HAWAII - need info or advice
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive June 2007:
HAWAII - need info or advice
DH and I are thinking about vacation 2008. LOL We have narrowed it down to 3 choices, and I have picked Hawaii.
SO.....................since neither of us have ever been, I need advice! We decided NOT to do the islands cruise, and want to do a land vacation instead and spend a few days at a time on 2 islands. My question is: WHICH 2 islands should we visit???
Before you answer, these are the things we want to do/see, so whichever 2 islands we choose should offer these things: Zipline, rain forests, go to a volcano, snorkel, (*possibly*) learn to surf, authentic dining, snorkel, go to a black sand beach, snorkel, snorkel. LOL
Also, where/what kind of place would be best to stay?
And finally, what's the best time of year to go? We *usually* take a 2 week vacation the end of November/early December, due to DH's work schedule.
If you have been there or are going there soon, please share your thoughts. ANY ideas and info is appreciated!!!!!
Also, DH wants to see the WW2 memorial, which necessitates at least a day trip to the big island.
My parents went in March of 2006 and had a great time. They did a cruise-sort of thing, though. I can't remember how many islands they visited.
Dawn, we have considered the island hopper cruise (NCL does one that cruises out of Hawaii; Celebrity does one that cruises out of CA), but we want a chance to *really* see some of the islands and to do a bunch of stuff there, and that's just not possible when cruising.
I have been to hawaii three times and i have never gotten off of oahu. I think you should pick oahu and another island. There are several different type of beaches on oahu, we did snorkel snorkel snorkel. There is also a surfing class taught by firefighters (don't recall specifics).
What I learned is this. What ever you choose to do, do it through pre programmed tours. They take you out a little farther and know the small places to go. For example, in oahu if you look up snorkling, you will see lots of references to hanuamu (sp) bay. It is pretty there, but 2000 people trying to snorkel all at once, 2 foot deep water right ontop of a reef, it is very difficult to really enjoy the snorkeling. But if you take a snorkling adventure, they will take you out to a different side of the island and you almost be the only people there.
Pearl harbor is amazing, waimai falls is pretty, polynesion cultural center is useless.
I would suggest Maui, it is very beautiful, I haven't been to Hawaii since I was 12 years old, but I will always remember that island, and my parents go to just Maui about once every 2 years because they love it there so much. Basically, with Maui, I think you can't really go wrong with where you choose to stay.When I was younger, we also went to Oahu, but I just remember it being very city-like, maybe that's something you would want, but personally, I loved the quiet island feel of Maui.
November/December can be rainy season in tropical areas, so check that out.
That said, I've been to Hawaii once and think it the most beautiful place in the world (that I've seen).
I would urge you to go to the "big island", Hawaii, for the volcanos. What we did, and I will never, ever forget the experience, is go up to the volcanos from the Kona Coast side, and come back down on the Hilo side. On the Kona Coast side, you start from volcanic beaches (your black sand beaches), and gradually drive up through tropical jungle. (When we were there, it was a two-lane road, and the up-side was on the outside, so down was really *down* when you looked out the passenger window.) From tropical jungle you move into rain forest. We pulled over into a rest location and walked a bit on paths, going through some volcanic tubes, and saw what are common small weeds here grown to gigantic size - a jack-in-the-pulpit type plant that was 5 feet high. Next is volcanic desert, with multiple dead volcano craters. You can walk among them and see where nature is taking back, with some craters having only a bit of greenery growing in cracks in the walls, and others with the walls and floor smothered in green. Finally you reach the top and the volcanic fields. That's where you are reminded that clouds are really water, and a lightweight raincoat is nice. You can look over the major volcanic fields and see some smoldering and smoking and some glowing. It's amazing. And when you drive down on the Hilo side, you will drive through fields that are also amazing. I just saw "fields" at first, like driving through any farm country, until I realized that what I was seeing was fields of orchids, the small purple orchids that are used for leis, on your dinner table and pillow and bedtable every night along with the mints.
Maui is indeed beatiful, from everything I've heard. One of the lawyers I worked with went there on her honeymoon and could not find enough words to describe how glorious it was. But try to spend at least one day on Oahu (where the main airport is, the one you will probably fly into) so you can go to Pearl Harbor, and Diamond Head. Both are not to be missed.
