Planning a Hawaii trip. Any Pointers??

We prefer Maui because it a little less busy and usually stay in Kaanapali.

Valley Isle Resort in Kaanapali has ocean front condos for $15 - $145 per night. That's a pretty good deal for ocean front.

Napili Bay, also in Kaanapali great place to swim and it has a restaurant on the North end that serves good food and drinks.

I like Kauai, and don't care much for Oahu (relatively speaking).

We went to Oahu a couple years ago. Waikiki to be exact. It's a cool place. but is a concrete jungle. They've got some cool stuff to do though. Snorkling at Haunama(sp?) Bay was a blast.
When we go back again we'll most likely go to Maui or Kauai. Regardless, you can get pretty cheap plane tickets to and from each island.
I really wanted to go for a guided motorcycle ride and just ran out of time.

If you go to Oahu...stay on the North Shore, and then drive to Pearl Harbor (the drive aound the island is beautiful and fun in its own right)...we stayed at Waikiki last time, and its way to crowded for our taste, and since we didn't go to Hawaii to for upscale shopping we couldn't wait to get out of there.

Pearl Harbor is AWESOME! Plan a full day there, and make sure you do/see everything. Every American should spend a week at that place. So well worth the trip to Oahu...

The Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu is fun too...

We love Kauai...haven't been to Maui, yet. Next time we go, we will split our time between Kauai and Maui (or spend the entire time on Maui-since we've never been there).

whatever you do, DON'T bring back any lava rocks or tiki dolls. It's super bad luck. Remember that Brady Bunch episode?

I'm going in October and this is what I'd like to do..

https://youtu.be/nHBXNuUhlvI

I took the wife there 3 years ago. Flew into Oahu and did a cool tour: Pearl Harbor, dole plantation, and north shore. We should have left after that.... Then we skipped over to Maui and stayed at the Weston inn in kaanapoli. That place was amazing, snorkels, good food, etc.... My advice would be to do a quick 1 day stop only on Oahu to see the history and skip to another island.

Maui is my only experience, the only advice would be to do the morning bike ride tour down the big volcano (don't recall the name, probably something like anakooplavillopotoannana...).

They drive you to the top at sunrise, it was above the clouds the day we were there. You put on a rain suit and a helmet, and jam downhill for like 30 miles. You kind of have to stay with the group, but still plenty of chances to channel your inner Rossi and practice some road racing passes on the "less skilled" tourists of the group. Amazing scenery, 98% downhill so not much effort, and for us was worth the time and reasonable price.

Snorkeling Molekini (sp?) was pretty cool too, you take a boat out to submerged volcano about 5 miles off shore (just the top 30' or so is above water) and snorkel around about a billion fish (they feed them so the hang around). It was amazing, but also really eerie to see the sandy bottom drop off into the abyss all around you. I guess watching JAWS as a child made me imagine some crazy shit happening looking out towards that drop off into the darkness... And they booze you up on the ride back, good times!

Kauai is amazing.
December is most expensive time of year to go to Hawaii.

After your wife gets two years experience you guys can have a paid working Hawaiian vacation if she takes a travel contract out there. My girlfriend gets offered them all the time.

Haven't been there in quite a few years but our favorite place to stay was Napili Surf, at Napili Bay on Maui.
http://www.napilisurf.com
It's a small place that all the units are individually owned but run as a hotel. When we used to go there 75%
of the people were people that go there every year. If you are looking for a big resort this is not the place for you.
This is more like "being at home" where you make your own food, maybe BBQ in the yard. It's right on the beach.
Location is great. You'll end up being friends with your neighbors before you leave. Lots of activities on Maui,
Just depends on you budget.
The routine was, Get off airplane, pickup rental car, stop at Costco (right by the airport) stock up on food for the week
and head to the condo. Of course there are restaurants you can go to close by but it really is convenient to make your
own drinks, not have to pay up the nose for beer at the big resorts, and just an entirely different atmosphere.
Relax and have a great vacation

I loved kauai, so mellow and layed back.

Oahu was fun for me too, but only because my uncle lived there and has bikes. Not much of a tourist guy, Kauai was more my style.

