Why Hawaii/Kauai

Kauai was NOT the original planned destination for our trip.

Quick background is that since our daughter was born over 4 years ago, we had not been on any trips that involved flight. Before her birth we had been to Aruba, London, Colorado, and St Kitts.. so I was in DEEP debt on the vacation end. The original plan was a nice trip to Reno to see Lake Tahoe and drive down to San Fran to do a driving/sight seeing tour. My wife has always wanted to go to Hawaii since we were married, so the seed was planted long ago.

The Tahoe trip was priced through www.kayak.com for flights. Just for fun, I typed in Kauai to price flight + hotels and was shocked to find the price difference was more, but not THAT much more. Granted, our flight was $800 compared to $300-400 to the west coast, but what got me excited was the room was only $150 a night with tax to stay at the Kauai Beach Resort (more later on this one) . Again, still very expensive, but any flight to the Caribbean was close to $500 and this was a long time owed trip.

The reason for Kauai was simply recommendation. We had a couple who went to Maui and Kauai for their Honeymoon, and their vote was for Kauai all day long. Several others confirmed this thought, so Kauai it was. If you are debating the islands.. here are some thoughts comments I heard:

Oahu/Honolulu - WAY TOO crowded.. military base, etc. Its like New York on an island. Pearl Harbor is highly recommended, but not much after that.

Big Island - I don't know much about it, except its big and the active volcano sounded cool.

Maui - Pretty island, a "well rounded" island, but very commercialized. There is lots to do and see, but can be crowded.

Kauai- the prettiest island, very quiet, more locals, not as developed.

We weren't looking to party, so Kauai we chose. If you want to party and need to visit Outback Steakhouse for dinner, go to Maui.

Purpose of this blog...

I selfish wanted to create a blog to serve as my "diary" of events on Kauai. Upon my return, there have been several questions about what we did, where we stayed, and other planning questions about the trip. In an effort to help others, I chose a blog to babble about everything so I would remember. Hopefully you will find this helpful