Sightseeing Tours

Sightseeing Tours

Aloha Kauai Tours. You get way off the beaten track on these 4WD van excursions. There's the half-day Backroads Tour covering mostly haul-cane roads behind the locked gates of Grove Farm Plantation. The full-day Aloha Kauai Tour starts with the Backroads tour and then spends the other half of the day covering the public roads along the Waimea Canyon. Another half-day tour, the Rainforest Tour, follows the Wailua River to its source, Mt. Waialeale. The expert guides are some of the best on the island. Rates are $70, $125 and $75, respectively.[. Check in at Kilohana Plantation on Rte. 50 in Puhi, Lihue. 808/245-6400 or 800/452-1113. www.alohakauaitours.com

Hawaii Movie Tours. Hawaii Movie Tours' minibuses with in-van TV monitors let you see the actual scenes of films while visiting the real locations used for the filming of Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, South Pacific, Blue Hawaii, Gilligan's Island, and other Hollywood hits. The standard coastal tour is $111. The four-wheel-drive Off Road Tour is $123 and takes you to film locations on private lands and rugged backcountry areas that are otherwise not easily visited. We recommend this tour primarily for serious movie buffs.[. 4-885 Kuhio Hwy., Kapaa. 808/822-1192 or 800/628-8432. www.hawaiimovietour.com

Kauai Island Tours. A good general tour company, Kauai Island Tours will arrange charter tours around Kauai in anything from a passenger car to a 57-person bus.[. 808/245-4777 or 800/733-4777

Plantation Lifestyles Walking Tour. To see a rapidly vanishing lifestyle that once dominated life in Hawaii, take the fascinating and unique Plantation Lifestyles Walking Tour through the residential area of a real mill camp in Waimea. Reservations are needed for the complimentary two-hour volunteer-led tour that also stops at other historical sites in Waimea and begins at 9:30 every Monday morning at the West Kauai Visitor Center.[. 808/338-1332

Roberts Hawaii Tours. The Round-the-Island Tour, sometimes called the Wailua River-Waimea Canyon Tour, gives a good overview of half the island including Fort Elisabeth, Opaekaa Falls, and Alekoko (Menehune) Fishpond. Guests are transported in air-conditioned, 17-passenger minivans. The $68 trip includes a boat ride up the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto, and a visit to the lookouts above Waimea Canyon.[. 808/245-9101 or 800/831-5541. www.robertshawaii.com

Robinson Family Adventures. Gay and Robinson, the island's last sugar grower, offers tours of its plantation and factory. You can go into the fields to hear about how cane is grown and processed into the white, granular stuff we eat so heartily, and you learn about the history of sugar in Hawaii. One highlight is viewing scenic coastal areas otherwise closed to the public. Tours are offered weekdays at 8:45 and 12:45 for $34.[. 808/335-2824. www.gandrtours-kauai.com