Kauai Back Road Adventure VS Self Guided Waimae Canyon

[Cruise Arizona]

We are trying to decide weather or not to do the Kauia Back Roads Adventure or rent a car a do Waimea Canyon, a few other sights to and from Lihue and an then hit the beach with the kids.

 

My husband and I are pretty outgoing and funloving. We like to see new things. Kids are good car travelers, ages 7 & 9 at time of cruise next fall.

 

We live in Arizona, so we've seen the real "Grand Canyon". How will Waimea compare?

 

Anybody done either the packaged tour or self tour to Waimea Canyon?

How about the Kauia Backroads Adventure?

 

What are the highlights and dissapointment?

 

My husband wants to do the back roads, I am leaning toward Waimea Canyon.

 

:)

[suziehmkr]

We also had looked into doing another tour in Kauai.... we wanted to do the Kipu Falls Safari... we have decided against it due to their cancellation policy. Remember when you book independently to be sure what their policy is on refunds if the ship is late or the port is missed. We decided the $$$ involved was not worth risking and will be renting a car to explore the Canyon, Lihue and other fun areas.

[spleen93]

Waimea is pretty in its own way. But it's not the Grand Canyon. If your vacation time on Kauai is limited, you may want to do other things (like the Movie Tour for instance or the Na Pali coastline)

 

Spleen

[Cruise Arizona]

We'll be in port in Kauai from 8-6,on Infinity, not the two day stay that the NCL ships sometimes do. It does make it one of the longer days, but not as much time to do everything that we would like.

 

I'd really like to do the movie tour, but with with 4 of us it is close to $400. The Back Roads adventure is about half that. And of course we could do the self guided thing for less than $100 including a fast food lunch.

 

Shoot, if money were no object I'd do the ultimate movie tour, with the helecopter ride and van tour.

 

Probably, we could just rent a car and drive around aimlessly for about 4 hours and I would be happy. Kauai is soooo beautiful.

 

What do you think would give us the most bang for our buck?

[spleen93]

Ouch ... $400 is a lot. The biggest bang for the buck would be to rent the car and drive up to the Hanalei side of the island (north shore). Go look at the gorgeous Na Pali mountains - you could hang out at the beach there. Maybe do a short hike in the area. Or if you don't like that beach, you can drive south down to Poipu and hang out at that beach (nicer beach).

 

Spleen

[Cruise Arizona]

Na Pali Coast, is that the area featured in "Six Days, Seven Nights". Very beautiful.

[spleen93]

Mmmmm ... don't know, since I never saw the movie. It's the area that was featured in the old movie "South Pacific" as Bali Hai.

 

Spleen