Kauai 2018: Days 1-3

As many of you probably know by know, we just returned from 10 nights in Kauai for our honeymoon! We had a ton of fun and absolutely loved Hawaii (so much can’t wait to go back again someday!) Since there were so many pictures taken I am splitting up our trip into three posts throughout the week. Today’s post will cover the first three days.

DAY ONE

Here we are ready to board the plane! 9 hour flight from Chicago to Honolulu then a short 40 minutes over to Kauai.

Miguel didn’t think the flight there was too bad – getting comfy in first class 🙂

We finally arrived and were absolutely beat after checking into the hotel! We grabbed a bite to eat down at the bar by the pool and then headed upstairs for showers and passed out ready for vacation. (We stayed at the Kauai Marriott Resort in Lihue)

DAY TWO

We were up bright and early – I’m talking like 4AM thanks to the time change! But we were able to unpack, eat some breakfast and then get ready for our first activity, Waimea Canyon.

Waimea Canyon is named the Grand Canyon of the pacific and it is gorgeous! If you travel to Kauai, I definitely recommend this and I also recommend getting there early before the clouds/fog roll in (I’m talking like 7 am). We were actually the first ones there. There are a lot of different look outs to see the canyon from and you even see a huge waterfall!

After the canyon and visiting one of the wettest points on earth we grabbed a fresh smoothie.

We tried to hit the pool once we got back to the hotel but it was pretty rainy. (It actually was unseasonably rainy the whole trip – even major flooding on another part of the island! Even though it rained everyday, we were also able to be outside everyday so we still had a great time.)

We had Dinner at La Speiza which was a great Italian Place. After that we were pooped and went to bed early again.

DAY THREE

Monday brought us to another early morning (we slept in a little more each day) to a drive to the north side of the island to hike the Napali Coast. (We are lucky we did this early, one because it’s better to get there super early before the parking lot fills up but also because by the end of the week the roads to the trail were completely flooded!)

The Napali Coast is a completely uninhabited and undeveloped coastline with gorgeous views that I have never seen anywhere else. The hike we did was two miles in and two miles back (the trail actually goes on for 11 miles but it takes you a couple of DAYS to complete). It was also the hardest hike I have ever done. It is a very slick and rough terrain with mud and rocks and very hilly. We also had the added challenge of water. All that said, we definitely recommend the hike because it is so beautiful and you won’t do anything like it anywhere else!

We stopped at Chicken in a Barrel for lunch which had some great BBQ.

The we were also were blessed with some beautiful weather that afternoon at the resort and got some pool time in the sun! We loved the pool.

For dinner, we went to the Hotel’s “luau”. We ate Hawaiian food at the hotel restaurant and then saw a show with hula dancers and fire dancers. It was a much smaller affair than the luau I had been to on Oahu 7 years ago but we still enjoyed it. We also got called out for being the only honeymooners present!