Don't try the poi

I went to Maui and could have stayed for the rest of my life. Stayed at the Westin in Kaanapali and it was awesome. Great pool, nice beaches not far from the "Black Rock" that is fun to jump off. Also great snorkeling. You cannot do something not fun on Maui, but some things are must do's and others are just ok if you ask me. It took atleast two days to get adjusted to the time change for us, and since we were only there for 7 days it was a bummer.

These were my favorite activities:
Haleakala(Volcano) Bike Tour. Pack warm clothes for this
Rent Snorkel Gear for the week and keep it in the Jeep
Rent a jeep and take the roof off
Eat Dinner at Mamas Fish House $$$
Snorkel at Honolua Bay (and watch the surfers is the surfs up)
Road to Hana - it's a cool experience. I had a jeep and went all the way around the island and that was fun.
Rent a surfboard/paddleboard, or do a surf lesson
Go to a Luao, most of the hotels have one. The westin's was cool.
Theres a breakfast spot in Nipoli at some random motel that is outstanding
Take an insane amount of pictures, literally every turn in the road could be a postcard
Wear sunscreen
Devote atleast 1 day to just hanging by the pool/beach with no activities. I remember being totally wiped out many of the days from being on the go so much

Not as fun but still fun
Molakai Snorkle trip - I thought the snorkeling available between blackrock and Honolua bay was better, this was a long trip and just wasn't as good as I expected

We were flying non stop from Houston so we splurged for first class. Damn, I'm spoiled now....lol Wife decided she didn't want her smoked salmon so I piled it on my plate.




We did a day in Oahu and a half island tour as someone described above, Pearl Harbor, Dole, North Shore. Did a dinner cruise the night that we got there. The Outrigger Reef hotel had overbooked for a military deal so they upgraded the wife and I to a multi room suite with three balconies and a bedroom view of Diamondhead. That was nice! They were extremely helpful with arranging things we could do since we were only going to be on the island for a day and a half before heading to Maui. Dinner Cruise.....buffet food kinda sucked. View, great




On to Maui for a few days for our 25th anniversary and we had splurged for a "prime ocean view suite" at the Four Seasons resort. First time ever that we've really pissed away money on ourselves and had been 17 years since we had a true week long vacation together. We were "all in"! Get to the Four Seasons and got the best valet service ever. Unfortunately, that's where the great service ended. Got off the elevator and noticed instead of going left towards the water, our room number was the other direction. Right in the rear corner of the courtyard with near zero view of a sliver of water. Nice room, but not what we had booked. It never got better. We stayed away from there as much as possible and they did nothing to make up for their failures. Fuck the Four Seasons.

But Maui was great. We burned so many miles on the Jeep it wasn't funny. To the top of the volcano after going to the winery,part way to Hana as we had reservations at Mamma's Fish House (an absolute must do), helicopter tour of the island, snorkeling the Molokini crater and other locations with the Blue Water Rafting crew(highly .....I'm ready to go back.



Then to Kuai for a few days. Drove the whole island from the canyon all the way around to Tunnels beach. Kayak'd up the river and hiked to some falls. Nice laid back place there. Did a Luau at the hotel, buffet food sucked, show was decent. We were told that any good Luau's are booked months in advance so plan ahead and get references for that. Supposed to be a good one in Maui.

mewmann, sometimes you make me sick..............LOL I'm happy just looking forward to a trip to the gulf coast next week........ UUUUUUUUUUUUm shit what was the topic, oh yea catch some weaves DUDE!!

That was back in 2010 and I may still be paying for it, wife ain't sayin'! There were so many cool sites and just not enough time to take it all in. Favorite story was when the van hauling us all back from kayaking broke down and had traffic backing up for a loooong way on the two lane highway. Driver tells us to all get out and to the side of the road out of harms way while we waited for another van to come pick us up. I watched the traffic continue to back up until I just couldn't stand it any more (about three minutes!). I proceeded to unhook the trailer and got a couple others to help me pull it off the road. Then we pushed the van out of the way. More than half the people there were freaking out, having never had to push a vehicle I guess. Funny shit, the wife and I got the biggest kick out of that misadventure.

Where you going on the gulf coast?

The best way to come down from Haleakala is a go at your own pace deal instead of the group deal IMO. The night sky is not to be missed either in Hawaii.

The Four Seasons is the best place on Maui. I like your style newmann. BTW whatever you do don't come to Hawaii and only go to Oahu.

THIS

Maui Dual Sport Adventure gets rave reviews.