Jennifer

We are planning on going on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but are not sure of which island to stay at, Maui, Oahu, or Kauai? We don't want to be bored but at the same time there are things we won't do. I can't snorkel because I wear glasses. I may or may not go on a helicopter ride (I'm afraid of heights, what can I do, I may get the courage and go but its not guaranteed). Hiking sounds fun, but what else is there to do? We don't want it to be too crowded. We are not into the night club scene, so a loud bar is not where you would find us. Any suggestions on which island would suit our personalities? A nice jacuzzi or beach would be great. I'm not asking for specific hotels to stay at,(not yet at least), I'm just trying to figure out which island to stay at first, then I will focus on where to stay. We like it quiet, but we also want things to do.

aloha

Jennifer, there is probably enough variety on any of the islands to satisfy you. You'll get a lot of opinions here, but my advice is to get a good guidebook that covers all the islands and then start to narrow it down. There is one called Hawai'i for Dummies that would be helpful to you I think. If you want to stay away from crowds and don't want to go to clubs, you might like Kaua'i--beautiful beaches, hiking, great botanical gardens, spectacular scenery.

If you want to snorkel, you can invest in a prescription mask. But you can also take an old pair of glasses, remove the temples, and fit the front part into your face mask. You need to experiment w/ masks to be sure the glasses will fit inside. This looks rather goofy, but face masks look pretty goofy anyway. have a great honeymoon!

aloha

I should also have said that to use glasses in a mask, they need to fit in pretty tightly to stay in place within the mask.

Pat

Jennifer: Snorkel Bob rents snorkel gear on Maui. He has several shops and rents optically ground masks. I've worn glasses for 50+ years and rented a mask that wasn't perfect but was close enough to make it a very worth while endeavor. Now I'm a confirmed snorkeler, confirmed by the archbishop of Hang Loose himself. Maui is the place to be. Great beaches, dormant volcano, beautiful scenery. Get the book Maui Revealed.

nick

Maui with out a doubt , many more options than kauai. Oahu is like the hawaii on television its comercial but i loved it there. Please get a good fitting mask and go snorkle its worth the effort. snorkle bobs is as good as any place to get fitted. Maui has a great area in kannapalli at the sheraton hotel to snorkle and there are shops a boardwalk and many restraunts. i miss it every day, have fun nick

dave

I would prefer Maui, but Oahu has a LOT to offer too. With Oahu you really have to filter through the cheesy stuff marketed toward the naive vacationer. You are bombarded with lousy dinner shows filled with Japanese tourists, and buy one get one free lousy restaurants etc., but there are a lot of redeeming qualities in Oahu. Waikikki is an exciting place to be and never seems to sleep if you are a night owl. But you must drive away from Waikikki to really experience Oahu's beauty. Maui has a lot of activity, some as cheesy as Oahu but a bit more upscale and can be pricy. No big city feel to it, yet you won't get bored. For snorkeling, Rx masks for nearsighted people are easy to rent, or talk to your optometrist about maybe some disposable contact lenses. If you have high astigmatism you might have blurry vision with the Rx masks but not as bad. I've never been to Kauai so I can't comment on it, but you can't go wrong with either Maui or Oahu so long as you do some research and avoid things that look "too good to be true". Tour brochures can be very misleading.