Wintertime visit to Hawaii

Exploring Kauai and the Big Island in January 2026

In January 2026, my wife,Tiger Adolf, and I spent a week in Hawaii, mostly on the island of Kauai with a 1-day trip to Hilo.  This article summarizes our trip and acknowledges those who made the journey memorable.  

We flew non-stop from San Francisco to Kauai on a Thursday for best airfares.  We picked up our rental car and made the 15-minute drive to Kapa`a to find our room at Aston Islander on the Beach.  We chose the resort from the offerings on Costco Travel which we had never used before.  For a trip of a week or more, we prefer to stay in a rental that we find after comparing the options on Airbnb and VRBO.  We started to look elsewhere once we saw how much places were going for there and how onerous the cancellation policies were. A search of Google Hotels showed we could get a room at a seaside resort hotel for about the same price with free cancellations.  Usually once I find a place I like on a travel platform like Booking.com or Expedia, I inquire directly on the hotel’s website to get a better rate or preferable upgrades.  But Costco Travel stumped me by not only offering a lower price on my upgraded oceanfront room than I could get at the resort’s own website, but Costco went further by “throwing in” a free rental car from Budget.  Score!  

We were pleased to find the place we chose primarily because it was right on the beach but was not a highrise building. It was more like a condo than a traditional hotel.  The lobby was a counter in an open breezeway that looked onto a small grouping of 3-story buildings with a pool, hot tub, and tiki-type bar, across an adjacent walking path was the beach.  The grounds were beautifully landscaped with native plants and overrun with wild chickens that were attractive and entertaining.  Most of the units appeared to belong to permanent residents rather than hotel guests.  Our fellow temporary guests appeared to be retirees like us and young couples.  One morning I saw a smiling lady who didn’t seem to be a staff person walking the property with a large box of sandwiches.  She told me eagerly, “this is lunch for the landscape crew because they work so hard.”  Everything about the place was just as welcoming to those not working.  The development was positioned between the small beach and the main road around the island.  Between the grouping of condo-like buildings and the beach was a wide paved path that was shared by walkers, bikers, and chickens.  

Our unit was on the top floor of one of the few oceanfront buildings with an ideal view of the path, the beach, and the sunrises which drew an appreciative crowd onto the beach each morning as we admired the view from our balcony.  On the opposite side of the development was a small strip of retail shops and restaurants, and across the parking lot was a larger shopping development called Coconut Marketplace with more shopping and dining options.  Our favorite spot there was the ABC Marketplace with an incredible selection of groceries, pre-prepared and made-to-order food, adult beverages, and the assortment of souvenirs you find in all resort retail places.  The Marketplace is a larger version of the ABC Stores that are legendary throughout Hawaii and have spread in recent years to Las Vegas. 

We were glad that we had upgraded to an oceanfront room with a mini-kitchen.  After settling into our room, we walked just steps down the beach path to the Lava Lava Beach Club that was so highly recommended online.  There we had a fish sandwich and our first mai tai of the trip.  We sat in the outdoor section so that we could kick off our shoes to put our feet in the sand.  The location was ideal for watching the people strolling the path and heading to and from the ocean waves.  We also had our first sighting of the Banana Bread Lady who is legendary online for her interesting flavors and moist cakes.  We bought one loaf for the next morning’s breakfast and captured the Instagrammable moment on our phone. Then we headed back to the room to change into our bathing suits for the hot tub with a visit to the tiki bar for our second mai tai of the trip.  We toasted our good fortune in finding such an enviable spot, and vowed to stop counting the number of mai tais we consumed. For dinner that night, we walked just steps from our hotel for grilled fish plate dinner at Sleeping Giant Grill with the island standard side dishes of a scoop of rice alongside a scoop of macaroni salad.  We would have preferred to substitute for green garden salad but that was not an option that night according to the hand-written sign.   

