Rainbow Kayak Tours

Awesome adventure and well worth the time. Our guide was awesome! He had a lot of great stories and was wonderful at filling us in with all the history and background of the surrounding area and the vegetation. Lunch was great and the falls are incredibly beautiful. The paddling and hike can be a bit strenuous but if you take your time, you will be fine.

We had a great time on the Wailua river tour! Our guide Davey was very personable and was up for answering questions about the island. The scenery kayaking was lovely, and it was nice to get out of the sun on our shady hike to the falls. We came on a «dry» week, but I can imagine the trail would get really muddy with any rain. Water shoes or hiking sandals that strap securely are a must. The waterfall was super chilly. If I were to go again, I would opt for the earlier trip (we went at 12:30) to catch a bit more sun at the falls. The lunch was good and the fresh pineapple cut by our guide was a nice treat after all that paddling. Two thumbs up!

Our guide Tom was smart, funny and super helpful in assisting everyone. The staff took time to personally engage with everyone in the group at a deep level. Tom went the extra step to get a sense of who we are as people. Along the adventure, the group was educated on flora, fauna and ancient aspects of the land and people. The river is beautiful, serene and incredible. Once at waterfall, everyone was mesmerized. I highly recommend this tour for anyone visiting Kauai.

We had a great time and the kayak tour is worth every penny. The guide took his time to make us comfortable, hung by the less experienced to help out and the lunch provided was tasty. Kayaking is the least of what you will do. It’s the hike to the waterfall that is the most spectacular. It is a bit slippery but you get to be submerged in the the tropical growth, cross small streams, see unusual plant life, etc. The waterfall is beautiful and refreshing. I appreciated that the pace was nice and easy so we could enjoy all of it. Really fun and a good company to go with if that sounds like an adventure for you.

Rainbow Kayak Tours did great. Our guide Chris was very chill but definitely knew what he was doing. He told us good stories and really helped us enjoy the experience. It was my first time ever kayaking and the day before I had spent several hours seasick on a boat so I was nervous at first. I was definitely put at ease and had such a great time. It definitely works the arms and shoulders but the kayak part was fun to try then the hike was also incredible. A little slippery at parts and I’m not much of a swimmer so I wore a life vest over the crossing rivers sections but the waterfall was worth it. Overall, glad I took the recommendation to do and would easily recommend it to anyone else.

My family and I did the wailua river/​waterfall hike with Andy on January 1^st– what a great way to start the new year! He was very professional and knowledge able, and we learned a lot of interesting facts about Hawaiian history. We did the 8 am departure, and I highly recommend leaving as early as possible. By the time we were kayaking back to the put in, there were literally hundreds of kayaks and paddleboards on their way up the river.
The 1 mile hike to the waterfall is very muddy and slippery, but there was an 84 year old man in our group who did it with ease! Tip: grab a walking stick before you depart on the hike– it will come in handy!!!

These people are awesome!!! The staff are nice the guides are friendly, knowledgeable, funny and patient. We originally were planned to go out one morning. When we arrived the water levels were too high. They were super apologetic and offered refunds or a reschedule. We still had a few days on island, so rescheduled. The staff and guide chatted us up and gave us info on a great hike, and since no one was going out that day, they gave us a couple sandwiches that had been pre made for that days tours!!! On our rescheduled day we headed out. The kayaking is flat and easy (beautiful and peaceful), the hike is fairly easy, minus the mud. Wear tennis shoes, and clothes you don’t care about (I ended up throwing away my shirt from mud). The waterfall is pretty and it’s cool to swim under. Deli sandwich lunch was good (especially after hike). Highly recommend!!!

The people working here are simply awesome. They take the time to make sure everyone is taken care of and have a good time. Our first tour was canceled due to the weather and they were very accommodating and rescheduled or reimbursed people’s money. They even gave us the lunches that where intended for the tour and pointed my wife and I in the direction of a good day hike.
We returned 2 days later and enjoyed kayaking and hiking on their guided tour. I almost didn’t give the 5^th star due to we found the waterfall to be a bit underwhelming. Mind you we have the Columbia river gorge in our backyard with many waterfalls so my impression of the falls might be skewed.
Overall a great experience and a good way to learn about the island while getting out in the elements.

My wife and I were lucky enough to get Christian as our guide for the kayak/​hike adventure. Christian has a great personality and is extremely knowledgeable about the area and its history. Kayaking was a breeze. Listen to the technique your guide will give you. Our hike was great. Hardly no mud at all. Even with mud, the hike is not that long and has a big pay off when you reach the falls. I would highly recommend this tour. Call ahead and see if you can get Christian as your guide. It will make the experience even better.

