About Us 


               

I am glad you found me here on Kauai!

Kauai Eden Tours provides customized private and small group tours to visitors, photographers, sightseers and lovers of earth's beauty!
I will guide you to the most spectacular places on Kauai where you can experience, photograph and enjoy over 16 or more spectacular places and culture of Kauai.  These incredibly beautiful places will become some of your all time favorites on Kauai, and you will likely find yourself there for a lot of your trip, and in your mind's eye when you are back home. Tours are customized to your needs, wants and interests.  From sightseeing tours with no walking to wonderful hiking..!
I can't wait to you show you Kauai at her finest.

-Karen Tilley, Owner/Guide
       

Kauai Eden Tours is a small private tour guide service on Kauai that specializes in personalized, caring attention to the needs and interests of her clients. 
Karen is a Sierra Club Outings Leader, with a strong interest in music, singing, nature photography, ocean safety awareness, hiking, drumming, natural and herbal medicine. 
 


Jay Dorrance ( by special request) 
You can also request my husband, Jay Dorrance, as your guide.




 

J
ay  is a Jazz buff  with an incredible knowledge of Jazz and other music. He has many web based projects.
He is a great gardener, fruit tree tender, and homesteader on our tropical homestead.

He has written for several newspaper chains and periodicals as well as lectured on jazz for the University of Michigan. 
Jay has great trail knowledge and has lived on Kauai for 11 years.  An avid glass float "treasure" hunter, he has found many wonderful treasures from the sea. 
Jay's late father, William H. Dorrance  is an author of several Hawaiian history books.
His father was a rocket scientist ( I'm not joking!) and held several patents in the aerospace field. 




Neat oh! That's my father's  famous outdoor, floating, sun/rain
Hat, "the Tilley Hat" seen on a Kauai Eden day Trip!

          
                                                        Alex Tilley in Guatemala in 2004
                             My father is world traveler and clothier, Alex Tilley of the Tilley Hat and Tilley Endurables.

                                   Call me if you like to find out where to get a Tilley Hat on Kauai. 
                       Got a Tilley something? On Tour, I will autograph your Tilley hat and give YOU a penny to do it!



That's me (tall) with my dad, Alex Tilley in the Abacos, Bahamas in 1971 or so, with a
young boy.  "The one room schoolhouse I  attended was right on the shoreline (!).  I remember walking
on the a'a lava looking for the small crabs living in the shells. What an incredible adventure  to experience the tropic tropics and the Bahamas. If you are traveling with children to Kauai, you can count on me showing you  many exceptional, and safe child-friendly places.

 


My dad, Alex Tilley, and me in Tikal, Guatemala in 1975 or so. "I can still remember the screaming calls of the howler monkeys in the forest.   We had an exhilarating ( ok, terrifying) plane ride in a very small OLD plane to get to Tikal.  The next morning, we drove through the deep forest to arrive at  the Tikal site very early.
It was still dark when we arrived at the Holy Place of Tikal.  When the sun rose, I got to climb the large pyramid. Wow!
I would love to return to Guatemala one day, for a part of my heart is there.  My father and my son ( age 23) both have a very strong affiliation for the Spanish Language.  I only speak Spanish a very little, despite my University class in it. 



  Me, my dad and Alison, my younger sister, up front.

                                                   

       A blossoming Songtress sings: I had the honor to have the lead role ( singing and spoken word) in the Goddess Chant Kauai Musical Experience on May 28, 29, 2010. It was directed by Ronda Rice (of Voiceweavers Kauai, a weekly singing community for women, wink wink). 

That's me, Karen Tilley, above during the Goddess Chant Kauai Musical Experience.
It took me three months to memorize the spoken word script and three solo singing parts.
The performance was great fun, was a sell-out both nights,  and a documentary film of the
making of, and the Performance itself  is being produced.
The Documentary will be available for sale through GoddessChant.com ( Shawna Carol's  LadySlipper CD Goddess Chant is a must have for all you music lovers)  If you are in a choir anywhere you may wish to put on the Spiritually Uplifting Musical in your town!  ( see the
GoddessChant.com website for details) 

I look forward to being able to perform in the musicial ritual again which has been described as an "extremely High, uplifting musical experience".

Some photos minus the dancers and drummers...




This experience has helped the participants birth our new selves...  Blessed be. 



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Cherry Cherry- The Neil Diamond Tribute Band rocks!
In February, 2010, I got on stage and sang the part of Barbara Streisand's duet  of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers on stage with Cherry Cherry in February!  ( The audience said they thought I did great)
This is the poster I made for the Band. Why? Because I love Neil Diamond's music and because
Music is Love, Music is Life, Music is healing... Music IS SO MUCH...