We decided in advance to organize our sightseeing on a regional basis to cover all the island to minimize backtracking since there is just one main road that surrounds most of the island. In our research on hiring a private tour, we stumbled on the GuideAlong phone application which we quickly learned to love. For a couple bucks, we downloaded to our phones a driving route that covered the entire island of Kauai.  What was incredible was that the app synced with the geopositioning signal from our phone to automatically cue up narration through our car’s bluetooth connected radio or our phone to discuss sights worth seeing based on where we were located at that very moment.  What’s more, the app could sense which direction we were heading to give us instructions like “take the next right here if you want to see this” or “I mentioned this last time we went past but here is another opportunity to see if you didn’t visit last time.”  The app didn’t need wifi or a phone signal beyond access to the GPS location.  We embraced this approach and the folksy sounding narrator who we nicknamed Dave as in “OK Dave, where are you taking us to next?”  Our favorite was from the first time we drove a route that went past the airport and Dave said, “if you’re heading back to the airport, that’s sad.” And then, when we didn’t turn into the airport entrance, Dave added, “So you aren’t going to the airport, that’s awesome!.”  (Confession time: I learned online that the GuideAlong voiceover artist’s real name is Dave Pettitt and although others like to give him playful personas, we went with Dave, but never the more formal Mr. Pettitt).

North Coast

Friday we explored the North Coast of Kauai, starting with a 2-hour group walking tour at Sugarloaf Pineapple Farm.  We learned about white pineapples that taste sweeter but are more fragile to ship than the more common yellow variety.  During the tour of the working farm, we pitched in to plant the top from a “recycled” pineapple as an alternative to using seeds, and harvested our own pineapples as souvenirs to eat with the next couple days.

After the farm, we drove to Kilauea fish market for a wonderful informal seafood lunch, then we visited the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse for our first sightings of whales and  nesting puffins.  Our next drive stop was along the coastline to Tunnels Beach and then we stretched out on a blanket near the much photographed concrete Hanalei Pier.  We had planned to enjoy the happy hour at  Welina Terrace which everyone says as the best sunset view on the North Coast, but it was crowded, so instead we headed back to our rental, stopped for groceries and local beverages at a large Safeway store, walked from our rental back to Lava Lava for dinner, and ended the evening back in the hotel hot tub.

Kauai Interior

The next morning, On Saturday we focused on the interior of Kauai.  In the morning, we did a Waterfall Trail Expedition @ Kipu Ranch Adventures.  Kipu Ranch is a 3,000 acre property established in 1872.  Today it is a working cattle ranch with a couple amazing side hustles.  Since 1999 the ranch has offered eco-tours via ATV.  But the ranch is best known, by those who know, as the location for memorable scenes from Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tropic Thunder, The Descendants, Outbreak, and more.  In preparation for our trip, we watched several movies where Kauai locations are prominent.  Our favorites were the 2011 film The Descendents starring George Clooney and a rewatch of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark from 1981.  This preparation served us well as ventured through places where those movies were shot.

The ATV eco-tour was well organized with legal-sounding releases to sign and strict instructions about staying on the designated pathways for safety as well as ecology preservation.  But our first moment of pause was when the event reminder instructions strongly recommended that we wear clothes that we wouldn’t mind ruining due to red clay stains.  When we arrived, they handed us all a free Ranch-branded kerchief to protect our faces and from mud splatters.  The kerchiefs were required wear as I accelerated the ATV through every mud puddle in our pathway.  I felt emboldened by our guide’s insight that we would remain safe as long as we drove in a straight-line formation to be sure we blazed no new trails in the conservation area. Our last stop on the ATV drive was a “secret” waterfall at the bottom of a cliff accessed via a steep trail where we were allowed to swim.  The water was bracingly cold, the rocky ledge was slippery, and the depth was slightly over our heads.  But I took the plunge nonetheless, while Tiger stayed on shore to document my swim.

After the tour–and a change of clothes–we headed for a traditional Plate Lunch at Mark’s Place based on a strong recommendation from our ATV tour guide.  It was PERFECT – just the sort of locals-mostly, lunch-only place in a nondescript industrial park that we would NEVER have found on our own.  A bonus was that the lunch spot was very near Kauai’s only Costco where we filled up the rental car gas tank and stocked up on Hawaiian shirts, dry-roasted macadamia nuts, and locally-distilled booze, including vodka and a white pineapple rum that we drank the rest of the week on our hotel balcony mixed with Safeway guava blend juice.

