Were to visit in Hawaii?

Hey Hawaii Brothers

I need a little info. I'm planning on taking my wife on a vacation next year to your wonderful Island and need a little advice.

She really likes the touristing (spell?) stuff, like shopping, native restaurants and culture type things. What would be the best Island and Resort to stay at for this type of visit? I don't have a lot of cash but I don't want to stay at any dives either.

Any advise you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

PS - If you need something brought from AZ let me know. I could hook you up with a good burrito but I don't think it would make it.

 

just to let you know, the state of Hawaii is made up of like 8 islands, unless you are referring to the island of Hawaii aka the big island. if that is what you are referring to, sorry, cant help ya there. i live on maui. i hope you have a wonderful vacation.

 

That's just it, I don't know which island to go to. What do you think would be the best for someone that whats to do a little bit of the touristy stuff plus see some of the rest of the islands?

Can I stay on one island to chill and take a boat to the others?

 

waikiki (oahu) would be the most "touristy" if thats what youre looking for. oahu's more city-like than the rest.
the other islands are little bit more laid back.

 

Would it be feasible to stay on one off the more remote Islands and just visit Waikki or Oahu?

 

If you want to experience culture and stuff of hawaii, do not go to waikiki. its horrible over there. i try to stay away from there best i can. try visit the neighbor islands if can.

 

yup. waikiki is phony hawaii. but oahu has a lot more to see than just waikiki. north shore, snorkeling, hiking, horseback riding, etc.

we used to have a interisland ferry until about 4 months ago. now you gotta fly.

 

yah honolulu's a pretty decent sized city...if your into clubbing and whatnot its nice but the neighbor islands are alot more laid back...nice if you just want to sit back and relax..i hear a lot of tourists like to visit maui...personally i'd go for the big island but your gonna do a lot of driving there...lol

 

I'd like to visit Oahu. I played test drive unlimited on the xbox360. Its based off that island which is based off google maps. So a lot of stuff is real in the game. I know where to get from place to place. I'd love to go there. The scenery is beautiful on the game, imagine how it would be in real life.

 

uhh the game isn't anything like the city...lol...but the scenery here is pretty nice and its a pretty nice mix of city and a bit of country....lot of nice scenic spots

 

Thank you guys.

 

I lived in Waikiki on Oahu for 4 years and it has a nice blend of the tourist thing and natural beauty. One thing though TRAFFIC FUCKING SUCKS!!!!!! I should probably repeat that. Rent a car with GPS,(TomTom or something).
If ur wife wants the shopping thing, she will get it and more, you--will have no more money though...lol. Just remember, everything is like 3x more expensive out here, so budget accordingly. U can get inter-island flights for super cheap though, like $39 each way. Book in advace though, maybe a couple weeks or something. Hawaiian Airlines is the most dependable and usually cheapest, Mokelele is a new airline in town(took over Aloha Airlines). I'd stay away from "GO!" or "STAY" as I like to call it(lot of delays).
I've heard Maui is the new Oahu. Can't really help u on that one.
I've lived on the Big Island for a year now and it has some awesome natural beauty. It really is BIG though. Say it takes bout 2 1/2 hrs to drive around Oahu(no stops), it takes bout 8 or 9 hrs around Big Island(no stops). U can fit all the other islands on it and still have room left over. Lotta driveing over here. The touristy spots r Kona and Hilo(moreso Kona). We have a dry side and wet side. Kona dry, Hilo wet. Lotta blacksand beaches here and one greensand beach( I think the only one of it's kind, but don't quote me on that). Best blacksand beach I think is Waipio Valley. Plenty waterfalls too. Oh yeah, u will want to get a 4X4 if u come here to get to all the cool places. You will be longing for your Taco out here! U can also go to the top of the tallest volcano in the world, Mauna Kea. U can also view the night sky thru the telescopes there(for free I belive). Pick up a "Big Island Revealed" book for more cool stuff to see. I think their up to the 5th edition now.
As for the other islands I really dont know. They are alot more remote. I've heard that they are amazingly beautiful but not a lot of metropolatin areas. Do your homework and the more stuff u do on your own the cheaper it will probably be.
Well, that was a mouth-full. Hope I helped in ur planning of ur vaction. Aloha!! BTW: If ur in Waikiki, stop by a bar called "Arnold's Tiki Bar". Just a cool spot I worked at for a long time. Tell'um "Jack sent u". They might give ya a free drink, they might kick ya out...just kidding....maybe?

