Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've spent a total of 6 weeks on Kauai and while I've checked out 4 different guidebooks on Kauaii I have used this book exclusively while on island. The authors do a great job of making it quick and easy for you to experience the best beaches, hikes, and other activities -- just turn to the section you're interested in ("Beaches" for example) and look for the big fat diamond symbol indicating a "gem" of an item (I wish all guidebooks did this as concisely and well as these folks do). The pictures are great and really help decision-making. Only rarely have I disagreed with their advice. Some readers have complained about restaraunt and helicopter tour recommendations -- but that's such a small part of what the island has to offer, and frankly I don't recall be led astray by the book in these activities. If you're mainly concerned about restaraunts and helicopters, simply stay at the Hyatt Regency and have their concierge set up a helicopter ride for you (the Hyatt can't be beat for all-around luxury, good restaraunts, and quality service). But if you want to explore, and get the most from, the glorious natural beauty of this island, this is, as others have said, the only book you'll need. I only wish they had one for Maui -- but I'm stoked they have one for the Big Island and am ordering it today.

This is an outstanding guide book full of beautiful pictures and right on information. I picked up this book before my second trip to Kauai. We had visited the island the year before for our honeymoon. I really wish we had bought this book a year earlier!

There were so many things on Kauai that we didn't even think of to do or see the first time and we bumbled around from place to place, seeing little of the island. The second trip, we used this guidebook and checked out some outstanding restaurants and beaches. Without the book, we never would have gone to JoJo's Clubhouse for shave ice or found parking for Ke'e Beach.

Something we found helpful was the aerial photos of the resorts section where we got to see just how far the ocean is from where you are planning to stay. We were at the Hyatt for both trips and would readily make reservations there again in a heartbeat!

This is an amazing resource for the island. I wish the authors would write books for Maui and Oahu!

In reading through the customer reviews on here, I notice that the handful of people who gave this book 1 star complain about the restaurant reviews, or they say the people of Kauai aren't really as friendly as this book claims. I'd suspect these are the people who expect paradise to be without bugs, rain, or or anything else that might "inconvenience" them... the people whom the reviewer from Kapahi complained about (11/12/00). If you act like a snotty haole, people will treat you like one. If you're looking for five-star restaurants, you probably SHOULDN'T go to Kauai. That said, this book is great for those of us who want to be unobtrusive, low-budget travelers and eat plate lunches with the locals. The maps -- which include 3-D relief shading -- are by far the best non-urban maps I've ever seen printed in a travel guide. My only complaint (and the reason I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5) is that the Accommodations section is all about hotels and condos; there are only 5 B&Bs and 2 Vacation Rental Referral Services mentioned, and I didn't find either of those services to be as helpful as I'd hoped. (For better accommodation info, check out alternative-hawaii.com.)

We just returned from Kauai and used this book as our guide. I'd strongly suggest purchasing this book if only for the maps, which are completely thorough and seemed very accurate! We followed their driving guide around the island and thought it to be an excellent way to "self narrate" our drive. The authors' frank reviews of the island's activities/companies were helpful in weeding out the bad ones, if not always in selecting the BEST one.

You'll read a lot about the good in other customer reviews -- I'd agree with much of what was written. What this book SUFFERS from is a good editor, both to curtail the authors' long-winded rambling and to make certain each of the sections are consistent in including key details. The restaurant section, for example, seemed sloppily put together, as some of the reviews excluded addresses/locations and other such details. Likewise, the guide to beaches omitted such useful facts as "the drive to Polihale State Park includes over four miles of dirt road" -- something I'm sure they assume you'd notice on their great maps, but all the same, some of their write-ups included such details, some did not.

We did follow their restaurant recommendations (about 10 of them, all told) and would advise you, the traveler, only to avoid BRENNECKE'S, whose "legendary Mai Tais" were the worst we had and the view was better than the food.

