Hanalei is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kauaʻi County, Hawaii, United States.

Hanalei was well-populated in ancient times, with a thriving native population that produced a bountiful supply of food from land to sea.

Hanalei's earliest residents grew large amounts of taro, bananas, breadfruit, sweet potato, yams, and coconuts.

As foreigners started discovering Hawai'i and taking up residence in the islands, they brought in new agricultural ventures.

During the first half of the 1800s Hanalei was supplying mulberry leaves, coffee, tobacco, cotton, rice, sugarcane, citrus fruits, peaches, pineapples, bananas, dates, tamarinds, guava, potatoes, plantains, cabbage, lettuce, and other products.

King Kalakaua also visited Hanalei Bay in 1874, and was greeted with a 21-gun salute fired from improvised cannons built from the Ohia Lehua trees.

On arrival he became involved with internal Hawaiian politics, and Kaumualiʻi planned and manipulated to reclaim Kauai from Kamehameha I with the Russian Empire's help.

[7] In the early 1900s, nearly every square inch of Hanalei's coastal plain was covered with rice fields.

The first rice farmers were Chinese, followed by the Japanese, Filipinos, Portuguese and other ethnic groups, many of whom were former sugarcane workers who had finished their contracts with plantations.

A speculative interpretation of the Peter Paul & Mary song "Puff, the Magic Dragon" as a marijuana metaphor claims that Puff's homeland "Hanah Lee" is actually the town of Hanalei, which, according to the interpretation, is renowned for its marijuana.

[13] Hanalei was mentioned in the TV series Twin Peaks as a place of residence for the town psychiatrist and his wife.

A song titled "Hanalei" was a part of the I'm with You Sessions by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2013.