Take a helicopter tour (2 hr. for check-in, flight, to/from), and then a snorkeling boat tour (4 hr). Pick a small restaurant, have a MaiTai. Taxi back to ship.
Such activities would have some appeal to me, but I doubt that most of my party would warm to them at all. Anyway - we've rented a car - will head out to Poipu Beach, plus Waimea - and then up the canyon road to the three lookouts.
A Mai Tai on return to Lihue however is not out of the question!
Yeah, I think “clockwise” is your best option. The drive won’t take up all your time, so you can do it in a leisurely fashion. I read somewhere that the weather is more likely to be clear in the morning than the afternoon. Of the three times I’ve been to the lookouts, 2 were drizzly and 1 was foggy with bits of blue sky at times-all in the afternoon.
So, based on that unsupported bit of info, you might think about heading straight to the canyon after you pick up your car. Here’s a suggested route back to Poipu. Turn off the main highway (50) onto Koloa Rd (530)in Lawai, then turn right on Hailima Rd, then left on Aka Rd. Aka Rd will take you to the coast and Spouting HornPark. Allerton Gardens is also right there. Follow Lawai Rd onward to Poipu. Koloa is a nice little town with a number of restaurants if you’re hungry and don’t find what you want in Poipu.
Thanks zoobrux ... and yes ... we lived in the tropics for eleven years, and the clouds and rain were much more likely in the afternoon, so we'll go to the canyons first. And thanks for the routing ... I checked my little TomTom GPS, and Kauai is covered.
In relation to Oahu - where we have been previously, and visited the Pearl Harbor memorial, and bussed around to the North Shore - we were just going to take the local bus out to Waikiki. Is there any better simple idea? Or is there a major botanic garden in or near Honolulu that people would recommend?
I’m a little embarassed to say that I’ve only been to Honolulu once-back in 1982 when you had to go through HNL. After that, it became easy just to fly non-stop to the Outer Islands from the West Coast. I remember the Honolulu bus system was good, and the Bishop Museum was excellent. Hopefully someone else can help you. If you are coming into Cruise Pier 2, you’ll be very close to Ala Moana Blvd. It might not cost too much to take Lyft or Uber if the bus doesn’t work for you.
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