The Poipu Resort Area in Kauai

Three of Kauai’s best hotels—the lavish Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa , the family-friendly Sheraton Kauai Resort , and the luxury boutique Koa Kea Hotel & Resort —punctuate the many low-rise condos and vacation homes in the master-planned Poipu Beach Resort. Landlubbers can enjoy tennis, 36 holes of golf, and numerous options for dining and shopping, including those at the Shops at Kukuiula just outside the resort proper. (To access another 18 holes of golf and the island’s best spa, both located in the luxurious Kukuiula residential community, you’ll need to stay in one of its $1,000-plus-a-night Club Cottages .)

The shoreline along Kauai's south coast offers an easy 4-mile roundtrip in spectacular scenery, ancient sites, petroglyphs, or, as Kauai geologist Dr. Chuck Blay says, "A heritage landscape revealing 5 million years of continuous history -- a living museum, a research site, and a habitat for rare and endangered plants and animals."

The Poipu Beach Foundation, with help from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, has produced a free interpretive map and guide to learn about the sites and features of this area.

The hike begins at Shipwreck Beach Park at Keoneloa Bay and ends at the remote Mahulepu Beach. The map and guide (along with the website) detail nine different sites and 10 environmental features found only in this area. For more information check out www.hikemahaulepu.org, or for a copy of the guide, contact Poipu Beach Resort Association (tel. 888/744-0888; www.poipubeach.org).

The trail head begins on the east end of Shipwreck Beach, past the Grand Hyatt. It's an easy 10-minute walk up to Makawehi Point; after you take in the big picture, keep going uphill along the ridge of the sand dunes (said to contain ancient Hawaiian burial sites), past the coves frequented by green sea turtles and endangered Hawaiian monk seals, through the coastal pine forest, and past World War II bunkers to the very top. Now you can see Haupu Ridge and its 2,297-foot peak, the famously craggy ridgeline that eerily resembles Queen Victoria's profile and, in the distance, Mahaulepu Beach, one of the best looking in Hawaii. Inland, three red craters dimple the green fields; the one in the middle, the biggest, Puu Huni Huni, is said to have been the last volcano to erupt on Kauai -- but it was so long ago that nobody here can remember when.