Years ago when we would travel with our family to one of the Hawaiian islands, it was just a matter of getting airfare, booking the hotel and off we would go. If we booked a hotel near the beach, we didn’t need to plan much because there was sure to be almost guaranteed sunshine and unlimited things to do. I think we used to go in the off-season because we just booked whenever we saw an airline deal. For the past couple years we’ve been waiting for airline deals and they rarely happen to Hawaii from Seattle when we need them. With kids in school we now have to travel during one of our breaks or during summer time when everyone else wants to go and while it’s amazing to see how the Hawaiian islands have become really popular for family travel it’s also a bit of a price shock when we see places we used to pay a lot less for become a lot more expensive. So when we were planning a trip with kids to Kauai in February during the President’s Day break we had to do a little more pre-planning than we used to for our past Hawaii trips.
Booking Tickets to Kauai from Seattle
First of all we did not pay for all the tickets-I won two of the tickets from a contest and the other two we used our Alaska Airlines companion fare and we booked our trip for February back in November. We also paid a steep price for the one ticket we bought-I think it was over double what we used to pay to go to Hawaii. We’ve noticed that Kauai flights are typically more expensive than flights to Oahu from Seattle and there are fewer flights to this island but because we had won two of our tickets we thought one ticket would be a reasonable splurge. This required two different bookings for our family and when you book families in separate bookings for a trip like this be sure to check your flight frequently if sitting all together is important. On a late night flight we like to sit 3 in a row plus 1 grownup alone so that the kids get sleep and can get to the bathroom easily and we ended up 2 and 2 which is okay but not ideal. We should have caught this and tried to fix it earlier because it is pretty impossible to change this kind of situation too close to the date on a busy flight. We also ran into a few people we knew on this flight so Kauai in February is definitely a popular choice for Seattle families. My friend Kim from Stuffed Suitcase told me about the Platinum American Express Card and how it gets you into airport lounges so we signed up for the card this year and it was nice to sit in the lounge before we jetted off and it made our pre-travel a lot less hectic. For parking we parked in the airport lot because there was a parking deal and it’s convenient but sometimes there are nearby hotels that offer free parking for up to two weeks with a night stay that might be less than parking in the lot too.
Koloa Landing Resort in Poipu
I booked our hotel in Poipu, the Koloa Landing Resort, during a Black Friday sale. It came with a car rental and seemed a reasonable choice for our family because it had a lovely pool. It was cancellable so I could look around for better deals and options before the trip but we ended up sticking with the Koloa Landing Resort and had a lovely time. Poipu turned out to be a great choice for us in February because the northern part of the island received a lot more rain during our trip and the kids just wanted to hang out on the beach and we did this everyday. We could walk or drive to the beach in front of the Sheraton hotel and Poipu beach and these were our favorite beaches to hang out during our stay. On a few nights we would watch the sunset from the rocky beach near the hotel and eat dinner while we watched the turtles swim in the waves. Having a car meant we could also go to the Glass Beach and Salt Pond Beach Park which were also awesome. We drove to Waimea Canyon from our hotel and we also drove up to Hanalei and did part of the Kalalau Trail. Because we are Marriott Gold Members we were able to request late checkout on our last night that was incredibly helpful-our flight left really late at night and this allowed us to have one more afternoon on the beach. It seems like many hotels offer cancellable rates and it feels like people who come to the island again and again pre-book for their next vacation as soon as they leave. Booking ahead seems to give the most options and I noticed that prices kept going up and hotel inventory kept going down the closer we got to our traveling dates. The Koloa Landing Resort ended up being an excellent home base for our family and we really enjoyed our stay-this area might be a good choice in February because of weather and we noticed there were many other condo and hotel options in this area too.
More Kauai Trip Resources
You can do a lot in Kauai with kids. My friend Mary from World Is a Book went zip lining and tubing in the lava tubes-I heard someone in the airport wondering if this was a good idea and I know from Mary’s post it looked amazing. There were lots of farms I wanted to visit too but this trip our family just wanted to sit on the beach and be in nature and eat good food. We had a lot of great recommendations from friends and I’ll include where we ate in my next post-I also had a lot of inspiration from Instagram and from asking people who have been recently. I really appreciated the Moon Guide for this trip. We usually use Lonely Planet guides when we travel but it is a tradition for us to use Moon Guides when we are on our Hawaii trips and we even downloaded the app this time because we forgot our book at home. This guide gave us a tip about going to the Waimea Canyon and I wouldn’t have got the picture below without using the guide.
Are you planning at trip to Kauai or have you been to this island? I’d love to hear if you have favorite spots or where you’re thinking of visiting when you go! Also, I’d love to hear where you get your travel inspiration lately-is it Instagram? Is it Pinterest? How do you plan where you travel nowadays?
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)