Editor’s Note, June 2, 20201: Lānaʻi Cycles is no longer in operation. Fifteen. That’s the number of times I’ve counted my guide, Marcom Pascua, wave hello to a passing vehicle. He’s the co-founder of Lanai Cycles and we’re biking across the length of this island he calls home. Every car, pickup truck and hotel shuttle that […]
To truly experience how the Garden Isle got its nickname, you must venture into Kauai’s lush, rain-dampened interior. One appealing way of doing this is to hike the Kuilau Trail, which is welcoming and non-treacherous. Offering sweeping, shock green vistas of Mount Waialeale—widely considered one of the wettest spots on earth—and the majestic Makahela Mountains,
Kilauea’s latest lava flow—dubbed 61G, a 5-mile-long flow from Kilauea’s Puu Oo Cone to the southeast on Hawaii Island—has been causing quite a stir. The fiery lava finger points toward the sea within view of two relatively accessible viewing stations in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Kalapana. Hundreds, if not thousands, have flocked to see
It’s 8:30 p.m., and I’m lying in bed under a mosquito net staring outside the large screen windows that cover the four walls of the one-room cabin. I’m in the middle of the Kapoho jungle, deep in Lower Puna on Hawaii Island. I can’t see anything past the dark shadows cast by the forest’s large
The last thing I wanted to do on my second day of vacation to Maui was get up at 4:45 a.m., but that’s what I did. Groggy but excited, my husband and I drove the short distance from our hotel to the Kihei Boat Ramp, and met the shiny, silver B&B Scuba boat already bustling
The wood-burning fireplace in the dingy, barely insulated state cabin at the Lodge at Kokee on Kauai wasn’t enough to keep me warm that first night, so I had donned everything I had in my backpack: a long-sleeved shirt, a thin hoodie, two pairs of socks and a rain jacket. It worked out, since that’s
As the wheels of my car pound the wooden planks of the one-way bridge into Hanalei Valley, all signs of modernity seem to fall away. No crowds, no traffic lights, no foreign noise. Just a carpet of shock-green kalo (taro) and the Hanalei River, wide and placid, gently gliding toward the sea. Traveling down the
My gray T-shirt is saturated in sweat, I’m out of water and breath and I’m nearly ready to give in to that tiny voice in my head screaming, “Enough already!” I catch a faint glimpse of a windmill blade in the distance. It’s just enough motivation to keep going, though my ego is a bit
It was 6:30 a.m. when we started our hike to Hanakapiai Falls, a roughly 300-foot tall waterfall nestled in the back of Hanakapiai Valley on Kauai’s north shore. We were the only ones out hiking. In fact, save for the vocal birds above, we had the entire beach and valley to ourselves. While this hike
ʻMy four-wheel-drive Jeep is rattling hard as I drive the rental on the dry, dusty and very bumpy road that makes up the roughly 5-mile trek to Polihale Beach State Park off Route 50. I’m headed to the end of the road on the westernmost point of Kauai to camp at the foot of where
Walking so far up into the clouds along steep switchbacks and knife-edge ridges that the view below is hard to distinguish between sea and sky. This is the Waihee Ridge Trail on Mauna Kahalawai, also called the West Maui Mountains. The 2.5-mile hike is known as one of the most scenic treks on the island, and
Year-round, even when the winter surf is up, Hanalei River remains gentle and placid for those who want to safely explore Kauai’s waterways. The palm tree-lined river forms on the slopes of Mount Waialeale—one the wettest spots on earth—and edges up against Hanalei town, where there are numerous surf shops with stand-up paddleboards (SUP) available