Went on the morning tour 6÷30÷14 with river guide Matt. He was knowledgeable, friendly and patient. Great guide that made me feel like an old friend!
The tour includes a sandwich, chips, cookies and water with a dry bag provided for all your belongings. Tandem kayaks are easy to navigate up the Wailua river and the surroundings are beautiful. After about a 2 mile paddle you will continue with a hike to Secret Falls. Be forewarned, you are going to get muddy! At some point the mud will be up to your knees so wear shoes accordingly (no flip flops). The hike will be super slippery too so take the walking stick when it is offered to you (my wife used 2 and it helped tremendously).
Secret Falls was great. We got to jump in the water and take some great pics and had lunch at the base of the waterfall. Really great experience. Overall, it was a great excursion. Highly Recommend!

Book for an early departure as early as you can. You will have a smaller group and the sites and trails will not be as crowded.
That being said, this was easily one of the best guided tours I have been on. Our guide Thomas (or as I like to call him, the professor) was incredibly knowledgeable about the area. You could ask him anything about the mountains, or the plants and he would know it. What’s this? oh that’s X, no hesitations.
The trip is a blast, and we had a great group as well. It was muddy as heck, but as instructed we were to embrace the ainu (land), you walk through the muck never around it. If you do, you will be in it. Guaranteed, as our guide pointed out.
He took us off a little beaten path, to show us different fauna, even to eat wild flowers.
A simple nice lunch was presented for us at the falls, which as anyone who has been there knows it’s a wonderful place.
Everything was timed and shown perfectly, with a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide to go along with it. Absolutely marvelous journey and a great trip with these guys and would not hesitate to recommend them fast enough.

Truly a spectacular experience with this company. My husband and I were honeymooning and chose Rainbow Kayak for our tour of the Wailua River. Our guide was Chris. What an awesome dude! He was super friendly, chill, knowledgeable, (he told us really cool Hawaiian facts and history!) and gave excellent directions on how to have the best kayaking experience. The whole tour was amazing– the course is so beautiful. We got a nice lunch and got to swim at the base of a waterfall as well as sit under the fall. A surreal, spiritual experience. And Chris our talented guide brought his ukulele and played for us during lunch and the walk back to the kayaks. We LOVED our trip and can’t wait to come back… We’ll be asking for Chris again. Mahalo for such an amazing time! See you soon…

Kevin was AWESOME! So knowledgeable, funny, and entertaining. The kayak was a great arm and upper body workout. Just be sure to put a TON of mosquito spray/​deet and REAPPLY… this is where I went wrong. I got eaten alive :(Also at the waterfall area… be careful of the rocks. I tripped on some, but then again I’m a bit klutzy. This was one of our favorite activities we did and we highly recommend it!

Big thanks to our guide Davey for an awesome trip!
Registering was quick and fast, as well as checking in on the day of the trip. I did a 7AM trip, which I highly recommend since you will either be the first group or one of the first groups to get to Secret Falls.
The hike in and out of Secret Falls can be pretty muddy, so wear some KEEN/​Teva/​Merrell/​etc. sandals that have straps around the ankle. A few people were sliding around in their flip flops and were pretty miserable. Having sturdy sandals made it very easy to cross the waist-​deep river, too. Also, bug spray is definitely needed for the hike portion. I forgot to put some on before leaving the house that day, and a fellow tour group member let me borrow hers (mahalo, kind stranger).
During the hike, Davey talked a lot about the history of Kaua’i and pointed out unique birds, trees, and plants as we passed by them. He was also very helpful about recommending places to go on the island for certain kinds of drinks, food, and entertainment.
Secret Falls was a beautiful place! The waterfall was awesome and the chickens were crazy. I’m grateful that kayak tours like this exist, because I don’t think I ever would have found Secret Falls on my own.

Of all the activities I did on Kauai, I enjoyed the Rainbow Kayak Tour of the Wailua River the best. The scenery was amazingly beautiful and peaceful — like something out of a fairy tale. I thought that paddling the kayak would be difficult and rigorous, but instead it was on the easier side. Our guide Kevin knew everything about anything related to Kauai, so I came back with a better understanding & appreciation of everything I saw there.
The hike gets very slippery from the mud so I highly recommend water shoes. They’re lighter and are able to grip the ground better.
Lastly, the waterfall was simply gorgeous. Lots of great photo opps.

