North Shore Kauai Family Bike Adventures

Last fall, we traveled to Hawaii. After visiting family in Honolulu, we flew to Kauai and stayed in the Hanalei. Despite both growing up by the beach, we’re generally not Beach People, but the north shore sucked us in and we had an amazing time. I never really got Hawaii until I went there – it truly is one of the most beautiful places I have been.

We had high hopes to explore all around Kauai, but we had a hard time resisting the allure of the north shore. We ate lots of acai bowls, shave ice, poke, and taro donuts. Our kiddo was absolutely obsessed with a dal that we ordered many, many times too (payment was via Venmo, and my transactions for that month were filled with many reading something like “dal, thank you!”). We beach hopped and explored farmers markets. We surfed and snorkeled.

We rented bikes our second day in town, which probably contributed to our laid back Hanalei days – we had so much fun biking around and taking it easy. We never rode very far distances, just cruised from beach to beach.

We rented bikes from the Bike Doktor. I had to laugh because the ancient Topeak carrier would be way outside my comfort zone, safety-wise, for day to day riding, but for Kauai it served us just fine. Bike Doktor has some great resources on riding in Kauai – we agree with the assessment that the roads on island in general are not super conducive to riding due to the hills and traffic. The farthest we biked out of Hanalei was to the Waipa farmers market. 

Outside of Hanalei, our favorite north shore beaches were Anini, Tunnels, and Haena Beach Park. 

I dream of returning. On a future trip, I would love to ride the Kapaa bike path and get farther afield. We always try to travel with the mindset that we’ll have the opportunity to visit again – and  I don’t regret slowing way down for fun family time on the north shore.