Kauai in July - SCUBA spots / recommendations?

[PSam]

Headed to Kauai in July (!) for honeymoon.

Will of course get the new wife out for her first easy dive, but I'm thinking the 5am dives, deep wall, or night dives won't be down her alley... so I may have to arrange a couple for myself.

I've been to the big island and Maui, but never to Kauai.

Any recommendations on outfits, spots, anything?

Thanks!

 

[tony13]

I did my boat dives with Bubbles Below. There's a real nice beach dive at a spot called the Tunnels on the north side, good dive for the bride.

 

[PSam]

Cool, thanks. I've been reading on the tunnels. What boat dives did you do? depth? reefs / wrecks / walls?

 

[tony13]

Mostly reefs on the south side, it was awhile ago so I don't remember depths but they're within recreational diving limits. If you get a chance they have a 3 tank dive to the outer island of Ni'ihau. It's 30 miles out and about a 2 hour ride but the diving is not to be missed, I got to dive with Monk seals when I was there, it's a bit more for advanced divers (open water pickups, no anchoring up, back roll and swim for the bottom, chance of good currents) but something you should do at least once in your lifetime.
http://www.bubblesbelowkauai.com/niihau.html

 

[JokerGirl]

I went with Seasport Divers two years ago in February. They have two locations on the island. One in the town outside of Princeville on the north side of the island, and one in the south.

We went to Sheraton Caverns and Koloa Landing. Both were absolutely stunning. They are both on the south side of the island. The tides were too strong in February to go diving at the Tunnels, which was located right off the Princeville Resort beach, where we stayed. I've got photos, but still have yet to scan them into my computer. Sheraton Caverns was about 90ft deep, and is a sheer wall. There was tons of life there ranging from turtles, to sharks, to eels. Koloa Landing is actually a bunch of old lava tubes that you can swim through. It was about 65-70ft deep. Again, plenty of turtles and what not. Even had the pleasure of having a Hawaiian Octopus on my arm. Never realized how strong they were until then. The water there is beautiful. Even at 90ft, it was still bright as day down there, could see for miles around you.

They offer quite a number of different dives, and were extremely friendly. You should check them out as well.

http://www.seasportdivers.com/index.php

If you go to their website, they've got some information and a map of diving spots.

 

[PSam]

Fantastic - thanks for all the info!

I love the octopii. Did quite a few beach dives off Maui several years ago - tons of turtles and octos!

 

[CleveYank]

I was just there this past Feb.

JokerGirl is correct on all counts.

While I was there I got certified all the way from Open Water through Advanced O Water and SeaSport was top notch. Really nice folks. The caverns was an incredible dive. But with only 14 dives to my name and all in the waters of Kauai I may not be the best measure.

Oh yeah, the blue dolphin boat snorkel/dive. The boat ride was good. The dive part seemed a bit rushed and the dive time so short that it really was geared more for the snorkel folks.

While you are there, look up two fine places to eat, one called "Roys". And the other a place at the Princeville Hotel as well. Forgot the name of the 2nd one. Just have an extra $120 and $140 to spare respectively for dinner for two.

Enjoy.

 

[JokerGirl]

Oh man... if you are staying in Princeville, you HAVE to try their continental breakfast. $30 a person, but they have every single food you can think of, its all you can eat, and most of it is made to order.

One other thing that I am going to consider a must from now on is to go on this tubing trip. It's offered by Kauai Backcountry (http://www.kauaibackcountry.com). Basically they take you up to the wettest spot on earth, give you an inner tube, a mining helmet with a lamp attached, and you float through these hand dug sugar cane irrigation ditches from the 1800s. It's a ton of fun. Half of it is in the dark and is pretty fast moving, while the other half is in the open and slow. It takes you all through the Hawaiian jungle. Lots of fun for the price.

Here's some photos for you. They aren't the best as I was using a cheapy disposable. There was actually a tropical storm while I was diving, so the current was pretty strong and kicked up a bunch of silt making it hard to get any good shots. It'll give you a good idea though.

