Driving in Kauai + A Kaua'i Movie Land Tour

I am visiting Kauai in June with my partner.

Staying in Kapaa.

We will be doing the Kaua%26#39;i Movie Land Tour which our travel agent has booked in for us.

She doesn%26#39;t actually know much about it -(where it goes on the map of this island)

So we are hiring a car and want to visit a couple of places but we don%26#39;t want to ';double up';.

We want to visit Wailua Waterfalls, (Might do this quickly as soon as we arrive, on the way to our hotel)

Also want to visit Waimea Canyon and Na-pali coast.

I don%26#39;t know how long the drive is from Kapaa %26amp; if we can squeeze these two into one day.

I%26#39;m wondering if anyone knows what the movie tour covers, so I can cut things out of my personal driving plan.

Also, we only have about 1.5 days to spend driving on our own. I don%26#39;t know how much time we will have to cover these tracks.

Driving in Kauai + A Kaua'i Movie Land Tour

I know the movie tour goes to some remote locations, such as Blue Hole, and its supposed to be a pretty good tour. I%26#39;m not sure where else....

You can definitely see Wailua Falls on the way to the hotel- it is about a 10 min drive from the turn off at the highway and it takes only a few minutes to take it in and get pictures.

Waimea Canyon from Kapaa is probably...an hour and a half? You can continue all the way up the canyon road to the Kalalau Lookout and see Kalalau Valley, part of Na Pali coast. By going there, you will at least get a taste of Na Pali on the limited time that you have. This trip is best to do early in the morning- when I go to Waimea Canyon I plan it out so I do not arrive any later than 9:30 or 10 to prevent the clouds from rolling in, which is common as the day progresses. Therefore, maybe at night you could drive to the North Shore and have dinner there??? Then you can say you have seen all sides of the island....

Driving in Kauai + A Kaua'i Movie Land Tour

You can%26#39;t really see the Na pali by car. There is no road. The most you can do is drive up to Kokee (seeing the Canyon on the way) and hope for a clear day to see down into the valleys below. Or you can hike down and see a bit more.

There are 2 Wailua River area waterfalls. The Wailua Falls are about 10 min up a side road from Lihue. Easy. Should take no more than 45 min as after about 10 min there isn%26#39;t much more to see. The other is Opaekaa falls 1 mile or so up a side road in Kapaa. Even easier. 3 min up. 15 min wander around and off you go.

As for the Kauai movie tour -- Are you doing the 4WD back country version or the regular van? If the latter, I%26#39;d almost recommend you cancel and wander the island on your own pace. It%26#39;s a way over priced and not too interesting tour. See the reviews here under the ';things to do'; tab. Save the money and take a helicopter trip instead. Then you can really see the Na Pali area.

Like your other responders, I would focus first on devoting a morning to seeing Waimea Canyon, and then a helicopter tour of the Napali Coast. I personally greatly enjoyed the Kauai Movie Tour last year whose van tour touches on the East Coast, but concentrates mostly on the scenic North Shore. They take old-timers like me to revisit memories at the once fantastic Coco Palms Resort... BUT you must save time to drive yourselves along the fabulous beaches from the town of Hanalei to the end of the road at Ke%26#39;e Beach. Scenes there will etch themselves into the lovely memories you carry of Kauai for the rest of your lifes.

Would like to add this to my earlier response:

(a) I saw sites on the Kauai Movie Tour that I had not previously seen in 70 trips to Kauai over 26 years. You can never get enough of Kauai !

(b) check out their website for further info re the places visited, combo ticket with helicopter tour :

www.hawaiimovietour.com

Have a lovely introductory visit to the fabulous island of Kauai !

Regarding the question from DAVE820, about which movie tour - we were just going to do the land tour. But having said that, maybe its better to do the 4WD tour?

Or perhaps we should just do our own thing, because we will be driving our own rental car.

Also, as we are only 24, we don%26#39;t appreciate older films as much as others would. My partner is more interested in others that were filmed like King Kong.

I think we will definitely be doing a helicopter ride over the Napali Coast - it looks amazing.

I might just save the money to do this, as otherwise my bill may be a bit too steep for my liking!

I think we will also definitely spare the time to drive to the waterfalls as soon as we arrive at the airport, and also spare a few hours to get to the canyon.

Hopefully, with these done, and a drive to a few beaches, we will cover the island well??

skip the movie tour. If you want, go to Borders Books and buy a book on Kauai movies and go to the sites at your own pace. The movie tour is defn for the sedentary. I%26#39;m glad some people like it, but at $80 a head it%26#39;s a major rip off in my book. Unless you just have to stand in a molding hotel bar (The Coco Palms is still a hurricane Iniki victim after 16 years) and see a clip of Elvis standing in the same spot 50 years ago give it a miss.

a helicopter trip is 10X a better value.

and as for covering the island well. Don%26#39;t sweat it. Better to see things at a decent pace and have time to enjoy it. No point spending your whole time looking out a windshield.

To each his own. But Dave%26#39;s comment visiting Coco Palms is ';standing in a moldy bar'; does the Movie Tour and the still beautiful grounds of Coco Palms an extreme injustice. The suggestion to buying the Kauai Movie book at Borders is fine, but with limited time you will be hard pressed to efficiently get to many sites.

Dick, I gotta tell ya....Dave820 is square on.

The 45 minutes at Coco Palms seemed like a life time. And when the perky guide handed out song sheets and tried to coerce us into singing, ';There is nothing like a dame!';, I was ready to throw myself under the bus.

Some may enjoy the tour. I know you did, and I respect you for it. But for most people, it%26#39;s a ripoff.

Dear Rocky -

I guess my wife and I were lucky ! When the tour arrived at Coco Palms, the guide spent 4-5 minutes explaining its history (torchlighting nightly ceremony; use as movie set for Elvis%26#39; ';Blue Hawaii';, Rita Hayworth%26#39;s wedding scene, TV%26#39;s ';Fantasy Island';, etc.) and then let the bus group wander for a 5 minutes to shoot fantastic pictures on the lagoon %26amp; coconut grove grounds.... No one tried to get a chorus going - they would indeed pay me to keep my mouth closed.... Sorry you had such a bad time there ! Our tour took place last April 2007, hopefully by then they had learned to keep the pace of the overall tour ';up';....