Kauai is our favorite island by far – we’ve had the pleasure of visiting it a few times now and fall in love with it every single visit. It’s more rugged and less built up than the other islands and has so much raw beauty. There are less crowds and very little traffic, and the beaches and nature are absolutely incredible.
If you’re curious about visiting Maui with Kids, checkout this post!
Where to stay in Kauai with Kids
We usually like to split our time between the North and South, though we’ve also stayed in the East for a few nights before and loved that option as well. You really can’t go wrong with Kauai.
North Kauai – Princeville area
We usually stay in one of the condos in the Princeville area. We’ve rented the Bali Hai Villas multiple times, both when traveling with our kids and when we traveled with my parents as well. The rooms are spacious and the resort itself has a really nice pool.
We haven’t stayed here but I’ve been eyeing Hanalei Bay Resort for quite some time. It’s probably in the most picturesque location you could find in Kauai, but a bit out of price range for us.
Anything in Princeville is not going to have direct beach access but since you’ll have a car anyway, it’s a quick 10 minute scenic drive down to Hanalei Bay.
South Kauai – Poipu area
We’ve stayed at the Kihuana Plantation a couple times and loved the location and the price point. I find the hotels in the South are generally more expensive than in the North.
We haven’t stayed here but the Grand Hyatt is quite nice and on the more luxury side.
East Kauai – Lihue area
We’ve stayed at the Sheraton in Kauai before and really loved it. It’s close to the airport, and makes for a good midway point between the North and South ends of the island to base yourself. There’s a really nice beach with lots of space to hang out. We also attended their Luau – our very first one, and it’s right onsite for convenience. The food was great and the girls really enjoyed the fire show.
Hanalei Bay
This has got to be the most scenic beach in Hawaii. The sunsets here are absolutely magical.
There’s a really cute pier you can hang out in, swim at the beach, have tacos from the food truck or go down to the main street for some food.
Hanalei Bay 
Sunsets at Hanalei Bay 
Sunset photos at the beach
Make sure to get some sunset photos at the beach here. You can either hire a local photographer or just grab your own camera and shoot!
I rarely hire photographers for family photos since I usually just set up a tripod, but I really wanted some more intimate photos of my and the kids for once and hired Hanalei Family Photo. I really loved his style and how he captured our family.
Surfing in Hanalei Bay Pier
Hanalai Bay is also the perfect beach for surfing. You can either hire an instructor through Surf Hanalei or just rent a board and spend the day catching waves. The beach is super shallow and the waves are very gentle – this is where our kids learned to surf and got fairly good! We’ve tried surfing with our kids at many beaches but keep coming back to this one for just how perfect it is.
Poipu beaches
Poipu is famous for it’s turtles that come to sleep on shore every evening! It’s become quite an attraction at Poipu beach as tens or sometimes hundreds of turtles wash ashore around sunset time. There’s a small area blocked off for them just before sunset so that their path is not obstructed by beachgoers and onlookers.
Poipu is usually labeled as “Sunny Poipu” because while most of Kauai might be getting rain, Poipu is typically sunny year round. The sunsets here are really beautiful and the beaches are perfect for spending the day.
Snorkeling in Poipu
Poipu is also a perfect beach for snorkeling as there’s lots of fish and turtles, and the water is fairly calm! There’s some coral reefs along the shore which make for the perfect place to learn to snorkel.
Waimea Canyon State Park
This is a good day trip from wherever you’re staying in Kauai, but definitely much more accessible from Poipu. There are a few good hikes and lookouts inside the park.
We’ve done the Waimea Canyon Trail and it had really nice views of the canyon! It’s a short and fairly easy trail which ends at a small waterfall. It does get quite muddy so you have to embrace that part and just accept that you’ll have very muddy shoes. I always come prepared with my Keens to hike the Hawaii trails!
Koke’e State Park
This park is just past Waimea State Park, along the same road. It’s possible to combine the two parks into an extra long day trip, but you might want to do this as a separate trip instead as there’s lots to see and plenty of trails. If you do combine this into a day trip, I would pick only one hike and do just lookouts you can pull up to for the rest of the day.
The famous Kalalau Lookout is actually accessible from this park, despite Kalalau Trail being accessible from the North end of the island, about 4 hours away. If you’re not planning on doing any hikes in Koke’e, make sure to at least drive up to this point for the view at sunset! It’s often covered in clouds so you’ll have to watch the weather and get lucky to see a good view.
Wailua River Kayak
This was a super fun day tour! I did this one with my parents and 8 year old daughter, though it’s totally doable with smaller kids as well. We saw plenty of babies and toddlers in carriers, just depends on how comfortable you are bringing an infant on a kayak. Most kayak rental places will have infant life jackets for you so in that sense there’s no issue.
The tour involves renting a kayak from the head of Wailua river, kayaking about a mile down to the trailhead and then hiking less than a mile to a beautiful waterfall. There are some river crossings on the trail, so it’s a very fun jungle adventure.
When we did this tour, we just rented the kayaks and went on our own without a guide. There are options to do this as a tour with a guide, but we love going at our own pace and without other people.
We booked through Wailua Kayak Adventures and they were super accommodating when we had to change some plans due to one kid getting sick and deciding to stay home with dad.
Napali Coast Tour
The Napali Coast is the jewel of Kauai and is quite hard to reach! The only way you can see these cliffs is by boat, by a very long and strenuous hike (Kalalau Trail) or by Helicopter! I’ve personally done the heli tour here. It’s absolutely stunning but also quite terrifying. There was also a very recent heli crash here so I would not recommend doing these tours honestly.
The boat tour is also quite strenuous in the sense that the swells can get fairly rough. We did a Napali Coast snorkel tour here with the kids in February and both Danny and I were at the back of the boat the entire time throwing up. Thankfully the kids were mostly ok but they were both asleep from not feeling so great.
If you do decide to do a boat tour, aim for the summer months when the swells aren’t as high and the ocean is calmer. The view is absolutely worth the effort, but keep these warnings in mind when you’re booking your tours!
What to Pack for Kauai with Kids
We have our go-to packing list here which has the few things we bring on almost every adventure. We try to bring as little as possible – yes even with 5 people now – because we try to avoid checking bags at all costs.
Aside from the usual things, we also brought kids snorkel gear since we were planning on doing lots of snorkeling here!