First Vacation to Hawaii

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
PURPLEHAZE_IHB

PURPLEHAZE_IHB

New member
Alo-ha! Alright folks, I am tired of house hunting and need a vacation away from the Housing market :-) I am planning on my first vacation to Hawaii, yup never been there. So I thought I would hit you folks up - who have been there, done that. I am a nature loving kind and value the time away from the urban jungle so I wished away waikiki and honolulu in an instant. I would be very thankful if anyone of you folks could recommend which island offers the best opportunity to explore the natural wonders for a first timer. I am thinking of Maui but am not certain. Thanks in advance for your responses! Best Regards Purplehaze
 
We went for the first time last July and chose Maui. It was very beautiful.



I don't know about Hawaii to recommend which island is the best. My brother went to Kauai and it's supposed to be more rural and less touristy. He loved it there. I think that's what we're going to try next.



Maui was great though. We were there five full days and never had a lack of activities.
 
<p>If you go to Maui, think about doing a Zip Line:</p>

<p><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ypwbw2">http://www.skylinehawaii.com/</a></p>
 
I've been to Maui, Oahu, and the Big Island. Going to Kauai later this year.



Anyways of the ones I visited Maui is my favorite. Oahu (and waikiki/honolulu) just feels like you are still back at home almost albeit with nicer weather. The city life robs all of the classic Hawaiian charm. Maui is extremely beautiful and offer a mix of all the sights the hawaiian islands has to offer, from rainforests (Road to Hana) to volcano (Haleakala National Park) to beaches (along the west and south shores) to whale-watching snorkeling and all sorts of water based sightseeing.



The big island has a lot of nature also, but mostly of the volcano kind. To be fair though, they do have a still flowing volcano that you can see. I heard Kauai was mostly of the rainforest variety which happens to be my gf's favorite from when we went to Maui, that's why I'm going there :) From what I heard Kauai has a beautiful canyon and beaches and is known to be the one of the wettest place on earth.



I recommend Maui if you want to experience all of the variety of charm that the Hawaiian islands has to offer. It is however much more touristy, so if you don't like that, the Big Island and Kauai are pretty good second options.
 
We went to Maui for our first Hawaiian vacation and loved it. One of the reasons is that there's a lot to do, so you don't have to just sit out all day if you don't want to.
 
<p>Prior to my Hawaiian vacations, I always buy Andrew Doughty's Guidebook on that paricular island. He lives on the island for one to two years, full time, to write each book. He hikes the trails, eats in the restaurants and does everything that he writes about (all anonymously). The $15.95 is worth every penny!</p>

<p>Walea (enjoy)</p>
 
I hear ya Purple.....all these house hunting is stressing us out...so we decided to sit on the side and wait until Summer or Fall to look again. In the meantime, we booked a trip to Jamaica and Hawaii in summer. Just tired of saving every single pennies, so we decided to splurge and forget about house hunting.
 
<p>Maui is definitely the call for your first Hawaiian vacation Haze. Beautiful, good eats, some to do, but not a ton. IMO 5 days is a good amount of time to be there. With only 2-3 you'd end up missing a ton or rushing too much.</p>

<p>On Maui, I prefer to stay on the Wailea side vs. Lahaina. </p>

<p>When we go back, we are definitely taking one of these:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bluehawaiian.com/maui/tours/">http://www.bluehawaiian.com/maui/tours/</a></p>

<p>Flying above Haleakala would be cool.</p>
 
I recommend either Maui or Kauai. Kauai has the 2nd largest canyon in the country and has a lot of waterfalls. One area there is known as the wettest spot on earth because it rains so much, due to topology I think. Not surprisingly there's a lot of greenery. I was born and raised on Oahu, though I'm by no means an expert, since I rarely <em>vacationed</em> there. I'll just say good choice in eliminating Waikiki and Honolulu if you want to see natural beauty, though Oahu does have its own beauty if you don't mind hitting traffic to see it (Pali, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, north shore, etc). Speaking of which, the big island has a fast growing traffic problem as well, and I wasn't too happy with my recent trip there to see the in-laws, though mostly it was because it rained the entire time.
 
In regards to ipoplaya's helicopter tour recommendation - I've heard that if you are going to take a helicopter tour - make sure it's with Blue Hawaiian and <u>only</u> with them. Their company is worth the extra money. You don't want to go with a half-@ss company when it comes to a helicopter tour.
 
Maui for me with the Road to Hana with one of the most beautiful and twisty drives anywhere. Visit black sand beaches and beautiful spots along the way. If you have a 4-wheel drive, you can drive around the island without having to back-track on that twisty road. We woke up at 3 in the morning and drove up to the top of the volcano to watch the sunrise over the Pacific.





The Big Island was not for me. If you like endless fields of lava rocks then you might like it. We ended up mostly at the Hilton Resort. A nice place with its own boat ride, tram and dolphin pool. I think I have hit my limit of 3 posts for the day so I'm out. At this pace I will never catch up with Graphix .
 
<em>"The Big Island was not for me. If you like endless fields of lava rocks then you might like it. We ended up mostly at the Hilton Resort. A nice place with its own boat ride, tram and dolphin pool."</em>





I made the same trip and stayed at the same place. The Big Island is somewhat unique because it has the very dry desert side and the very wet jungle side. I enjoyed the trip. The helicopter tour was very cool.
 
Kauai also has a wet side and dry desert-like side. Poipu has weather similar to California and then if you keep going a very isolated desert like beach. Then on the other side of the island is the wet side. Very cool. Loved it!



The helicopter ride was very cool but my favorite was the catamaran boat ride where the dolphins swim with you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top