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Kauai Vacation – Adventure on the “Garden Isle”

Kauai (a.k.a the “Island of Discovery”) is the most scenic of Hawaiian Island.

Blessed with spectacular natural panoramas and lush vegetation, some call Kauai Hawaii’s most scenic island. Although it is the oldest among the Hawaiian islands (scientists estimate it to be 5.1 million years old), Kauai has only become more beautiful with age.


Kauai is home to two of the world’s great natural wonders.

Anchoring the western part of the major Hawaiian islands, circular-shaped Kauai is the fourth largest in the state, with 552 square miles and 90 miles of coastline. Approximately 70,000 people call Kauai home.

Napali Coast at sunset
Where the road ends the Kalalau trail begins

Hugging the northwest coastline of Kauai is the Napali Coast, one of the most awe-inspiring places on Earth. A day trip to Napali (via helicopter, catamaran or raft) will bring you face to face with 2,000-foot sea cliffs, cascading waterfalls, playful dolphins and—from November through May—magnificent humpback whales.

“Grand Canyon of the Pacific”

Measuring 10 miles long, two miles wide and over 3,500 feet deep, Waimea Canyon is the largest canyon in the Pacific. Carved over thousands of years ago by rivers and floods flowing from the summit of 5,080-foot Mount Waialeale, this canyon is such a visual spectacle that Mark Twain dubbed it the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific.”

Other scenic locales worth exploring include Hanalei Bay, Kilauea Point, Wailua River, and Poipu Beach.

Hanalei lookout overlooking taro fields and a rainbow
Hanalei Valley

Menehune (A Mythical Race)

Kauai is also the home to the Menehune, a mythical race of small people who performed amazing feats of engineering and construction on the island. The Menehune Ditch and Alekoko Fishpond are among the projects attributed to these hardworking people, who worked only at night (any project not completed overnight was abandoned). Today, scholars speculate that the Menehune may have been, in fact, descendants of the first wave of settlers who journeyed to Hawaii from the Marquesas in the sixth century.

Things To Do on Kauai

Kauai Beaches

Kauai Destinations

Places to Stay in Kauai