1.   CAN YOU WALK TO THE BEACH?   Many places advertise that you can walk to the beach.  A friend who manages 40 rentals and has her own rental near beach says that all her guests drive somewhere else everyday.  Why?  You will want to explore many different beaches, each with different character.  (See our beach tour Beach Photo Tour.)  Kauai has more white sand beach than all the other islands combined.  Some beaches offer soulful walks, some good for swimming, (lagoon sheltered beach or lifeguard), some for surfing (winter),  snorkeling (summer),  infants ..... For rentals that claim "walk to beach", question is, "Is it a safe beach?  Is it crowded by houses?  Do you walk by streets that are dangerous for kids? Is it even attractive? "     The beach that is walking distance from our place is a river mouth that is not as epic as other choices.  We ourselves never use it.  It is better to drive 1 mile to world class beach, Lumahai, or Tunnels Beach, 2 miles, or 4 miles to Hanalei Bay, or 4 to Ke'e.  The list goes on.  Walking on road here isn't safe as there are no shoulders in some places. Bike riding in this area is also hazardous for same reason. There are intrepid joggers who make the traffic go around them, dangerous for everyone. I think it is better to drive 5 minutes to long beach and walk or jog there.  The contrast between the windy beaches you will visit in the days and secluded lushness and river sounds you will experience here at night is wonderful.   When there are big waves, ONLY SWIM at lagoon beaches or near lifeguard towers.

2.  HOW CLOSE ARE STORES AND RESTAURANTS?   Hanalei Town is 4 miles, or 10 minutes away, with about 15 restaurants, grocery store, photo processing, ATM machine (of course!),  and gift-art shops.

3.   IS THIS ONE HOUSE OR SEVERAL? Aloha Sweet Seclusion is a giant 3-story, 4000+ square foot guest house, with 5 completely private areas, each can be self-contained with a private entrance. We have found that most of the time guests here are quiet enough that we don't hear each other. The exception is crying kids or very heavy walkers or kids jumping up down. If you are traveling with children, we need to discuss this. We have a young child ourselves, but do not always stay in house.   If you are looking for a cottage all on its own, please consider this fact: it is  more quiet here than most stand alone homes, as we actually rarely hear each other and the two neighbors are very quiet. The birds are what wake you up.  Occasionally we can hear the surf if it is big.  The only cars we hear are one neighbor and ourselves. (A lot of the vacation rentals on Kauai, that aren't condos, are actually suburb cul-de-sac neighborhoods.   That's why they show the outside of house on website, but not the view from the house, which would be pretty boring. Most places have zero view is the truth. I can't show our place because it is surrounded by trees.  So I show you what YOU will see, from YOUR dining table.   360 tours are pretty cool for that.)  

4. WHAT WEATHER CAN WE EXPECT?     Is the weather predictable anywhere?!!   Do I trust the weather report??? (not!)  Hawaii is a land of rainbows. That means sun shining down on rain. That means passing clouds and showers mixed with blue skies and sun. You can expect the weather to change several times a day. You can expect gloomy mornings to change to brilliant baking sun block afternoons, and vice versa. We have had a record breaking droughts in recent winters, while some summers have been rainy, which just shows how unpredictable it is. Honestly, in 6 years of business, there have only been 4 times where a period of 5 days was rained out, and all 4 times it was state wide storms.   In general, anticipating some rain is wise, and having sunblock with you is very wise! You will be in shorts and t-shirts most of the time. Summers bring one sweater just in case an evening is cool. Winters, bring two layers in case it gets real chilly. ... Below is current weather within one hour of right... now!..........                                  If you hear that it is storming here, don't worry.  It will change before you arrive.

A note on South Shore vs. North Shore.   All the calendar photos of Kauai that you have probably ever seen were taken on North Shore, the green lush side of every island in Hawaii.  I think this makes the South shore businesses jealous, so they put out negative comments about the North Shore being rainy or cloudy.  Read GREEN!   The south sides of all our islands are the leeward, dry sides.  Mesquite and prickly pear cactus, no kidding.  Sun is guaranteed and so are mega resorts and artificial environments.  On Oahu it is Waikiki, on Maui it is Kihei, on Big Island it is Kona, and on Kauai  it is Poipu-Waimea-Kekaha.  On Kauai, a small island, the 20 mile long  south side can be seen in a 2 hour drive.   Forget splitting your vacation between North and South!  Stay on North Shore and visit South side one half day, see the desert and resorts and be very pleased you chose the calendar photo, green, North shore.  Oh, another criticism from the south, "rough water in winter on North Shore".   True, depending on waves, but there are several sheltered beaches.   We know.   We swim daily.

Not convinced?  Why is Pierce Brosnan my neighbor and NOT living on South Shore?

