(oops, intended to post it under hawaii, not general, topic. sorry for double posting)

Hello All,

After much deliberation, I have chosen Hawaii over Caribbean because it's closer to Pacific Northwest and because it has greater variety of landscapes. True, water may not be as beautiful or clear as in US Virgin Islands, but from what I have seen in travel pictorials, it is still beautiful!

This would be first time to Hawaii! I have come up with the following itinerary:

Day 1: Explore Honolulu area and Waikiki. Stroll through shopping areas and resorts at Waikiki and spend most of time on Waikiki beach.

Day 2: There are two options. First is drive to Kaneohe bay, visiting Kahala, Lanikai and Kailua beaches along the way. Spend most of the day relaxing on one of these beaches. Return to Honolulu by night. The second option is to drive along Waianae coast, then all the way up to Sunset beach park. Return to Honolulu by night.

Day 3: Fly to Hanalei, Kauai, in the morning. Explore north shore area, spend rest of the day on a nice beach.

Day 4: Drive around north and northwest area of island to appreciate its famed natural beauty (coffee, pineapple fields, waterfalls, greenary, cliffs etc)

Indeed, I am not sure about Kaui. I might instead go to Maui exloring its northwest and western coast. Choosing between Maui and Kaui is a tough decision too.

Please let me know if this plan makes sense. Should I allocate more time? I would like to visit the best of two islands but wouldnt want to make my trip too hectic as well.

Thanks for the help!

If you're into hiking, exploring and beautiful scenery, please don't skip Kauai. It's the best of all the islands when it comes to beauty and landscapes, with great hiking options.

Hello TedTurner,

It seems that I am looking trying to achieve conflicting goals: lush, beautiful scenery and beautiful beaches. From what I have read and seen in travel magazines, it seems that Kaui has more beautiful landscapes and sceneries than Maui but Maui has more beauticul beaches. Or perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps, Kaui beaches are just as nice. It doesnt matter to me which island has more beaches since I cant visit them all anyway. As long as it has a few nice beaches, then thats fine with me.

I am not that much into hiking. I would be doing sightseeing from the road, stopping at particularly nice spots along the way.

I and my wife went to Maui and Kauai last year...we spent 3 days on Kauai and 7 on maui. If I had it to do over I would spend more time on Kauai. The beaches are incredible...the Northshore is sooo green it makes us in the northwest look like the desert. The atmosphere is sooo laid back.If you have the budget for a helicopter tour take one...another good way to see the northshore is by boat. BOTH islands were great so you really cant go wrong!(ps dont use black and white film on accident to take sunset pictures and have your wife develope them when you get home...not that I would know anything about that!! =)

panhandle,

Would you know whats the average airfare from Seattle to Honolulu? And what about the airfare between Oahu and Kaui?

I just got back 10 days ago from Hawaii. Loved Waikiki and Honolulu but didn't see much more of Oahu unfortunately. We went on to the Big Island which although I did enjoy and found interesting, I prefer more tropical scenery. It was cloudy a lot of the time too. The beaches in Maui were great to be sure but that island is so overdeveloped. It must have been really something 20 years ago. I regret not making it to Kauai. I met people that raved how beautiful, unspoiled and quiet(less touristy) it is. You are definitely making the right decision. Have a great trip!

Hawaiian has a fare sale right now that ranges between $409-459 from SEA to HNL for travel thru Dec 14th. Interisland fares are around $150 roundtrip (or if you have 5,000 NW, UA, or AA miles it's not a bad use for those miles, $ value wise).

Am I correct in assuming that your entire trip is only 4 days? If so, you may want to focus on just one island.

Cabicou, Maui was REALLY something 20 years ago !! And it is still the best Hawaiian Island. I am surprised that you thought Maui was too overdeveloped but you loved Waikiki and Honolulu (which are far more developed).

If you are talking a mere four days for your stay, only go to one island.

You should be able to find airfair direct OAK to LIH in the low $300's, and if you find a cheap Alaska/Horizon flight SEA to OAK then it's about $450 total (just watch your flight timing). Otherwise, you may be able to find direct flights to Maui in the low-mid $400's.

I too am from Seattle....been to Hawaii many times....(and to all the islands)just a few observations.

