Hawaii Movie Tours – Kauai

As you stroll along the glistening sands of Kauai’s expansive beaches, the views of distant mountains, the swaying palms and the rolling waves appear picture perfect. It’s almost too beautiful to be true.  Can this idyllic tropical island paradise actually exist in real life? Believe it or not, Kauai is for real and its mountains and beaches share some of the world’s most incredible natural beauty.

The grandeur of the Garden Island is so stunning, at times you may feel like you’re on a movie set. And maybe you are. Kauai’s sweeping landscapes have long been used by Hollywood as a backdrop for dozens of films and television shows. Whether or not you’ve actually set foot on the small island of Kauai, you’ve probably seen glimpses of its thick jungles and pristine coastlines revealed in a myriad of media. Featured in advertisements, films and tv shows, Kauai has been an ideal choice for conveying the image of perfect earthly beauty.

Go back to the early filmmaking days of “King Kong” and you’ll see Kauai’s terrain in grainy black and white. Fast forward to the 1970’s with the television sitcom that followed the group of castaways from “Gilligan’s Island”. Their three hour tour that went awry found them marooned on a remote Pacific island where they spent many a day sending smoke signals from what were actually Kauai’s shores.

With landscapes that could inspire anyone to break into song, Kauai has hosted famous musicals on its shorelines, as well. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” made the island’s mountain in Haena (actually called Makana) a movie legend as ‘Bali Hai’. Even the King himself, Elvis Presley, crooned on Wailua’s shores in “Blue Hawaii”.

In more modern days, the Garden Island has served as the backdrop for infamous big screen blockbusters like “Raiders of the Lost Arc”, “Six Days, Seven Nights”, “Jurassic Park”, and “Outbreak” to name but a few.

With so many cameo appearances, an entire Kauai tour company has dedicated themselves to guiding movie buffs through the famous locations that have been shown on the silver screen. Hawaii Movie Tours lets you “see Kauai through Hollywood’s eyes” with a variety of tours to choose from. In addition to their land tour, they also offer a 4-wheel drive tour to some of those hard-to-get to film locales and another tour that even includes a helicopter ride.

For vacationers that come and stay in Kauai vacation rentals, a movie tour is an ideal way to get orientated to some of the most beautiful places on the island. It’s a fun alternative for exploring Kauai’s beauty while learning movie history and hearing the inside stories about the films and television shows that helped put these gorgeous places on the map.

Even if you don’t take an official tour you can still see some of these famous spots. Follow the road North to end at Kee Beach for sunset.  Peak over the edge of Opaekaa Falls in sacred Wailua. You’ll be standing in spaces made legendary by both the movie screen and also by a rich history of Hawaiian lore that spans the centuries long before movies were ever made.