Kauai Sailing With Kids: Age Limits, Child Fares and the Right Boat

The age limit comes first

Every Na Pali boat sets a minimum age, and the crews check it at the dock. One family booked a Holo Holo morning for a birthday and found their four-year-old could not board. The limit is on the booking page, but it is easy to miss. Check it before anything else.

Guests aged 13 and up pay the adult fare on both Na Pali operators. Expectant mothers may not sail on any Na Pali boat, so a pregnant parent will need to sit this one out or choose the shorter bay cruise.

What children tend to love

Ask families what their children remember and the same things come up. Dolphins riding beside the boat on the way out. A turtle under the snorkel mask. The waterslide off the back of Lucky Lady in the morning. Spray over the front of the boat, which half the children want and half the parents do not. In winter, a whale blowing in the distance.

The coast itself matters less to a six-year-old than to you, so pick a trip with something to do. For most children that means the morning, with its swim and its slide. For a child who cannot swim yet, the animals are the draw, and they turn up morning or evening.

Will your child enjoy five hours at sea?

Be honest about this one. The Na Pali trips run four to five and a half hours, and Holo Holo says its boats cannot return early for seasickness. The sea on this coast can be rough. Travellers on the Lucky Lady morning describe a third of the boat unwell on a bad day. Others describe a calm sea and whales, so it varies day to day.

• Give a remedy early. Some need taking hours ahead; ask your doctor or pharmacist.
• Sit low and at the back. The front gets the most motion and the most spray.
• Pack a change of clothes. Children up front will get soaked.
• Bring a dry bag. Towels and spare clothes stay dry in one.
• Mind the dark. Lucky Lady's morning checks in at 6:45 a.m., before sunrise from November to March.

Snorkelling with children

On Holo Holo's boats, non-swimmers may not go in the water, even with a float. A traveller on the Lucky Lady morning found the same rule applied there. So a child who cannot swim spends the stop on deck. If your child swims, both operators supply the gear and a lesson, and Lucky Lady adds a waterslide off the back.

Turtles are the usual favourite. One family met turtles and a monk seal at the snorkel stop in May. Keep your distance from both: the rules, and what else you may see, are on whales and dolphins on a Kauai sail.

The evening option for small children

The Na Pali evening aboard Lucky Lady takes children from 3 and has a shaded cabin to retreat to. One parent wrote that every crew member made time for their son through the evening. There is no swim, so a non-swimmer misses nothing. Dinner is on board, and soft drinks are served while the adults' bar is open, at $222 a person.

What other families made of each boat, good days and rough ones, is collected on the Kauai sailing reviews. If your children would love to see a whale, check the months on the best time to sail Kauai.

Food, drink and restrooms

You will not need to pack a picnic for a Na Pali trip. The morning boats serve breakfast and lunch; Lucky Lady's morning lays out build-your-own sandwiches, pasta salad, chips and cookies. The evening boats serve dinner. Soft drinks and water are poured all day, so a child who will not eat the menu can at least stay hydrated. The bay cruise lists drinks but no food, so feed everyone before you board.

Every Na Pali boat has a restroom on board. The morning boats add freshwater showers, which you will be glad of after the snorkel stop. Marine toilets clog easily, and Holo Holo asks you to flush only what it provides, so walk small children through that before you leave.

What to pack for a child

• A towel and a change of clothes for each child.
• A light jacket. The wind on deck feels cool once you are wet.
• Lotion sunscreen and a hat. There is shade in the cabins, but not everywhere.
• A refillable water bottle. Holo Holo asks every guest to bring one.
• Any daily medicine. Holo Holo will move you to another day if you arrive without an inhaler or an EpiPen you need.

Shorter still, the 90-minute cruise on the bay stays in sheltered water and goes up a river. It suits a child who might not last five hours, and it costs $114 a person.

Which trip for which family

For the morning boats side by side, see Na Pali snorkel tours; for the evenings, Kauai sunset cruises. For everything else to do with children ashore, see things to do on Kauai, and for check-in, the visitors guide. Weighing a morning against an evening? Read the morning sail against the sunset sail.

Boats that take the youngest sailors

Kauai: Deluxe Na Pali Snorkel Cruise aboard Lucky Lady

Five and a half hours on a 60-foot catamaran from Port Allen, checking in at 6:45 a.m.: breakfast treats, a reef snorkel with gear, a waterslide and a sandwich lunch, with an open bar for over-21s. Children from age 3.

From $233 per person

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Kauai: Deluxe Na Pali Sunset Cruise aboard Lucky Lady

Five hours on a 60-foot catamaran from Port Allen in the afternoon: the Na Pali Coast towards sunset, dinner on board and an open bar with mai tais for over-21s. No swimming on this one; children from age 3.

From $222 per person

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Kauai: Catamaran Sunset Cruise

Ninety minutes from Nawiliwili on the bay and up the Huleia River at sunset, with the captain's stories, wine, beer and cocktails. It does not go to the Na Pali Coast.

From $114 per person

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