Re: Hawaii... been? What to do, skip, see,...
Regardless of which island you go to I highly recommend the
Hawaii Revealed line of books for whatever island you wind up going to.
I will second this recommendation.
Be sure not to pick the hardest friggin beach on the big island to try surfing. I think I still have a welt on my head from that one.
I highly recommend going surfing while you're there. I did Waikiki beach during my honeymoon and the waves are good for a beginner. It's a pretty awesome thing to do. The paddling is ridiculous so hit the shoulder workouts big time before you go. I went out with an instructor and he ended up pulling me back into the lineup the last half of my hour because my shoulders were absolutely toast and I'm generally speaking in good shape. I'll highly recommend the folks at I think C&K Surfing right out in front of the Hilton Hawaiin Village (I was in Waikiki during early October 2004 and stayed here and the LA Lakers were staying here for training camp. Saw Shaq and had breakfast right near Phil Jackson).
Skip the road to Hana on Maui. The only reason every tourist does it is that every preceding tourist did it. I can get you some restaurant picks on Maui & Oahu if that is where you're headed.
Totally agree. Let me tell you there is nothing in Hana. Hungry after that crazy drive? I think there's one restaurant there with like weird hours and closes right after lunch. DO NOT drive the long way around after you get to Hana, just reverse directions, it's dirt road with cows on it if you try to go all the way around and you'll regret doing that. It will take forever.
On to my own comments...
We spent a week on the Big Island (a week at a time share resort from my uncle was our wedding gift from him and it was a pimped out palace) and this island was a pleasant surprise. We stayed in Waikoloa which is a nice area on the east side of the island and not far from Kona. There are some nice shops (King's Shops?) in there as well if you wanted to do a little shopping but beware most of the resorts there are expensive and the stores are too.
A few recommended activities that we enjoyed.
- Do a waterfall day on the Big Island on the way to Hilo and stop by one of the botanical gardens, which was a lot more enjoyable than I expected. One of the waterfalls is fairly smaller but quite accessible so we were downstream a little bit with our feet in the water enjoying the view and cold water to cool us off.
- Black sand beach at Punalu'u is a must and South Point on the way to the volcano is interesting as well.
- The volcano might have been the coolest thing we did. Get a good flashlight and head down there at mid evening. Pack a light dinner with some sandwiches, each in the car and then head out as the sun sets. Bring lots of water and take the hike out there as it gets dark. It's pretty amazing.
- Definitely go snorkeling. We actually bought snorkeling gear here, brought it with us in our luggage and then just left it there in Hawaii rather than bringing it back. Highly recommend snorkeling where the sea turtles are. Best place on the island was Kahaluu on the Kona coast for turtles. East to get to and sea turtles there in the morning feeding, even little baby ones... one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. It has a reef out about 100 yards or so … so you’re protected nicely from currents and surf and turtles like it because it's protecting them from sharks.
- Another thing we did on this island was going fishing in Kona. Didn’t catch a thing but a nice time nonetheless, the guys running the boat were nice and interesting to talk to and we got to meet some other folks visiting the island as well. Some other boats snagged a marlin that day but not us.
Also… Beware cockroaches on the Big Island. And keep an eye out for them in your rental car. We had 3 rental cars on that island and when we brought one back the next one had them anyway.
The last week of my honeymoon was spent split between Maui and Oahu.
On Oahu, we visited Pearl Harbor but relaxed most of the time. As mentioned, Waikiki is a good place to surf for beginners. Never even made it to diamond head. We did take a drive one day to the north shore through the Dole pineapple plantations to see the good waves (winter starts kicking up, October is medium surf) and Haleiwa was a pleasant surprise that had a good burger joint.
Maui was a great island. Highly recommend checking out Lahaina. We liked it so much we went back there. We stayed in Ka’anapali. It’s got amazing beaches and snorkeling towards the end of the beach near Black Rock is very good.
Here we did our helicopter ride for the tour of Oahu as well, which was amazing.
Finally, you have to visit the black sand beach on the southwest corner of the island at Punaluu. In addition to the obvious novelty of the beach itself, you will likely see wild giant turtles on the beach. Sadly you will also likely see tourists abusing the turtles for photo op's. It's funny, I think about that one little experience a lot - I really should have scolded them. It makes me angry to this day.
OMG, I totally was the same way. Stupid German tourists couldn't read the signs that said to let the Hawksbill turtles nest and stay X feet away from them. I actually have video of my making fun of them for standing 5 inches away from the freakin turtles.
). agree on the walk on the lava on south side of big island. pretty cool. golf was ok. holes on the ocean there are very pretty.