I'll be traveling to Oahu & Maui this March with my husband and my parents. This will be my 4th trip, his 2nd and my parents first! So I'm super excited to say the least...

We'll be in Oahu from Wed-Sat and then Maui Sat-Sat. Stepdad's must do is Pearl Harbor and none of us have been so we will definitely be going there, first thing one of the mornings. Hubby and I'd like to spend a day on Waikiki Beach to surf and soak up the sun and we also plan to drive around the island, so I can show them all the beautiful sights I've found on past trips and visit some friends. The drive and beach day each eat up an entire day.

So...I was thinking what if we were to do Pearl Harbor the morning of the day we leave for Maui? I know that means we'll have to get our rears in gear early and pack/checkout... but it just seems to make more since, since we'll need to check out in the am anyway, fly to Maui and can't check into our Maui digs until 3pm.

So I'd arrange for an early checkout...we'd go to Pearl Harbor first thing 7am?? (will our luggage be safe in our car there?) Then head to the airport around noon for a 1:30 interisland flight. does this sound reasonable?

any thoughts or other things I should consider? It may be kind of hectic that last day on Oahu, but we'll be utilizing our time better and besides...we have an entire breezy week in Maui to kick back and hangloose.

It definatly could be done, and Maui is such a quick flight from Honolulu, like 25 minutes. Just be sure to know that sometimes it can take a while to actually get on the boat that will take you to the monument. We arrived very early at Peal Harbor and waited a good hour and a half to get to see the monument itself. It is kind of rushing it to go to Maui, but it could be done.
It would be more relaxing to go to back to Waikiki and just "chill".

Thanks for the reply tcapp. You are probably right about going back to Waikiki...but I think this is the best solution to keep everyone happy. Traveling with 4 is soooo different than solo or planning for 2.

Also, stepdad is a known lallygagger...so having a flight to catch will prevent us from having to spend an entire day there. ;-)

I think we can handle getting there by 7:30, so hopefully being in the first group? I can always bump our flight back to 2:30...

As for keeping our luggage in the car, what do you think about that? I know it's a loaded question and am well aware of petty theft in HI (normally we'd never keep anything valuable in the car, keeping doors unlocked and windows down) but considering the locale am I naive to think we should be okay?

If you do leave your baggage in the trunk at Arizona Memorial Parking lot, it is generally safe. They do have security there and cameras.

If you do this, DON'T open your trunk when you get there. Thieves will generally break into cars when they know things are in there. They watch for people who take things out of the passenger section and place things in the trunk or hold things in the air and put them back in the passenger section.

Arizona Memorial has safekeeping for luggage. So you can keep the valuable things in one or two pieces of luggage and pay to have them stored. It's about $2 or $3 per bag.

You also are not permitted to take bags on the tour. Cameras OK.

You probably know as much about Oahu than I do and more about Maui, but here are some sites that you might find some other ideas:

Lots to do on Oahu:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34696831

Maui:

www.mauihawaii.org

www.visitmaui.com

Getting there at 7:30 will probably not get you into the first group. 6:30 maybe. Too bad you don't have more time to also check out the USS Missouri tour.