This is the best time of day to grab a mai tai and sit on the lanai or hit the beach and watch the show.
Choose the side of the island that fits you best. I stress this point on this website for a very good reason. It's important! Your Hawaii vacation will be so much more enjoyable if you do some planning.
Whichever area you decide to visit, do a little research and you will have a great time!
Poipu is the in the south, sunny area of the island. You will still get rained on here by the daily showers. We spent our week long Kauai vacation at the Marriott on Poipu and it rained every afternoon.
We have a friend that lives up closer to Lihue and he told us that you can almost set your clock by the afternoon rain shower! We were visiting him one afternoon when it started to rain and he says oh, is it 3 o'clock already?
It rarely lasted more than 5 - 10 minutes, but they were sometimes pretty intense showers while they lasted.
It is fun to watch the rain pound down in a sudden gully washer like that, especially when you can capture on film some fool who doesn't have enough sense to come in out of the rain.
When it rains, just head for the nearest tiki hut till it passes!
The Poipu area is somewhat between lush and desert, since it does get rain.Poipu Beach is a fantastic beach if you have keiki (kids) going with you on your Kauai vacations. There is a large area there that is protected from the waves and the water is calm and shallow, giving the keiki a safe place to enjoy the ocean, much like Baby Beach on Maui.
This makes it easy on parents since they can easily set a lounge chair at, or in the edge of the water and be within reach if needed.
Poipu is where we were first introduced to Puka Dogs. We stumbled upon them across the street from our condo when we didn't feel like cooking lunch one day. These are bar none the best hot dogs I have ever had in my life!
They put the dog in a fresh baked bun and you have your choice of yummy things to put in the middle like mango relish and lilikoi mustard, two of my favorite island flavors.
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Princeville
The Princeville area of Kauai is all the way around the island from Poipu. This is where you will find the lush, tropical foliage that is what I always envisioned Hawaii to be. You will see it climbing anything that has been sitting too long in one spot.The resorts of Princeville sit atop bluffs and the view is quite stunning. Beaches are harder to get to than the Poipu area.
Princeville resorts are quite swanky and the prices in the area reflect that, including the cost of food, gas, and shopping.
Not far past the Princeville resort area is the end of the road. You cannot drive all the way around the island of Kauai as you can on the other islands and there is no road that goes from one side to the other through the middle. There is one way to get from Princeville to Poipu and that is the beautiful drive that goes along the coastline.
If you love beautiful drives along the coastline, you should check out the Garden Route Information site.
We found this cave near the end of the road. Nothing in it, but I love caves. Do you see the hanging vines like Tarzan swings through the jungle on?
Be careful, they are not always as sturdy as the ones in the movies, as my bum can attest to.
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Waimea Canyon
The Waimea Canyon area, sometimes called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, offers up some stunning scenery. Deep gorges with sharp cliffs and gorgeous colors. The greens of the foliage is a sharp contrast to the red of the dirt. Plenty of places along here to stop and take in the scenery and have some great photo ops to show all the folks back home.
So no matter which part of the island you decide to stay in, the garden isle is a great place to unwind and let the world go by. There are attractions activities to keep you from becoming too restless and some great hikes to drink in some beautiful scenery.
Learn more about Kauai vacations by following the links on this page or the ones below.
Return from Kauai Vacations to Hawaii Vacation Guide
Go From Kauai Vacations to Map of Kauai Hawaii to see the different areas of the island
Enjoy the beautiful Kauai sunset like this one taken from the lanai of our Marriott condo on Poipu Beach.
Like all the Hawaiian islands, Kauai has a wet and a dry side. 