Turtle on the left hand side of the photo

This is the reef where the Tunnels are located. It's right off the Princeville Resort.

Oh and my boyfriend took this shot when I was diving. This is the tropical storm that hit while I was under the water. 70mph hour winds... all you could hear under the water was the rain and whales. So serene!

 

[PSam]

We just booked at the Hyatt last night! They do include breakfast though, free! That was a bonus for us, as we probably will just get that and skip lunch most days. That tubing sounds great! Man, 3 months away... counting down...

That's for all the great info + pics (jokergirl)!!!

Keep those ideas (+ photos!) coming! Thanks all!

 

[PSam]

bounce to the top :bounce3:

 

[JokerGirl]

I'm trying to think if there's anything I missed telling you about in terms of things to do while on Kauai. As far as diving goes, I think you're pretty well covered on the different places you can go.

We also took this rather romantic small boating trip up the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto, which was absolutely breath taking. The boat trip was also accompanied by a Hawaiian Ukelele band with singers etc.. and they'll take requests on songs as well. I think the company we went through was Smith's Fern Grotto Wailua River Cruise.

If she's looking to do some shopping, I wouldn't suggest spending it in Poipu. You can find all the same stuff in this hippy town on the east coast called Kapaa for about half the price. My BF bought a mask in Kapaa for $30, then we headed to Poipu. The same mask was in a shop there for $70.

Of course there's always the trips to the Kona Coffee farms and what not.

I still highly suggest you try the tubing adventure. It's a little rough and tumble, but you get to see the really deep hawaiian back country as they truck you into the sugar cane plantations owned by the ex-president of AOL. I guess he owns something like 75% of the island and is keeping it as a sanctuary. He rents out his acreage to the hawaiian people though so they can do whatever farming etc.. they need.

 

[PSam]

Thanks one more time, jokergirl! This week, a girl that my fiancee works with just recommended the same tubing / zip line company you did, with rave reviews. So, that's definitely on our list! The boat trip sounds nice too. Was it just a small group on the boat?

 

[JokerGirl]

Yeah, there was only two other couples on the boat when we went. I think they purposely take people in smaller groups so that it's not as clausterphobic.

 

[PSam]

25 days and counting... ....!

Thanks to jokergirl thus far! Anyone else have suggestions? Not only diving - restaurants, hikes, likes / dislikes?

25... 24... 23... 22....

 

[PSam]

To Jokergirl & tony13 - thanks for all the great advice! We had a kick a s s trip! Diving was great, snorkeling in Poipu and on Ke'e was great, Tunnels diving outstanding, Ni'ihau was amazing... could go on and on... but I'll just wait to see if any of the underwater pics came out well...

CleveYank - yep, Roy's on Poipu was delicious. Good suggestion!

 

[JokerGirl]

Awesome! I'm glad you had a great time!! I was wondering when you were going to post something about your trip

 

[tony13]

Glad you had a good time. Ni'ihau is definetely a must do, did you see any Monk Seals? When I was there a few years back there were sightings of a Great White in that area, kinda glad/sad we didn't see him.

 

[racrumrine]

Where do you recommend snorkeling? We're planning to be around Princeville.

Regards,

Roy

 

[PSam]

Near Princeville, head up to Ke'e beach - the last beach before the trail at the end of the road. Great to go after the hike to cool off. Don't for get your snorkel gear! Saw tons of turtles just past the reef. Also go to Tunnels, not sure what time of year you'll be going (gets nasty in the fall apparently), but the diving was great there, I imagine the snorkeling is good as well - nice mounds of porites, colonies of monti, pocillopora...

Also, take a drive to the south side - Prince Kuhio and Poipu bay both have nice beaches with decent snorkeling! Have fun!

 

[PSam]

Here's pics from Kaua'i ... the ones toward the end are on the north by the Princeville... great hikes!

no underwater pics yet, have to get the film developed still... hopefully the x-ray didn't fry the rolls!!!!!!