Our 1st trip to Kauai: helicopter tour; Blue Dolphin Napali tour:
Back in 1999 Ken and I went to a timeshare presentation in St. Louis for a newly renovated condo complex in Kauai. We had never been to any of the islands of Hawaii. Didn't really figure it would be somewhere we'd frequent. But did like the idea that we could (supposedly) be able to trade it for anywhere we wanted to go. We were pretty naive about the whole timeshare thing back then, but I think we pretty well lucked out with our first timeshare purchase, even sight unseen. So for $8,000 we became the owners of 1 week every other year at Pahio Kauai Beach Villas. Since we actually had reservations already for our first ever trip to Hawaii (Oahu) at the time we bought into KBV, we went ahead and banked our first week into RCI as soon as we became owners. 2 years later we decided to check out our purchase before banking anymore weeks. So in 2001, we booked 4 nights on Oahu since we had liked it so much in 1999 (just in case we didn't like Kauai) and booked our week at Pahio Kauai Beach Villas. After a week in Kauai, we were sad to be heading to Oahu for the rest of our trip! We fell in love with Kauai and never banked another Kauai week. In fact, we've since bought 4 more every other year weeks. (Eventually Wyndham became their management company and after a couple years of that we converted our then 5 weeks to Wyndham points and became VIP Platinum Wyndham owners).
From the moment we drove onto the Pahio KBV properties, we were impressed. We had purchased a 1 bedroom/1 bath "garden view" unit. "Garden view" actually means "parking lot view", but we were upgraded into a "lagoon view" 1 bedroom/2 bath unit near the pool. We both agreed we could live very comfortably there for a lot longer than a week. The pool was a bit cold, but at that time KBV owners were also able to use the pools at the adjoining Radisson hotel complex without a fee. Those pools weren't heated, either, but the jacuzzi was bigger and the pools were more interesting, so we did take advantage of that benefit quite a bit. We also enjoyed the "lighting" ceremony at the Radisson pool a few evenings. (I don't think they do the free hula and lighting show anymore, but we haven't checked that out in a few years---since we're no longer welcomed in their pools; first when the Radisson was bought out by Hilton. We did get use of the pool back for awhile when Aqua managed the hotel, but now it's managed by someone else and we no longer have pool access as of 2018. AS of 2017, KBV is no longer managed by Wyndham, either, but the converted Wyndham weeks are still there). Anyway, not only did we love the Pahio resort, but we also loved the location. It was isolated enough to be quiet, but close to 2 of the main residential towns on Kauai, Lihue and Kapaa. It makes a great base for winter stays since it's about equal distance to the north shore or the south shore. We watch the weather forecasts and if the north shores are calm and dry, we head north. Otherwise we usually end up going south. We do drive alot while we're on Kauai, but with the beauty of the island, I've never minded the rides.
Back to KBV----it's on the beach, although most of the units aren't oceanfront. The beach there isn't swimable, but the beach is a beautiful one for walking on. It's truly a home away from home to us.
side of the Wailua River. The Wailua River begins near the Waiʻaleʻale crater (whose summit averages more than 426 inches of rain a year) and enters the Pacific Ocean by Kapaa. It is the only navigable river (by boats larger than kayaks) in the Hawaiian Islands.
It's name means rolling shimp, which comes from the time when freshwater shrimp were abundant there and could be seen tumbling over the falls.
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