Hawaiian Family Vacation Day 6 – Kauai

Date: February 23rd, 2026

Five days on Maui, five days on Kauai. That was our plan for this trip and it was time to say goodbye to Maui and hello to Kauai. Maui sent us off with one more glorious rainbow from the parking lot as we prepared for our trip to our new location. Hawaii is known as the rainbow capital of the world so it was no surprise that we saw one at least every other day.

As we flew from the island of Maui to Kauai, we passed over Oahu. Jill and I spent the first 2 days of our honeymoon trip there 20 years ago and visited Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor. It warmed my soul a little to be able to look out the window during the flight and see both of them from the sky.

After the short flight, we grabbed our new Turo rental vehicle, punched our VRBO address into the GPS, and started our adventure on Kauai. Our new condo was a bit more modern than the one in Maui, but it only had one bathroom, which wasn’t ideal for a family of four. But it really wasn’t inconvenient, even with a 17 year old daughter.

Not long after we settled in we grabbed our swimming gear and headed down to check out the beach which was only a 5 minute walk. As we walked beside the black lava rocks along the shoreline I thought I saw a sea turtle in the waves, but couldn’t really make it out. I’m guessing it was one because when we approached the Keiki Cove (the shallow, sandy beach that Hawaiian ancestors built for kids) we saw over a dozen sea turtles resting on the beach. Volunteers there to help protect the reptiles had said there can be anywhere from half-a-dozen to 80 turtles resting on the beach at one time. The record number counted on this beach was 112.

We were able to snorkel a bit in the shallow water and found a moray eel, unicorn tang fish, and lots of other colorful fish. We stayed for the golden sunset before heading back to our condo to prepare for our first full day on Kauai.