Kauai

We landed in Lihue around noon and drove straight to lunch at Lava Lava Beach Club, feet in the sand before we’d even checked into a hotel. From there we made a quick stop at Wailua Falls, an 80-foot roadside cascade that needs no hike to reach—its fame mostly comes from the opening credits of the 1970s TV show Fantasy Island, though the valley it tumbles into was once part of Kauai’s royal domain, off-limits to anyone but ali’i. We checked into our hotel, the Koloa Landing Resort, and spent the rest of the afternoon working through its pools. In the evening we walked along the coast and caught a gorgeous double rainbow arcing over the water, then had a delicious dinner at RumFire: crispy fried brussels sprouts and misoyaki butterfish glazed in rice wine and chili, served with vegetable fried rice, bok choy, tobiko, and a sizzling herb oil.

The next morning we grabbed a tasty breakfast of bagel sandwiches and smoothies at Little Fish Coffee, then drove out to Spouting Horn, a lava-tube blowhole that shoots seawater up to 50 feet into the air with every incoming swell. Ancient Hawaiians called it puhi and told of a giant lizard, Kaikapu, who once guarded the coastline and devoured anyone who tried to fish there; a boy named Liko lured the lizard into the narrow lava channel, where it got stuck forever, and the hiss and grumble of the blowhole is supposedly the lizard still complaining from below.

We snorkeled nearby at Lawa’i Beach and spotted several Hawaiian monk seals sunning themselves on the sand—a genuine treat, since the species is vulnerable, though it’s thankfully recovered substantially over the past two decades (from around 150 in 2004, to 1,400 in 2016). In the afternoon we hiked most of the Māhā’ulepū Heritage Trail, out and back from Shipwreck Beach, past limestone sea cliffs that started out as sand dunes some 125,000 years ago and have since hardened into stone riddled with ancient coral and algae fossils. The trail also passes Hawaiian burial grounds and the remains of an old fishing heiau, and the coastal views the whole way were gorgeous. We finished the day at Poipu Beach, where a big group of green sea turtles had hauled out to rest on the sand—honu are the only sea turtle species in Hawaii known to bask on land—and stuck around to watch a beautiful sunset.

On day three we drove around to the island’s northeast coast to hike part of the Kalalau Trail along the Nā Pali Coast, a stretch of crumpled green cliffs so dramatic they look like a move set (and have been). The trail follows a route Native Hawaiians used for centuries to reach the valleys along this coast, where the remains of stone-walled taro terraces still show how they engineered entire streams to feed the community; the modern trail itself was rebuilt in the 1930s. We hiked out to Hanakāpī’ai Falls, a 120-foot waterfall about two miles up a side valley, taking in incredible coastal views along the way. I couldn’t resist a swim in the pool beneath the falls—brisk, but worth it. Afterward we visited Hanalei Beach and wandered through the town of Hanalei, whose wetlands have grown taro for over a thousand years and whose 1892 pier, once used to load rice and sugar onto inter-island steamers, is now just a favorite spot for locals to fish and swim. We had a nice dinner at Palate Wine Bar to close out the day.

We got up early on day four and drove to Port Allen to join a tour with Holoholo Charters. Our catamaran steamed out toward Lehua Island, a small crescent-shaped tuff cone just off Ni’ihau that’s now a state seabird sanctuary home to seventeen species. The snorkeling near the island’s southwest corner was incredible: a shallow reef there drops off abruptly into more than 100 feet of water, and the marine life seems to love the contrast as much as we did. We even got to snorkel alongside a Hawaiian monk seal, gamboling carelessly along the surface.

We circled Lehua and crossed the channel back toward the Nā Pali Coast for excellent views from the water of the same cliffs we’d hiked along the day before, and on the return trip our boat was surrounded by huge, playful pods of dolphins. Back on land, we grabbed some beers at Kauai Island Brewing Company, returned to the hotel to lounge by the pool, and strolled down the coast that evening for another stunning sunset before a tasty pizza dinner from Koloa Pizza Kitchen + Bar.

Day five started with a morning snorkel in Hanakaape Bay; conditions weren’t great and the water wasn’t very clear, but we still spotted a couple of turtles. We tried again in the afternoon at Poipu Beach, though it was so shallow there wasn’t much sea life to see. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the shops and restaurants of Old Koloa Town, once the site of Hawaii’s first commercial sugar plantation—founded in 1835 by Ladd & Company on land leased from King Kamehameha III, and the source of the islands’ first-ever sugar export just two years later—and tried some interesting beers at Mucho Aloha Brewhouse. Dinner was a great meal at Merriman’s Kauai, macadamia-nut-crusted swordfish that was excellent, if not quite up to some of the meals we’ve had at Merriman’s on the Big Island.

The next day we drove back up to the north side of the island to snorkel at Anini Beach, which sits behind the longest fringing reef in Hawaii—two miles long and nearly a third of a mile wide at points—creating a huge, shallow, well-protected lagoon. It was swarming with sea turtles, and the water was clear enough to get great views of them gliding around.

We stopped by Kilauea Lighthouse, built in 1913 to guide shipping traffic between Hawaii and Asia and now the centerpiece of a wildlife refuge where red-footed boobies, great frigatebirds, and the occasional nēnē (Hawaii’s endangered state bird) share the bluffs, for an excellent view of the dramatic coastline. We grabbed tasty fish sandwiches for lunch at The Hanalei Dolphin Restaurant, then tried some locally made spirits at Hanalei Spirits Distillery. Our favorite was the okolehao, a traditional Hawaiian spirit distilled from ti root that’s roasted over an open fire before fermenting; it has an earthy, smoky flavor that reminded us of whisky, which tracks, since Hawaiians have been making some version of it since a shipwrecked British convict rigged up the islands’ first still in the 1790s. We returned to Koloa for an excellent dinner at The Tasting Room.

Day seven took us out to Waimea Canyon, a mile-wide, 3,600-foot-deep gash carved into the west side of the island after a catastrophic collapse of Kauai’s ancient shield volcano. It’s often called the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific” and attributed to Mark Twain, though as best I can tell that’s a myth—Twain never actually set foot on Kauai. The day was foggy and much of the canyon was socked in with clouds, but we still got some nice views. We relaxed around the hotel and its pools for the rest of the afternoon before an outstanding sunset dinner at the Beach House Restaurant: diver sea scallops with creamed corn, smoked bacon, marinated cherry tomatoes, and asparagus.

We fit in one last snorkel on our final morning, back at Lawa’i Beach—clear water and plenty of fish, though no turtles or monk seals this time—before flying home in the early afternoon.