Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens & Sculpture Park — Local services in Kauai

Don't waste your time, and if you decide to, go for the $35 tour, not $50. This garden shouldn't be even mentioned in the same phrase as Allerton in National Tropical Botanical Gardens near Poipu.

First off, the two volunteers who gave the tour, Pat and Carol, were very nice and friendly, and did a good job, and I am thankful for their desire to share something beautiful with the world. Unfortunately, they are not very knowledgeable about the plants, and they don't have much material to work with.

The formal garden itself would be ok, if not for the fact that it is littered with the most tasteless, kitschy and saccharine sculptures you saw (e.g: kids saving a kitty stuck on a tree branch, a poorly executed statue of a boy delivering newspapers, the look of constipation forever marking his face). The guides will tell you about each of the sculptures in excruciating detail, including the motivations of the garden owner in picking this piece and where it was bought (Colorado Outdoor Sculpture Fair, and I'm not kidding.)

The areas outside of formal gardens are simply not worth going to. They're basically precious wood tree farms with trees planted in a regular grid. The nice part about this area is that there are fewer sculptures here. You will also see some albatross chicks here, but that's about the only interesting...

We went their today and was told that the garden was closed and only the gift shop was opened and that the self guided tour is only on Thursdays. Which is fine if that is their policy, but while we were on the way out other people came into the gift shop and was sent into the gardens on their own without a guide. I went back into the shop to ask if we could schedule a tour later in the week. The lady was very nice and met me at the door with other options of places for us to visit that had a playground. When I asked about making the reservation to have a guided tour I was told no. They were not doing "family" tours because the kids garden was not open. At that moment I understood that we were being turned away because we have children. I did not ask for the family tour that they provide. Just a guided tour of the gardens. My kids are 8 and 10 and know how to behave, there was no reason for us to be turned away. I will not support any company that is not family friendly. Very...

At first, I thought it was some kind of a bad joke... Then. the tour started. This is not a place to learn about the flora of Kauai. This is a place to learn some gossip about the dealings and ambitions of the ex-wife of Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts cartoon fame, who transformed a beautiful piece of land into a tasteless sculpture garden and tree plantation. The cooky tour guide talks about "sausage" and "scrambled egg" trees (we never learned the real names) and some other infantile nonsense through a squeaky amplification system. There was no way to escape it. And you'll be touring in a noisy, toxic fume-spewing gas powered car from an era when the world population was unaware of the adverse consequences of inhaling exhaust fumes. On top of all that, they charge you $55 dollars. Take your money elsewhere. Kauai is a beautiful island and you do not need to suffer. Or, if you cannot help yourself, bring a pair of good noise cancelling headphones, a gas mask, and...