Imagine having a local expert to guide you as you drive around Kauai.
Kauai GPS Tour Guide for the iPhone is a virtual tour guide that talks to vacationers as they drive around Kauai. Using the GPS built into the iPhone, the Tour Guide knows exactly where travelers are and alerts them to hidden beaches, scenic lookouts, historic sites, hikes, farmers markets and many other Kauai attractions.
The Kauai GPS Tour Guide is the first App of its kind available to Kauai visitors. It’s like having an island resident drive with you to tell you about the island. Unlike a guide book where you’re constantly flipping through pages trying to figure out where you are and what’s around you, the Tour Guide tells you about hidden places, and guides you to difficult to find attractions.
The Tour Guide includes over 200 points of interest and uses a real human voice - not a computer generated one. The application also includes comprehensive beach and snorkeling guides, weather and surf forecasts, driving directions, Kauai background information for tourists including detailed ocean safety guidelines, and select activity and restaurant recommendations.
Kauai GPS Tour Guide is available for only $5.95 from iTunes or the iPhone app store. It also works with the iPad 3G+Wifi model. Currently there’s only a version for Kauai, but other islands may be added in the future.
We’ve updated our guide to Hawaii’s best beaches where we list our nominations for Hawaii’s 30 best beaches. This year Hanalei Bay gets top honors, beating out Oahu’s Kailua beach. Hanalei Bay actually has much in common with Kailua - it’s in a residential area with no hotels or condos, mountains provide a beautiful backdrop, and both are uncrowded and offer a range of water activities.
There are some other notable changes in our rankings. Waikiki beach, one of Hawaii’s funnest beaches with all sorts of activities, has moved up 6 positions to #13. This is thanks to the downturn in tourism since we heavily penalize Waikiki for overcrowding. Poipu beach park moves up in the rankings thanks to the return of the Tombolo (a sand bar extending out from the shore) and a great effort by residents who cut away brush that was encroaching on the sand. And making an appearance for the first time in our list (suspiciously absent in the past) is Kauai’s wonderful Maha’ulepu beach.
As noted on our list, all the islands have beautiful beaches including the Big Island. Our island beach guides list over 100 great tourist beaches. Below is a short video of Hanalei Bay to give you a taste of what the beach looks like in the summer months when the ocean is calm.
Update: Congratulations to our winners - everybody who entered won! The contest has now ended. No one got every answer exactly right but everyone showed a jolly good effort.
To celebrate our 2 year anniversary we’re giving away Bishop Museum Tickets! Bishop Museum is a wonderful place to visit if you’re traveling to Oahu. To enter just answer the following trivia questions and submit your answer as a blog comment. Remember there’s a limit of 1 winner per household, and the museum tickets expire December 31, 2010. It takes about 10 minutes to figure out the answers to the quiz.
Trivia Questions
Question 1 - What HawaiiGaga.com beach page stars an endangered species monk seal?
[Hint: We've photographed 1 in Oahu, 1 on the Big Island, and 2 on Kauai]
Question 2 - According to our weather guide, what area of Hawaii receives the least amount of rainfall?
[Hint - Hawaii Weather Guide]
Question 3 - What Kauai condo are we describing here:
“_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is an oceanfront condominium complex about a 5 minute walk from Brennecke beach, or 7 minutes to Poipu Beach park. The complex features a swimming pool hovering just at the edge of the ocean.”
Add your answer as a comment. Winners will be emailed at the email address you specify in the blog comment. Note: Private information is not shared and used only to administer this giveaway.
Rules
-Limit of 1 entry per household.
-Tickets must be used by December 31, 2010.
-We reserve the right to judge incorrect answers as correct when a good effort is shown.
-Employees, family, friends, and associates of HawaiiGaga.com not eligible.
-Only open to residents of the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
-Void where prohibited by law.
-No purchase necessary to win.
-HawaiiGaga.com is not responsible for lost or undelivered entries or winner notifications including those that are flagged as spam by our or your spam blocking software. Winners have to send mailing information within a week of being notified.
