The Kauai Rum Safari Tour is a one-of-a-kind experience that combines encounters with the four-legged inhabitants of Kilohana Plantation, some island history and a chance for guests to sample a number of the locally produced libations.
Kauai Safaris owner Nick Atkins can't think of a better way to wile away a couple of hours on the Garden Isle.
"You've got great guides, you have a beautiful setting and then you add a little alcohol into the mix, and it lubricates everybody," Atkins said. "That's what tops it off. That's what really seals the deal, you know: get people a little bit buzzed, tell them a few jokes, you leave them laughing, and it's a recipe for a good time."
Kauai Safaris introduced the tour in 2018, inspired by the Malibu Wine Safaris tour in California, Atkins said. It was a similar tour in open-air safari vehicles through a vineyard that was home to animals such as llamas and zebras. Atkins is friends with the owner of Malibu Wine Safaris, which sent the trucks to Hawaii so he could start similar tours on Kauai.
The tour includes a couple of stops along the route to sample the rums of the Koloa Rum Co., a local, small-batch producer. Photo Credit: Kauai Safaris
Taking the tour
The two-hour, adults-only tour begins with a drive around the plantation, where guests can spot tropical flowers, exotic plants and fruits such as lychees, longans and mangos.
While enjoying the sights, two guides are "giving a bit of history of [the plantation], the history of Kauai. And then as you're seeing the fruits on the tree, they're talking about agriculture," said Kauai Safaris manager Bruce Panoncillo.
Next, guests are taken to a "jungle bungalow" set within a tropical rainforest for the first tasting of rums produced by the Lihue-based Koloa Rum Co., which has partnered with the plantation to offer the tastings.
The small-batch distillery bottles a variety of rums, including white, dark, coffee, cacao and coconut.
"The chocolate rum is definitely a highlight for most guests," Panoncillo said. "We're giving [visitors] the history of rum and how to utilize each variety of rum, as well," Panoncillo said.
Following the tasting, a bartender mixes and pours a mai tai for each guest.
Guests can toss food to the plantation's wild pigs. Photo Credit: Kauai Safaris
"And then we'll take them back into the truck, mai tai in hand, and we'll drive them through our animal pasture, where we have wild pigs," Panoncillo said. "It gets a bit interactive. We have some food we give the guests that they could toss out to the pigs" from the back of the truck.
Panoncillo said the guides will talk about the significance of pigs in Hawaiian culture.
There are also horses, cows, sheep, cows and a donkey. And guests can feed citrus rinds to the horses.
"We could even get into the importance of the horses and how that was introduced after the cows were introduced and how cattle ranching and paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) culture played a big role for the start of modernized Hawaii," Panoncillo said.
After the animal encounter, the truck makes its way to a second bar, located on a patio overlooking a taro patch, where another round of cocktails is shaken and poured.
"It's a farm-to-glass cocktail, something right from our orchard that we converted into a cocktail," he said.
At this final stop, guests and guides have time to mingle, and conversation often turns to Kauai life and what other activities shouldn't be missed on the island.
"I've got great guides, great people working for me," Atkins said. "They're super knowledgeable, they love what they do, and they're really funny. So that combination kind of creates a special vibe."
More to see and do
If guests are up to it after the rum samplings, Kilohana Plantation also offers train tours, a luau and a restaurant. The Plantation House by Gaylords, features Islands-influenced dishes and freshly caught seafood in the courtyard of the plantation's manor house.
The manor house is the centerpiece of the plantation. It was built in 1935 for the Wilcox family, the owners of the former Grove Farm Plantation, a producer of sugar cane. The home is on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places.
The train tour, aboard an old diesel locomotive, is similar to the Rum Safari Tour but is family-friendly -- in other words, rum tastings not included.