Princeville is a great place to go for a jog, bike ride or long walk. Here we will talk a little about jogging, running or places you can use when training for an event. First you should find the main path located next to Ka Haku road there are tons of miles you can rack up with many roads you can turn off on and cruise the neighborhoods.
Cycling?
Anything bike related we always just say to go and see the Doktor. The Hanalei Bike Doktor! At his charming and super rad shop you can rent bikes and ask the Dok to point you in the right direction for riding on the North shore trails. If you are looking for beach cruising we suggest heading down to Kauai Cycle and rolling up and down the epic Coconut Coast bike path.
Ok… Back to RUNNING
Roots and golf carts are the major danger if any when training in Princeville. Also as a courtesy to the amazing Doug Sutter (golf Pro and managing guru of the Makai course) please stay running, jogging, walking on the asphalt path and not on his golf paths which are cement. It’s sometimes easy to confuse the two. Running the blacktop is better on the knees anyways, right? Plus less danger of getting trampled by the landscaping guys.
Cars? There isn’t much traffic in this sleepy little community and the cars you will encounter will be going pretty slow because there’s a good network of speed bumps. The Princeville community residents are also usually not in any hurry to rush around, so it’s a very safe place to stretch your legs and lungs. Here’s a map with the main road marked. Easiest route around is starting the Princeville center to the St. Regis and back it’s about 4 miles.
Starting from the Princeville Community center you can head around Prince Albert Park (the large lawn in front of the community center) and grab a quick .5 mile warmup. If you like to stay close to home and not adventure out you can do half mile laps around this large lawn to get some uphill and downhill sections as well as shaded and non-shaded stretches. Make sure to take a look around to see some of the flora and fauna.
If you really want to do some hill work, head down the line of Poplar trees on the edge of the park toward the ocean. If you aren’t sure which way that is, head downhill. When the path hits the road, look across and see it start again on the other side between the same line of trees. At this point it turns into a nice little dirt and fallen leaf trail. Super nice on the knees. If you head all the way down to the bottom of this trail and turn around before the steep hill and back up to the bathrooms near the community center (great place for water at the bathrooms) it’s about 1 mile. Most of this is shaded so if you are headed out mid day and don’t wanna burn, this is a nice little stretch to count off the miles.
Hill down to Anini: At the bottom of the dirt path you can drop all the way down to Anini on a steep cement hill. Shaded and killer for sprints. But it’s STEEP. No joking around. Give it a try. When you are all done with the workout run down to the bottom and cruise into the ocean and soak up the salt. It’s the best healing water on earth ;).
Fire station loop: If you are at the community center you can head up to the highway, hang a right and head down toward Hanalei. About .5 mile down the road you’ll see the fire station. Make sure to run in the grass so you don’t get hit by a car, this isn’t the safest route but like most things on Kauai that have to deal with the road, the shoulders are non-existent and the best thing to do is just take to the grass and blaze a little trail. Remember we don’t have snakes or ticks or anything poisonous here so don’t worry about getting bit by anything too horrible. Make a right after the fire station and if you happen to see the men out there working on the vehicles, give them a big smile + shaka + aloha. They are the guys who’ll save your bacon if you twist an ankle on the trail or get swept out to sea. They are heros. Give em a little love as you kick on by. Take Hanalei Plantation road down about another half a mile and when you see a street that heads right and down hill, take that right. That’s the back gate to Princeville (they close it nightly about 8pm). Another super nice spot for some hill sprints. Cruise down and then back up the other side to find yourself bisecting the Makai course. Keep running and you’ll see the clubhouse on the left and the main road ahead (KaHaku Road is the main road heading from the fountain all the way down to St. Regis). When you get to KaHaku, hang another right and about a mile up the road you’ll be back to the park. This loop is about 3 miles long.
There’s not much dead flat land here in Princeville so if you are looking for a track to do your track workout, this isn’t really the spot. I’d suggest going to Vidinha stadium in Lihue . That’s a great track with bathrooms and is open 99% of the time.
If you have questions about running call our founder Billy O’. He and his wife are avid joggers and cyclists and may even be stoked to take you out for some miles. 808-755-5866 is Billy’s cell. You can also email billyo@billyo.com
