was a little out of the norm. The view was great with the sun going down. They’re an open air second story restaurant.

We tried Café Portofino in Lihue for their Italian to see if we could find better food…nope! The food was mediocre, but the service and the view were great. It was a complete let down for the $100+ for dinner for two. Even sitting at a table next to Robert Downey Jr. and his party of four didn’t make the place any better. Again, Heather and I are spoiled by the food we fine here (Tony! ).

Some of the cheaper meals we had were the best on the island. The hole in the wall Thai restaurant in Waipouli Plaza, Kappa was great. It was recommended by a Chinese vendor we met in Waimea during our south side and west side road trip. It turned out that the owner, Cindy, is a Laotian. She busted out some of my old language on me after our meal. Heather and I were wondering why the papaya salad tasted so familiar. The rest of the food was great for island food. If anyone wants Thai food on Kauai, go say hello to Cindy and tell her the “Laotian guy without a country” sent you. Order some sticky rice too!

In our search for flavor, we tried a couple of Viet Pho places and liked both, but the one in Lihue (in town) was better than the one in Waipouli Town Square. Both places were the cheapest meals we bought, and we left with very full stomachs. The waitress at the Pho Vy in Waipouli even told me to go to my car and bring in my Heini if I wanted beer (we just went grocery shopping).

The Olympic Café in Kappa was OK…but like most island food, it lacks good complex flavors that one can find on the mainland. Heather and I were being a bit of food snobs, but we didn’t let on and ate our meals without protest. After the first meal or two, we settled to the fact that island food is well,… island food.

So don’t go to Kauai with great expectations when it comes to food, but go there with great expectations for the view and the beaches. Every beach was just perfect, with the less frequented ones being the best. The guy I rented my surf board from sent me to a beach that we would have never found ourselves, and we loved it! The waves were better and the crowd (although we never really saw a crowd) was just right.

If you want to buy souvenirs, go to the craft fairs and roam around. We concluded that the vendors roam from one spot to the next with the same ware. So if you go to the craft fair in Kapaa one day, you might run into the same vendor(s) in Waimea another day. The stuff they sell is pretty much the same stuff you can find in the higher priced stores (and the ABC stores), with exception to some of the unique art work. What ever you do, don’t buy stuff in the airports…it is the same stuff, with a 100% or more markup….a lot to pay for the fancy packaging and an air conditioned show room.

Here are a few pictures from the trip…

[MotoSook]

Pictures...

The Napali coast from the heli:



Hanalei from the Sushi Blues:



Hanalei sunset:



Surfing in Hanalei Bay: (I had to rent a board and the waves were not great yet...winter waves were not there yet . So I got what I got, but it was still great the few days I was able to ride)



Running out of Ocean sucks:



A bowl of Ramon for Alf with an egg in the mix: (perfect just before surfing the early morning waves)





Mahalo for the tips that led us to Kauai guys...we loved it!

[rammstein]

Hawaii is evil, because it ruins you for other vacations. I also would have bought a house and stayed forever if I was rich. I want to be rich, very badly.

Looks like an awesome trip you had!

[scottmandue]

Yes... gald to here you enjoyed your trip. Perhaps we can pool our money and buy a shack on the beach... I have spent many years concocting plans to move over there... and yet I'm still here.

[alf]

Originally Posted by Souk

A bowl of Ramon for Alf with an egg in the mix: (perfect just before surfing the early morning waves)





Mahalo for the tips that led us to Kauai guys...we loved it!

awww you bring a tear to my eye bra. sounds like a great trip.