2 Best Sights in Kauai, Hawaii

Two restored camp houses, dating from the days when sugar was the main agricultural crop on the Islands, have been converted into a museum, visitor center, snack bar, and gift shop. About 3,100 acres of McBryde sugar land have become Hawaii's largest coffee plantation, with its 4 million trees producing more than half of the state's beans. You can walk among the trees, view old grinders and roasters, watch a video to learn how coffee is harvested and processed, sample various estate roasts, and check out the gift store.

The center offers free self-guided tours through a small coffee grove (about 20 minutes) and a personalized, one-hour "coffee on the brain" tour for a fee. From Kalaheo, take Route 50 in the direction of Waimea Canyon (west) and veer left onto Route 540. It's 2½ miles from the Route 50 turnoff.

Rice grew in the taro fields of Hanalei Valley for almost 80 years—beginning in the 1880s and ending in the early 1960s—and today this history is embodied in the Haraguchi family, whose ancestors threshed, hulled, polished, separated, graded, and bagged rice in their 3,500-square-foot rice mill. It was demolished once by fire and twice by hurricanes, and was damaged by flooding in 2018 and 2021. Rebuilt to the standards of the National Register of Historic Places, the mill—with neighboring taro fields—is typically open for tours on a limited schedule mainly due to endangered-bird nesting areas. At this writing, tours were not available, but check the website or Instagram (@HanaleiTaro) for updates. The family still farms taro on the one-time rice paddies and also operates the Hanalei Taro & Juice kiosk in Hanalei Town; see  hanaleitaro.com. All proceeds from the historic rice mill go to nonprofit education programs.