Recent Vacation Review
"The best thing about this house is it's location. Anini beach is fabulous as it's calm and uncrowded, despite there being a park and campground adjacent. Now if you're a sun loving, awesome tan, surfing person, this north shore location isn't for you. On the north shore it rains. Briefly, but there will be rain, at least in January. And since it faces north you won't get a lot of sun for tanning, which suited us just fine. My family thinks Anini is the best place on the island.
The house is beautiful, literally on the beach. The master suite is great, decide who in your group gets it before going or there'll be arguments, even tho all the other rooms are fine, even the rear room which is fitted for children. With so many full baths there's no waiting. The hot tub and outside shower were great after a swim. The WiFi worked great for the party member who had to keep working.
What we liked best, besides just sitting on the lanai, were hikes to neat places, waterfalls, bathing ponds, etc. Get the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook by Doughty, it has absolutely invaluable directions. Snorkeling on Anini is very safe and easy. You'll need to search around for live coral, but it's out there and there are lots of small pretty fish. A wonderful place for kids and beginners. Chilly in January, so bring or rent a wet suit if you're not from Minnesota.
The Princeville Zip line was great fun, excellent staff. It's just not long enough, you want to do it over and over.
What we missed most was not being able to power hang glide. There's only one company offering this (Birds of Paradise) and of the 5 days we had available, they were booked up one day, canceled for windy conditions one day and were closed the other 3 days. So book early to leave room for rebook dates. Since they're charging about the same as helicopter rides for a vehicle that costs a fraction of a helicopter, I'm sure there will be some competition soon.
We were a large group, 6 adults, so we went to Costco in Lihue and stocked up on essentials and food. Very much cheaper than the Princeville store. There's a nice BBQ pit at the house so be sure to buy charcoal. So we had few meals out, all were OK. The Blue Dolphin in Princeville is good, but the service is so non chalant you'll think you've been forgotten.
We rented 2 cars at Budget in Lihue airport and were amazed at the rudeness and bad attitudes of the staff (very untypical of Hawaii). We needed a third car so got it from Avis at the Princeville airport and couldn't have been happier with the service. So try to rent from the off (Lihue) airport locations when you can.
Shopping: The North shore shops are trendier, higher priced. We liked Outboard for clothing made in the Islands. Kapa'a has a great outdoor local crafts fair, right on the highway, with lots of locally made things, reasonably priced. If you need basics (fishing tackle, cheap shoes, etc.) and low end souvinirs, like for kids, the ABC store in Lihue is great.
Avoid the far north shore beaches, (Ke'e, Tunnels) as they're very crowded, limited parking, and in the winter, unsafe for all but the best swimmers. We were amazed at the crowds on these beaches while our beach was virtually empty. Amazed and very happy.
We'll definitely rent either the main house or the smaller house, depending on the group size, on our next trip."