 5.   IS THIS COMPARABLE TO A HOTEL?   Or  ARE HOTELS NATURAL?   These next paragraphs are intended to scare a certain type of folk.  The others will chuckle.    Of all the honeymoon couples and second honeymoon couples who have stayed here so far, 99% have been very complimentary of the housekeeping  cleanliness, the helpfulness (we hang out with some guests, and others we never even meet. It depends on what YOUR need and desire), the little extra amenities,  the art,  privacy, quiet, and the end of road jungle seclusion. We have had several parties book return visits and many referred their relatives here.   Most people say they will tell all their friends.  Most people are dazzled.  Serious!  But not everyone.  There have been some negatives... that's natural too.   The first party was not ready for country living, were afraid of frogs and spiders, expected air conditioning, were offended by it ALL.  This is the kind of visitor I'm trying to warn off.       You see, for nature lovers, this place is perfect.  This is a jungle retreat.  Jungle!  The second disgruntled party, you can read about in  #11 Cancellation paragraph below.  If your lady is a city girl, please read it carefully.  Gentleman, if it is possible :), know your bride!!!!!   In every case it was the feminine side of couple that had negative reaction. Does your lady have any health issues?   Allergies?   Is she an adventurer or a princess?   Does she like being IN nature, or looking at it on TV? :)  

The third was a woman with back problems, which she didn't tell us about before she arrived.  We could not make the bed comfortable, so they left.

Another negative was particularly a head scratcher.  Two couples arrived after 7 nights in the Marriot, a 400 room hotel. One couple had selected our place, the other couple had come along with them and I suspect, had never read this FAQ. And the woman of that couple was sick, had a cold, ironically from the hotel.   She felt our place was too humid and stuffy.  They were bent out of shape and defensive-aggressive and after they left I went over to the unit to see what they were talking about.  We had just had 70 mile/hour winds and all the windows were closed.   And they were still closed!  They had never opened windows!   Maybe large hotels don't have opening windows, so it never occurred to them????   My mind can still not understand these people :).   Following them in same unit was a couple, the man a commercial pilot, who one can imagine has been a lot of places.  They loved place.  

There was one more, dust freaks.  She said she could smell dust.  I told her no one else ever mentioned dust.  She said all the others, thousand people, must have been trying to be polite so they didn't say anything!!!  Also she said her intuition was always right.  Always, all..... okay, okay... they hung in there though and survived. 

If staying in a condo or hotel room that could be found anywhere in the world, is unique in no way, where because of pesticides, no living thing could ever come near... seems fun, then why in the world would someone want to stay in a vacation rental bordering 60,000 acres of jungle?  For example, geckos live in every home in Hawaii, unless they are poisoned. Geckos are small harmless lizards with sticky padded feet that run on walls everywhere in the tropical world. I like them! 

email received Feb 16 2004

"Ray,   I  just wanted to say THANK YOU for a wonderful stay. Tony and I had a fabulous time on Kauai. We were so grateful to come home to your beautiful Sundeck studio after a long day of hiking, kayaking or snorkeling. It was a vacation we will not soon forget. Thanks again for being a part of it. We hope to see you (and the geckos) again in the future.     Sincerely,  Christina and Tony  "

So, dear internet surfer, can you relate?

Okay, you don't know what a gecko looks like?  I found this site to be pretty humorous....   "Gecko Ranch"   but book mark us now, before you get lost :)  Yes, you can order live geckos from this site!

For more Hawaiian wildlife photos try this one  http://www.alohafriendsphotos.com/animals.html

We have had many doctors, attorneys, nurses, airline pilots, and even a mayor of a city of 300,000 people.  If you like this site, you will love the place.  Just show this FAQ to all the adults who are coming,  please. We want happy campers.

6.  VALUES/SPIRIT/LIMITS ?    All spaces have stairs, no elevators, sorry.  We don't allow pets as the next visitor might have allergies. I don't want to attract drunk energy or drugs or promiscuous energy (people who bring home strangers). We expect our guests to dress modestly in the carport area or on grounds.  (One young couple in carport explained their nudity this way  "We're from California!"   Huh? Give me a break!)   We don't subscribe to HBO or Showtime anymore, because of late night porn. If you like to party, maybe a different rental would be better for you.   Also, there is little place to run for groups of boys 9-12 years old : the grounds are limited that way.   I would like to hope our place is supportive of traditional family bonds. "For families and families to be".  I use words 'traditional' and 'family' and 'honeymoon'  in historic and biological sense.  If anyone wants to argue with my understanding of English language, watch out, because I have all, 100%, of Earth's 15,000 species of mammals on my side!  That is, the ones not found it zoos.......  Bigotry, it works like this... if you don't tolerate what the politically correct person tolerates, you will be treated with complete intolerence.   Every time!   Well, anyway, back to the jungle, we have been honored, happy, enriched and comfortable with the vast majority of our "traditional" guests.  If you can get through this FAQ you'll probably find a kinship with us as well!   

