Day 3 - Relaxing on Kauai
By Day 3 we were ready for a little downtime. If you follow my blog regularly you know that we try to cram as much as possible into our days and while I highly recommend seeing everything you can in a location while you are there.....there is also a time to sit back and relax and just enjoy where you are.
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| Relaxing by the Pool at The Grand Hyatt Kauai |
After our morning breakfast at the Ilima Terrace, we quickly headed back to our room to put on our bathing suits and head to the pool to relax. The pool at the Grand Hyatt Kauai is pretty amazing as you can see. There is an adult pool area, a lazy river, water slides, basketball and volleyball that you can enjoy while you are there. There are some cabanas for rent near the beach/pool area or you can just pick a chair and set up camp for the day. We chose just to grab a chair and enjoy the day. Make sure you check in at the desk in the pool area for towels.
We were at the pool area by about 9:30 or 10:00 AM and pretty much had the area to ourselves. It wasn't till almost noon before more of the guests wandered down to the pool. It is an absolutely gorgeous pool and I certainly can't complain about the beautiful sky and palm trees in this area. The only complaints that I did have was 1. The pool was COLD! Now it did get better as you walked around, swam or started to play basketball! The hotel website says that the pools are heated by recaptured heat from the air conditioning unit but to be perfectly honest....it didn't feel heated at all! 2. There is a restroom near the pool restaurant and towel counter. It is convenient but it gets really dirty really quickly as the day goes on. I'm sure it's just difficult to keep up with a bunch of guests using the restrooms with wet bathing suits but it was a little disappointing. 
There is also a beach on the resort premises so if you would rather head to the beach rather than stay in the pool area you are more than welcome to do that. There was a high surf warning all the days that we were there so other than a few people walking on the beach, there was no swimming during this time.
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| View from Hale Nalu |
We were feeling refreshed by our swim and full from our lunch so we headed back to our room to shower and get ready for the rest of our day. When we got back to the room a nice "surprise" awaited us. Sometimes it's just the little things that make a stay special.
We still had several hours before our dinner reservation at Tidepools, the signature restaurant of the Grand Hyatt Kauai so we decided to head back out to the Poipu Shopping Village to walk around a bit and do some window shopping. Then we drove around the Poipu Beach area and took a look at some of the amazing ocean view homes that were "For Sale" because who hasn't been to Hawaii and thought that they would love to live there or at least own a vacation home there! Dreaming is free.....
Tidepools
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| Tidepools at the Grand Hyatt Kauai |
After a very relaxing day, we had reservations for our final dinner on Kauai and we had chosen Tidepools for that dinner. We booked around sunset so we could enjoy the sunset from our table. Unlike other restaurants at resorts I have been to in Hawaii, this particular restaurant was not on the ocean and it really didn't have a great sunset view. It's my fault for not realizing this sooner....see this is where research comes in handy! However, that being said this was a WONDERFUL place to have dinner and a great way to wind up our stay on Kauai. The restaurant itself is a group of connected "pods" that sit above manmade tidepools. The fish swim right next to your table and you truly feel as though you are dining in a special place.
Honestly I felt like I had entered something from "The Bachelor". This was "that" kind of place.
Just as good as the ambiance was the food! While my husband and son enjoyed the steak, I had the chef's special which was a stuffed yellowfish that evening. I have to say it was amazing!
If you are looking for great food, a relaxing, romantic atmosphere with terrific service, Tidepools is the place for you. For those of you who have read my previous blogs you will remember that we ate at Dondero's the first evening and I was a little underwhelmed with the experience. This was NOT the case with Tidepools! I loved everything about this restaurant and would highly recommend it for anyone visiting Kauai and/or The Grand Hyatt Kauai. If you need to choose between Dondero's and Tidepools...go with Tidepools. You won't be disappointed!Day 4 - Changing Islands
If you have been to the Hawaiian Islands before, then you know how different each and every one of the Islands is. Before this trip, I had chosen to stay on one Island for the duration of my vacation for a couple different reasons. 1. I wanted to be sure to see everything on the Island I was visiting. 2. I didn't want to lose any of my days to travel. And 3. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to switch Islands.
