Smith's Fern Grotto Tour — Attraction in Kauai

This was a pleasant introduction to the island, and I would recommend it to others. Everyone on staff was friendly and helpful. The open boats are a lovely way to see this river. The grotto is pretty, but I found it less fulfilling than other aspects of the adventure.

I don't think that everyone has the same experience that we did: we were on the first boat of the day, and the musicians & dancers who perform at the grotto were on board with us. So we were sung to and danced for during the entire trip up the river. That was great! When we arrived at the dock near the grotto, there was a pig there who seemed to be well-known to the crew, but not part of the tour. The pig was great, too. So if you want to have the best experience, I guess I'd recommend booking the 9:00 trip.

FYI, even though our tickets were for 9:00, and asked us to arrive before that, the posted boat ride and actual departure was at 9:30. But there is a shaded, protected patio area for waiting, and a nice view across the marina.

I see that some other reviewers call this a "tourist trap" or complain that it wasn't exciting. I would not call it a tourist trap. The boats, staff and store were all in decent taste - not overly flashy or pushy or cheap or loud the way that "tourist trap" things are. The tickets were very inexpensive compared to most other things on the island.

It is not spectacular. It is set up to handle a lot of people. To me it is not a life-changing or dramatic adventure. But it is pretty, it is a boat ride, there is a nice fern grotto that you walk through lovely plants to see. The music and humor and history were all interesting. I think it's a fair value, and a really good thing to do on your first day or so...

We recently attended this event with high hopes, but unfortunately, the boat trip did not live up to our expectations. Most notably, there were two incidents involving our child where the staff behaved in a way that we found rude and upsetting.

I understand that every culture has its own way of communicating, but in our case, it felt unnecessarily harsh. An older lady on the boat, for example, was feeding a rooster while our son approached the area to pick up a stick he had seen nearby. She shouted, "Get that child away, move him!" in a very unpleasant tone. A simple, polite request like, “Could you please ask your child to stay back?” would have been enough.

Later, while our son was playing with a stick, he accidentally touched another child — it was very light, and I immediately went over to apologize. The other parents were completely understanding and even smiled. However, the manager came over, grabbed the stick out of my son's hands forcefully, threw it away, and told him he wasn’t allowed to play with it. My son was shocked and started crying. I was right there and couldn’t understand why she didn’t address me or at least speak to him calmly instead of reacting so aggressively. That moment really ruined the rest of the trip for us.

I feel sad to have to write this review, but I think families with young children should be aware.

Also, the jungle walk felt very short and underwhelming — it was just a 5-minute loop, which was disappointing given how it had been presented.

If you bring your stroller, be aware that there are stairs to get...

The tour was nice and didn't take too long. The company however did seem to be a bit disorganized. My family was the first to wait by the dock and were told to wait in a certain area. We did what we were told and Dee accused us of trying to cut the line because she started another line on the opposite side from us without even asking about our situation. She assumed we were cutting without asking and realizing that her coworker had told us to wait where we were standing. It felt very disheartening knowing we paid good money to attend this tour and she didn't treat us kindly or with respect at all.

The boat ride itself was nice and calm. Our guide was very sarcastic and had a rash sense of humor. Enjoyable but may not be for everyone.

The fern grotto itself was pretty. We couldn't take pictures on the way there as they wanted time to explain the history of the grotto and perform some songs and dances. The performers had great instrument skills and beautiful voices.

The boat ride back we learned to hula.

All in all it was a fun daytrip. The reason why I'm giving 3 stars is because I just didn't feel that the ticket should have costed as much as it did, especially given the poor treatment we received when we were the first to arrive and line up...