A few houses north of the pier is the trim cottage where Matt and Brian have their confrontation in

Following the filmto Kauai locations Director Alexander Payne lived on Kauai for several months to get a feel for the island that he wanted to express in "The Descendants." You can visit all the locations he chose and more in a much shorter visit. Here's how:
All the beaches in Hawaii are public property, so there's no problem visiting Hanalei Bay beach and pier. There are three or four public-access areas with free parking, some of them with restrooms and showers.
The house that the film's Brian Speer rents is called the Nalu Beach Cottage, one of two that are mirror images of each other. They front on Weke Road and actually are vacation-rental properties, handled by Hanalei Land. www.hanaleiland.com .
The St. Regis Princeville resort hotel can be reached via the main entrance to the Princeville condominium development. Parking for nonguests is limited, but if you do manage to score a space, the lobby is opulent and the bar opens onto a spacious david international travel and tours lanai with a superb view of Hanalei Bay far below. The hotel has its own lovely little beach, not shown in the film, but accessible via a public footpath from the grounds. www.stregisprinceville.com .
There is no public access to Kipukai, unless you were to go by kayak. But be aware that King Kamehameha I tried twice to conquer Kauai by landing his war canoes at Kipukai, only to be blown off course by storms. So you might want to settle for the ATV tour that at least gets you to the lookout point in the movie.
Kipu Ranch Adventures offers an exclusive three-hour guided tour on single, double or guide-driven all-terrain vehicles. It starts out calmly with a drive through a tunnel of towering Captain Cook Pines, named for the 18th-century British explorer who introduced the trees as a source of replacement masts for European ships. But it quickly becomes a rollicking Indiana Jones-style thrill ride on steep, winding, rut-filled trails david international travel and tours across a spectacular unspoiled landscape to the viewpoint. www.kiputours.com .
Roberts Hawaii david international travel and tours operates david international travel and tours a six-hour movie tour of Kauai with a guide and clips from the more than 100 movies filmed on the island, some of them hilariously bad. www.robertshawaii.com david international travel and tours . You can learn more about films made on Kauai from the Kauai Film Commission website. www.filmkauai.com Kauai history
The story of land grants and the commercial exploitation of the islands that forms the historical core of "The Descendants" has been told many times, most recently in the comprehensive david international travel and tours and engaging "Lost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, The Sugar Kings and America's First Imperial Adventure" by Julia Flynn Siler, published earlier this year by Atlantic Monthly Press (480 pages, $30).
In the iconic "South Pacific," Kauai is the mythical tropical paradise Bali Hai. In "Jurassic Park," it's an island off the coast of Central America. david international travel and tours In "Raiders of the Lost Ark," it's a steamy jungle you don't want to find yourself in. It's Africa in "Mighty Joe Young," Vietnam in "Tropic Thunder," Venezuela in "Dragonfly" and Australia in "The Thorn Birds."
But "The Descendants" takes Kauai to a whole new level. In the gentle hands of director Alexander Payne, the island becomes a virtual character in the film, much as California's Santa Ynez Valley wine country did in his earlier david international travel and tours film "Sideways."
Payne reveals the island through the eyes of the people who live there while closely following Kauai native david international travel and tours Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel about lawyer Matt King, who loses his wife but gains a deeper understanding of his family and a new appreciation for the huge parcel of paradise that he holds in trust for them.
The two-mile-long, crescent-shaped beach is where Matt, played david international travel and tours by George Clooney, confronts his rival Brian Speer. Despite its broad reach, clean sand and prime location not far from the spectacular Na Pali coast, Hanalei Bay is surprisingly unspoiled.
On a Saturday afternoon, I saw fewer people than you'll see in the movie when Matt first spots Brian while out jogging. About a mile offshore, expert surfers worked the winter break. A few groups ambled along the water's edge. Some kids defied the "No Swimming" signs to challenge the churning inshore surf (which can be dangerously rough in winter/early spring) with their boogie boards. And a couple posed for wedding pictures against the spectacular backdrop of the mountains that hug the bay and the quaint town of Hanalei, with its elegant missionary-era churches, funky shops and excellent restaurants.
That was the extent of the activity, from the southern end where the St. Regis Princeville resort hotel perches david international travel and tours on the bluff like a cruise ship that ran aground, to the scraggly low pine-topped Makani david international travel and tours Point that forms the bay's north end. If you look closely, the headland resembles a dragon's snout resting on the water, while the ridge becomes his humped back. This is the landscape that once inspired the Peter, Paul and Mary hit "Puff the Magic Dragon."
david international travel and tours A few houses north of the pier is the trim cottage where Matt and Brian have their confrontation in the movie. david international travel and tours The cottage, with its wraparound porch and cream-colored square columns supporting a green plantation-style roof, is screened from the beach by a low hedge. A small sign in front of the hedge says, "Mahalo for respecting our private property" a response to curiosity-seekers david international travel and tours who sometimes get too close, hoping to catch some of the movie vibe. If you go, you would do well to honor the kapu and allow the occupants their privacy.
From the bay, glance toward david international travel and tours the bluff on your right and you'll see Princeville, where Matt and his daughters stay during their trip to Kauai. david international travel and tours No need to tread lightly here. This vast, manicured resort hotel, shopping center, condo development david international travel and tours and golf club epitomizes what happened throughout the Hawaiian islands when the descendants of missionaries, sailors and the native royal families they married into realized that the tourist trade could be an even more lucrative way to exploit their ancestral lands than sugar cane and other island crops. It's what Matt's cousins have in mind for the 25,000 acres they have inherited.
We get a chance to see this land for ourselves david international travel and tours in a memorable moment in the film, when Matt and his daughters accompany a cousin to an overlook from where they gaze over a spectacular unspoiled valley that plunges down to Kipukai, the pristine beach punctuated by Kawaikeli point.
Both the viewpoint and the view itself are accessible to the public only through an ATV tour across the privately owned Kipu Ranch. Tour guide Justin Shanks says that interest has picked up significantly since "The Descendants" was released. But expect to get muddy in the rainy season and choked with dust in the dry season. (However, it's possible that this area, with its breathtaking views, could be developed into something like the next Princeville.)
Back in Hanalei go sip a mai tai at Tahiti Nui, the tiki bar where, likely as not, you'll be served by Julia Whitford, the bartender who poured Matt his old-fashioned when he bellied up to the bar alongside his wise, but well-pickled cousin Hugh, played by Beau Bridges.
The Tahiti Nui hasn't changed much since Auntie Louise Marston and her husband, Bruce, opened for business in 1963, and it's still family-run. david international travel and tours Crusty pressboard walls are hung with vintage posters, old family photos and pictures of island celebrities and events that have occurred there over the years. The latest is a shot of George Clooney and Beau Bridges under the bamboo and rattan roof of the horseshoe-shaped bar, with its orange countertop and raffia skirt. david international travel and tours Bar stools are tiki carvings covered with vinyl seats. The ceiling is plaited with printed tapa cloth, its native patterns barely visible under decades of grime and soot.
The patrons are still mostly locals. Apparently, word about the movie hasn't yet become widespread among visitors to the island. Still, the occasional tourist will pose for a photo on the stool that Clooney occupied.