.  For those of you wondering now about my religious or political affiliations, I go way beyond..... this is a long read but it changed my life......  www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net    After you enlighten yourself there, then I strongly ask you to see this free documentary with your broadband connection...  www.911revisited.com .    My life has been completely turned around from the documentaries available on Google Video, all knowledge purposely unavailable on TV or other media.  You won't understand what I mean until you turn off your TV and explore 'truth movement' on web.   What is truth movement?  Well you won't ever hear about it on TV. To prepare yourself for the life you and everyone you know will really experience, please read this www.energybulletin.net/41976.html

7.   HOW CLOSE ARE THE NEIGHBORS?  We have three  neighbors, one house is about 70 feet away behind trees, and the others are about 400 feet away behind trees.  We practically never hear them as they too are vacation rentals,  and are not always occupied.    We are at the END of the road. We border a river and a 60,000 acre forest reserve. 

8.   ARE ALL THE RENTALS NON-SMOKING?    Yes, no smoking.  Message from Ray.... smoking killed a friend of mine before he turned 50.  Quit now.

9. ARE THESE HOT TUBS?  The jacuzzi tubs on the screened in balconies of Treetop and Riverview and Big Room are just that, jacuzzi tubs. The tub in Riverview is huge, 5 feet wide.  Fits two or three people easily. The 6 ' tub in Treetop is sculptured like an hour glass and designed for two people facing each other.   The 6'  tub on Sundeck is big enough for two or probably three (no one has tried that :) ) and you can see the stars, but there are no jets on Sundeck.  In Big Room is a corner jacuzzi bathtub that is configured so Mama and Papa Bear can both sit-lay facing out toward river.    On all these, you fill them each time so the water is pure each time.  The water heater is on-demand propane so we never can run out of hot water.

10.   AIR CONDITIONING?   We don't need AC because we have the river! Also in a mountain valley like this, we don't experience the heat of the south sides of the islands. The river is cool and close by, and keeps microclimate here cool.  We now live 1/4 mile away on same road, and it is cooler at Sweet Seclusion because of the river than where we are building new house.  All the spaces have ceiling and portable fans, and many screens. This is comfortable. If you are from the Southern states and used to air conditioning,  or have stayed on desert sides of islands, maybe you will expect AC but you won't miss it once you are here.   And on winter mornings when there is a clear starry night, as stated in weather paragraph, a sweater and socks are often needed, (unless you just flew in from winter in Wisconsin).

 11.  WHAT IS CANCELLATION POLICY?  When you book, you do this with an email confirming your intention, I confirm with email, amd mark calendar and then send directions by email., and  you send deposit check in mail or by credit card.   Full payment of balance is expected with personal check by mail, or another credit card payment 60 days before your arrival.   If you cancel more than 60 days before your booking, we charge $50 service fee and return funds to you. Less than 60 days, if you choose to cancel, we refund you only if we can replace your dates with another visitor.  What if there is a disaster?  Well, this is not a travel insurance company. I have been asked to act like one, and sometimes I can. But I can't be responsible for personal preferences. We had heavy rains and flooding in early 2008. Two parties stayed, and the third didn't and demanded refund. They said it was act of God. I asked them why the other guests didn't get His message?      

Now, in your marriage vows you might have heard the word "OBEY". This one gets tricky. .  

If you arrive here with your new bride and she hates the place, or the other couple you arrived with can't handle the lack of plastic, then she or they probably never read this FAQ,  and you will have to hunt for a hotel or condo.  I'll refund 30%  in such a scenario.  This is unconventionally generous compared to other rental agencies around here.  

 Here is a story about  a couple from Europe.  He loved our place and had selected it, and she hated it.  They found a nice generic condo and wanted full refund.  I couldn't do that. Not seeing that she hurt our business, and all persnippity , she stole some irreplaceable art on the way out.  I pity the groom.  Conclusion, I'm in good company with the people who love staying here, which is 99%.  Please show your bride or fellow travelers this FAQ and if she is city girl who has never stayed in the countryside, has never seen a bug,  jumping toads (with warts!) freak her out, can't imagine mud ("Eeeek! On my Honeymoon!"), then perhaps one of the big resorts would be a better place to stay.  ( My wife and I stayed at a 5 star hotel on south side for the heck of it one night.  I had to chuckle at the giant cockroach dashing down the hallway, and was awed by the disintegrating caulk around the 5 star shower).  Also, there are mosquitoes in Hawaii.  Please don't report me to the Hawaii Tourist Bureau !   Even the nearby Princeville Hotel, $400+/night  has skeeters!  Yep, and you thought paradise had no mud or mosquitoes didn't you?  

