The Garden Isle. We lived on Oahu for two years and came over whenever we could: Na Pali by boat, Waimea Canyon by road, and Waiʻaleʻale by helicopter because there is no other way in.
Kalapaki at dawn • Poipu at sunset • The north shore • Waimea Canyon
Explore Kauai → Get Early AccessKauai divides more sharply than the other islands. The northwest is the Na Pali coast, which has no road and is reached by boat, by helicopter or on foot. The west rises to Waimea Canyon, a thousand metres up and dry. The east and south, around Lihue, Wailua and Poipu, are where the airport and most of the beds are, and the north shore is greener and wetter than either. We lived on Oahu for two years and got over here as often as we could.
Kauai is the oldest of the main islands and it looks it: the volcano that built it is long dead and five million years of rain have cut the interior into ridges no road crosses. Waiʻaleʻale at the centre is among the wettest places on earth, which is where the green comes from. On the north shore the taro fields at Hanalei have been worked for centuries and still are.
Na Pali from a boat is the version we would send most people to, because the scale of the cliffs only registers from the water. Waimea Canyon is a different island again, dry and red. And the helicopter over Waiʻaleʻale is the only way to see the middle of the island at all. If you do one, take the boat. If you do two, add the helicopter.
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