Back in 1999 Ken and I went to a timeshare presentation in St. Louis that was selling weeks in 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 would 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.
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 think they still do the free hula and lighting show there, but we haven't checked that out in a few years---since we're no longer welcomed in their pools when the Radisson was bought out by Hilton. They've just been bought out again and we're hoping we'll have access to the pools again. 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 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 truely a home away from home to us.
This being our first trip to Kauai, we tried to see as much of the island as we could in our too short week long stay. In our driving around, we stopped at various viewpoints. Here's one on the east
side of the Wailua River. The Wailua River begins near the Waiʻaleʻale crater (whose summit averages more than426 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.
