My Winter Trip to Asia and Hawaii: Waimea Canyon, Wailua River and Na Pali Coast in Kauai

In December, I took a two week trip away from the cold! I started in New York and stopped in Hawaii for a week en route to Asia, breaking my time between two islands: Maui and Kauai. After Hawaii, it was off for a quick stop in Singapore, 5 days in Phuket and two days in Tokyo. This was my first ever trip to Asia and we had a great time! I flew Business Class most of the way, stayed at the top notch hotels Andaz Maui Wailea, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort and the Conrad Tokyo.

Trip Report Index

• Planning with Miles and Points

• The Andaz Maui at Wailea

• Restaurants at the Andaz Maui at Wailea

• Maui’s Haleakala, Ho’okipa and the Road to Hana

• The Grand Hyatt Kauai

• Wamea Canyon, Wailua River and Na Pali Coast in Kauai

Kauai was our second Hawaiian island on the trip and we spent four nights at The Grand Hyatt Kauai. Although I liked the hotel in Maui far better, Kauai quickly became my favorite island due to its unparalleled natural beauty. I was glad to have four nights there to thoroughly do everything we wanted to do… and we kept our days busy. We scheduled the Na Pali Coast cruise a few weeks in advance since that was a big highlight of the island for us. We knew we’d go kayaking, but waited until we were on the island to book our tour. The rest of the time was spent driving around and touring the sights: Waimea Canyon, Hanalei Bay and a drive to Polihale Beach. In my opinion, the book Kauai Revealed has an absolutely excellent overview of the island, the tour companies and things to do.

Our full 3 day itinerary:

• Day 1: Waimea Canyon, Polihale Beach, Na Pali Coast Cruise
• Day 2: Kayaking the Wailua River
• Day 3: Hanalei Bay and the north shore.

Waimea Canyon

Our cruise for the Na Pali coast was scheduled in the afternoon on our first full day in Kauai. The Grand Hyatt Kauai is located in Poipu on the eastern south side of the island. Port Allen, where the cruise departed, is located on the western south side of the island. We decided to take the first half of the day to visit Waimea Canyon and drive to the western side.

About a half hour west of the hotel, we came to Waimea Canyon Road, which winds for 17 miles up into the mountains with several lookouts into the canyon. I found this to be a completely unique experience and probably Kauai’s top sight.

Polihale Beach

Coming down from Waimea Canyon Road, we continued west and drove as far we could… even past the 5 mile dirt road that was luckily accessible with our four wheel drive (I think) Jeep Wranger. Anyway, as you can guess, I was not the one driving!

Most of the things we saw on the island, I had heard about previously or seen pictures of. But, I have to say, Polihale Beach took me completely by surprise. When we got there, it was completely empty with no one else around and possibly among one of the most beautiful beaches I had seen in my life. It has picture perfect white sand and is framed by gorgeous cliffs. It’s where the Na Pali Coast begins. We would have been glad to spend far more time there, but alas, we had to get to the port in time for our Na Pali coast cruise.

Na Pali Coast Cruise

When planning the Kauai portion of the vacation, one of the activities I was looking forward to most was a cruise of the Na Pali Coast. We opted to take the Captain Andy Southern Star sunset dinner cruise costing about $150 per person. The Southern Star is their bigger boat and we thought it looked like a nice experience for the sail.

The boat was great, the staff was extremely nice and fun and knowledgeable and I would not hesitate to recommend the cruise to anyone who wants to tour the Na Pali coast from a port on the south side of Kauai.  But starting from the south side of Kauai is the big qualifier in that recommendation. Because of how Kauai is positioned, the north side of the island gets far more rain than the south side and, for that reason, the lush multi-colored beautiful Na Pali coast cliffs that we see are actually on the north side. Sailing from the south side, you first have to sail around the beaches to where the Na Pali Coast starts.  Further, once you get to the Na Pali coast, you first see dry and rocky cliffs for a while. You do eventually see the nice green and red cliffs, but that’s only after 1.5-2 hours on the boat. If I had to do it again, I’d make the drive to the north side of the island and take a boat cruise departing from Hanalei Bay. There are a few companies departing from there, including Napali Catamaran (although I don’t have any personal experience with them).

In either case, it was an evening well spent and we enjoyed the scenery we did see!

Kayaking the Wailua River

For our second full day, we booked a kayak tour of the Wailua River with Wailua River Guides. At a cost of $110 per person, we booked the tour through the hotel and used our Hyatt gift checks that we ordered with Citi ThankYou points.

We had a small group of about 10 people and our tour was led by Andy, a young enthusiastic girl from the midwest who visited Hawaii a few years ago and threw away her ticket home! She kept everyone entertained the entire six hours with her witty stories.

Everyone on the tour was in a two-person kayak. We kayaked for a few miles and then hiked to a waterfall.

Although kayaking itself can be taxing, the hike was no easy task. As central Kauai had had a lot of rain recently, it was extremely muddy on the trail. At first, most of us tried to be careful and avoid stepping into the mud, but then realized it was nearly impossible. There were points at which I was ankle deep in mud (I threw away those running shoes after the hike). The mud was very slippery and I would estimate at least half our hiking group slipped and fell at some point (I didn’t!). No one got hurt and we all mainly laughed about it. I am under the impression this much mud is unusual year round and was exacerbated by the recent rains. At one point, we did have to cross a river on the hike holding onto a rope, also an effect of the recent rains. In any case, the hiking scenery was lovely and there was a waterfall at the end where we had lunch.

Would I recommend this tour? The guide was great, but the trail was quite muddy. If I had to do it again, I’d probably check conditions beforehand on this particular trail. However, as I said, the extreme muddiness I experienced was unusual. They run the same tour every day so they’ll be well-informed… otherwise, I may be inclined to try to choose a tour with a less muddy hike. The book I recommended, Kauai Revealed, has plenty of listings.

Wailua Falls

Kauai has plenty of waterfalls around the island, but one of the most impressive and accessible is Wailua Falls right by the road. We made sure to take a peek before our kayaking tour.

Visiting Hanalei Bay

Hanalei Bay is on the north side of Kauai by Princeville and is home to a ton of surfing, waves and Kauai’s top beaches. We found none that rivaled Polihale Beach we went to two days previously, but we did enjoy touring the coast and enjoying the local surf scene.

I was sad to leave Kauai, but know I’ll be back someday… hopefully soon! On the bright side, after Hawaii, I was on to a completely new adventure… my first ever trip to Asia!

The final morning in Kauai, Alex took me to the airport and I boarded my interi-island flight to Honolulu (the shortest flight I ever took!). From there, I started my long journey to Singapore where I’d be meeting Svetlana and Natalya for our Singapore-Thailand-Tokyo part of the trip. Stay tuned…