Kauai Sugar Cane Canal Tubing Review

On our recent trip to Kauai, my husband and sons went sugar cane canal tubing one day while my daughter and I did an alternative excursion. The following is a guest post by my husband, Brian, about this one-of-a-kind experience in Kauai.

Arrival at Kauai Backcountry Adventures

I woke up early with my two sons. We donned our swimsuits and shirts and ventured out in to the chilly Kauai morning to drive to Kauai Backcountry Adventures in Lihue.

It was a short drive from the hotel, and the arrival time was meant to ensure that people who perpetually run late would have a chance of being on time. Since we’re almost always on time, we ended up sitting around a bit. I wish there was a secret code to communicate to people who have the ability and inclination to arrive places on time so that they actually have a bit more time than advertised. Alas, no such code exists, so we hung out for a bit.

All we had to do after checking in was collect our helmets and gloves. They had little bananas to snack on and picnic tables to sit at while we waited. After applying bug spray and sunscreen and eating some tiny bananas, we waited for our group to be called.

Heading Up the Mountain

We piled into three vans and took off up into the mountains for a while, mostly off-road. The tour company leases the right to run tours on the land from a guy who bought up a bunch of land on Kauai and who, wisely, has left it pretty much undeveloped. He didn’t want it to turn into another Honolulu. Aside from tubing, the company also offers zip lining adventures.

The driver and the guide in our van were very friendly, as Hawaiians tend to be. I mean, you can’t have too many axes to grind when you live in paradise. But, they did describe the incessant, biblical rain that brought the island to a halt several years ago when living in paradise kind of sucked for once. But all things considered, if you can swing living there, it sounds like a slower-paced and happy place to live.

We stopped at a scenic lookout over a valley and they recounted some of the local history. It was during this stop where the guides explained that the water we were going to be tubing in was not cold, per se. It was to be termed “refreshing” or “brisk” in our reviews back on the mainland or else it may discourage others from trying it. If anyone proclaimed it to be cold, they explained that we risked being splashed by that refreshing mountain water. But it was not “cold.” We readily agreed.

Ready for the Sugar Cane Canals

We drove up to the embarkation point where we strapped on our helmets and put on our gloves and got ready to receive the safety briefing. Here, we noticed that every other person in our 20-ish person group got the memo that there were wetsuit tops to rent so the water wouldn’t feel quite so refreshing. We missed that.

At the safety briefing, our guides explained how to float on an inner tube. As veterans of several hotel lazy rivers and my own experience floating the Guadalupe, we were good on this concept. They warned us to watch for traffic jams that can easily occur in the narrow canals which tend to cause the tubes to flip over and dump you into the energizing water.

They described the five tunnels we would be going through. I didn’t realize that most of the trip would be through these tunnels despite my wife having told me at least three times in describing the excursion.

Entering the Water

We got our tubes and carried them down some stairs to enter the water. Every person, in succession, gently remarked on the temperature of the water by raising their voice to celebrate its briskness as they got in. My sons got in first and they seemed fine, so I thought maybe it was overblown.

Then, I put my feet into the water. It was FREEZING COLD. I say this with the firm conviction that the Hawaiian gentlemen leading the excursion will not show up in McKinney, TX to splash me with ice water. However, I also know that if they did they would be super nice about it and bring chicken and pork to barbecue afterwards.

I would like to say I got used to the water temperature after a few minutes and the cold didn’t bother me the rest of the time. However, that didn’t happen, so I just dealt with it. I got an amazing ab workout that day trying to keep my butt and feet out of the water as much as possible. My sons fared better.

Once the whole group was in the water, we passed under a rope and we were on our way. The current depended on how narrow the canal was at any given point. Overall, it seemed to move at a fairly quick pace.

 

There were only a few times during the entire trip that the water came anywhere near what you’d call rapids. It was all very easy to negotiate with the tubes. The first tunnel entrance loomed after only a few minutes floating in the canal and our guides called for us to turn on our headlamps.

Tubing in the Tunnels

In the first tunnel, the ceiling was fairly high. I didn’t feel at all claustrophobic by the thousands of tons of rock overhead that could theoretically come crashing down at any time (not really, it’s totally safe). We could see daylight behind us and in front of us the whole time, straight as an arrow. My son said he saw spiders at the top of the tunnel, but they didn’t want to bother us.

After exiting the first tunnel, the guides gave everyone the option of bailing out. Nobody did. The successive tunnels had lower ceilings and were longer, interspersed with outside stretches of canal.

The scenery was beautiful even though it was overcast and threatening rain (which luckily did not happen). The canals were carved in the earth 90% of the time, but we did stop for a group picture at one point where concrete formed the sides of the canal. It was also in this section where we experienced the adrenaline inducing “rapids” portion of the trip consisting of a two foot drop down a concrete slide. Then back to floating.

The fourth tunnel was the longest one, maybe over a mile of underground time. It had lower ceilings but, like the last one, we still were able to see daylight in front of and behind us. This time, however, that daylight was pretty small, especially when we were in the middle of the tunnel.

Sugar Cane Canal Tubing in Total Darkness

There was a brief interlude of open air before diving into the fifth and final tunnel. This one wasn’t as long as the one before it. However, it had a couple of turns, which meant that there were times that you couldn’t see daylight in front or behind you.

Somewhere in the middle of the run, the guide stopped and gathered us into a group. He told us a story about how the initial explorers of these canals had issues with their headlamps going out in this last tunnel. To commemorate, the guide had us turn our lamps off and finish the tunnel in darkness. This was the most unnerving part of the whole trip, but it didn’t last long before we saw daylight peering out towards us again. All in all, no big deal.

Lunch and Back to the Starting Point

After exiting the last tunnel, we floated a while longer and the sun started to come out a little bit. There were some small icy cold waterfalls that a couple of other people in our group were unlucky enough to get pushed into.

Soon after, we reached the designated exit from the canal and boarded an off-road people mover that drove us to the lunch spot. We had a veritable feast of turkey sandwiches, bottles of water, and fresh-made cookies still in their wrappers from a small family owned Hawaiian store that the locals called “Sam’s Club.”

After lunch, we piled back into the off-road people mover and drove back down the mountain to the place where we started. We had the option of purchasing the many photos they took for us along the way. (See our Hawaii YouTube video at the 1:33 mark for video clips of this experience).

Sugar cane canal tubing was a fun and unique experience despite the freezing cold (not brisk, not refreshing) water. We highly recommend it if you’re heading to Kauai.

Tips:

Book with Hawaii Discount to save money. We saved about $22/person.

Reserve well in advance. I heard from so many people on Facebook that they wanted to do this excursion but it was sold out. We booked about four months in advance and found plenty of availability during Spring Break.

Pick an afternoon time slot. Hopefully the temperature will be a bit more tolerable in the afternoon.

Bring your own water shoes. Otherwise, you will need to pay to rent some at the Kauai Backcountry Adventures office.

Rent the wetsuit tops. We regret that we didn’t.

Bring a GoPro. We captured a lot of video and candid shots that the tour company did not.

Prepare your kids for darkness. If you are considering bringing kids on this excursion (minimum age is 5 and 43 inches tall), prepare them for the darkness in the tunnels. Watch some YouTube videos of the excursion to make sure they seem comfortable.

Use credit card rewards! With a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve (my referral link), you can use your $300 yearly travel credit to offset your travel expenses.

Have you been sugar cane canal tubing in Kauai? What did you think? If Kauai is on your bucket list, does this excursion sound appealing?

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