The flight can be long! Traveling from the east means you'll likely have a layover

Rental car kiosks are right outside of Lihue airport(10 minutes to deplane and get car)

This island has many chickens! Try the lemonade at Art Cafe Hemingway - delicious - great eclectic brunch

The walkway across the street from Art Cafe is really nice, flat and long and you can rent bikes to ride on it

Opaekaa falls has some nice overlooks of the falls and on the other side of the Waimea River

If you're in the Poipu area, you'll likely return to the Kukui'ula Village area many times - lots of good restaurants and dessert places

Gillin's/Mahaulepu beach gate is closed due to filming of new THE ROCK movie until sometime in 2019(should be open as of November 2019)

Captain Andy's Catamaran Dinner Tour(8.5/10)

Makauwahi cave is only open on weekends and requires you to crawl on your knees through a tiny entrance

Anake's Juice Bar has great reviews everywhere but I guess I'm just not an acai bowl person

Captain Andy's catamaran tour was great. We booked a Na Pali Coast tour but the weather was bad so we headed south.

They said we could get a refund, reschedule or just go south with them. We went south and it was worth it.

We had a group of spinner dolphins swim alongside our boat for 20 minutes, a once in a lifetime experience. Dinner was ok.

The way back is on sails so seasickness abounds(I know from personal experience)

Kipu allows you to change drivers at each stop and the trip takes about 3 hours. Main complaint is too many stops and slow pace.

Da Crack is a huge hit with locals as there's always a line. Portions are huge and it's a good KETO spot. It's a decent mexican spot.

Poipu Beach park has good beginner snorkeling and you'll see turtles and seals sunning themselves.

Spouting Horn is one of those stop it and check it out type of things. The spout is bigger when the waves are higher.

Lappert's ice cream is DELICIOUS and at Kukui’ula Village Shopping Center. We stopped here a few times during our stay.

I'm afraid of heights and my sweaty hands were clutching the seat but the views are unbelievable.MUST DO if you're on the island.

Beach house has a great view but the lunch was mediocre for the price - maybe dinner is better

Waikomo Shave Ice near Da Crack is a small food truck that has the best shave ice I tried on any island

Farmer's markets pop up daily on Kauai. Try the various tropical fruits as they actually have taste here. Starfruit and dragonfruit were my favorite.

JO2 restaurant is a good asian fusion restaurant in a strip mall in Kap'aa. Expensive but highly recommended.

Waimea Canyon is beautiful and filled with plenty of hikes - plan to spend a whole day here, maybe two if you love hiking as we barely scratched the surface.

It takes about an hour to get to the overlook from Poipu, the roads from the foot are slow and winding.

Definitely go all the way to the top and do the first part of the Pihea Vista trail, the views are incredible.

Prepared to be tired after a trip here and bring a jacket since temperatures do drop a bit.

Porky's is a solid sausage dog place and is conveniently located right when you come down the canyon for good post hike eating.

The Maha'ulepu beach ride at CJM stables was a letdown as you barely saw the beach.

Not many great views and the ones you see, we already saw during our day 3 hike. I'd recommend skipping it.

Costco for Gas(2.99 versus 3.99+ elsewhere)

Kauai Ono was a fantastic dinner experience. It's a 5 course menu served under an outdoor tent at princeville ranch.

Not for the picky eater as there is no choice and it is expensive at $60 per person but totally worth it.

The road to Hanalei and beyond has one lane bridges, custom is to let ~7 cars pass then go

Hanalei is a cute little town with a ton of stores and plenty of restaurants and food trucks

Lunch was just ok, don't recommend. JoJos shave ice wasn't good, flavors tasted fake, pass on this one

Hanalei beach showed the damage from the 2018 storms but still a very nice beach, decent area for surfing

The road past Hanalei is now open but visiting the beach at the end of the road requires a reservation(https://www.gohaena.com/carts)

While closed, it limits what you can do to the north as there's a lot of great hikes/beaches past the blocked areas.

Foodland is the main supermarket on the island and has great poke and tons of SPAM.

Princeville resort isn't as fancy as impressive as the Grand Hyatt down south but just as expensive - has a nice private beach though that you can visit even if not staying.

Hideaways beach which is behind the tennis courts before the resort is better but harder to get to and neither have good parking in the area.

