18 Best Places to Shop in The East Side, Kauai

Hawaiian quilts made by hand and machine, a beautiful selection of fabrics, quilting kits, handmade aloha wear, and unique fabric arts fill a cute, small, red plantation-style building a mile outside Lihue. The staff is friendly and helpful---even though a steady stream of customers keeps them busy---and will ship your purchases anywhere.

This is the biggest and best farmers' market on Kauai, sponsored by the Kauai Farm Bureau, Kauai Grown, and Kauai Community College and held 9:30 am to 1 pm on Saturdays in the college's parking lot in Lihue. You'll find fresh produce---including those grown by the college's agriculture students---and flowers, as well as packaged products like breads, goat cheese, pasta, honey, coffee, soaps, lotions, and more, all made locally. The market also offers educational displays and cooking tips. Seating areas are convenient if you want to grab a tasty snack or lunch from the food booths and lunch wagons that set up here.

The gift shop at the Kauai Museum sells some fascinating books, as well as lovely authentic Niihau shell jewelry, handwoven lauhala hats and bags, local food items, historic postcards, hand-carved wooden bowls and boxes, Tahitian pearl jewelry, and a wide selection of unique aloha wear clothing. It's a wonderful place to find quality items not sold elsewhere.

This family operation has a great assortment of branded surf wear and clothes for outdoors fanatics, including tank tops, caps, swimwear, footwear, and Kauai-style T-shirts. They also carry sunglasses, bodyboards, and water-sports accessories, as well as Hawaii-style gifts.

This is the big name in aloha wear for tourists throughout the Islands, and Hilo Hattie has only one store on Kauai, located a mile from Lihue Airport. Come here for cool comfortable muumuu and aloha shirts for men, women, and children in bright floral prints, as well as other souvenirs. Also, be sure to check out the line of Hawaii-inspired home furnishings.

Just down the highway between Kauai Community College and the Lihue town center, this newer retail plaza has a bank and Verde New Mexican restaurant, plus a Safeway, Aloha Aina Juice Café, Verizon store, gas station, and Domino's. Its grounds are fresher and more inviting than some of Kauai’s older malls.

At this shop near Lihue, five minutes away from the airport, you can buy tropical fruit smoothies, sugarcane, ginger, Kauai Coffee, coconuts, and an assortment of fresh fruits from Kauai, as well as boxes of tropical flowers that can be shipped elsewhere. Note that some of the fruit sold here cannot be shipped out of state.

The buildings of this Kapaa shopping village are in the style of a 19th-century plantation town. ABC Discount Store sells sundries; Safeway carries groceries and alcoholic beverages; Papaya's has health foods. Also here are a T-Mobile phone store, Ross Dress for Less, a UPS store, a Chinese restaurant, and Starbucks.

This simple friendly shop is a good place to pick up quality clothing for women, jewelry, art, housewares, and gifts with an island theme, including books about Hawaiian culture, that you won’t find elsewhere.

At this tiny center on Kuhio Highway, Korean BBQ Restaurant fronts the highway, as does Goldsmiths Kauai, a gallery selling handcrafted Hawaiian-style gold jewelry. A bakery, a surf shop, and a real estate company round out the businesses here.

This is Kauai's only true mall. Anchor tenants are Target, Longs Drugs, Macy's, Ross, and Times Supermarket. The mall's stores offer women's clothing, sunglasses, surf wear, art, toys, athletic shoes, jewelry, a hair salon, and locally made crafts. Restaurants range from fast food and sandwiches to sushi and Korean, with a popular Starbucks and Jamba Juice. The center stage has Hawaiian music on Friday nights and a farmers' market on Monday afternoons.

On display at this quirky boutique is expensive but unique clothing created by husband-and-wife team Ambrose and Marta Curry. He creates silk-screen art with nontoxic paint on fabric in his studio next door, then she cuts and sews the fabric into bags, hats, and clothing for men, women, and children.

This shop is tiny, but it's big on exceptional antiques, Hawaiiana, and gifts. The owner, Liane, has been collecting rare finds most of her life and now has a place to showcase them. Her inventory changes regularly, with a mix of new and vintage items.

With shops and art galleries tucked into the 16,000-square-foot Tudor mansion and restored outbuildings, Kilohana Plantation offers quality clothing, jewelry, candy, handmade pottery, Hawaiian collectibles, and train memorabilia. The grounds are home to Koloa Rum Company, Luau Kalamaku, and a restaurant, while the historic mansion is filled with antiques from the previous owner. Train rides on a restored railroad are available, with knowledgeable guides recounting the history of sugar on Kauai.

On display here are lots of interesting housewares, accessories, knickknacks, and hand-carved collectibles, as well as baskets and furniture from Indonesia, the Philippines, and China. Antiques and reproductions for the home and outdoors are available. The shop occupies expansive quarters in the Lihue Industrial Park.

Tropical and Hawaiian prints, silks, slinky rayons, soft cottons, quilting kits, and other fine fabrics fill this small store. A variety of sewing patterns and notions are featured as well, making it a must-stop for any sewing enthusiast and a great place to buy unique island-made gifts. Check out the one-of-a-kind selection of purses, aloha wear, and other quality hand-sewn items.

McDonald's is the focus of this small retail plaza, which fronts Kuhio Highway and also houses Waipouli Deli and Restaurant, Sherwin-Williams Paint, and AutoZone.

This locally owned shop specializes in a full range of casual comfortable clothing for men and women, as well as sunglasses, hats, and jewelry. It also offers an aloha collection of tote bags made from distinctive tropical prints. The prices are high but the quality is good, and the selection is carefully curated.