wonderfully made: travel diaries : honeymoon in Kauai (two years later)

I'm skipping today's blogtober to recap (loosely) our honeymoon. It's been a while so unfortunately I don't remember all of the details, but I wanted to get it down on paper while I can! Also, please excuse my photo quality. This was pre-iPhone for me (yes, in 2012 I didn't have an iPhone yet) and my camera wasn't the best.

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Ok! On with the show...

Two lonnngggg years ago (just kidding!) Mark and I got married and honeymooned in Hawaii!

I wasn't blogging back then, but it was our VERY favorite trip ever and I want to share some of the things that we did after I talked about it so much in my travel tips post.

Long story short: we booked on Priceline, stayed at the Sheraton on Kauai. I don't have the breakdown in cost, but booking our flight and hotel together saved a TON! We ended up spending about $4,000 including food. (Hawaii isn't cheap, y'all!) If we go back, I would stay at the Hyatt or St. Regis (fancy) on the north side.

Here are some details, along with pictures to jog my memory! ;)

We hit up all sides of the island. Kauai is pretty small so you can drive around it in about 2 hours. The northwest side is called the Na'Pali coast and is not drivable, so you don't drive in a full circle. The picture above is me at a beach in Lihue (I think?) where the cruise ships dock. It was pretty touristy around here!

Our one BIG thing we had to see was the Na'pali coast. This is where they filmed Jurassic Park and lots of other awesome movies. It has these GORGEOUS mountains that plummet into the bluest water you will ever see. These pictures were taken on a simple point and shoot camera and were not edited. It was really that color!!!

Although we really loved seeing this part of the island, I would NOT recommend the boat tour. We did it because it was significantly cheaper than the helicopter or plane tour, but it was 4 hours on a boat with lots of sea spray in the eyes and lots of ocean sickness going on. I say spring for the air tour because you HAVE to see this part of the island!

We also went to the North side, where Hanalei and some nice hotels are located. I think you should definitely see this area too. Hanalei is a famous beach and was one of the most picturesque ones we saw. They had these fields as well and it felt like we were in Asia for a bit!

Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea......in a land called Hanalei! Anyone?

We hiked up through the Na'Pali coast a bit but weren't really prepared for a long hike so we only did about 3 miles round trip. It was beautiful though and really cool so if you're into that, come prepared!

We had breakfast every morning and it was definitely a highlight. We were 4 hours behind so we typically woke up wide awake by 4 or 5am! Plus, their juices there are sooo good! Fresh squeezed and local fruits are delicious!

This day, we went west out of Poipu to Waimea canyon. It is the biggest canyon outside of the Grand Canyon and it was beautiful! It was windy and chilly too!

We kept going, wanting to take the road as far as we could to the coastline. We ended up going high into the mountains and I felt like we were in Montana or something, it was totally different!

It was in the 60's and rainy up here, so this was the best view we got.

Jo-jo's shaved ice is a must!

We had a great view from our room. Heaven! You've GOT to catch the sunsets in Hawaii.

A seal on the beach!

We went back to the north shore on another day and visited the Kilauea lighthouse. It is the most westerly lighthouse in the United States (nerd facts). It was super cool, despite the fact that the lighthouse was under construction.

We were there at the tip of whale season so I lingered a bit trying to spot one, but they said they hadn't seen any yet at that point. This was mid-November.

We took in the views and headed to Secret beach, one of our favorite beaches on the island. I had to google directions to this and it seemed like the information was only available through yelp reviews. It's about 1/4 mile walk/hike (we did it in flip flops) down to the secluded beach. It was awesome!