Ultimate Circle Island Experience: Beauty and the Feast

Oct 1 2022: Reserved online, and was picked up on time near hotel. We had a dozen folks on a large comfortable van, with Rawell (sp??) as our fantastic guide! He's born on Oahu, so able to personalize points of interest. We stopped at several lookouts, fruit and mac nut farm stands for about 10 minutes each, and then stopped for lunch. Lunch was included in price of tour, and ordered ahead so when we pulled in to Fumi's shrimp, our meals were packaged and ready to consume. We headed over to Waimea Valley for a short stroll to the Waimea waterfall. It was paved the entire way and an easy walk for me (I'm 66 in in decent shape.) There is also a "golf cart" option for an additional $20 round trip, but it's not even a mile round trip with very little elevation changes. Unfortunately there's been no rain, and the sign at admission indicated there wasn't enough water to make the falls. Please don't be disappointed or place blame because it's advertised as a "falls"...if there's no rain, there's no water:) Not many flora and fauna blooming this time of year so keep that in mind as well. Rawell provided detailed narration the entire trip, pointing out places of interest. This tour, is meant to provide a detailed overview of places you may want to visit on your own at a later date. For me, it was nice to see everything without having to drive. Keep in mind that large tour busses hold 50+ folks and probably have fewer stops at various points of interest. Wrangling that many folks to get back onto the bus can cause delays...something to consider when booking.