The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed by Andrew Doughty
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Book Reviews of The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed
Book Review: book made trip easy...
Summary: 5 Stars
Just got back from Kauai - spent nine days there - LOVED it!! I refused to review this book before I left for the trip even though I read it before I left, and took it along on the trip for quick reference. I'm glad I waited to review the book now - First, I think it's a GREAT guide book - it hits all the high points and some even little known "hideaway" places. Also, let me preface the review with the fact that I did not use this book to pick my hotel/condo. I picked that myself before buying the book - It ended up the book did recommend the place we stayed and we loved it. Some people on here I know complained about the book not containing enough references for eating places... let's face it people the island is not that BIG!!! My husband and I consider ourselves foodies and we found the recommendations sufficient. It recommends the "best bet" places and everywhere we tried, they recommended we liked. My parents who were travelling with us even wanted to go back to one of the places - and the book rated this place "mediocre" sooo I think that gets my point across about the restaurants. I love the fact the book has mile markers on the maps - this made it easy to find small hiking trails, etc... My ONLY gripe about this book is the maps are scattered through the book by region (north, south, etc.) So, when you're going down the road and going to cross over from the south part of the map to the east or whatever direction, you have to find on the map where it says please refer to page XX for map of east. This is NOT easy when you're going 45 mph in a convertible with your husband screaming over the radio is this right!? And I had to respond, "I don't know honey - wait a sec. I'm looking for page XX." So you get the picture... Don't get me wrong though - I LOVED the book and the island - Kauai is by far the best!! DO buy the book and DO pick Kauai over the other islands, unless you like to shop at really high-end stores...Just get a regular road map is helpful to though so you won't have to flip back and forth.Book Review: Hawaii guidbook
Summary: 5 Stars
Best guidebook ever. We selected this guide based on our great experience with their Hawaii, the Big Island guidebook. Lots of helpful details about places, vendors, activities, including weather aspects (it's not always sunny on Kauai)recommended levels of fitness required for some of the activities. Some of the places have overly cautious warnings. Also out of the way places you can go to, places "locals" like, places that are high-end (e.g. expensive). We were happy to find some info on local farmer's markets where we found fresh locally grown fruits and veges, plus crafts. They have very balanced comparisons about such activities as helicopter rides. We might have skipped this if not for their statement that it was truly the best way to see Kauai, and it is! There are lots of companies offering various discounts on helicopters, but this book narrowed it down for us by comparing the types of helicopters each company used.
Restaurant meals can vary alot, the best ones are not always the most expensive. This section was great, comparing not only prices, but types and styles of meals. One suggestion we appreciated was to get some deli prepared foods at the Hanalei grocery store and eat lunch on the beach. The market did indeed have fabulous sandwiches, etc and this was one of the best meals we had, sitting on the beach at Hanalei Bay.
Activities were broken down according to personal favorites. We loved the lighthouse, partly because of all the birds around (there is a nerarby bird sanctuary) which was described for us in the guidebook. We also like to snorkel, and those spots were outlined for us. Surfing, sailing, and fishing were also spelled out for you in the book (not our choice, but certainly for some).
They state at the beginning that they do not endorse or accept payments from any of the vendors they have reviewed in the book which means they are very objective. We found this a refreshing book, also very humorous in places.
Book Review: Great hiking and beach reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
We lived by Maui Revealed on our firt trip to Hawaii, so buying The Untimate Kauai Guidebook for our latest trip was a no-brainer. We went on three major hikes all recommended by the book that we probably would not have found otherwise. We highly recommend the Nualolo trail/Nualolo cliffs/Awawaphui trail loop. It's 11.3 miles and the last 3 are uphill, but the views of the Nualolo Valley and the NaPali coastline are outstanding. Bring lots of water and start early. We also really enjoyed the Alakai Swamp trail in Koke`e State Park. As the book says it's the highest swamp in the world and unlike anything you've ever seen, plus the mountain ridge you have to traverse to get there offers incredible views as well. The outlook at the end of the trail was fog covered the day we went, but still really cool. We also did the "Secret Tunnels" hike in the adventures section. Cool hike through tunnels drilled through the mountains, but the views at the end of the trail were not as great a the book described. The trail to get there was extremely muddy, which we expected, and there was a mountain stream, which we cooled off in that was pretty awesome, but overall there are better hikes to take than this one.
The beach reviews were spot-on and our favorite was the Sealodge beach on the north shore. There was only one other person using the beach for the first hour we were there and the water was great for snorkeling.
We stayed at the Waimea Plantation Cottages the first few nights and absolutely loved it. The surrounding area was mostly desert, so we were quite surprised by the lush tropical paradise we found at the cottages. The cottages and grounds are very well maintained and extremely quiet and peaceful. We wish we had spent our entire vacation there.
We also stayed at the Sealodge, which had a great location and spectacular views, but the condo was boring and average and had a bit of a cockroach problem.
Book Review: Best introductory guidebook to Kauai
Summary: 5 Stars
Really the best introductory guidebook available for Kauai. It's created some controversy, which the authors are aware of, by guiding tourists to locations that may be unsafe, so I've heard, due to the particular conditions on a given day or the abilities of the traveler or that the locals just simply want to protect. But I kept going back to it. Incredibly good maps throughout and lots of color. It appears that the authors (or their team) have made an extra effort to learn about the places and keep the information updated. I think some organization still could be tweaked. I had to do some cross-referencing to figure out all of the beaches or hikes I wanted to take my family to. I would have loved some map zoom-ins for some of the beach access. With all the great maps (some of the best available), I still would have appreciated more but maybe that's a different book. (Incidentally, The Ready Mapbook of Kauai, 5th Edition, has a lot of detail.) I thought the restaurant reviews were pretty right. I had a place arranged, so I didn't pay much attention to the accommodations section, which, frankly, looked like a nightmare effort to cover. Kauai is a place for recreational adventures, so that's where the emphasis is. Still, I like to know more about the culture of a place, too--its music, its food, its language, its communities, its history--and even something about its climate, geology, and natural history. I never found a guidebook for Kauai that gave me that. Shopping got some coverage, but I'm not much of a shopper (my wife is!) so I found that whole topic a mystery as well. This book does pack a lot of useful information, so it's hard to ask for more. This book is all over the island, but how can you not get the book before you arrive? A couple of people on my plane from the mainland were reading it, and I know at least one had been to Kauai before.Book Review: Only one complaint
Summary: 5 Stars
We used an earlier edition of this book during a trip to Kauai in 2000, and it was fantastic- everything they said we found to be absolutely true! This truly is the ULTIMATE guidebook! We relied on it completely and it really made our trip great. We are going back next spring, and I ordered the latest edition. I looked through it, and was chagrined to see that a bunch of the accomodations reviews are found exclusively on their website. There is simply a listing for the place in the book, and then they refer you to the website. I sure wish that they had at least put a short synopsis in the book, and referred you to the website for additional information... Fortunately the only web reviews are for the accomodations, and we will have decided where we're going to stay long before we arrive... I hope that they don't expand this feature to dining and island attractions in future editions. Not everyone has Internet access on their cell phones, and it would be really annoying to be out and about on the island with the guidebook and be unable to access the information. But if you're going to Kauai (and everyone should - at least once in their lives-!) this is the one and ONLY book you need!