Morning on Kauai
We spent our last morning on Kauai enjoying the sunrise from our lanai, taking our time enjoying the surroundings and once again visiting the breakfast buffet at the Ilima Terrace. Before we knew it, it was time to head to the airport in Lihue (about a 30 min drive from the Grand Hyatt Kauai) to catch our flight to the Big Island. One last beautiful sight we saw on our way back to the airport was the "tunnel of trees".
Hawaiian Airlines
Getting from Island to Island is a relatively easy thing to do. It is also a bit time consuming even though the flights themselves are short. We were flying from Lihue, Kauai to Kona, Hawaii. In order to do that we had a connection to make in Honolulu, Oahu. Now the good thing is that there are many many many daily flights between the islands so you can certainly find one to fit into your schedule. It does not appear that there are very many (if any at all) direct flights. This means a little more time to Island hop.
When you factor in getting to the airport early to return your rental vehicle and to get through security, (Your bags do not have to go through the agricultural check since you are flying between islands.) boarding your flight, landing in Honolulu, disembarking, waiting for your connecting flight, boarding that flight, flying time, disembarking the flight, picking up your luggage from baggage claim and securing your rental vehicle, you are looking at a minimum of several hours to make the switch. This does not include the drive time to your new resort hotel and the time to check in. In our case, the whole process took about 5-6 hours and cost us about $200.00 each with baggage.
The flights themselves were very nice....short flight times, on schedule departures and landings and great views of the whales from the windows of the plane as you flew over the ocean!
So....getting between Islands is not a difficult thing to do and is relatively inexpensive (although it does add some cost to your vacation budget) but does take quite a bit of time to accomplish. Just make sure to take all of this into consideration when you decide if Island hopping is for you or not.
In our case we decided that we would give it a try this time because we were visiting Kauai which is a smaller island and the Big Island which we had visited just last year so we knew we could get back to the things that we wanted to do there. Personally if this was my first time visiting the Islands I would recommend staying on one Island and seeing all there is to see. To me losing the travel time would just not be worth it. However, I can certainly see why people decide to do it. I have been lucky enough to be able to go back several times to multiple islands. If this is your trip of a lifetime, you certainly may want to sample more than one island.
The Big Island
Landing in Kona is totally different than landing in Lihue. In Lihue, even though it is a smaller Island, you have jetways and gates with seating areas inside the airport. In Kona, the whole airport is outside....seating areas, baggage claim, you walk off the steps of the plane and across the tarmac. You definitely feel as though you have arrived on a tropical Island!
The first thing you notice is that the weather is quite a bit warmer on the Big Island. Kauai is the furthest north of the Hawaiian Islands while the Big Island is the furthest South. You also notice that all the green that you have seen on Kauai has been replaced with the black of lava flows.
The contrast of the black lava, the turquoise waters, the green of the palm trees and the blue of the sky is what makes the Big Island one of my favorite Islands. My husband and I had stayed here last February also and were looking forward to a return visit with our son.
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| Our Deluxe Oceanfront Room at the Hilton Waikoloa Village |
Our first stop was at the Hilton Waikoloa Village to check in for our stay. After check in and our trip to the room via tram, we had just enough time to unwind a bit and change for our dinner reservation once our luggage arrived at our room.
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
We had booked a reservation at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Mauna Lani on the Kohala Coast. It was about a 15 min drive to the restaurant from the Hilton Waikoloa Village. If you are trying to get from your room at the resort to the restaurant give yourself at least an hour to get there. Between walk times, waiting for the valet and drive time, it will take most if not all of that time to arrive at the restaurant.
If you have read any of my other blogs, you know that Ruth's Chris anywhere is one of our favorite restaurants! This particular restaurant is located in a small, upscale plaza with several shopping and dining options. One of my favorite things about this particular location is the beautiful outdoor seating. This night did not disappoint as we enjoyed a beautiful Big Island sunset while enjoying our wonderful meals!
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| Sunset at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - Big Island |
Waking up on Kauai for sunrise and being on the Big Island for Sunset is a really not a bad thing!
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