After we made the short drive back to our hotel, Tiger got a deep tissue massage at A Heavenly Massage just a few miles up the road that was recommended by a Hiddenbrooke neighbor.  It is a small world, after all.  Later that afternoon, we lounged on the hotel’s chairs on the sandy beach, drinking our own booze concoction.  We walked over to acquire a dinner of takeout chicken and ribs with sides from the Chicken in a Barrel at Coconut Marketplace that we enjoyed on our balcony as we watched the moon rise.     

South Coast

Sunday started early to be ahead of the crowd.  We still had a leisurely drive for our southern coast-focused day with visits to the not-so-mini Grand Canyon at Waimea Canyon State Park, a peek at the undriveable western coastline from Kōkeʻe State Park, a coffee tasting and self-guided walking tour at Kauai Coffee Company Plantation, and a visit to the Spouting Horn lava tube blowhole at Poipu Beach.

The Beach House was our next stop and we arrived just as it opened for Happy Hour.  Their cocktails were amazing and the coconut shrimp was the best we’d ever had but unlike any other.  We were sooo happy that we were thrilled to transition to the other side of the building for our perfectly-timed sunset dinner reservation at the place the Internet says is the top spot in all the island.  We would have to agree.  We paired our local pork and seafood entrees with a nice bottle of French wine.  The meal price at the best place on Kauai’s South Coast might seem expensive to others… but perhaps we are acclimated by the prices of fine dining in San Francisco and Napa.  OK, we splurged!

East Coast

Monday, the morning’s focus was on the eastern side of the island that was closest to our hotel.  Through our pre-trip research, we learned the eastern coast beaches are less populated than the North and South because the Eastern beaches aren’t as large, the sand isn’t as fine, and the waves aren’t as big.  Plus, we chose to visit during a time of the year which was after the peak Christmas holidays but before Spring Break and summertime which suited us just fine.

Our short driving tour took us to the historical Holoholoku Heiau birthing stone landmark which was close to the Opaekaa Falls viewing area, then on to a peek at Wailua Falls which was  made famous in the Fantasy Island TV series, and then to an overview of the Menehune Fish Pond which is one of the oldest archeological sites where natives innovated in farming seafood.  

Lunch was at Little Fattie’s food truck very close to our hotel and was recommended by our Beach House waiter who works there at lunchtime.  The fish tacos were the very best of the trip, and we ate a lot of freshly-prepared fish creations.  Dinner was chicken and rib leftovers with homemade cocktails on our balcony, followed by a visit to the hot tub.  We were in a rut… and loving it.  

Free Day

Tuesday was designated for seeing anything we had missed in our planning or passed too quickly in a previous visit.  We began by renting bikes from Hele On Kauai for a ride along the Kapa`a Bike Path. After returning the bikes, we walked to the locally-produced Lydgate Farms Chocolate Tasting room for samples, shopped for authentically-designed material at Vicky’s Fabric Shop for an ambitious placemat project that she may start any day now, and succumbed to the free falafel samples at the Shakalafel food truck which enticed us to share an entree with aqua frescas at a picnic table while deftly avoiding losing our lunch to the pesky but cute wild chickens that are EVERYWHERE.  

After lunch, Tiger gently mentioned that I had said a primary reason for wanting to visit Kauai was to see swimming sea turtles that I remember so fondly from a previous trip decades ago.  And she observed that we hadn’t done that yet and she didn’t see it on the itinerary.  Taking up the challenge, I learned online that an ideal turtle viewing spot might be Brennecke’s Beach back on the South Coast we had visited previously.  Finding the beach and a perfect free public parking spot, we walked toward the beach to see a roped-off area at the waterline surrounded by gawking tourists. Taking a spot alongside all of them, we watched as large turtles lumbered onto and away from the beach sands while others slept… much like the sea lions we love watching at the San Francisco piers.  One “diligent” observer yelled across the beach to chastise a person who was walking among the turtles and actually bending over to touch one.  That’s when we were all informed by a uniformed state employee that this person was one of the scientists who are closely observing and cataloging the turtles… and in this particular instance the scientist was attempting to remove some fishing line that was tangled in a turtle’s webbed foot.  It took two people quite some time to remove the fishing line with no objection from the turtle.  We were grateful to learn that this was occurring… and that we could watch.

