Chris, Maynadine, and their girls visited us in Oahu at the end of December and beginning of January. One of our many adventures together was a hike to the Waimea Valley Waterfall. We wanted to go on a couple hikes during their visit, and the relatively flat 3/4 mile hike to the Waimea Valley waterfall sounded perfect for kids ages 3-8. The kids were fascinated with the botanical garden that we walked through and the small waterfall and pool at the end were a nice little bonus. Some people were swimming in the pool under the waterfall with provided life vests, but we just took a break on the benches before heading back.
Waimea Valley is open daily from 9am to 5pm. Since Waimea Valley includes a 150-acre botanical garden, ancient archeological sites, and cultural activities, there is an admission fee. It sounded a bit expensive at first, but we thought it was a great experience and well worth it! General admission is $15 for visiting adult and $7.50 for visiting child (under 3 or 4-years-old is free). There are also local kama’aina rates of $10 for adult and $5 for child. There is also an option of paying $6 for a round trip golf cart ride or $4 for a one-way ride, but we were fine walking, even with 4 little ones in tow. I wish I had looked at the website before going and realized that there are free cultural activities like lei making and hula lessons, but we still had fun just enjoying the gardens!
As soon as we arrived at the visitor center and restaurant area the excitement began. There were beautiful peacocks walking around!
The girls loved looking at all the interesting plants and flowers and reading the signs with the plant names. One of the coolest trees was right after the ticket booth- a cannon ball tree. You can see why it got its name!
There were also lots of pretty tropical flowers.
There were cool walls of vines, that really made it look like a jungle!
Look what we found!
Everyone was able to walk the whole way, but we needed a few breaks here and there.
And eventually we could see…
What a wonderful day! The Waimea Valley is definitely worth coming back to, especially with children, who appreciate all the little details that us grown-ups might otherwise walk right by.