Coconut's Fish Cafe(also locations in Maui) has the best fish tacos - SO GOOD.

Hee Fat General Store has a shave ice place with solid shave ice - get the real fruit flavors!

Smith's family luau was fine. You get to walk around their big garden then eat a buffet style meal. I probably wouldn't do a luau again on any island - just not my type of thing.

The pork was pretty good but everything else was rather bland and didn't taste homemade and it takes to long from arrival to dinner to the show.

There's so many farmer's markets in Kauai daily. At this one we got some Rambutan(tastes like grape)

We also got a sugar loaf frosty. Delicious, check out Banana Joe's if you can't find a frosty at a farmer's market for a similar treat.

The Kauai Escape Room is surprisingly good and we've done a dozen+ in various cities. This one compares well to the big city ones.

Gaylord's at Kilohana has some stores and is on an old plantation. Food was ok but the area is neat and worth checking out.

Kap'aa has some cool chic stores we came back to and a lot of solid food places plus there's always the beach side walking trail.

Wailua Shave Ice is solid and apparently they have a location in San Diego and Portland, OR too.

Inter island travel isn't long BUT it is tiring and does waste a good portion of a day.

However, it's difficult to pack a lot of stuff in on travel day even though it's a short trip between islands so keep that in mind when planning vacations. It is a less than ideal day.

The airports are small and quick so you can arrive 45 minutes before a flight and be fine especially if you have TSA PreCheck.

We stayed in Kihei which is a central location and a solid starting point for any day trips.

The Mill House was good, not great but it's worth it because the location and setting is awesome

Lahaina is a great walking area with plenty of stores but was mostly closed in the early morning.

Whaler's Village shopping center is close to the Kaanapali resorts and will validate parking for 3/4 hrs depending on purchase. We got 3hrs from the escape room or 4hrs from the restaurant.

Otherwise parking is $4/30 minutes so expensive but the beach areas are nice and have a beautiful walking path.

Maui escape room was fun but not as good as the one on Kauai. However, it was 95 and we wanted some air conditioning so we did two of them. The military themed one is better than the tesla one.

Island Cream was some of the best ice cream/gelato I've ever had - well worth going out of your way to the random strip mall location.

The Kaanapali beach walking path is great and long - passes by all of the major hotels in the area. Ululani's shave ice hsa a location here and they're pretty good.

Lahaina front street is a tourist hot spot towards the late afternoon/evening. Parking is expensive but there is a small amount of free parking on the side of the road and on the south part of the street.

Front street has the banyan tree(a cool old big tree) and a ton of cool art galeries with local artists and some neat shops.

Lahaina Grill was fantastic with impecable service but quite expensive($30 apps, $50 entrees) and there's no view which is a shame for the area - definitely a recommendation if you can afford it.

Haleakala is AMAZING - otherwordly place with awesome views and unique landscapes.

We didn't have time to do the Road to Hana(NEXT TIME) as we fly out tomorrow.

South MauI Fish Company has pretty good fish tacos - my favorite are still at Coconut's Fish Cafe which has locations in Maui too.

Having a kitchen at home is a great money saver as we could just eat left overs from Lahaina and Mill House(still delicious).

Ululani's is good, not the best shave ice I had but had to try it since I was on Maui and it was said to be the best.

The Humpback Whale Sanctuary visitor's center is cute but nothing amazing, they were doing some work on it while we were there.

The flight from Maui to the Big Island is short(40 minutes) and the airports are both a breeze so you can arrive 45 minutes before flight.

Snack for airplan at Sugar Beach Bake Shop(7/10)

Drive from Kona to Volcanoes National Park(~2 hrs)

The drive from Kona to Volcanoes National park is about 2hrs each way but it has cool varied landscapes on the way.

Dinner at Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine(4/10)

There's some neat stops along the way. Paradise meadows is a local farm that sells honey, coffee and awesome chocolate nuts.

Punaluu black sand beach is a beautiful beach with black sand(duh) where you can see turtles quite often.

Volcanoes National Park was closed in spots but still awesome. There was no live lava in the park when we went there.

We chose to take a longer route home to see Hilo and the other part of the island. Pineapples Island Fresh Cuisine had good yelp reviews but the food was very disappointing.