This year the two big holidays change the day on Kiahuna Plantation Drive at opposite ends. On Thanksgiving, Kiahuna Golf Club is open only in the morning. On Christmas, it opens at 11 a.m. and stays open through the afternoon. Both holidays also land on days that already carry one of the road's regular weekly events.
For anyone living in Kiahuna Golf Village, that matters more than a regular holiday-hours notice would. Most of the neighborhood's week happens within a short walk on one road. The golf club is at 2545 Kiahuna Plantation Drive, and Poʻipū Shopping Village is just down the road at 2360. If you know where each holiday falls against those regular events, you know how the season will go.
The Week the Road Already Keeps
The regular week has a few fixed events. On Monday evenings there's the Poʻipū Night Market at Poʻipū Shopping Village, 4 to 8 p.m. It's free, and its listings promise more than 40 vendors, locally made arts and crafts, food, live music from newer Kauaʻi songwriters and longtime groups, and a free prize giveaway every week. The market also features Kauaʻi nonprofit groups, and Kānaka Maoli vendors take part for free.
The shopping village's own site lists free hula with live Hawaiian music on its center stage at 5 p.m. every Monday and Thursday, open to the public. That puts the 5 p.m. show inside the market's hours on Mondays.
On Fridays, Kiahuna Golf Club holds a Skins Game on every Friday of November and December on its events calendar. The calendar entries give no start time or entry fee, so call the golf shop for those.
| Day | Fixture | Where | Hours as listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | Paco's Tacos Cantina | Kiahuna Golf Club | 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Daily | Kiahuna Sunrise Café | Former Kiahuna Plantation grounds | 7 a.m. to noon |
| Monday | Poʻipū Night Market | Poʻipū Shopping Village | 4 to 8 p.m. |
| Monday and Thursday | Free hula and live music | Poʻipū Shopping Village center stage | 5 p.m. |
| Friday | Skins Game | Kiahuna Golf Club | Call the golf shop |
Every holiday change below falls on one of these days.
Thanksgiving Is a Morning Holiday on the Course
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. Kiahuna Golf Club is open for morning play only. The golf shop is open 6:30 to 11:30 a.m., the first tee time is 7:00 a.m., the last is 11:00 a.m., and all carts must be back by 3:30 p.m. The club's own Thanksgiving notice puts it simply:
"We will be open for morning play on Thanksgiving Day. Enjoy an early round before your holiday feast!"
That leaves four hours of tee times. Anyone hoping to get a round in before the family arrives is competing for that short window, and the 11:00 a.m. last tee time is about as late as a full 18 can start before the 3:30 cart deadline.
The rest of the week is busy too. Thanksgiving week starts with the Night Market on Monday, November 23, 4 to 8 p.m. Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, which is one of the shopping village's two hula nights. The next day, Friday, November 27, the Skins Game is back on the club calendar. So the holiday puts a short morning on the course between a Monday market night and a Friday round.
Christmas Lands on a Skins Friday
Christmas is Friday, December 25, this year. That puts it on the Skins Game calendar, and the club lists a December 25 game along with its holiday hours.
Christmas hours are the reverse of Thanksgiving's. According to the club's Christmas Day notice, the golf shop opens at 11:00 a.m. and closes at 5:00 p.m., the first tee time is 11:36 a.m., and carts are due back by 6:00 p.m. On Thanksgiving the last tee time is 11:00 a.m. On Christmas the first one is 11:36 a.m. A household that tees off at dawn on Thanksgiving will have to wait until late morning on Christmas.
The 11:36 a.m. first tee time means presents, breakfast and the drive down the road all happen before the course opens. With carts due back at 6:00, the day ends close to sunset.
Three days later, on Monday, December 28, the Poʻipū Night Market is scheduled for its regular 4 to 8 p.m. evening. It's the last market on the calendar for 2026.
Breakfast Now Wraps Up an Hour Earlier
Because the course opens late on Christmas, breakfast plans matter more. The closest sit-down breakfast is up the road at Kiahuna Sunrise Café, and it closes earlier than it did when it opened.
Kauaʻi Now reported in April that the café had opened on the grounds of the former Kiahuna Plantation, serving daily from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a lanai overlooking a koi pond and gardens. The same article described its coffee, made with Kauaʻi Roastery beans, and pastries from Orly Patisserie, with chicken and waffles and chicken-fried steak among its signature dishes.
The café's website now lists breakfast and brunch from 7 a.m. to noon. It describes this as an initial reopening with counter service, a limited menu and grab-and-go. The café sits in a restored plantation manager's house. The noon close is an hour earlier than in April. The café opens at 7 a.m., the same time as Thanksgiving's first tee time, so there's no time to stop in before the earliest round. On Christmas, the café's posted hours run until noon, which leaves the whole morning for breakfast before the 11:36 first tee time. Because the café calls these hours a reopening phase, check its site before planning a holiday morning around them.
At the club, Paco's Tacos Cantina lists daily hours of 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with satellite sports and live music. Those are its regular posted hours. The club's holiday notices cover only golf shop, tee and cart times.
The Oceanfront Is Still Recovering Down the Road
The road's weekly routine continues while the shoreline nearby is still being repaired. Hurricane Lowell passed west of Niʻihau on the night of September 7, and the National Weather Service recorded a gust of 63 mph at Weliweli on the South Shore. Hawaii News Now reported on October 2 that Kiahuna Plantation management counted 17 damaged units, including 10 oceanfront condos. The back bungalows away from the ocean had reopened, and the oceanfront units' future was still uncertain. A late-September recovery update from a South Shore vacation rental manager reported significant erosion along Kiahuna Beach.
Inland, things are closer to normal. The County of Kauaʻi said in its October 28 services update that the Kōloa Neighborhood Center reopened on Monday, October 26. On the club side of the road, Troon was named in May to manage Kiahuna Golf Club, so this is the first holiday season on the calendar since that announcement.
The Holiday Stretch, Date by Date
From publication day through New Year's, the dated events on the road's calendar look like this:
- Friday, November 13: Skins Game at Kiahuna Golf Club.
- Monday, November 16: Poʻipū Night Market, 4 to 8 p.m.
- Friday, November 20: Skins Game.
- Monday, November 23: Poʻipū Night Market, 4 to 8 p.m.
- Thursday, November 26: Thanksgiving. Golf shop 6:30 to 11:30 a.m., tee times 7:00 to 11:00 a.m., carts back by 3:30 p.m.
- Friday, November 27: Skins Game.
- Monday, November 30: Poʻipū Night Market.
- Fridays, December 4, 11 and 18: Skins Games.
- Friday, December 25: Christmas and a Skins Friday. Golf shop 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., first tee 11:36 a.m., carts back by 6:00 p.m.
- Monday, December 28: Poʻipū Night Market, 4 to 8 p.m.
The Night Market's listings give the same "Every Monday 4-8pm" schedule for each date, so the Mondays in early December follow the same pattern. For Skins start times and entry, call the golf shop.
If guests are coming for the holidays, or you're thinking about how your home fits the way you use the South Shore, Ilona Coffey and her sister team are glad to talk through Kiahuna Golf Village and the road it sits on. Request a private Kauai consultation.
