Gardens Na Aina Kai

We have been to Na Aini Kai several times, but we think we will not be returning after this latest tour. We always take the 5 hour trek, and have had a blast every time, except for this trip. We feel this place has taken a bad turn since Mr. Doty passed away. It seems that what we appreciated the first few times we visited has been lost. The plants in the «food» section looked pretty sad. As a gardener, it seems to me that it’s pretty easy to grow plants on Kauai, but the specimens we saw look like they’ve been neglected. The tour guides make a big deal about the resident horticulturist, but I was not impressed. We were also disappointed that we were only allowed to peer through the windows of the new library. Why not let the people who spend $ 85 pp to tour the library? The non-​Hawaiian displays are silly and now they are building an Arctic zone. If I wanted to see ice, I’d go to Alaska. Our guide rambled on about the plants he grows in his garden and his wife spent most of her time correcting him. The 3 National Tropical Botanical gardens on Kauai are a better way to spend your time and money.

I went to a wedding here. It wasn’t mine so I don’t know how all of the planning and finances turned out to be. That’s usually where most of the issues come from but I can’t speak on how that went but I can say I had a great time at the wedding and this venue.
The wedding took place late afternoon. After parking, they shuttled all of us to the location where the vows would happen. It was at the grass near the beach entrance but completely separate from the beach. The beach is accessible while you wait for the bride and groom.
After the vows were exchanged, all of the guests were shuttled to another area where the reception would be, another grassy area with sunny and shaded areas where appetizers and drinks were served and standing tables were set up.
After reception there was the wedding dinner at a building with a surrounding patio overlooking the garden where all of the tables were set up. The food was really good. It was seafood and Hawaiian entrees. It didn’t rain that afternoon and the view from the patio and all of the tables was really beautiful.
It’s been my favorite wedding I’ve attended in my life so far.

If I could give zero stars I would, this was easily the worst thing I’ve ever had to spend money for. I can’t believe the family who owns this farm can get away with charging as much as they do for such a terrible tour! I was so excited for this tour my entire trip, and so completely let down by this waste of time and money. The entire tour (which is led by tour guides who do not even get paid!) was centered around how wonderful the family is, and how great and creative they are, and how everything they do is so spectacular, this was SO off-​putting! After the tour I turned to my fiancé, and we both were like «did we really just pay for this?!» Literally the ENTIRE tour was only based off the family, and their personal lives and what they’ve achieved in their life, talking about them as if they are royalty; gross! I seriously considered asking for my money back, because in all honesty this tour was a complete SCAM, lead by people who have clearly drank the families kool aid. I will never ever go here again, and I will actively remind all people who think about going here, to take that money and give it to a homeless person instead, that way they at least feel good about where their money is going, and how they’re not helping über rich people get even more ridiculously rich. Seriously, I feel completely tricked by this family and their tour, do NOT waste your money and time people, there are probably far better garden tours that actually teach you about Hawaiian wildlife and native plants. In fact when I went to the Smith Family gardens Luau, the 5 minute tour they give for free as they are taking you to the luau was waaaaay better and was actually informative!

Had a blast with my toddler here. We went for Keiki day and it was outstanding. Lots of open space to run around. The multiple play structures were shaded by trees and it kept my son engaged for 3 hours! It would have been 4 if we got there at 9 am. Pack a lunch, snacks and drinks and watch your kid squeal with delight. Well worth the$ 10/​pp entry fee.

Recently took the family tour with 3 kids and 4 adults. Our guides were pleasant enough but really had a difficult time engaging the kids with anything interesting. A forgivable offense if it weren’t billed as a tour for families and kids.
Way over priced for what it delivers. We spent $ 200 to walk around some rich person’s manicured garden and then play at a cheesy manufactured playground.
For kids/​family save your money and go to the beach or do a hike.

We did the beach tour. Our knowledgeable and entertaining guide Lisa gave us extra time. Very interesting and gorgeous gardens. We had a few minutes at a wonderful little beach, saw orchids, lotus, and lots more.

Beautiful place, very serene and relaxing, I would highly recommend if you are looking for a nice relaxing place!