For happy hour and dinner we headed to the Barefoot Bar @ Duke’s .  The Duke’s location at Huntington Beach, California is a memorable spot for us.  The Kauai location has more of a high rise hotel bar vibe, but the location in a small, remote bay where outrigger canoe crews were practicing rowing in the setting sun while jets landed at the nearby airport was wonderful.    

Big Island

We began to plan our trip in December just as the Kilauea volcano on The Big Island of Hawaii began to erupt for the first time in about 10 years.  This led us to add a daytrip during our weeklong journey to catch an inter-island flight from Kauai to the Big Island for an up close look at the volcano… well, as close as we could safely get.  I had done this sort of day trip with my family about 20 years ago so I knew it would be convenient and fun.  We made flight reservations in advance on Southwest Air which has just recently begun to compete with the merged Alaska/Hawaiian Air.  The more reasonably priced flight we chose required us to fly from Lihue on Kauai to Honolulu on Oahu and then to Hilo on the Big Island on Wednesday.  This gave us some extra time in Honolulu airport for a leisurely breakfast in a sit-down restaurant followed by a peaceful visit to the airport’s beautiful Hawaiian, Japanese, and Chinese styled gardens. 

When we arrived at Hilo airport, we picked up our rental car (reserved at the best price we could find from Budget though our new best friends at Costco Travel platform) and proceeded on our one-hour drive to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  In advance, we downloaded from the Guidealong app their Big Island tour edition for another couple bucks so we could reconnect with our new favorite tour guide Dave, who told us about local history and other potential stops along our path.  Once we got into the Park, Dave talked us through the park’s Crater Rim Lookout, Steam Vents, and Thurston Lava Tube.  While waiting in the Honolulu airport, we read that the volcano had stopped erupting just a couple days before after raining small amounts of lava on nearby cars and closing a few park roads.  We were kinda relieved to learn this since we weren’t looking to test our credit card provider’s free rental car damage coverage.  

On the way back from the national park to the airport, we stopped for a coffee tasting and short self-guided walking tour of the Kauai Coffee Company Plantation and a quick stop at the Rainbow Falls which normally charges admission that can only be paid via a QR code but a phone coverage outage earned us a free visit.  We returned the undamaged rental car at the Hilo Airport and got back to our other rental car in the short-term parking lot at the Kauai via Honolulu.  Dinner that night at the tiny Hilo Airport was nothing worth writing about.

Home

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and returned our rental car at the Lihue airport in the heaviest rain that we had seen the entire trip.  It was a welcome reminder of how incredible the weather had been for us in what is considered a “shoulder weather” time in Kauai.

We both adored the laid-back vibe and beyond breathtaking scenery in the places we chose to go to on Kauai and the Big Island.  You had to have some mahala to deal with traffic on the overburdened roads, but patience (and Dave) got us everywhere we needed to be. Tiger had been to Maui many years ago and even then found it too bustling and touristy. She enjoyed the quiet beaches and rougher waves on our side of this smaller island, the chickens and roosters were adorable, and not having to combat-shop and fight the crowds everywhere we went was a plus.  Ed had been to Kauai and the Big Island a couple decades ago and found them much the same.  Ed has visited Oahu several times, first when his Navy ship docked there in the late 1970’s and later in search of the perfect mai tai when his son turned 21, but found it to be mostly to be tourist traps and high-rise buildings that held no appeal.  When presented with another unanticipated free week to roam during a shoulder season, it’s a certainty that we’ll return to Kauai.