Kauai recommendations?
 

I'm off to Kauai in a week's time ... looking forward to some much-overdo downtime.

Are there any good snorkeling spots to put on my "must see" list?

Any other recommendations? Please and thank you?

I can't recommend a snorkeling spot.

The Waimea Canyon road was a highlight, a great drive unless you are going with someone who gets carsick.

The other highlight of the trip was a helicopter tour of the island, as long as you go on a sunny day when everything is not shrouded in cloud.

I've stayed in the Princeton Hotel and it was incredible. Right in front of the hotel in low tide you could walk right up to pools of fish, crabs, lobsters, amazing diversity. The daily brunch there is pricey but WELL worth it. As stated the helicopter ride is breathtaking. Kauai is where the Hawaiian's go for their holiday's and weddings. The golf courses are stunning if that is your bag and I definitely remember the sea food restaurants. You will enjoy yourself.
Kevin

WTF Tony!!!
You didn't ok this trip with me... :surprise:

What!!!! Trip!!!!!

I have a large suitcase I can fit in, with your clothing, can I sneak in?

Have fune, I have never been to any Hawaiian island, but I bet everything about it will be fun and beautiful.

Be safe!

If you need any assistance with your tank, just let me know.

I suppose if I just take along one of Ryan's mankini's there I'll have plenty-o-room the suitcase ..

Tri, does that mean you thought the snorkeling sucked there, or just that you can't think of any place offhand?

The flight with the 4 year old and the 1 year old and all the carry-on restrictions is gonna be interesting methinks .. Hopefully the plane will have plenty of booze (for ME .. and the other passengers .. not whatever you might have been thinking !! .. Although .. hmm maybe .. no scratchthatnevermind..)

Could always give them some good, drowsy, cold medicine... just before you board.... makes it more acceptable that way! :redface:

Lived on Oahu for a few years......Ah, Maui my favorite spot. :mrgreen: If you can, horseback riding on the beach and through the hills is beautiful!........that is if you take the nanny:wink:....speaking of a nanny I am ready willing and able if need be....:biggrin:....... I come highly reccomended my daughter is 16 and still alive.

Oh and the skinny dipping.... well thats always great or so I have been told. :twised:

I dunno Tony... the mankini is not for everyone.

Just tuck the chaeto in Tony and you should be ok.

:lol:

Lucky thing I'm not headed to Brazil then? I don't have any chaeto anymore, I let the tangs eat it all. Um ... why do I feel all dirty for saying a reef related thing?? It .. uh .. never mind !!

Bwahahahahaha... instant classic!
Had to add it to my sig. :lol:

Braving a trip with the little ones hey Tony!:wink: Good luck............kidding! You will have fun! It will be a trip YOU will never forget!:twised::lol:
Your little four year old will LOVE it! And I am jealous! Why does it feel like I am the ONLY one not going anywhere?

We opted for a "couples only" trip in the fall instead...much more fun......:twised:! (If I make it there...fall seems aweful far away!:sad:)

Tony, top spot this time of year would be Koloa landing on the south shore. I did 2 shore dives there and saw 6 dragon morays, golden dwarf moray, and a zebra moray on the one dive. The other one a seal came in and caught and ate a scorpionfish right in front of us. There's a bright purple leaf fish there that's super cool to watch too. He's always in the same spot, so ask if you do a dive. I think he's too deep to see snorkelling though. It's a small site with tonnes of critters there. Should be able to see some cool things snorkelling. LOTS of different morays there, some fairly shallow. There are also banded angels there too. The dolfins come in close to shore there as well as the odd seal so keep an eye out for them. Also, keep an eye out for my camera that I let go on a different dive on the south end! :sad:It's a black nikon. That was back in Nov but you never know. lol I have about 400 pics of 9 dives on it....

Tony don't miss out on the helicopter tour, it's worth every penny.

Oh if you have never taken a helicopter ride over the islands I highly recommend it! That birds eye view is such an amazing perspective of the island. There's nothing like it. And if you're going to do it, splurge and do the open door one!

