Kauai... oh how I love thee!

If you travel to Hawaii - please visit Kauai!  It is known as the "Garden Island."  Truly beautiful places!

For those of you who maybe familiar with Maui and Key West Florida - Kauai is a perfect blend of the two places!

The first thing you will "see" as you exit the airport property are the wild chickens!  They are everywhere... there is actually a ban on importing chickens to this island.  The bad part is the wild can not be used for meat - apparently they have been wild for so long... their meat has become very gamey.

We stayed in Kapaa - nice relaxed atmosphere (like Maui) with a great local fare (like Key West).  Our resort was the Waipouli Beach Resort (Outrigger).  The view looking out of the lobby was very relaxing...

The BEST resort pool!  There was a "main pool", lazy river with three waterfalls, two waterslides, two hot tubs (one adult only) and a "sand" beachy shallow area!  The pool area exits to the beach... a very relaxing, calm and empty beach!

Only 20% of Kauai is accessible by car - helicopter tours are very popular on this island and boat tours especially on the Na Pali coast.

We elected to do a 6 hour deep sea fishing adventure.  Deep Sea Fishing was on my bucket list - I LOVED it!  We caught 5 large yellow and blue fin tuna - the largest was 35 pounds! 

Now my word of caution... if you have never been sea sick and are used to boats - open ocean fishing is different - motion sickness is a real possiblity!  My partner on this adventure was sick 5 out of the 6 hours of the trip - and the swells were only 3-4 feet - they are normally 7-10 feet!  I recommend our charter company - Ohana Fishing Charters - Lance was very nice!

Like most islands - the different sides of the island have different qualities!  Take the time to head north to Princeville on Kauai - the St Regis is a MUST see!  Make reservations for the Makana Terrace to watch the sunset.  The atmosphere was almost not real!  I felt like I was on a movie set!  It was absolutely spectacular!!!!!!

We LOVED Kauai and we WILL be going back!!!!

The Big Island of Hawaii... the recap...

Well I have to say - I am officially going to be posting my first FLOPs!!!!  Be prepared...

Now onto my recap of the The Big Island of Hawaii...

First we flew from Honolulu to Kona Hawaii on go!Airlines...  why did I choose go!Airlines?  Good question because I was asking myself the same question!  Do yourself a favor - book with Hawaiian Airlines - pay a few more bucks but at least there are more flights to choose from AND they are on time.  Our flight to Kona was delayed FOUR hours - with no explanation!  SO go!Airlines - is my first official FLOP!


After arriving in Kona at midnight, we checked in a Keauhou Beach Resort (Outrigger).  Front desk was pleasant - even at midnight, the view was cool - the hotel extends over the ocean with plenty of fish and turtles to watch BUT the room was very dated and the bath/shower combo had mold.  An upside to the resort - they have a free breakfast buffet from 6:30-9:30am.  If I had to rate the resort - 2.5 out of 5 stars.  It is a partial FLOP.

OK now the FUN HIGHLIGHTS...  We had two days to explore the island!

Day One - Volcano National Park! 

On the way to the Park from Kona - you will pass some black sand beaches!  They are cool!  Definitely stop in for some pictures!

The Volcano National Park - Once in a lifetime experience - I have to admit that if you expecting to see flowing lava - you need to take a helicopter tour.  You can take an additional drive down "Crater Road" (3 hours round trip) to "see" more but I would recommend a helicopter tour.  But a cool activity that you can do if you plan ahead... you can hike through one of the big craters that was from a 1950's eruption!  Very cool looking. 

Day Two on the Big Island... we booked an ATV tour through "Ride the Rim".  This adventure takes place on the North Side of the Island at the Waipoi Valley.

The ATV tour is about 4 hours long but very fun - if you like four wheelers - mud and waterfalls!  I recommend taking the afternoon trip and ask for Les to be your guide - great guy!  Drive thru the forest/jungle - mud puddles!  Way fun and then cool off by swimming in this waterfall!

Outside of losing one of our iPhones after the tour while changing out of our dirty clothes!  This was a ton of fun! 

The Big Island is must-see at least once... watch for my blog on Kauai - that is the island I will return to over and over! 

Aloha! We are back and full of stories of favs and flops from our trip to the great state of Hawaii

OK - let's start with a re-cap of the trip and then I will post about each individual island!  The comedy of errors are quite funny!  Don't get me worng - beautiful trip and wonderful vacation!  We will always go back - we LOVE Hawaii!

But here are a few bits....

• After 3 flights arrived in Honolulu to catch our commuter flight to Kona... well... it was delayed!  BY FOUR HOURS!  go!Airlines maybe cheap but during all of our island hopping - they were only on-time ONCE!
• Arriving in Kona after 11pm Hawaii time - that was a total of 24 hours of travelling - needless to say - we were not in the best of moods.
• After many adventures on the Big Island - we returned to the resort after an ATV adventure - to figure out - we lost an iPhone!  AND no one "can" find it!
• In Kauai after a 6 hour fishing trip  - we return to the harbor to find our rental car had a dead battery! 

There is taste of the trip - all the details to follow!