Top Destinations
Regions
Featured
New York City
Travel Ideas
Great Vacations in the U.S.A.
Trends & Hacks
Family Travel on a Budget: Our Top 14 Tips
Frommer's Favorites
Sicily's Vacation Discount Extended Until December—We Think
Most Popular Books
Frommer's Ireland
Destinations
Our Favorites
Bookstore
Get Frommer’s free newsletter (always written by humans, never AI)
Hukilau Lanai
Although his restaurant is hidden inside the nondescript Kauai Coast Resort at the Beachboy, off the main highway in Kapaa, chef/owner Ron Miller has inspired diners to find their way…
The Bistro
John-Paul Gordon is yet another Kauai chef taking inspiration from the bounty of local fields and fishing grounds, with an admirably inventive palate and a well-practiced eye for…
Mermaids Cafe
There are just a couple of picnic tables on a deck outside the kitchen window of this cheerily bohemian spot in Old Kapaa Town, so plan on ordering your food to go. The laidback Kapaa…
Hamura’s Saimin Stand
Honored by the James Beard Foundation in 2006 as one of “America’s Classics,” this hole-in-the-wall has been satisfying local palates since 1951. Visitors have also now caught on to…
Sunshine Helicopter
Ross and Anna Scott bought out Will Squyres Helicopter tours and have a range of tours from both the Lihue Airport and from the Princeville Airport. You can save a lot of cash by…
Fern Grotto
The journey as much as the destination has kept this tourist attraction popular since 1946, when the Smith family first began offering boat trips 2 miles up the Wailua River to this…
Grove Farm Museum
The son of missionaries in Hanalei, George N. Wilcox bought the original 900-acre Grove Farm from a German immigrant in 1864 and turned it into a successful sugar plantation. Two-hour…
Kamokila Hawaiian Village
This family-run 4-acre compound of thatched huts and other replica structures, opened in 1979 on the site of an ancient village, always looks in need of more upkeep. Nevertheless, it…
Keahua Arboretum
Part of the vast Lihue–Koloa Forest Reserve, this grove of rainbow eucalyptus (named for its colorful bark), monkeypod, and mango trees may not be well maintained from an arborist’s…
Kilohana Plantation
This 105-acre portion of a former sugar plantation has long been known for the unique shops tucked into a handsome 1930s mansion, its luau, and the courtyard Gaylord’s restaurant,…
Lydgate Park
This is one of the rare beach parks in Hawaii where the facilities almost outshine the beach. In front of the Hilton Garden Inn Kauai Wailua Bay, Lydgate Beach ★ offers two rock-walled…
Wailua River State Park
Wailua River State Park ★★ PARK/HISTORIC SITE—Ancients called the Wailua River “the river of the great sacred spirit.” Seven temples once stood along this 20-mile river, Hawaii’s…
Anaina Hou Community Park
Anywhere else, a mini-golf park might be easily dismissed as a tourist trap. On Kauai, it’s a wonderful introduction for families to the Garden Island’s tropical flora and cultural…
Haena State Park
Besides snorkeling at pretty Kee Beach ★★★, in the shadow of jutting Makana (Bali Hai) mountain, or camping, the main allure of this state park is that it’s at the end of the road, the…
Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge & Lighthouse
Two miles north of the historic town of Kilauea is a 200-acre headland habitat—the island’s only wildlife refuge open to the public—that includes cliffs, two rocky wave-lashed bays,…
Limahuli Garden and Preserve
Beyond Hanalei and the last wooden bridge, there’s a mighty cleft in the coastal range where ancestral Hawaiians lived in what can only be called paradise. Carved by a waterfall stream…
Napali Coast State Wilderness Park
This 15-mile-long crown of serrated ridges and lush valleys is the most impressive of Kauai’s natural features—and also its most inaccessible. Only hardy, well-equipped hikers should…
Waioli Mission House Museum and Church
Many visitors passing through Hanalei pull over for a photo of Waioli Huiia Church (www.hanaleichurch.org; 808/826-6253), a 1912 American Gothic wooden church with a steep roof,…
Kukuiolono Park
Hawaiians once lit signal fires atop this Kalaheo hillside, perhaps to aid seafarers or warn of invaders. Most visitors are still in the dark about this unusual park, created by…
National Tropical Botanical Garden
Formerly owned by the McBryde Sugar Company, which bought the land from Queen Emma in 1886, this lush swath of Lawai Valley contains two major gardens worth visiting, as well as the…
Spouting Horn
The Hawaiian equivalent to Old Faithful—at least in regularity, if not temperature—is an impressive plume of seawater that jettisons anywhere from 10 to 50 or so feet into the air…
Kokee State Park
It’s only 16 miles from Waimea to Kokee, but the two feel worlds apart: With 4,345 acres of rainforest, Kokee is another climate zone altogether, where the breeze has a bite and trees…
Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park
To the list of those who tried to conquer Hawaii, add the Russians. In 1815, a German doctor tried to claim Kauai for Russia. He even supervised the construction of this fort in…
Waimea Canyon State Park
Often called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific—an analogy attributed to Mark Twain, although there’s no record he ever visited—Waimea Canyon is indeed spectacular, albeit on a smaller…
Holoholo Charters
Holo Holo Charters ★★★—Port Allen is the point of departure for Holo Holo’s two gleaming catamarans. The 50-foot Leila, licensed for 45 passengers but limited to just 37, serves Holo…