This was over Maui :biggrin:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2479/...102f57f8e3.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/...6da6eb564c.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3571/...fac354ee88.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2443/...667d9100d5.jpg

We even saw whales from the helicopter! Sadly I did not get any pictures of them for fear of losing my camera.

Good point on the helicopter tour. Flying over the Na pali coast is unbelievable. It is a bit expensive but like Greg said is worth every penny.

The problem with the helicopter tour is Kauai can be shrouded in cloud and rain a lot of the time, and you have to book the helicopter a few days in advance, so you don't know what weather you'll get. I flew in partly cloudy skies with a few sunny breaks, it was still a spectacular flight but clear skies would have been more amazing.

:rofl:

Tony I thought they lifted the carry-on restrictions? There weren't any (many) when we went to phoenix. just the regular liquid and you can take one carry-on and a purse/camera bag etc like it was before.

That's true but still there's a LOT of stuff that needs to come along, like you have to have a car seat for the little one and stuff (yes I know some people hold their kids on laps for a flight, if you knew my kids you'd understand why this is not possible in this instance). I'm sure it will be fine but nevertheless I'll still breathe easier when it's all done.

Helicopter ride sounds like fun, but I dunno. We'll see, we promised ourselves each a kid-free excursion, and I'm sorta leaning more towards mountain biking myself but we'll see. I can't seem to find any place to rent me a Hobie Cat, unfortunately all catamaran rentals are more like the 40' variety which would be cool too but it's just not the same. :)

@Scott - thanks, that's just the info I was hoping for. :) Golden dwarf eels would be soooooo freakin' cool to see out there!! :cool:

You could always rent a CARES harness for the kids. http://www.kidsflysafe.com/

there are a couple of places in town that'll rent them out. Then we just book/rent a child car seat with our car rental. We've never lugged around a car seat on any of our vacations. That's a major pain.

I've never - *never* - found a car rental agency that would guarantee a car seat. What happens when you get there and there's nothing? Not really a risk I can take. :(

Incredible shots Kien. Love the color saturation you nailed there.

you have to really keep an eye out for the dwarf morays as they hide a lot. So many things eat them in the wild, which is why they are more docile in our tanks. look for those bright blue eyes! koloa landing is really popular with dives as its a good beginner spot and an easy shore dive, so I would ask the divers if they've seen any dwarf golden morays and where they are. My dive master said they are all over the place but I only saw the one, and it was at that site.

Dude, I can't find the moray in my 30" tank so it would be like winning the 6/49 jackpot and I don't mean the podunk little 2 million ones either, more like the 20 million jackpot. :lol: How deep were they? I don't think I'll be doing any scuba, so it would probably be more like the 100 million jackpot to see one..

lol, they're not THAT hard to see. The one I saw was at about 15'. Your best bet would be to ask any divers that are there if they've seen one and where it is. You can dive down with your snorkelling gear to get a closeup. You'll for sure see other eels there as there's lots around, and some are shallow. I saw a tiger eel there that was at about 5' and they are supposed to be rare. The dragon morays are awesome to watch as well, so ask where they are. My dive master said they get lots of divers going at that site to specifically see them. A couple of them that I saw you would have been able to see snorkelling if you would swim down.

Well, hopefully I'll see them then. I saw plenty of eels in Maui and they're all neat but I would have loved to find some melatremus but alas never found any. So we'll see. I'm actually staying right next door to that place you mentioned, in Poipu, so that's cool. We had asked around where was a good spot to hang out and people kept recommending the south shore for that so that's why we chose. Plus, saw one look at the place we're staying at, when we were checking out places, and this one just immediately grabbed us.

I used to be able to free dive down to 15' no problem. I remember swimming down to clams at 18' off the Great Barrier Reef but it was better to have a tank and be able to stay down. :lol: Been a while since I free dove anywhere that deep nowadays though so it will be interesting. Plus there's a lot more of me so fighting buoyancy in the SW is also a challenge. :p