Oceania.
1 Hotel Hanalei Bay — the newest eco-luxury opening on the north shore.
Replaced the long-shuttered St. Regis. Tahitian-style villas terraced into the cliff, all facing Hanalei Bay. The hotel runs a coral nursery and a regenerative-farming program at Hāʻena. Book the bay-view two-bedroom — the lanai catches the morning rainbow.
Read the article →Hanapepe — Kauai’s ‘biggest little town,’ Friday-night art walk.
Twenty minutes from Poipu but a hundred years away. Wooden plank sidewalks. The Old Hanapepe Swinging Bridge. Talk Story Bookstore is the westernmost bookstore in the United States. Friday-night art walk brings out every artist on the island. The cafe at the end of the strip serves the best loco moco in Kauai.
Read the article →Nā Pali Coast — helicopter at first light, or catamaran out of Port Allen.
The Nā Pali cliffs are unreachable by car. Helicopter is the cinematic option — 45 minutes, doors-off, the only way to see the Waimea Canyon hand-off into the coast. The catamaran is the intimate option — 5 hours, swim stops at hidden sea caves. The operator we route caps the boat at twelve, never more.
Read the article →1 Kitchen at 1 Hotel Hanalei — Chef Jason Hall, sourced from Limahuli Garden.
Hall’s previous post was Nobu Honolulu. The kitchen at 1 Hotel sources three days a week from Limahuli — the National Tropical Botanical Garden ten miles up the coast. The seasonal tasting is the move. Book the chef’s counter on Friday night.
Read the article →Wailua — the royal heart of Kauai, ancient heiau temples on the river.
Wailua was Kauai’s seat of power before contact. Seven heiau temples line the river — the kayak operator we route knows which ones still hold significance. The Coco Palms ruins, just upriver, were Elvis’s set for Blue Hawaii. The guide who runs the morning paddle is third-generation Kauai.
Read the article →Halele’a Spa at 1 Hotel Hanalei — open-air hales, indigenous Hawaiian healing.
Halele’a means ‘house of joy.’ Treatment hales open to the ocean. The signature lomi-lomi runs ninety minutes with two practitioners; the herbal compress is steeped in māmaki tea the spa grows in beds outside the building. Book the morning slot, take the post-treatment plunge in the cold pool, then breakfast at 1 Kitchen.
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