OVERALL ADVICE: 1) Purchase this book from Amazon.com, 2) go to your local bookstore and copy down restaurant ideas from Zagat's Hawaii, and 3) browse through the freebie magazines available all over Kauai for supplemental information.

This book is head and shoulders above the others as far as information, layout, and knowledge. I cannot recommend this book enough. We had previously purchased Kauai Underground, and ordered Ultimate Kauai Guidebook just before we went over. The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook led us to all of the best beaches, and was right on in their descriptions. If you want to explore this island, you absolutely need this book. They also have a website which provides updates for the book, which was also a big help. If it is your goal to find the best secluded beaches, the most enjoyable hikes, and the best snorkeling around, you need to buy this book. There is no sugarcoating in this book, and their assessments were right on, in our opinion, and this is the second time we went over to Kauai. This book made it much more enjoyable, and is a bargain at twice the price.

My wife and I just returned from Kauai on 5/30/01 and had a great time, much of that due to this book. The detailed directions to the hiking trails were amazing! Without these directions some of the hidden trails ("The Jungle Trail") we hiked would have been lost. The detail continued to all other aspects of the book helping us feel like seasoned veterans of the island rather than bumbling tourists. The reason for 4 stars VS 5 is due to some of the inaccurate restaurant ratings. I agree with another reviewer when they stated this probably couldn't be helped due to the constant changing of management. But in all fairness to the restaurants that have changed their ways for the better I would like to mention to the new readers to assess the establishment before shrugging it off. We found one in particular our last day in haste that the book frowned upon that was quite excellent. Overall....GREAT BOOK!

Fairly good book. My 2 main complaints are the organization and the restaurant reviews. It's an enormous pain to have to flip through the whole book to find info on a specific area of the island. For example, restaurants, beaches, places to stay on the North shore are at the end of the book in separate sections instead of being with the rest of the info about the North shore. My other major complaint, is that the restaurant reviews are TERRIBLE!!! I realize that this is a subjective area, as I know the authors do, but they really shouldn't put an "Ono" by anything, and just leave the descriptions for people to read and decide where to go. We tried many of the restaurants with an "Ono" by them, and the only restaurants we could agree with the authors on was Cafe Coco and Hanapepe Cafe. The others were a waste of time and money...much better to stay at a place with a kitchen and cook most of your meals. Can hardly call Mema Thai food (it was the worst "thai" food we ate there), and someone who would call Zelo's chocolate suicide cake (or any of their food) delicious, clearly has never had a really good chocolate cake. How they could call some of these places "Ono", and then a place like Postcards overrated is beyond me...it was the 3rd best place we ate at, same total price for the two of us to eat as some of their "Onos" that were down right awful. Also, if you're into hiking, you'll definitely need another book that specializes in that.

If you are going to Kauai, this is the only guidebook you need. The authors are incredibly honest about their experiences and quite thorough in their description of restaurants, hotels, activities, etc. A MUST if you plan on doing any exploring, beach-hopping, swimming, diving, snorkeling or sight-seeing while on the island.

Kauai is such a wonderful destiniation. I had a great vacation, but I was disappointed in this book as it failed to lead me to the best restaurants on the island. When I visit a new location, in this case Kauai, I like to experience the great cuisine that such new location has to offer. This book failed to lead me in the right direction as far as restaurants were concerned. The only way that I was able to find my favorite dining destinations was through the recommendations of the consierge of the Princeville Hotel. The consierge also let me borrow a copy of his Kauai Underground Guide - which he says is the most accurate book on the island and which he loans to guests who ask for advice on restaurants, beaches and adventures. He was right on.

This book is excellent, but if you visit Kauai you will find that every tourist on the island owns this book.

So, a lot of times you will read about a great destination in the book, and it will promise you that you will likely be almost the only one visiting the destination at a given time. Then, when you reach the destination, you'll find many other tourists with their copy of the guidebook in hand who were hoping to be the only one to visit this great kept secret spot.