Where to go in Hawaii?
 

Planning a trip to Hawaii next summer, and know a few of y'all have been there at least once or twice. Any tips on where to go?


No specifics on what we'd like to do, mainly beach and pool and hot tub, which we can get just about anywhere. I don't know Hawaii at all, never been, and so not sure what's good, on the cheap.

Budget is a big part - let's just say limited.



Thoughts? Recommendations?


Planned timing is last week in July, if that makes any difference.

Rent the crappiest car you can. Drive to the summit of Mauna Kea. Drive back down from Mauna Kea. Enjoy. :)

Maui: Road to Hana
Waikiki: Learn to surf if you don't know how.
Eat fresh fish/sushi at every opportunity.

Everything else is sun and sand.

Any location that much better than another? Planning for a week, and I'm the type to stay in one hotel, but take trips. Will definitely have a car. So, main island? Or one of the littluns?



And while I won't eat any seafood, I'm sure Jenn will every night ;)

I don't eat shellfish either, but if you don't like fish- it's going to be a boring culinary experience.

Kauai island comes highly recommended, from someone who likes to avoid large crowds and tourist crap. Absolutely gorgeous. TONS of hiking, swimming, scenic drives, local cuisine, etc.

Nice, thanks Cory, that's what I was looking for :)


Not really the hiking, kinda lazy ya know? But avoiding crouds and other tourists, that's me.



Also not worried about "culinary experience" - not why I'm getting away :D

Don't worry, all the crazy good sushi places you want to take the woman to will serve you teriyaki chicken or something. :p

Having lived in Hawaii for the majority of my life, I suggest going to Maui for vacation. In my opinion it is the best combination of everything good that Hawaii has to offer. Decent selection of hotels from the extravagant to the affordable. Good shopping, good food, good tourist style things and also decent flight options. You can fly into Kahului directly from nearly every major airport on the west coast.

Several reasons why I suggest Maui over 2 of the other 3 major islands (Big Island & Kauai). Both the big island and Kauai are beautiful. Honestly, Kauai has some of the prettiest scenery that the world has to offer. Not a whole lot to do there though unless camping, hiking and fishing are what you would like to do for a week. Just a tough place to fill a weeks worth of vacation. Biggest draw for the big island is the volcano. Getting to watch an active lava flow roll into the ocean is incredible, but again, not a whole lot else to do there. Huge island, not a lot of people.

Oahu (where I'm from) probably has the best shopping, good beaches, but TONS of people. You have to remember that a million people live in the city and county of Honolulu plus upwards of 200,000 tourists on any given day of the year. Traffic & crowds are two things that most people don't plan on having to deal with when going on vacation to Hawaii. That aside, Honolulu has Pearl Harbor, Waikiki Beach and the best flight options.


Getting back to Maui, Kevin, Mauna Kea is spectacular, but watching the sunrise on Haleakala is something that everyone should see in their lifetime. You are above the clouds, and on a clear day, you can see every island in the state. Maui also has some of the nicest beaches in Hawaii. Road to Hana as Dean mentioned is a cool day trip and a week will give you more than enough time to hit pretty much everything that you should. Also Maui is far less crowded and "city" like than Oahu (honolulu). We are talking the difference between approx 200,000 residents (Maui) vs. 1,000,000 residents on Oahu. So traffic, crowds and all else will be reduced. Not sure about the summer, but whale watching is also the best on Maui both from the shore and from the many whale tours.

Although I suggest Maui, any of the 4 major islands will make for a great vacation. Make your choice, buy a tour book and enjoy.
Ryan

Our friends, Michelle and Whelan, invited us to stay for 10 days in Kona with them this winter. Michelle's boss offered up his house (not sure if it's a timeshare or not) so we'll save a bunch not having to stay in a hotel. We'll probably do a bunch of snorkeling and surfing (Whelan surfs).

We went to Kauai with my uncle a couple years ago. It was beautiful. The highlights were snorkeling, hiking, a boat trip up the Na Pali Coast complete with dolphins and snorkeling with sea turtles. I also tried to surf, without much luck. :)

Just what I was thinking ;)

How far is Maui from the big island? Meaning, if we wanted to stay in Maui, could we take a day trip to see molten rock pour into the ocean?

You could just microwave a peperoni Hot Pocket for 5 minutes too long to see a close approximation. Probably much cheaper than hopping a ferry.

lofnl

Me thinks it just won't be the same :mad:

Maui to the Big Island is about 100 miles, but the volcano is on the other side from where Maui is. So you would most likely fly from Kahului to Hilo and then take the hour drive up to the volcano. Would be a pretty sweet 1-2 day trip though.

Ryan

It wouldn't be the same, unless he threw it into the ocean.

Listen to Ryan, he clearly knows what he's talking about!


That was the biggest draw for me! Wake up hung over around 10am, breakfast, walk/swim/hike, lunch, walk/swim/hike, dinner, drinks, sunset, drinks... rinse, repeat. Right up my alley! ;)

that's the plan ;)

ah, Hawaii - you lucky dog. This thread makes me want to take another vacation there (and based on Ryan's description, next stop Maui!).

