USA » Hawaii » Kauai | 🏛 Waimea Canyon Tours

Kauai: Waimea Canyon, Wailua River Boat & Fern Grotto

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.56 (577 reviews) 74% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/7

Duration10h

GroupUp to 24

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Red cliffs, river songs, and coffee on the Garden Island

You board a boat down the Wailua River to Fern Grotto, where the Hawaiian Wedding Song echoes off the cave walls. You see Waimea Canyon's red cliffs from multiple viewpoints, walk to Opaekaa Falls, taste coffee at the largest US farm, and watch waves explode through lava at Spouting Horn. Lunch in Old Koloa Town is on your own. Hotel pickup and the boat ride are included; the driver handles the narration and route.

10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Wailua River, Waimea Canyon, and More

Board open-air boat on Wailua River
Cruise to Fern Grotto
Enjoy Hawaiian Wedding Song at Fern Grotto
View Opaekaa Falls waterfall
Lunch in Old Koloa Town
Stop at Pu‘uhinahina Lookout for canyon views
Photo stops of Hanapepe valley and sugarcane
Visit Kauai Coffee Estate and sample coffee
See Spouting Horn blowhole

The Experience

You're driving inland from the coast, climbing past sugarcane fields and into the valley where Waimea Canyon opens up—the red earth and green walls stretching wider than you expected. The canyon lookout (or Pu'uhinahina if the main one is closed for repairs, which it is through December) gives you the scale of it all, and the driver stops a few more times so you can actually stand with it instead of just glancing. Mark Twain called it the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and standing there you get why, even if you're skeptical of old travel writers.

Then you're back down to the river. The Wailua River boat ride is the centerpiece—an open-air boat, no roof, just you and maybe twenty other people and the captain telling stories about the heiau (temples) that used to line the water when this was the sacred heart of the island. The boat glides slow enough that you hear the water and the trees, and then you're at Fern Grotto, a cave hung with Boston ferns dripping from the rock ceiling, and someone on the boat sings the Hawaiian Wedding Song. It's not cheesy the way you worried it might be. It's just there, and it lands different when you're actually sitting in the boat looking up at a cavern.

After the river you stop at Opaekaa Falls—151 feet of water dropping into a pool, visible from a short walk—and then you're on your own for lunch in Old Koloa Town, which gives you time to breathe and eat without the group. The afternoon swings through the Kauai Coffee Estate, the largest coffee farm in the US, where you taste what they grow there, and then to Spouting Horn, where waves crash through holes in the lava rock and shoot salt water thirty feet into the air. It's one of the most photographed spots on the island, and you'll see why the moment you get there.

The whole day runs long—you're in an air-conditioned van with a driver who narrates the stops, and hotel pickup and drop-off are built in, so you don't have to rent a car or figure out timing. It's the kind of day that covers a lot of ground without feeling rushed, though you're definitely moving the whole time.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup and drop-off at select Kauai hotels, an air-conditioned vehicle with a professional driver/guide, admission to the Wailua River boat ride to Fern Grotto, stops at Opaekaa Falls, Waimea Canyon (or Pu'uhinahina Lookout if the main lookout is closed), the Kauai Coffee Estate with a coffee tasting, and Spouting Horn. Lunch in Old Koloa Town is on your own.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessiblePets welcomeInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Polynesian Adventure Tours

Is this one for you?A good fit if you want to see Kauai's main landmarks—canyon, river, waterfall, coffee farm, and blowhole—without renting a car or planning the route yourself. Expect a full day out with multiple stops and a boat ride; that's what lets you cover this much ground and still have time to absorb each place.