Agree with the Kauai choice. Has all the things you are looking for

If you are not doing Arizona Memorial, Punchbowl National Cemetry, Diamond Head, or the Ioloni Palace; why bother with Oahu....Waikiki is interesting, but not worth giving up a day of Kauai.

If you only have 4 days...as your itenery indicates...One destination is more workable...you will lose almost 3/4 day inter-island travel and hotel check-in. Plus checking out the direct flights to Kauai is time saving.

None of us saw everything on our first trip!...that's why we kept going back.
(Big Island is my favorite)

my husband and i were just in hawaii in may and i would have to agree we the person above that descibed maui as over done we did not care for maui at all so touristy!!! lots of traffic and crowded the beaches were ok.We stayed at the Fairmount kea lani which made up for the trip there. Now the big island is another story we loved it is an all in 1 type of place lush ,beaches, mountains ,hiking volcanoe, fishing,great resorts and plenty of dinning choices. It was very quiet and our favorite place was the mauna kea resort were we stayed and the haupauna beach resort.We would love to go back soon and next time we will skip maui and go to the Big Island, Kaui and Oahu for a few days and yes there is alot of people there but only in waikki area once you leave this area it is beautiful, like the north shore around heliewa and the turtle beach resort.enjoy were sure did.

Rusty, well, I think that I was expecting Waikiki to be busy. I like the exciting and international-Asian feel to the place. Maui seemed like such a family destination. A lot of kids!(Not that there is anything wrong with that) All behaved kids but still!
This might sound snooty but last year I went to Tahiti and that was really out of this world. As much as I tried not to, I couldn't help compare Hawaii with Tahiti. You can't. Hawaii is one of our most beautiful states. But you still feel like you havent left the country and that's disappointing to me somehow. Hawaii and Tahiti are totally different. Hawaii is a paradise and beautiful but you don't have Walmarts and Starbucks and endless malls in Tahiti. It kind of detracts from the experience a bit. I really enjoyed my vacation in Hawaii but since I live on the East coast, if I were to travel that distance again, it would probably would be to the Cook Islands, Tahiti or even Fiji.

Thank you very much for such useful information and sharing your opinions.

Hey DB, a bit confused here,OAK and LIH are airport codes for which airports?

I had a feeling that 4 days wouldnt be enough. By the way, I did exclude 1 day to get to Hawaii and 1 day to return so there would be a total of 6 days. However, I can add more days if needed.

How much time should I allocate if I want to:

1: Explore Honolulu/Waikiki area (I am thinking 1 day should be enough).

2: Explore southwestern and western coast of Oahu (area between Honolulu and Kaneohe bay). The reason I have chosen this area is that slide show/virtual tour of this area at www.hawaii.com suggest this is a particularly nice area. Let me know if you think otherwise. Can I drive to Kaneohe bay from Honolulu and return the same day, spending a few hours on a couple of beaches along the way?

3: Explore northwestern and northern coast of Kaui (how about 2 full days).

So this would mean 1 day to get to Hawaii, 1 day to return, 1 day to fly between Oahu and Kaui, 2 full days in Oahu and 2 full days in Kaui. A total of 7 days. Or, perhaps, I could skip Oahu altogether and instead spend 2 fulls day in Maui.

cabicou.. danger of getting OT here but what about prices on Tahiti.. French prices, non ? Met a German couple on Maui once, I remarked it was quite a trip from europe etc and they said once you had a deal on the airfare, the rest of Hawaii was cheap !
Cooks would be good, exchange rate very very good for $US at present.

Yeah, I guess for a European, Hawaii would seem cheap. Even the $2.33 per gallon gasoline is a deal to them. To me it seems like prices that you pay in Bston and New York as far as eating out. You can eat pretty inexpensively or you can go top notch and drop a lot of money on a meal. There is a good range of accomodations in Hawaii too.
When I went to Tahiti last year, we arranged the hotels on out own and payed an average of $85. a night for clean but very basic lodging there. Breakfast was either included or we had some kitchen facilities. Nothing is cheap in Tahiti but its not as expensive as people love to report. You just have to look around. When I go back again, I would just get a package through a travel agent. You can get a deal for about $1000. for flight and hotel for 7 nights. The Cook Islands and Fiji sound great and especially with the good exchange rate.

Oakland, CA & Lihue, HI

On Kauai gas was ~$2.30-$2.33/gal. around the north shore and ~$2.17-$2.20/gal around the east side, for 87 octane.