On Kauai's lush north shore, Hanalei is the surf town Hollywood keeps trying to invent: a crescent bay backed by waterfall-striped mountains, a wooden pier for jumping off and a one-street town of poke bowls and shave ice. Winter swells are for experts, but summer turns the bay into a benign longboarders' playground — take a lesson right off the beach. Stay for the Friday farmers' market and go early; the one road in clogs by mid-morning.
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