 

One other thing. U wil be amazed how many Taco's are in Hawaii!

 

Wow! Thanks for all the info Jack!
I will definitly check out the Big Island Revealed book and if I make it to Arnold's Tiki Bar I'll let you know if I get the boot.

 

it's state law for every household to own at least one tacoma

 

My Wife and I went 2 years ago. Now... we are cheap. So we stayed in the cheapest hotels, rented a car, ate at local diners and stuff like that. But it was the best time I have ever had.

First of all, we went in the winter right after Christmas. We also went to the big island, which is probably the least "touristy" of the Hawaiians ( at least that what locals told us) The temp is 75-80 year round' so winter, summer...doesn't matter but it is a lot cheaper and there are a lot less people.

The big island has diverse weather. The Hilo side is very, very wet. It rained most of the time. The other side- the Kona side- is drier and a bit warmer. We actually stayed in Captain Cook, which is above Kona. The cool thing about it is that Captain Cook is near all the Kona Coffee plantations so you can see that. There's also a few snorkeling places off the beaten path, namely a place called " The place of refuge" . The water is warm and salty so you can just lay in the water all day and you'll float like a cork. We bought shitty masks and snorkels at the hardware store for $5 and they worked great.

We stayed at an old hotel called the Manago. here's the site: http://www.managohotel.com/
It was around $65 a night. The food there was super good. No- it isn't fancy. But its more authentic. There are no TV sets. But the balconys look out over the water.

Let me put it this way: We had very good food, met some really nice people, even made some friends we had beer with. On the other hand we went down to some of the "Touristy" hotels that had tiki torches, lagoon pools, and private beaches. I almost felt sorry for those who stayed there. It was so fake and ridiculous. The people who stayed there I doubt actually left the resort.

lastly- go to the KTA. Its a chain of grocery stores there and the food there is great. Ahi Tuna is dirt-cheap in hawaii so if you can find yourself a park with a BBQ grill, you can have ahi tuna for about $5 apiece.

 

More good info! Thank you much Bob.

 

I went to Maui about two years ago in the summer. It is very nice there and there is tons of shopping for the ladies, but if you explore a little, you can find some nice authentic restraunts.

I stayed at the Grand Wailea hotel which is super expensive so unless u have Hilton honors points(got me there free for a 6 days), on the 7th day we just found this one hotel that was near(sorry forgot name) that was actuly very nice and right on the beach for a super cheap price.

One really cool thing I did was the trip up the volcano(forgot which on one it was) and the bikeride down. I was suppossed to go on a helicopter ride around the island but unfortunatly there were forest fires going on at the time so went toured another island, but it was amzing so if u have a little extra cash i would recomemd that highly. I heard about a car ride that is a couple hours long thorugh the rainforest/jungle of the island that is amazing, but i didn't have enough time to do it(you might need a 4x4 to do this but i don't remember). Also there are many snokeling spot just off the coast that are easy to find, we just got some dirt cheap equipment and dove in.

Hope you have a great time whatever island u end up going to

 

Just thought about this. In the hawaiian language "w" is pronounced as "v". So Hawaii is "Havaii". So on and so forth. It helps because w/out it a lot of the names, words, signs around hawaii sound kinda funny and it"ll save a little embaressment for ya. Hawaiian words are all about pronuciation. LikeLike Hwy is "Li-ke Li-ke Hwy", PeePee Falls is "Pe-e Pe-e Falls" and NaPooPoo Rd is "Na-Po-o Po-o Rd". I really could not belive it when I saw these street signs. They are just fuckin hilarious!! Don't have a pic of NaPooPoo...Yet!

 

You can see all of Maui in Less than a week. The Hana highway is a must! If you are in for a challenge keep driving past Hana. There is another neat stretch of road if you can call it that on the other side of the Island but watch out if someone comes the other way. Maui has everything from an old volcano at 10,000 feet to surfing, beaches, and lots of rainforest. The needle is interesting, the beach sand in spectacular, and you make it from one of the island to the other in around an hour. I put 900 miles on my rental car in 4 days and figure I saw most of what there was to see.... there is even a partially submersed volcanoe you can go snorkelling on.