HELP: First Time in Hawaii
 

We are going to Hawaii for the first time to attend a wedding on Oahu on December 29.

We plan to spend a total of two weeks in Hawaii and we hope to see as much as we can on Oahu, Maui, and The Big Island.

How many days should be allot for each island?

Are we overlooking an island we shouldn't miss?

Is air the only convenient way to travel among island?

Any other advice?

Three days should be a sufficient minimum per island. I would try to fit the garden isle of Kauai into your itinerary. Two weeks should be more than enough time to enjoy your stay as I have previously visited 3 islands in 11 days.

We spent two weeks in Hawaii last March. We spent 6 days on Oahu and the remainder on Maui. We based our decision on the posts that we read here. We wanted to sightsee, but also spend some time relaxing. In my opinion, we did the right thing. You will end up spending a lot of time at the airports if you do too many islands (and yes, air is the only convenient way to travel among the islands). When we went to Maui, we spent a few days in Hana and the remainder in Wailea. We had a wonderful time and got to see most of the sights on both islands.

I recommend a minimum of 5 days to a week for Big Island. It's attractions are spread out and so you could spend a very long day driving all around the island to see the sights or better still split you stay and spend a night or two near Hilo/Vocano and the rest in Kohala/Kona area.

With 14 days, here's my suggested time alocation:
4 nights Oahu, 4 nights Maui, 6 nights Big Island.
Reason being, is there is so much to see on the Big Island as highflyer has mentioned.

There is more to see & do on Oahu than any other island.

5 days Oahu

4 days Maui

5 days Big Island

Lots of info including sites with free brochures for all islands:

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34812564

This information is very helpful. Thank you. HTTY

Three days for each island? I respectfully disagree. It will take you two days on each island just to get settled and start figuring out where you are, what you want to do, and what you have to do to go about doing it. In two weeks do two islands. Even a week on each island will leave you feeling that you barely scratched the surface.

I'd do one week on Oahu and another week on the BI. You can change locale on each these islands and it would be almost like moving to another island without all the fuss and muss of going to the airport multiple times. Here is what I would do:
Oahu: 4 days Waikiki, 3 days north shore or Kailua-Lanikai.
BI: 2 days Volcano 5 days Kohala or Kona.
Have a great trip.

Oahu has many things to do and if you like the city life, plan to stay a week. The other island, 2 days eah is fine. The easier and cheapest way to see the islands including Kauai (not mentioned by you) is by the Norwegian Cruise Line and they are about 7-10 days long for about $700-$1100 each. Prices vary, but check it out.

When staying in Oahu, stay away from the pricey and overly rated Royal Hawaiian Hotel. If you willing pay those kind of prices, stay at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, the Hilton Hawaiian Village or our favorite, Ko Olina Resort & Marina.

2 days on each island is NOT enough. You won't have time to relax at all.

(And FWIW, the Royal Hawaiian is closing, or closed, for renovations).

Having worked and vacationed in Hawaii for many years, I can tell you that in the time you have available, you should do a lot of the "touristy" stuff. Day tours by local coach are the best ways to get a guided view of most of the attractions, and by the time you drive yourself around the islands, you won't have too much time to do anything to relax. Here's one idea that I use myself when we go to Honolulu. We get on the "blue line" city bus, and just ride it until you come back to where you started. It travels throughout Honolulu, then heads South along the coast, with frequent stops in local neighborhoods you would never see otherwise. It continues on around the South tip of Oahu, and then up the windy side to a state park, where it turns around for its trip back to Honolulu. The scenery is incredible, the local people who ride the bus are fun, and the total cost for the whole trip is less than $10. each. Doing the whole route takes about 3 hours, but if you want to get off at someplace you like, you just catch the next bus coming along every hour or so. Cheap fun for everybody!!

I would spend a week on Oahu and a week somewhere else (pick one Big Island, Maui or Kauai depending on your interests).

Air is most convenient, though there's some new superferry you could find out about.

Changing islands every 3-4 days would not be my idea of an idea first trip to Hawaii.

ideal :-)