Start from 66 curated places around Kauai, HI, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Bar Acuda
Hanalei tapas room with a wood-fired oven, Mediterranean-leaning small plates, and a wine list that's deeper than the town deserves. The north shore's grown-up dinner — date-night anchor for the whole region.
Tahiti Nui
Six-decade family-run Hanalei tiki bar and restaurant with live Hawaiian-and-Tahitian music most nights — strong mai tais, simple island-fare menu, and the local musicians sitting in unannounced. Vibe over food, but the food does its job.
Trails & outdoors
Kalalau Trail to Hanakapiai Beach
Four-mile round-trip from Ke'e Beach along the Na Pali Coast to Hanakapiai Beach — the first two miles of the legendary 11-mile Kalalau Trail. Steep, often muddy, dramatic cliff drops, and one of Hawaii's most photographed paths.
Hanakapiai Falls Trail
Eight-mile round-trip from Ke'e Beach — Kalalau Trail to Hanakapiai Beach, then four more miles inland up the valley to a 300-foot waterfall. Strenuous, multiple river crossings, the bigger commitment after Hanakapiai Beach.
Things to do
Allerton Garden
Eighty-acre terraced botanical garden in the Lawai Valley on the south shore — the Jurassic Park tree, native Hawaiian species, and an irrigation system the Allertons built from a 1930s estate. Guided tours only; book ahead.
McBryde Garden
Sister National Tropical Botanical Garden to Allerton — self-guided 252-acre research garden in the Lawai Valley focused on conserving Hawaii's rarest native plants. Walking trails, palm collection, and a tram from the visitor center down to the valley.
Landmarks & sights
Waimea Canyon State Park
Ten-mile-long, 3,000-foot-deep canyon on the west side — Mark Twain's Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Red lava walls streaked with green vegetation and the trade-wind clouds that wrap and unwrap the canyon hour to hour. Drive the road, hit four lookouts, plan most of a day.
Kalalau Lookout
The 4,000-foot rim view down into Kalalau Valley and the Na Pali Coast — when the clouds clear, one of the most photographed valleys on earth. The lookout is at the end of the Kokee road, the natural last stop of a Waimea Canyon morning.