I went on a wonderful guided tour of the Wailua River up to Secret Falls with Kevin. He was a great guide and is a wealth of information on the flora, fauna, and general history of the Wailua River valley and Kauai in general.
I had expected the tour to be a bit more difficult than it was. (Not that I’m complaining!) I brought way too much stuff with me because I hadn’t realized that almost everything is provided. The tour included:
–unlimited water bottles, chips, and cookies at the tour office before leaving
–yellow water proof backpack for all my stuff (my personal backpack ended up in this)
–life preserver
–and of course, the tandem kayak, paddles, and tour guide (did I mention how great Kevin was?!) :)
I had my iPhone with me in a ziplock bag and it has an activity tracking app that told me the following things about my tour:
–It was a 6 min (1.3 miles) drive (provided by Rainbow Kayak) from their office to the Wailua River
–We got our second kayak briefing for about 20 mins at the Wailua River boat ramp (first one at their office)
–We kayaked for 42 mins (2.1 miles)
–Walked from the kayak beaching ground to Secret Falls for about an hour (about a mile)
–And then stayed at Secret Falls swimming and playing and eating sandwiches and pineapple for a solid hour. And then of course did everything in reverse.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning in nature. My friend took over 200 pictures with her waterproof camera — including some scenes from on the river — while I took 150+ photos along the way with my iPhone.
Things to be aware of:
Your shoes will get SOAKED. After beaching the kayaks half way through the tour, you walk for 20 minutes or so until you reach a tributary creek that has to be fjorded. There is a rope to hold on to and it was not too deep but we were walking IN the water.
I was wearing some walking/​running shoes that served me well as far as the potential for slipping in mud goes BUT as I was wearing white socks… I was soon wearing soggy white socks that were pretty low cut. This meant they were mud and pebble traps. I got over it but I definitely noticed all the grit around my ankles. I think I would have been much better served with socks that went higher up my calves.
Also, I had put sunscreen on my face and arms but has forgotten my legs. I was in shorts and noticed that night that I had bright pink burns from my sock line to my knees from the time spent in the kayak. If you are going to wear shorts, I would say definitely put some sunscreen on your calves.
Also, I brought a towel and change of shorts so that I could change after swimming in the waterfall. I noticed a lot of people didn’t and that they were significantly less comfortable looking.
The whole trip served as a wonderful reconnection with nature and the icy cold water of the waterfall was exhilarating after the kayak and walk. Really an amazing experience.
Mahalo Kevin!

My wife and I are young, but not very athletic. We had a great time and our guide Kevin was hilarious. I would recommend this tour to anyone under 50 (or over 50 and fit).

This kayaking/​hiking tour was very fun! Kayaking really shows you how well you work with a partner. The Wailua River is gorgeous, calm, and so easy to kayak in. The hike was very fun because it wasn’t just a boring trail. It was through trees, and over rocks, so make sure you are comfortable with terrain hiking. And the waterfall was breathtaking (however swimming in there was freezing).
The tour guide (I think Aaron) was very entertaining and knowledgeable about nature and the animals we saw. And he was also very laid back (as is everyone who lives in Hawaii) so the whole trip was very enjoyable.
Tour took about 5 hours. Well worth the money. And the price is cheapest when you book directly with them. I recommend it for sure!

This was a fantastic experience!
Bobby, our guide, was great. He spend a good amount of time explaining to our group of 12 how to paddle properly, how to turn, slow down, etc. He stressed to us that it is OUR trip, to relax, to enjoy the ride, and to make sure we gave ourselves space in order to take it all in — which we did!
He was all over the place, from helping the last of the pack to leading the group. Once we got to the hike portion of our excursion, he got everyone ashore and led the group well. Along the way we stopped to learn about different plants, about the water line, water ways, trees, and wildlife — he proved to be very personable and quite knowledgeable.
Once we got to the waterfall, he laid out our lunch while we played in the water.
Needless to say, the return trip was just as pleasurable as the trip in.
Once we all got back Bobby was able to give us some tips on local restaurants as well as a lead on another company that he recommended for another excursion we were interested in.
You can’t go wrong with this place.

I am posting this review because of my terrible experience with this tour company. This is the only tour that I took out of 6 that treated me, along with others in my group, so poorly that I would not return any business to this company strictly because of how poor Thomas’ customer service skills are.
He has no regard or consideration for the safety, well-​being or interest of his group. He had a negative attitude, didn’t put any effort into showing anyone how to kayak and very much started his own hike, while numerous people were still trying to get their kayak onto the beach!
The hike was described as a brisk walk to myself for about a mile. On a scale of 1 – 10, I’d say that hike was a 7 or an 8 and Thomas was so far in front of myself and one other that we couldn’t see them anymore. He never turned back to see if he had his group together or to see if we were ok.
I got the impression that he was here to enjoy his own trip and being a tour guide was not a priority. Returning from our hike, our group’s kayaks were on the bottom of 5 other groups because we had arrived first. He grabbed his own and said let’s go and was gone. It took over 10 minutes for my rowing partner and I to even get our kayak off of the beach and into the water. This clearly put us behind many people in our group and no one seemed to be too interested in making sure everything was ok.
By the end of the trip I was so put out by Thomas’ attitude and disregard of my feelings. He was literally just floating in the harbor sunbathing while waiting for us to finally finish our trip, like he was bored with having to wait for someone who was on his tour. He was rude and I would never go back to Rainbow Tours. He puts a bad name and face to the company.