Overpriced and mediocre. We went on the kids tour, which was 60 min tour of the main formal gardens and 60 min open play in the kids area. $ 110 for two adults and two kids (5 yrs and 1yr), on a condensed version of the full 3 – 5 hr tour, with some gardens omitted (the beach garden, desert garden, and probably more).
Our tour guide was polite, answered questions, and talked about a few interesting plants and let the kids feed the koi. My 5 yr old was mildly amused, but my 1 yr old was super cranky. While they they enjoyed the water play at the end, it was not worth the amount paid.

Na Aina Kai was our first stop straight from the airport. Ladies in the gift shop was so sweet and then we had Norm as our guide. He was funny, knowledgeable and just plain awesome. Our tour lasted little more then 3 hours and we got to see many plants, trees and sculptures. The grounds are stunning. Joyce is one lucky lady to have her husband Ed, do all this for her. But in actuality they both did it for Kauai and people to enjoy.
I so loved the Ahupua’a that we got to visit. and the Navajo compound. and all the sculptures were so beautiful and the names were funny. Overall my husband and I had a awesome time just enjoying nature and good company. Go check it out.

This was the perfect ½ day trip for our family of varied ages. My parents over 70 took a riding tour while we took our 2-​year-​old on the family tour. The family tour is awesome! Kids got to feed the koi and play in the kids area which has slides and water spouts. Our son loved it and I think this tour is perfect for kids 5 and under. The grounds were beautiful and the sculptures were exquisite. Our favorite part of the tour was seeing the tea house. Our guide was knowledgeable and everything in the gift store was reasonably priced. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

I really enjoyed the children’s tour. We had a really lovely guide, Kim, who told lots of great stories about the vegetation and kept offering to take family photos for everyone (yay, pics where one of us isn’t missing!). The grounds are just beautiful, and the tour wrapped in a very unique, lovely children’s area with a splash zone. Tours are kept small so things felt intimate. We stayed for 2 ½ hours, the kids enjoyed themselves throughout, they give the kids a little bag for them to collect any little nature treasures they see on the ground along the way which was fun. They even offered us a stroller to push out 3 yr old instead of carrying her through the tour when she fell and hurt her knee.

The gardens were beautiful and Helen was an amazing tour guide. This is a gem of a site to visit and being able to see the amazing plants and hear about the history behind it made it one of the best places to visit for me and my wife on our honeymoon.
Additionally, the staff here is super nice and caring. After the tour we locked our car keys in our car. While we were trying to figure out what to do, Helen so kindly offered to drive me and my wife to the Hertz near the airport (about a 40 minute drive). Fortunately we were able to get AAA to send a tow truck to help pop open the door so she didn’t have to make the long drive on our behalf. Waiting for the driver, though, meant we had to stay past the closing time and yet the concern of the staff was to make sure everything was taken care of and our honeymoon wasn’t ruined so they graciously stayed open an extra hour (they even gave us some bottled water to boot!).
So in short, if you want to see a wide and beautiful array of plants, get a great history lesson, and be taken care of by an amazing staff, go to the Gardens Na Aina Kai!

I attended my cousins wedding here in September 2013. The locations they selected required quite a bit of being carted around in golf carts, I feel the staff did a great job getting the guests around. The ceremony site was beautiful, right by a pond. The reception location was up a small path from the beach. The beach was one of the most beautiful I experienced during our trip. Much of the credit for the beautiful wedding we attended is due to the careful panning of my cousin and his now wife, but the venue was a perfect backdrop for them to build their dream wedding.

