McBryde Garden — Attraction in Kauai

One star because the trees are beautiful and there could be a lot to see. DO NOT come here with children under 7. This is NOT family friendly. We had a traumatizing, harrowing experience and the worst part is that the Visitor Center was closed by 1 pm today so we could not complain.

I am a single mother visiting Kauai with my 3 year old boy (almost 4 in February). We came in 2-3 days before and looked around and were encouraged to book a tour. Heck, they even offered us a sunset dinner cruise. No where on the website or in the Visitor Center or in reading prior reviews did I see any indication that Allerton Garden is not family friendly. In fact, most reviews say it is! Anyways, we were welcomed and given bracelets. All seemed well until we got to the garden with the bus, which is about 10 min away in a separate location. The only way to visit is with a tour which is $60. Once we got there, one of the other guests immediately complained that my son was speaking and she could not hear the guide. The guide was elderly and her voice was soft and had speaker/microphone of any kinds.

I tried my best to keep my boy quiet by he got whiney because he saw that some disabled guests were given a ride on a gold cart and wanted to go on it. Long-story short, he got on the cart, but the tour guide acted like this was a museum and not a garden. My child was expected to stay quiet for 2.5 hours and could not run around or act like a child. I would have been perfectly happy to be given a green light to explore the place on my own, perhaps with the help of a map, but once we left the visitor center, maps were not available.

The tour guide was extremely rude and rigid. She told me in front of everyone that the Allerton Garden was not appropriate for children. She had no approach and really did not know how to engage a child. What was I supposed to do? I asked the tour guide what to do with this knowledge now that we are in the middle of the tour and she told me that there is not much to do as the tour bus would not be there in another 2 hours to pick us up. We were essentially told we were not welcome there!

In the end the visitor who complained about my child left the tour by asking to be picked up and somehow got management to send her a special pick up. Prior to leaving, she got into a confrontation with some other guests who defended me and my child and called one of them a "fat slob" for absolutely no reasons and was calling the other names as well. I understand that people will complain and some people mind kids, but kids are allowed there. I was mostly hurt by the tour guide's response as she just kept apologizing to the other guests and did nothing to trouble-shoot. TO add insult to injury, when the pick up for the complaining guest arrived, we were offered to go too, it felt like she was trying to get rid of us.

All in all a harrowing experience, do NOT go there with children under 7 or so who can act like they are in a museum. They also cut our trip short by about 45 min and we just spent time waiting for the bus to pick us up. I wish I could get a refund, but by the time we were brought back around 1:30 pm, the office was...

Much has been written about the beauty of Allerton Garden and it's all true. The Moreton Bay fig trees alone are worth the price of admission, as they look prehistoric (likely why they're featured in the original Jurassic Park).

So, why am I giving Allerton Garden less than 5 stars?

Unfortunately, our tour guide nearly ruined the entire experience. He demonstrated a great deal of knowledge about the various plants and trees in Allerton Garden. He was sure to point out how most of the greenery we saw isn't native to Kauai and how a lot of it is even invasive. He called Kauai the "island of extinction". Bittersweet, but so far so good.

But once we came across an area where some grass had been torn up, he started accusing wild pigs of destroying the island.

Whatever damage these wild pigs are doing to non-native plants, it's nothing compared to what people have done to Kauai. Pigs didn't introduce native species to Kauai. They didn't introduce the cattle. They didn't even introduce themselves to Kauai.

It wasn't just one casual remark he made. From that point on, he kept talking about how he likes going out into the garden to shoot the pigs. He even tried showing everyone in the group photos of some poor pig he recently killed. As he was trying to show his photos, he kept saying "That's all sausage now. That's all sausage." My wife and I refused to look at the photos. So then he tells us that he hadn't "cleanly" killed the pig, making it clear he wasn't exactly a great shot, and so the poor animal suffered before dying. The tour guide continued making these comments even the tour group saw a mother pig and two babies. As people on the tour were taking photos of these cute piglets, the tour guide is joking about getting his rifle.

On top of all that, he let everyone in the tour know that he used to "hustle" plants on the Big Island, meaning he stole and propagated whatever native plants were left. And now he's a garden tour guide.

Allerton Garden needs to do a better job of screening their guides and consider that most guests probably don't want the beauty spoiled by graphic photos of some poor animal the guide...

My husband and I came here for the sunset tour of Allerton Gardens and had a fantastic time. We were in an intimate group of 10 people and really enjoyed Ron, who is easily the best tour guide I’ve ever had for anything, ever.

Whatever coffee Ron is drinking (Kauai Coffee Co. maybe?), I need to get my hands on it. He truly has so much charisma that it makes an already cool tour even better. He had fun facts about everything, advice for the island, had the group laughing the entire time and even broke open a coconut for us to eat on the tour. Ron speaks in Hawaiian Pidgin, a slang Hawaiian dialect, which we found made him more endearing. My husband is a huge Jurassic Park nut and loves dinosaurs so we were particularly excited to see the Morton Bay fig trees where they filmed that epic scene in Jurassic park! Ron took some very memorable photos for us at that spot, and has lots of interesting information about the filming of the movie. It is also worth mentioning - he said that on that particular day they were a little short handed, so in addition to giving a spectacular tour, he served us our meals and drove us around. Obviously we can’t speak enough about how much this guy rocks (so much!).

Aside from Ron, the gardens are magnificent and breathtaking, offering some wonderful Great Gatsby-esque scenery and photo opportunities. The history of the garden is quite interesting and it felt like we were on a jungle adventure the whole time.

One key mistake we made was not bringing bug spray - very important - but thankfully another couple did come prepared and let us use some. Prior to applying it we were being destroyed by mosquitos. Also, there is quite a bit of walking involved on a dirt path so do wear comfortable hiking sandals or sneakers.

The food supplied for the evening meal was refreshing and just the right amount. You can get ahi tuna or shrimp and both options rock.

Overall, I would recommend this tour for folks of all ages. We learned a ton about plants, pop culture, and Hawaiian history and traditions. We had a great time and will likely return...