Camping in Kauai, how to do it and our honest take.

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There is nothing romantic about sweating in a sleeping bag atop a whisper-thin sleeping pad in a tent you rented from the internet. While you might be fooled, no amount of photos of the beach through an unzipped tent door will make the photographer forget these simple facts. One, there will be sand. If it is summer, blistering hot sand. Two, that sand will be in everything. Every bag, every crack, crevasse, and pore of not just this tent but you. Three, if it is even remotely warm outside, you will spend your evening tossing and turning in your rainproof oven until the day’s heat gives way for the cool night. Have we talked about the chickens yet? There will be chickens and feral Roosters. They’ll be your alarm. Sometimes it might even be the bleating of a mountain goat that will do it, unseen, high up on the mountains of the Na Pali coast. When the days are long and the sun is beating down, you will wish for an air-conditioned hotel room and bed. For us, like clockwork at 2:00 pm we would see if we could get a cheap room to no avail. In the name of adventure, we lean into this discomfort and as we see the sunrise and set from our undesignated slice of the Hawaiian paradise, this whole camping in Kauai thing seems worth it. So in the name of adventure, keep going.

How I kept my phone dry underwater in Kauai.

Three Types of Camping in Kauai

State:

For $33.00 per night, you can reserve a spot in a State Park. Reservations fill up early so schedule as soon as possible. We were able to get three nights in an undesignated spot in PoliHale State Park. We slept on the beach for two of three nights and after the sun went down and the breeze picked up we enjoyed it and got a good night’s sleep. After our first commute into the park, we almost decided we wouldn’t go back. They advertise it, the road into the campground is on the edge of the island, not close to anything. The road itself is also noted to be full of potholes and some companies won’t even let you take a rental car in. We about lost our minds following a car at 5 miles per hour, constantly bumping back and forth as each tire was on a different plane. It can take around a half hour to get from the paved road to the park. We stayed through the entirety of our reservation and came to love it here. Peaceful, quiet nights, a million stars in one of the darkest skies we will probably ever experience and the Na Pali coast shading our tent into the mid-morning.

County:

$6.00 per night. We stayed at Anini Beach Park. We slept well for the most part but this place has early-rising roosters and a lot of them. These roosters are going to call to one another from across the park starting very early in the morning. Bring some earplugs or something and you’ll be just fine. At $6.00 per night, we enjoyed the place to lay our heads at the end of long adventures. The bathrooms at this campground are like most campgrounds in America. There are spiders, there is graffiti and it smells just a little funky. Most beaches in Kauai have an outdoor shower to rinse sand so this is a nice way to cool off before heading to bed or just cleaning up from the day.

Homelessness in Hawaii

This is often cited in Google reviews as troublesome so I wanted to address it. We had zero experience with anything close to negative or unwelcoming. It’s simple, for the night you’re there, treat it like yours and treat them as you would your neighbor. Kauai allows residents to camp for free. They reside there with their friends and family, look after one another and get up and go to work the next day doing their best, same as you or I. It is due in part to us, the tourists, that the housing market has gotten so ridiculous for many native Hawaiians, rising far beyond affordable. I think there are inherent risks wherever you sleep in a tent. It’s always going to be a little exposed whether to nature or strangers. So, the advice would be the same here as anywhere, trust your gut and set up somewhere you feel safe.

Private:

We did not stay at any private camps during our stay. Prices and amenities may vary.

Gear Rental:

Outdoorsy

We rented a 2 door Jeep Wrangler that came with a tent camping set up. This covered our need for a Kauai-capable rental car and for over half the nights we were on the island, a residence. This was all at the incredible rate of $85.00 per night!

Groceries:

We split up some of the costs of eating out by choosing a few meals to shop for. Our gear rental came with a cooler which allowed us to keep a few things cool. Groceries in Hawaii are more expensive. Welcome to being on an island. A few places you can save: Long’s Drugs is like a CVS or Walgreens, and there are a few around Kauai you could look up. Big Save is the most common grocery store, size depends on where you are on the island but they’ve probably got what you need for a reasonable price. Check out this list of easy camping meals.

Leave No Trace:

When we arrived on Kauai I could immediately feel something in the realm of spiritual here. People are connected with the land, rely on the land, and treat the Earth like the living, breathing entity that it is. Whether you’re staying in a resort or staying in a campground, please take care of Kauai. This beauty will not last forever if we go and leave our mark. Please take some time to read some important tenants of traveling well.