Woo hoo, 200^th review! How fitting it is for our wedding venue! Alas, this is a review for a wedding, not for their daily guided tour.
Na Aina Kai is absolutely beautiful and we feel incredibly lucky we were able to host our wedding here. This was one of the few vendors we were able to meet with while on the island the year prior to our wedding. The special events coordinator was extremely responsive and we were able to set up a wedding sites tour. There is a «private» beach (no such thing in HI, yet there is very little access to this little beach by the public except by kayak), meadows, and greenery. We hosted our ceremony at the lagoon, cocktail hour in the herb garen (HUGE!), and held our reception at the Residence.
The Residence is what really blew us away; the views from the lanai are incredible and the house itself is gorgeous. There was plenty of room for our party of 50, especially on the huge lanai! There had been a few renovations done right before our wedding and looked amazing the day of. The staff the day of were extremely warm and hospitable, I appreciated how nice they were. We also had some items shipped directly to NAK and they were wonderful about keeping it stored for us until the wedding.
Although the responses were always quick and easy, there were times I had to dig a little deeper for answers to my questions. We also did not receive a copy of the contract until our wedding coordinator contacted them for one. However, the prices quoted were followed through upon and it seemed like it was just a slight oversight, completely unintentional. This is wishful thinking, but I would have loved if we could have been offered a spot on one of their tours as we still had a few days on the island!
In all, beautiful location and there’s a little something for everyone.

Love this place! Anyone even remotely NOT liking a «garden» needs to come for the guided tour and will see how lovely this is and a not to be missed on your list.

This review is strictly to rate Na Aina Kai as a wedding venue.
When my now-​husband and I decided to get married on Kauai, Na Aina Kai was regularly mentioned to us as the première wedding venue on Kauai (along with the St. Regis). Originally, we had rented out Na Aina Kai for just the ceremony, and were planning to have our reception at one of the St. Regis restaurants. However, we ended up changing our minds, and booking Na Aina Kai for both our ceremony and our reception. While I will concede that Na Aina Kai is an expensive venue (especially if you choose to hold your reception there, as opposed to ceremony-​only), we were very happy with our choice.
Na Aina Kai is simply breathtaking. The many varied settings it provides gave us really amazing photos (beyond the botanical gardens, there’s also the dramatic forest/​hardwoods setting, bamboo trees, the private beach, bridge with waterfalls surrounding it, bluff overlooking the North Shore, etc.), and we were also able to choose which setting we wanted our ceremony to take place in. We loved that our wedding day was completely private for us and our guests — and that we had the entire property to ourselves! We held our reception at The Residence and it worked well for our small wedding. The view from The Residence’s deck was spectacular — our guests were able to watch the sun set over the beach, and the tiki torches only added to the ambience.
I mostly worked with my planner to book the venue, but I did work with the venue’s event coordinator from time to time as well. Before I decided to book Na Aina Kai for the reception in addition to the ceremony, we went on a scouting trip and the coordinator was very helpful and took us on a very thorough tour of the property so we could see what we liked best for our ceremony location. She also showed us pictures of weddings on the property so we could decide where we wanted to hold our reception. She was also there for our rehearsal, and someone else from the property was there on the day of the wedding to assist with transporting our guests from our ceremony site to The Residence.
I highly recommend Na Aina Kai for a stunning, memorable venue if you’re looking to get married on Kauai’s North Shore! Feel free to message me if you have any questions about holding your wedding here.

This review is for the so-​called family tour which lasted two hours; another adult member of our party went on the 2−½ hour riding tour at the same time and said that tour was great too, but I can’t comment on that one personally (maybe next time!)
You’ll find the garden after mile marker 21 (driving from the south) at almost the end of the road, Wailapa Rd. in Kilauea. After a brief checkin at the main office, our tour guide Teal gave my two young ‘uns each a labeled paper bag to collect their goodies (flowers, pods, seeds, leaves) during a one hour walk through a portion of the garden which includes seeing and feeding koi, wandering through a poinciana maze, seeing a small waterfall, checking out the many unique bronze statuary, and observing various flora. My kids enjoyed Teal’s pleasant nature and hearing about the plants and trees. But the best part of the tour was after the garden, a huge children’s playground, complete with a large wading pool with sprinklers for them to cool off, many play sets, and a Navajo compound with teepee, caves, and covered wagon for them to play with and enjoy. My kids easily could have spent more than the 1−½ hours that they did playing in this area (Teal let them play an extra half hour), which apparently the Dotys (the original owners) built for their grand kids (lucky grand kids!)
I don’t see how this place can only have 3 stars average, it’s definitely a 5 star in my kids (and my) book. If you have kids between 5 and 10, you must put this on your short list of things to do.

