My Kauai

I've been meaning to write about my Kauai - the island as I see it and as I like it. There will be a series of posts that is a mini travel guide but unapologetically one skewed to my personal taste. It may or may not align with your taste, so let me describe how I like to experience Kauai.

From the start, what intrigued me about Kauai was that the road does not go all the way around. My first trip was planned spending time near the two ends of the road and for the most part that's where I have stayed since and spent my time. (Last year I did stay in Anahola, but in a remote enough location that it was virtually "end of the road". I wanted to check out other areas just a bit, and this unit was available.)

My other major rule (which dovetails nicely with the end-of-the-road strategy) is to religiously avoid resorts and large hotels and the type of restaurants and stores they engender. This includes places like fancy restaurants, tourist traps of all kinds, "gift" and "souvenir" stores, and so forth.

From what remains, I prefer places that have been around a long time, are frequented by locals, or that embody authentic Hawaiian culture or spirit. Generally such businesses are friendly, have a flavor of Kauai and some history, and relatively few tourists ideally (but some have been popularized, and I guess that's OK). As a rule, there are no dress codes whatsoever That is, any place that would toss you out for not looking presentable enough I'd be happy to skip, generally speaking. (I think shirts and some kind of footwear are good manners inside any kind of place of business, but rarely will anyone say anything. Nonetheless, one should use discretion and not take advantage of the lenience of these establishments.)

Notably, so of these places have what might be called lackadaisical policies about business hours and available items and services, but that goes with the territory. A surprising number of these places have virtually no existence on the Internet, so searching often won't uncover them.

So without further ado, let me being the "My Kauai" series with a few following articles. Generally it should be easy to find these places or businesses by searching the web if the brief notes I provide are insufficient (and when I happen to know there is little web presence I will try to add detail from memory).

I hope this will be useful to any of you visiting or considering visiting Kauai - to the extent my taste coincides with yours. Please feel free to comment on these with feedback, to ask for more detail, etc. to make it useful. Mahalo! (Thank you)