Floating on the waves and hiking through the jungle are must-do activities on Kauai. But to better commune with the westernmost of the well-populated Hawaiian Islands, I also wanted to taste the local bounty.
Fortunately, there are great ways to savor what makes Kauai unique without breaking the bank at gourmet restaurants. There may be nowhere else on Earth you can visit a coffee farm, a microbrewery and a cacao farm in such close proximity, surrounded by lush mountains and sandy bays.
With a bit more time, you can watch delicate taro chips sizzling in oil and buy aromatic lychees by the bag.
A friend and I managed all of the above in between naps at the beach, and our farm-to-table adventures introduced us to people and places we would have otherwise missed.
"We have agricultural land, agricultural history and agricultural values," said chocolate farmer Will Lydgate, whose relatives have lived on Kauai since the 1800s. "We love selling what we grow to visitors. The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. That's our state motto."