Kaye has good advice about signing up with one of the specialty programs. And she's right - the Polynesian Culture Center is useless. My thought, after visiting it, is that people don't belong in zoos, and it was sort of a people zoo. I also didn't think much of the main museum on Oahu.
I'm not sure how much "authentic" cuisine you'll get, but yes, you should go to a luau. When you do, try to make sure it is on a beach or area facing West, so you will see a tropical sunset. It is awe-inspiring. You watch the sun slowly sinking, sinking, sinking, and suddenly - swoop - it's gone! Just like that!. Astounding. We saw that from a hotel restaurant when we were on the Kona Coast.
I also agree with Kaye that Oahu is beautiful in many ways and many places - though I still recommend a couple of days on the big island. Two things we did on Oahu were to take a drive on roads that went through the forest/jungles that are the national parks, which are simply amazing. And we drove around the outside edge of the island as far as we could (at that time the outside road didn't go all the way around so we missed part of the edge, but maybe it does now). We stopped in so many little places, just to look at the water - the many changing colors of the water - and enjoy the beauty. We saw huge pineapple fields (which are probably not there any more) and other huge farms growing a variety of tropical fruit crops. Yes, the tourist/hotel section of Oahu is very city-like, and is surrounded by the city where Hawaiians who work in the tourist industry and in government services live, so that also is "city", but you can get out of the city. And in what other city in the world can you walk down a street and see a fence around a used car lot that is smothered in bougainvilla!? It seemed no matter where we were in Hawaii there was beauty.
I want to warn you - when we went it was in May, and with the lovely breezes coming from the ocean I never felt hot, so I forgot about the tropical sun, and got quite a sunburn. Sunscreen is a must from morning to evening. Oh, and on Oahu we stayed in a hotel/condo type place with a balcony that faced east, and being an early riser I was able to watch the sun rising over the mountains. And just below our balcony was the Queens Canal, where we watched rowers training for competitions. Also amazing. We aren't beach people, so we only strolled along the walks at the end of one of the beaches, but that too was beautiful.
Oh, and it's a very, very long flight. I strongly recommend spending a night and day in San Francisco or Los Angeles each way, to break the flight and give your body a break. For us it was from Chicago to Oahu, I was in my mid-40s and not yet having arthritis problems, and that was bad enough. From New Orleans would be a whole lot longer.
I remember my mom telling me that my dad had wanted to go to Hawaii all of his life, and they had booked the trip three times - canceling each time because he was afraid it wouldn't live up to his dream. They finally went, and then took me with them the next year to share what they had loved. (It turned out that on their first flight to Hawaii my dad rescued a young woman from a guy who was hitting on her, and she was a native Hawaiian, so when we went the next year we had our personal native guide. That was my dad all over!)
Here's a link to an overview of Hawaii weather patterns: weather
and here's what Frommers says:
Frommers, which is basically to go in the Spring or Fall - the best weather and lower rates, except the last week of April and early May, which coincide with three Japanese holidays.
Oahu is fabulous, and convenient to hop to another island from Honolulu. There are so many different things to see on the island, and bonus if you are a LOST fan, I saw places where some of the filming is done.
I second visiting the Big Island. I think I've read that there are 11 of 14 climate zones on the island alone. There is the Volcanoes National Park to visit, Black Sand Beach, Green Sand Beach (requires a bit of a hike), waterfalls in Hilo. Be prepared to do a bit of driving if you decide to venture out on your own.
You can take an island hopper (plane) or a ferry to different islands if you wanted to stay on one but visit another.
I looked at your list again. You can definitely do the Black Sand Beach, rainforest, and volcano at Big island and your dh could see the WW2 memorial.
When we were there, we did the drive Ginny is talking about. It was so neat!
Thanks for all the responses!!!!!! We are printing this thread out to keep with our *research*.
I have been to Oahu and Maui and loved them both. But, if I had to choose between the two I would go to Maui. I did not do the zipline in Hawaii (they book up weeks in advance) but did do it Mexico and it was GREAT! I was not very good at it but it was a wonderful experience.
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