If you like Hawaii Trivia, you may enjoy our Hawaii Trivia Challenge. 95 Hawaii trivia questions to test your Hawaii knowledge and discover some interesting facts about the islands. We’ve been told the questions are pretty difficult, but you should have some fun going through them.
What is a wolphin? Take the trivia challenge to find out (image courtesy of Mark Interrante)
For more Hawaii trivia pick up the book Hawaii Trivia by Ed Cassidy, which contains at least 1000 Hawaii trivia questions.
We’re very pleased to announce that HawaiiGaga.com has partnered with Hawaiian Images Photography and Video to bring you aerial photos of Hawaii’s beaches, attractions, and condo resorts.
As you may know, HawaiiGaga.com displays panoramic photos of Hawaii’s 150 most popular beaches and tourist attractions. Panoramic photos give one an excellent idea of what a beach looks like. Now we’ve supplemented those photos with aerial images. The added perspective reveals many details about a beach. You’ll notice that many Hawaii beaches enjoy beautiful surroundings. As an example, take a look at spectacular Tunnels Beach on Kauai.
Brian Powers of Hawaiian Images Photography and Video decided to photograph the Big Island’s coastline in 2004. The project proved so popular he continued in 2007 and photographed the rest of Hawaii. Over 10,000 photographs later, and he now has nearly every inch of Hawaii’s coastline photographed. The photos are taken at about 500ft. Brian can somehow fly an airplane and take sharp photos at the same time!
Nothing maintains the spirits like a daily dose of Hawaii. That’s why we’ve created a Google gadget to complement our Hawaii Google themes, called My Daily Hawaii.
What is a Google gadget? It’s simply an add-on that you attach to your Google home page. Instead of the boring and plain Google home page, you can add all sorts of gadgets to customize your Google page with extra information and tools.
What does My Daily Hawaii do?
Shows a new scenic picture of Hawaii every day. Can you guess the location?
Hawaii travel tips. There’s a lot to learn as you prepare for your next holiday.
Daily Hawaii trivia. Answer correctly to win super cute puppy picture prizes ™.
A weather forecast for the four main islands.
Flight alerts. Find out what others are paying for airfare from your airport to Hawaii.
Cool diggs. Recommendations on some very neat places to stay.
My Daily Hawaii - The HawaiiGaga Google Gadget with Super Cute Puppy Picture Prizes
To add My Daily Hawaii to your Google home page, just click on the below button:
We’ve just concluded a year long study of vacation rental occupancy rates. Below is an excerpt from the press release:
“Occupancy rates for Maui, Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island were 62%, 61%, 57% and 50% respectively.
State wide, September had the lowest occupancy rate at 40% while February was the busiest time of year for rentals with an 81% occupancy rate. From a regional perspective, Waikiki had the highest occupancy in the state at 66%, followed closely by Poipu, Kihei and East Oahu (Waimanalo and Kailua) at 65%. The two poorest performing regions were Kapalua with a rate of 46% and the Big Island’s Kohala coast and Puna regions, both averaging 49%.”
Why is the Big Island suffering with such low occupancy rates? As seen in our Hawaii weather page, The Kohala Coast has the best weather in Hawaii. It also has an excellent selection of vacation rentals, and plenty of good beaches. Yet the occupancy rate in region was 49% for the past year!
Two new search options have been added to HawaiiGaga’s rental searches. You can now search for rentals that are oceanfront or beachfront, and also confine results to rentals that have an ocean view.
Another feature that has been added is the ability to bookmark search results pages. Over time the results may change, as rentals come and go, but the search parameters will still be valid.
Congratulations to John and Jan Saunders of Wenatchee, the winners of our April review contest. Remember to say to “yes” to having your review included in the contest when you submit a review.
Hawaii doesn’t have a very pronounced spring or fall. May through October is typically considered summer. This is the best time to travel to the islands because it’s less wet and a little warmer. Overall, ocean conditions are quieter during the summer but the south shores of each island are subject to large waves that originate from storms in the southern hemisphere. The longest summer day is 13.5 hours (the shortest winter day is still 11 hours). See our Hawaii weather guide for more information.
