Hawaiian Car Rentals – Driving to Spouting Horn in Kauai, Hawaii

To have a point of reference, this drive will start from Lihue International Airport. This drive offers a few detours along the way for fun.

Exit Lihue International Airport on Highway 570 ( Ahukini Road) and go a short way until you reach the Kuhio Highway (Highway 50). Turn left onto Highway 50. This will take you out of Lihue, down a hill and past an old sugar mill which is still very visible from the road.

Points of interest along the way:

Kalapaki Beach (detour):
1-1/4 miles down Highway 50, you will come to Nawiliwili Road. Turn left onto Nawiliwili Road and travel for 1.6 miles. You will find the Kauai Marriott Resort on your right side, turn into the resort entrance. Follow the signs for beach access, you will find a parking lot. Kalapaki Beach is one of Kauai’s most popular beaches for both locals and tourists. The beach is ¼ mile long, very wide with a nice sandy bottom ideal for swimming, boogie boarding. Nawiliwili Harbor can be seen to the right.

Menehune Fishpond:
Leave the Kauai Marriot Resort and turn left back onto Nawiliwili Road. This will take you towards the Harbor. Drive for ½ mile and you will see Wilcox Road on the left side. Turn left onto Wilcox Raod (you will also see a sign for Hale Kauai Co.) and travel for 0.7 miles until you arrive at a one lane bridge. After you carefully cross this bridge, take an immediate right onto Hulemalu Road. Travel down Hulemalu Road until you find the Alekoko Overlook (Menehune Fishpond). From the overlook, you will see a 900-foot long fishpond. According to legend, it was built in one night by the mythical Menehunes (Hawaiian Elves) in one night as a gift for a princess and her brother. Guesses at it’s age range as high as 1,000 years old. You will also find great views of the Niwiliwili Harbor and the surrounding mountains.

Tree Tunnel:
Backtrack you way back to the Marriott, up Nawiliwili Road until you arrive back at Highway 50. Turn left onto Highway 50 and follow it for another 8 miles. Just past the 6 mile marker, you will arrive at the turn off for Highway 520. This is the turn of to Koloa and Po’ipu. Go left onto 520 (also known as Maluhia Road) and you will arrive shortly at the Tree Tunnel. In the 1900’s, a gentleman named Walter Duncan McBryde was landscaping his home when he found out he had grossly overestimated his needs and had 500 eucalyptus trees left over. He donated these to the county and volunteers planted them along the roadside. Over the years, they have grown up and connected limbs overhead, forming a natural tree tunnel. The tunnel is less connected now as hurricane Iniki separated them in 1992 but it is still beautiful.

Koloa Town:
Follow 520 for about 2-1/2 miles until you reach old Koloa Town. Koloa Town was the first sugar plantation town in all of the Hawaiian Islands. King Kamehameha III leased the land to Ladd & Co. in 1835 to grow the sugar. These days, Koloa Town is a nice place to stop and an ice cream at Lappert’s.

When you arrive at Koloa Town, turn right and then take the first left onto Po’ipu Road. Follow Po’ipu Road for a mile and you will come to a fork in the road. Go right onto Lawa’i Road. As you follow this road, you will see Prince Kuhio Park on your right. Prince Kuhio was the last royally designated heir to the Hawaiian throne and there is a monument to him in the park. There is some excellent snorkeling on your left on the crescent shaped beach just past the Beach House Restaurant. On a high-surf day, it can be fun to stop and watch the locals surf here. They call it “Acid Drop” and it is for experts only. Continuing down the road, you will see Kukui’ula Boat Harbor on your left which is really cute. The Botanical Garden Visitor Center will appear next on your right. Shortly after that, you will arrive at the Spouting Horn Beach Park.

The parking lot for the Spouting Horn is on your left. As you get out of your car, be careful not to step on a rooster. You will see local merchants selling their hand-crafted wares along the sidewalk to your right. Follow the main path down to view the Spouting Horn.

Unfortunately, there have been some severe injuries at the Spouting Horn so access is now fenced off and you have to view it from a short distance away. The Spouting Horn is made out of a hole in a lava shelf. As the waves roll in, water is pushed through the hole and comes out as a natural geyser. There is an additional hole next to the Spouting Horn through which only air is driven. It is still cool because the air makes a loud gasping noise about which Hawaiian legends have been made.

The actual time spent in the car for this drive shouldn’t be more than an hour depending on how much traffic you encounter on 520. Do not speed through old Koloa Town or Po’ipu, the police set up speed traps in these areas.

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