Don’t waste your time, and if you decide to, go for the $ 35 tour, not $ 50. This garden shouldn’t be even mentioned in the same phrase as Allerton in National Tropical Botanical Gardens near Poipu.
First off, the two volunteers who gave the tour, Pat and Carol, were very nice and friendly, and did a good job, and I am thankful for their desire to share something beautiful with the world. Unfortunately, they are not very knowledgeable about the plants, and they don’t have much material to work with.
The formal garden itself would be ok, if not for the fact that it is littered with the most tasteless, kitschy and saccharine sculptures you saw (e.g: kids saving a kitty stuck on a tree branch, a poorly executed statue of a boy delivering newspapers, the look of constipation forever marking his face). The guides will tell you about each of the sculptures in excruciating detail, including the motivations of the garden owner in picking this piece and where it was bought (Colorado Outdoor Sculpture Fair, and I’m not kidding.)
The areas outside of formal gardens are simply not worth going to. They’re basically precious wood tree farms with trees planted in a regular grid. The nice part about this area is that there are fewer sculptures here. You will also see some albatross chicks here, but that’s about the only interesting part about it.

Full disclosure: my parents volunteer and give tours here.
I visit Na Aina Kai almost every time I return to the island. Why? It’s large and has a huge variety of interesting plants, sculptures, trees, gardens, and scenery. It has something for everyone. It’s pretty miraculous how the Dotys were able to transform a plain patch of land into a manicured, thriving, and beautiful garden. The gift shop is great too — it’s where I pick up all my souvenirs to give to others.
During my most recent trip some of the highlights were: witnessing young Albatross practicing their mating rituals, seeing a large elaborate pitcher plant from Brazil, snacking on mangosteen, and seeing a very large flowering palm tree. We also quickly jaunted through the amusement garden which featured whimsical sculptures and plants. It was definitely new and underdeveloped but I could tell it would grow into a great addition to the property with time.
I don’t usually pay for admission here because I’m with my parents but if I did, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with the $ 50+ admission fee. Nevertheless it exceeds my expectations for a botanical garden tour on the island.

Main Entry: botanical garden
Function: noun
Date: 1775
: a garden often with greenhouses for the culture, study, and exhibition of special plants –called also bo*tan*ic garden, \b-​ta-​nik-​\
Just in case there was any confusion about botanical gardens being man-​made. They’re gardens — therefore man-​made. And in case there was any confusion about botanical gardens not just being a place to look at pretty plants, but to learn about them, too. They’re for learnin’ about plants. So, if you’re interested in plants, seeing plants cultivated, or getting educated about plants, then this just might be your bag. Or, if you like taking leisurely walks in lovely scenery and looking at pretty things, I don’t see why you’d have a problem stopping by Na Aina Kai, either. Any way you slice it, this place will charm you.
You definitely don’t need to be a gardener to love Na Aina Kai. I live on the 10^th floor of a high-​rise building with a concrete balcony, the closest I get is attempting to grow herbs in a window box, but I still really loved our private tour of this botanical garden! I guess it was private only because our group was the only one that arrived for the designated tour at the time. But our guide was awesome — really nice and friendly and very knowledgeable about all the plants being cultivated at the gardens. We passed through all kinds of ecosystems with a lot of different types of plants, walked along the beach and through groves of trees, ogled the home and grounds where the original owners of the property lived, toured the Japanese tea house, and saw some cool wildlife.
The gardens are huge, so you can spend a lot of quality time here. Adding to the charm is the fact that this place is also a sculpture garden — the owners’ original sculpture collection is peppered throughout the gardens, so you’ll come on one unexpectedly. They’re really beautiful.
Surprisingly, and secretly, Na Aina Kai’s gift shop is one of the absolute best places on the whole island to pick up authentic, high-​end, creative souvenirs from Kauai. It’s a really wonderful shop (looks kind of like The Museum Store) selling hand-​crafted jewelry and pottery, gorgeous coffee-​table books, handmade bags, glassware… I picked up a beautiful choker and a Christmas ornament made from a tiny gourd and featuring Hawaiian flora and fauna engraved on the surface; husband bought an amazing photo book with glorious pictures taken all over Kauai. Even if you don’t care about the gardens (tho you won’t be disappointed, I promise), you can come browse this little gem of a store!