Sights Overview

For adventure seekers, Kauai offers everything from difficult hikes to helicopter tours. The island has top-notch spas, golf courses, and its beaches are known to be some of the most beautiful in the world. Even after you've spent days lazing around drinking mai tais or kayaking your way down a river, there's still plenty to do, as well as see: plantation villages, a historic lighthouse, wildlife refuges, a fern grotto, a colorful canyon, and deep rivers are all easily explored.

The East Side

The East Side is Kauai's commercial and residential hub and encompasses the towns of Lihue, Wailua, and Kapaa. Continuing straight from the airport, the road leads to the middle of Lihue, the county seat. To the left and right are fast-food restaurants, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Borders Books and Music -- most recently a Home Depot, Costco, and Starbucks, too -- and a variety of county and state buildings. The avid golfer will like the three golf courses in Lihue -- all within a mile or so of each other.

Turn to the right out of the airport for the road to Wailua. Wailua is comprised of a few restaurants and shops, a few mid-range resorts along the coastline and a housing community mauka. It quickly blends into Kapaa, the island's largest town; there's no real demarcation. Kapaa houses the two biggest grocery stores on the island, side by side: Foodland and Safeway. It also offers plenty of dining options, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and gift shopping.

The North Shore & Na Pali Coast

The North Shore of Kauai includes the environs of Kilauea, Princeville, Hanalei, and Haena. Traveling north on Route 56 from the airport, the coastal highway crosses the Wailua River and the busy towns of Wailua and Kapaa before emerging into a decidedly rural and scenic landscape, with expansive views of the island's rugged interior mountains. As the two-lane highway turns west and narrows, it winds through spectacular scenery and passes the posh resort community of Princeville before dropping down into Hanalei Valley. Here it narrows further and becomes a federally recognized scenic roadway, replete with one-lane bridges, hairpin turns, and heart-stopping coastal vistas. The road ends at Kee, where the ethereal rain forests and fluted sea cliffs of Na Pali Coast Wilderness State Park begin.

The South Shore & Poipu

As you follow the main road south from Lihue, the landscape becomes lush and densely vegetated before giving way to drier conditions that characterize Poipu, the South Side's major resort area. Poipu owes much of its popularity to a steady supply of sunshine and a string of sandy beaches, although the beaches are smaller and more covelike compared to West Side beaches. With its extensive selection of accommodations, services, and activities, it attracts more visitors than any other region on Kauai. It's also attracting developers with big plans for the onetime sugar fields that are nestled in this region and enveloped by mountains. There are few roads in and out, and local residents are concerned about increased traffic.

The West Side

Exploring the West Side is akin to visiting an entirely different world. The landscape is dramatic and colorful: a patchwork of green, blue, black, and orange. The weather is hot and dry, the beaches are long, the sand is dark. Niihau, a private island where only Hawaiians may live, can be glimpsed offshore. This is rural Kauai, where sugar is making its last stand and taro is still cultivated in the fertile river valleys. The lifestyle is slow, easy, and traditional, with many folks fishing and hunting to supplement their diets. Here and there modern industry has intruded into this pastoral scene: huge generators turn oil into electricity at Port Allen; scientists cultivate experimental crops of genetically engineered plants in Kekaha; the Navy launches rockets at Mana to test the "Star Wars" missile defense system; and NASA mans a tracking station in the wilds of Kokee. It's a region of contrasts that simply shouldn't be missed.