My husband & I will celebrate our 30th and want to go to Hawaii. He is a golfer and I am a pool/shopper type gal. Also, I can not hike for long (severe arthritis). We are not opposed to guided tours. I know we want to spend 6 nights in Maui;(at the end of our visit). can anyone suggest how to organize the first leg of our trip. Are there good guided tours? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks so much.
Elaine

There are loads of day tours on the islands. Ohau probably offers the most day tour options - check out the Robert's Hawaii website to see what they offer. They have things available on all islands. It is also quite feasible to rent a car and DIY - that way you can set your own pace, rest as you need to, and not feel rushed or pressured by a group tour. We recently has a visitor with limited mobility and she sometimes sat and enjoyed a view while our other visitors went on shorter hikes. Personally, if you are a pool/shopper type you might enjoy Ohau - many sites to be seen by car or very short walk, plentiful shopping, many many hotels with wonderful pools, loads of beaches (even if you are a pool type - you may convert to a beach type here in Hawaii). Because there are more tourists on Oahu I also think that it may be slightly easier to find activites or programs that can accomodate your limited mobility.

As for Maui , the whalers village in kaanapalli is your ticket. It offers a very nice golf course , very nice shoping, outside mall type and a board walk in front of one of the best beaches in Maui, along with very good grills to eat by the water. If you swim the beach at black rock ( in front of the sheraton hotel) has great snorkleing right from the beach and very calm water.

You did not state other islands you were visiting. As for kaui, not much shoping , some golf, but lots of drive to tourist sites.There are guided tours offered by ( grey line) but you can visit all the same sites in a rent car, such as fern grotto,menehan ruins and others.

Oahu has all the shoping you could want. Visit dole plantation. Take the senic tour in a rent car arround the island , to visit sunset , pipeline, and other beaches.Be sure not to miss the free hula show on the beach in waikki every evening just before sunset. have fun hawaii is an experience not just a destination. nick

Scigirl & Nicknik; Thank you very much for the wonderful advice. I jotted everything down and feel so much better about this trip. The car rental idea is perfect and I can rest when I need to. The Whaler's Village is terrific. I guess my only question is do I want to skip The Big Island? I'm not into the hiking part of volcano area; So far it's Oahu and then Maui. I think we have time for a third island. Have a great day and thank you again.

Just to clarify, Whaler's Village is an open air shopping centre in Kaanapali, not a place to stay. On Kaanapali Beach (right next to Whaler's Village) is "The Whaler", a beautiful well located condo complex.

Rusty' I appreciated the recommendation about the condo. Thank you.

I'm not sure how much time you have - If you have 2 weeks then I'd suggest no more than 2 islands. For your interests and mobility, I think Maui and Oahu offer the best options. The Big Island has loads of our door activities (hiking, beaches, golf) but for shopping options are more limited. Kauai is also very pretty, but again with many hikes and less that can be taken in by car, short hikes, or shopping.

What is the location of the free Hula show on Waikiki? We are staying at Waikiki on the Beach for 3 nights. Thanks

The free hula show is at Kuhio Beach park on a grassy mound. It's not held every single night but if you will be there for 3 nights there will probably be at least one show. It usually starts around 6:30PM.

Also check out lovely traditional hula and music every evening between about 5 and 8PM at the Moana Surfrider, the Halekulani, and the Royal Hawaiian. The Sheraton Princess Kaiulani also has a nightly show, it has more pizazz than the others but is not as traditional.

etc0414: I hope you have booked your hotels and flights. The whalers village is just as Rusty stated. The kaanapalli beach ( whalers village )fronts several hotels and condos with the hyatt on one end and the sheraton on the other end. If you have not planned a luau( on maui ) you will want to there fun, the best is the old lahana luau , and another choice is the one at the hyatt hotel, ( i think feast at le le ). Just a pointer you might want to book a snorkle trip, i recomend the four winds large catamaran very comfortable and restrooms, there are others just as good. I went on the 4 winds and they had floats with view ports ( very safe ) and all kind of floation devices, alond with deck hands in the water to watch out for your safety.I cant say enough about how safe it was, many non-swimmers were having agood time. Also if the whales are in you will have a chance to see some, and a good lunch- go on the morning trip, calmer water.
And vivi is right on the free hula show and the other shows,( i know it is close to the bronze surfer statue )just make sure to be there 30 minutes before the sun sets, the lamps all along the beach and rocks are lighted every night, and then shortly after the show starts, as for the 3 nights we were there they had some kind of show every night ( but things change).

No matter what island you are on, take the dinner and whale watching , nature boat trips they will give you a great adventure and exciting memories. Look at activities hawaii on any search engine like, webcrawler, google etc. and you can find activities to suit your needs. My favorite activity is , activity warehouse ( hey they have a 1-800 number, i used it) but dont do any time share deals, unless you have some time or bad weather, the time share will pay for trips if you visit there properties. Idid one on kauai because it was pouring rain and forecast was all day rain, so what the hay i got my helicopter ride for 2 of us for free. happy 30 th we celebrated our 22 nd. nick