Places/tours I'd recommend: Oahu - traditional luau, Dole Plantation tour, North Shore (big surf destination); Pearl Harbor Memorial tour (very moving);
Kauai - sugar cane plantation tour, drive the island in a rented convertible, helicopter ride over Waimea Canyon/Napali Coast, hiking the canyon, boat tour of Napali Coast
Big Island - definitely the Volcanoes national park! Kona is a cool resort area.
I think all of the islands have bicycle rentals, fishing tours (highly recommended), and snorkeling (highly recommended!).

Definitely snorkeling, and probably a jet ski rental.

First time to the islands - most of the places I've been people don't want to go, and most of the places people want to go, I haven't been.

This one's a special trip though, so we're gonna make it count. ;)

So jenn and I are taking off for our honeymoon in just under a week. But, need to rent a car. Flying into Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, and driving around north shore to get to kanapali where our hotel is on the west coast. Will also be driving probably everyday we are there.

Anyone got any recommendations for the best place to get a decent deal and a decent car? What car should I be looking for? I know some of ya travel a bit. I don't. No idea what to look for. Was going to go for a convertible mustang, but just isn't worth four times as much to still have an auto.

Any recommendations?

Last time I was there, I picked up a Subaru Forester from AVIS and it was priced as a mid-size.

I just did The Big Island in January. We scored great car rental pricing through Alamo. They have Fords and Nissans. Definitely get the Nissan. We drove a big Ford sedan since we had 4 adults and a baby. What a piece. Wish we had got the Nissan since they're the same price.

That would be sweet. There are several places that we wanted to go that required a 4X4. The loaner SUV that we had access to wouldn't start though.

Try kayak.com.

I've been on kayak, seems to list the best prices with being able to tell the car. I'll probably be calling whatever place we go with to make sure(ish) I know what model I'm getting.

Las time I rented a car we ended up with a jeep liberty in la. It was a piece, but after jumping it a few times, three wheeling it and basically destroying it, it was actually fairly solid :)

Was wondering if there's one of the avencues that has a better compact, a mid size that's better than the full..... Fuel economy is going to be up there for us, I'm sure gas ain't cheap on the island. We are also looping the full island, and bombing the road to Hana at least once. I was trying to rent a Porsche or something for that one day, may go for a Harley or something though? Just want to make it worth it, ya know?

* I should not be typing so much on my phone. Looks like a two year old is writing lol

I made the brakes on the Forester smoke on the road to Hana...It did great.

This. But a Toyota Yaris, down Waimea canyon on the island of Kauai... They were blocks of wood about half way down. Good times.

Nice work, hahaha.

Damn Howlies. :P

Isn't that a fun road? I followed a local running blocking for me in a MPV chain smoking out the window. It was quite surreal. Made it to Hana in record time and then stopped at the sites on the way back until I had to head for the airport.

Wait, did I say that earlier in this thread? I am old and forgetful.

Kayak!

Just so Im looking for the right thing, the "road to Hana" goes through the inland of the island, right? Not a coastal drive? I'm not finding the inland route, but were planning at least two trips down there :)

Used kayak to find a deal on orbitz. $26 a day total for a Dodge Charger. Better than the econobox options at the time.


Now to figure out what to do with the couple days we have open....

Excuse me...!? I'm not a local boy, but ENTIRELY the wrong color for a Howlie!


:lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hana_Highway

Road to Hana is definitely coastal on the East side of Maui. If you are doing it slow, there is a cool CD/MP3s that you play as you drive it that tells you all about the road and stops along the way. I have it if you are interested.

I think the only "Inland" road on Maui would be the Haleakala hwy that climbs the volcano. Also another road to smoke Forester brakes on!

Found a picture of our rental Forester parked in Hana and a shot along the road.

Also, Rory, the North Shore route to Ka'anapali takes a lot longer than cutting straight across, but you may not care. If you drive that way, make sure to leave some time to stop, there are some sweet walking trails out over the cliffs...

Thanks for all the input guys, I did end up missing the last few posts...


Had an amazing time, and tried everything I could to convince the better half to simply move there. Fricking best place on earth imo, and I've traveled a bit.



We pulled up Kaanapali > Hana several times, and it routed us towards Kahului, then back across west, then around the south end of the island, backwards along the HH. Fortunately, we were given Maui Revealed as a wedding present, and used it for all its worth. Took HH fast but made lots of stops - most if not all of the main stops, but fast enough that we had to backtrack at least a half a dozen times.

Ended up with a Mustang convertible as it was a marginal upgrade cost last minute. I thought that because the 2011 pony's gotten such good reviews it'd be a worthwhile upgrade - one of the greatest piece of shit cars I've ever driven overall, at least for a car with under 20k. And, considering I owe the '04 STi with jumbo scoop, visibility over the hood was crap.


Anyway, I think the greatest road I've ever driven was that to Haleakala - faster and more open than HH, so I enjoyed it a lot more. Drove up in the dark for a sunrise, back down shortly after. Past a half dozen cars in order to have some open road. Ended up fully smoking the brakes on the stang before we were done - they were getting pretty warped and starting to fade on HH but were nearly non existent and terribly warped by the bottom of Haleakala. Good times.



Anyway, thanks again to all. You helped us pick the island, and your input was worth every penny.


Also, Matt, sorry I missed saying Happy Bday!