12.  DO YOU TAKE CREDIT CARDS?        Yes.   For those who prefer cards and are willing to pay an extra 3.5% (charge from paypal), please request an online credit card invoice when you send your inquiry.   I'll ask last minute bookings to be paid this way.   The service is provided by Paypal.com with over 100 million accounts, and EBAY their biggest client.   If you are coming from Europe and don't want to use card,  we can arrange for you to wire money bank to bank.

13.   WHAT DO YOU PROVIDE ... Washer (with detergent included) and Dryer for laundry  is located in carport area,  beach towels,  cooler, charcoal barbecue, iron and ironing board, hair dryer,  dvd, cd player, cable tv, wireless internet, beach equipment.   We rent kayak, surf boards... There is no daily maid service.  You clean your place while you are here and take trash to cans in carport when needed.  On that subject, it is shoes-off policy in house, and there is hose at each entrance to wash off your sandy beach feet.  If you have a favorite shampoo, bring it, but not in carry on luggage, as you know.  Hikers should bring shoes and shorts that WILL get stained by iron oxide  in dirt here. SURFING LESSONS, BOAT AND HELICOPTER DISCOUNTS,  LICENSED MASSAGE.  Just ask me, Ray, about it.

14.   WILL WE NEED TO RENT A CAR?   Yes, absolutely. The public transportation here is very marginal. You will want to explore all the beaches and there are no signal lights within 20 miles, so don't worry, you will not be in a traffic zone on north shore.  There is rush hour traffic in Lihue and Kapaa.  For car rental quotes, use 800 numbers in your local yellow pages to call the different car rental companies, such as National, Dollar, Thrifty, Budget, Alamo, Avis, and tell them you are needing a car at Lihue Airport on Kauai. For guests under 25 years old, you will probably pay double.  I personally think renting a jeep is a waste of money. They are all automatic transmission, you can't lock them, they cost double an economy car, and, there are almost no roads where you need one!    I know,  I know, you are on safari and have to have 'the look'....    For all of them ask for AAA discounts, etc.   Remember to check for damage before driving off with car.

15.  AIRLINE TIPS?   

United  and American Airlines have a direct daily flight to Lihue Airport on Kauai  from San Francisco or LA.  We just found a DIRECT flight Lihue to Phoenix inexpensive, Amer-West airlines (US  Airways).   Sun Trips also had a direct budget flight from SF?  There may be others also as things change quickly but look into this option of flying direct to Kauai, not going to Honolulu. This will save you the inter-island flight time (Honolulu to Kauai) which is about 3 hours (with all the waiting) minimum each way.  Shop online for interisland tickets  from Go! (Mesa Airlines),  or Hawaiian Airlines.   Aloha Airlines went Bankrupt Mar 31 2008. Again read www.energybulletin.net/41976.html .    Also, check the online specials at all airline websites.   

Everyone, if you are passing through Honolulu, you can often immediately catch the about-to-take-off flight to Kauai with your existing ticket, and not have to wait around at Honolulu airport. The flights for inter-island carriers, leave almost every hour, kind of like a bus.  Just ask if you can get on an earlier flight standby.   By catching an earlier flight, you will probably beat your baggage to Kauai, but you will be here and can use the time to get your car. Try travelocity , priceline, expedia or orbitz to see possible itinerary from your area, but call the airlines to get the real lowdown.  Then you can save money by reserving your ticket online at airline website or often your local travel agent can get a discounted fare. 

Be forewarned.  Frequent flyer miles are usually very stingy on availability.  Book way in advance when you want to use your miles.

 Things change fast in travel industry.  If anyone has any updates, please let me know.

16.  WHAT ACTIVITIES DO YOU RECOMMEND?   We encourage all water sports.  EVERYONE should do the 3 or 5 hour Napali Coast boat tour!!! (whale watching in the winter).  I can book this for you at a discount once you are here.  Saves enough money for a restaurant dinner!    There is a great 8 mile round trip hike to a waterfall, and shorter hikes also.    Hikers should bring grubby clothes as the earth (okay, MUD!) here, repeat,  has iron oxide, staining clothes and shoes permanently.  Here are some great photos of famous Kalalau trail (link).  There is golfing and tennis in Princeville, riding stables, windsurfing lessons, live music, helicopter trips.  We can give  at least 10%  discounts for boat and helicopter trips so, again, don't book these until you get here.   We rent  a soft top surfboard ($20), two seat kayak $50, and have massage studio on river. 

THE 3 QUESTIONS YOU WILL ASK YOURSELVES...

 1. Do we have to leave?   

2.  How can we bring this feeling home with us?       

3.  When can we come back?    

Reality.....  If you liked this website

you will love our place!  

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