Visiting Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens in Kauai

Na Aina Kai Botanical Gardens are located on the North Shore of Kauai in Kilauea.

Covering 240 acres, with a variety of gardens and sculptures, it is a magical and beautiful place to visit.

The gardens’ founders are Ed and Joyce Doty. Originally their home private gardens, they soon started buying up neighboring lots and expanding. Eventually, they created a non-profit and donated all of the gardens, lands and buildings to it. 

The gardens currently offer 7 different tours, of varying cost and duration. The cost ranges from $20 – $60/person. Reservations are required for all visitors. Our tour guide pointed out the only stoplight allowed on the North Shore is located inside the garden.

We chose to take The Ride tour ($60/person) which lasts three hours. You are driven around the gardens in an open air, but covered, large golf cart. Your tour guide will provide information on the gardens and artwork. Our guide allowed us to get off the golf cart at many different locations so we could take photographs. This statue, entitled “Valentine” was one of my favorites.

Another favorite of mine, the details on the sculptures are amazing.

They also designed and excavated this lovely water garden.

I just marvel at their creativity and vision.

Another favorite sculpture of mine. 

And yet another. There were many statues that I did not photograph, as we just drove by them.

They also have a whole grove of Rainbow Eucalyptus trees. You can also find these trees on Maui and Oahu.

Our favorite tree in the garden.

There is even a Children’s garden, complete with playground equipment and a splash pool. Although the tour is supposed to last three hours, our guide was happy to extend our tour. In fact, she kept getting calls on her radio asking when we would be back and checking to make sure everything was ok. We were able to see so much. I’ve just skimmed the surface with this post. I can not recommend visiting the Gardens enough. I would 100% go back and do more tours to see what we missed. 

Things to Know Before You Go:

1. The Gardens are only open Tuesday – Friday.
2. The Gift Shop is open Monday – Friday from 8:30 – 4:00 (3:00 on Friday)
3. The tours are only offered on certain days, so plan accordingly.
4. Bring water, sunscreen and, of course, your camera.
5. Wear comfortable shoes, especially if you choose a walking tour.
6. If you choose a walking tour, you will not be able to cover the whole garden in the time allowed.
7. For descriptions of the tours, check out Na Aina Kai’s website.

I am usually not a big tour person, I prefer to go along at my own pace. However, this tour was fabulous. We learned so much and were able to see much more than we would have on a walking tour. This was our final day in Kauai. We spent our entire morning here, went shopping and went to Lava Lava Beach Club for our final meal on the island. It was a nice, relaxing way to wind up our trip. My next post will be on the condo we stayed at on the North Shore. While it wasn’t horrible, we weren’t thrilled, but we learned a lot.

If you are interested in reading about more botanic gardens, click on the links below. If you will be visiting Kauai and love Botanic Gardens, check out The McBryde Gardens and The Allerton Gardens.  As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

Check these posts out!

The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii

Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison

Rotany Botanical Gardens in Janesville

Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago

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