Ali'i Kayaks — Attraction in Kauai

When my 7 year old turned to his mother to ask why he wasn't allowed to climb on some rocks adjacent to the trail, a descending tour guide wearing this company's shirt told son to "Fork around and find out!", using his full strength vocabulary. Read on for full story and which guides or rental outfits you should consider instead, if your looking for a family friendly resource. Additionally, browse this company's one star reviews and you'll quickly discover that this appears to be completely normal behavior from the guides at Alii Kayaks.

Near the end of the hike to secret falls, there is a smaller waterfall which is adjacent to the trail as you are ascending (left side). My wife and our 4 children rented our own gear for a self guided adventure. When our kids saw this small feature, seeing that the trail literally cuts through the base of its small boulders and observing that there are no signs whatsoever, we thought it would make for a cute family photo. As we were taking family pictures, an ascending female guide came into view and yelled to get off the rocks because they were sacred.

Due to the water noise, my wife and kids could not hear what was being said so the guide switched her tone (to that tone we all know) and committed to yelling even louder.

Being in between the commotion, I turned to my wife and relayed the information. She gave me a thumbs indicating to me that she understood and then waved an apology wave down to the guide seeing as it was an innocent mistake. If we had disregarding some signs then fine, I'd get it, but its literally on the trail and the information we were given from our gear shop said absolutely nothing about sacred landmarks.

With our now kids off the rocks, my seven year old turned to his Mom and asked "Why are we not allowed on those rocks" As the curious question left his mouth, a native male guide descending from the falls turned to my child and said "Fork around and find out". (Again, using all the full strength vocabulary and tone of an adult) I responded by saying, "he's 7 and thats a perfectly innocent question for a child his age" This guide then turned to me and repeated the phrase several more times, along with a few new creative twists of what awful people and parents we were.

(This is the straight up raw unedited version btw! Like, nothing to warrant this behavior from either guide happened at ALLL. If my kids are brats, I am the first to shut that down. I was raised that you don't disrespect your mother or your fellow brother so thats just the way it is.)

We acceded away from this guide as quickly as possible but we could hear him bad mouthing us with all sorts of vulgar language to the lower group for a solid minute at least because the next part of the trail is the most technical and we can exactly flee with children.

We would have absolutely loved for a Native guide to answer our 7 year olds question and share with us why that lower fall and boulders are special and considered sacred. We have absolutely loved learning the deep history and culture from other guides as we have been on the island and this was a perfect opportunity to creating a lasting impression with our son and family. Instead, I've been reduced to a total "KAREN" (ugh, thanks for that one Sam) and our 7 year old will remember that he cried to the waterfall because he wasn't welcome.

Mahalo...

First of all, my husband scheduled this kayak & hike trip. With 4 kids from 5-11, and myself not being quite the athletic type or having ever kayaked before, this experience was not on my Kaua’i bucket list. And when we showed up and there was a group of both younger & older couples only, and we learned that our 11-year-olds couldn’t handle a kayak on their own, I was worried and wanted to back out.

But I am so glad I didn’t! Husband and I each helmed a kayak with 2 kids in it - and I wasn’t last in the group! While kayaking 2 miles each way with an 11 and 9-year-old boy in my boat wasn’t what I thought I wanted in a beach vacation, it was a fantastic and memorable experience for all of us. We wore sunscreen, hats (me), bug repellent, swimsuits & Chacos and brought a small carry-able cooler with lunch for the kids & water. Proper shoes is probably the most important part. The entire round trip was around 4 hours. The trails were muddy and slippery but safely manageable for all.

The waterfall and pool is small, but satisfying enough after a hike although it’s a popular destination and can be heavily traveled by various groups. By the trip back, the 9-year-old and I were more adept at our kayaking technique, compensating for the wind.

Our guide was knowledgeable and instructional while being appropriately cautious and deeply authentic: all the kids loved him, especially our 5-year-old who stuck to him like glue. My boys loved the fresh-cut walking sticks (NOT weapons boys) and learning about the flora and fauna.

Classic mom-mode, I appreciated both the cultural education and safety admonishments: I was confident we were in good hands with someone who has seen a thing a two with ties to and a deep appreciation for this land.

After we arrived back at the dock, we saw the local high school canoe team pulling out their boats and the kids loved hearing about what it’s like growing up in Kaua’i. 5 stars, would do...

This is only based off customer service experience. We booked the secret falls kayak tour, got all of the confirmation messages, then showed up at the office to leave and found out it was cancelled (probably due to the rain showers the prior day). We received no call, no message and no email to let us know. It wasn't until after we arrived and spoke to the gal at the counter that she sent us a cancellation email. She was ok with us but when we walked in I was tempted to call the police because of the situation she seemed to be instigating with the customers ahead of us. We didn't see the start of the problem but their interacting was normal at first (from our point of entry) and quickly escalated to both parties shouting at each other. She frequently used f-bombs at them and mocked their son calling him "down syndrome" which he was not luckily but that is a horribly low blow. I'm still shocked she went there. As I said, we didn't see the whole start of things so maybe the other family came in with the attitude but she did nothing to diffuse the problem and kept getting the final word in. I have never seen that poor of customer service in my life. There were so many other ways she could have handled the situation as a professional but failed to do so. The family did reciprocate the issues right back, both sides were pounding on the desk and yelling at each other. It was quite something to behold and I was very shaken. I don't understand how things got to that point over a cancelled trip. We were disappointed we couldn't go but it wasn't anything to fight about, it's for our own safety they cancelled. Wish we could have gone but we're enjoying a soothing drink at...