Trip Report: Kauai, BI, Maui, Molokai & Oahu
Oct 15th, 2004, 08:41 AM
#41
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I find it interesting that you should say that you never felt as though you were in Hawai`i on Moloka`i, often referred to as the "most Hawaiian island." I have not been to Moloka`i (had to cancel plans to go twice in recent months due to work schedule), but my husband has many times told me that we will be moving there in a few years so he can live on an island that is still the way he remembers Hawai`i of 30 years ago. As soon as I have some down time and I can drag myself up to Lahaina by 6 am, I plan on heading over to Kaunakakai to see for myself.
Oct 15th, 2004, 09:09 AM
#42
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Gone2Maui: You are probably right about Molokai from a native's point of view, but to most the "typical tourist" when one thinks about Hawaii horses, turkeys, huge pinetrees, pickup trucks and rodios just don't come to mind. I did really like Molokai, but it is not what most people who are flying 12 hours to a tropical island come to visit. It is a very relaxing and calming and by this time in our trip it was a welcome change.
Oct 15th, 2004, 09:34 AM
#43
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lol Yes, I am getting ready to head out to Hana for a well-deserved long weekend, complete with a rodeo, a paniolo jamboree and a real honest-to-goodness lu`au--no fire dancers or mai tais here. But it is all most definitely Hawaiian. Where else can you sit on your tailgate with a sweeping view of the coastline before you, eating fresh opihi and poke while watching the keiki ropers in a rodeo?
Oct 15th, 2004, 09:46 AM
#44
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Oahu.
Halekulani
A beautiful intimate hotel right in the middle of it all!!! Rate 10 for Oahu hotel. After driving around on the one way streets trying to get to the hotel which was at a dead end, we finally arrived at this elegant hotel. We had a beautiful ocean view and could look down on the House without Keys. We were greeted to our room with a wine/cheese/fruit plate and it hit the spot. It was 4 pm and we sat out on our nice size balcony and watched the people down on the beach and just chilled. Waikiki was very neat. It is a true swimming beach. People on floats everywhere and people out further on surfboards. It was much different than the beaches on the other islands but was beautiful in a different way. We enjoyed the view.
Later that evening we walked down the beach to Dukes and tried to get for dinner but there was an hour wait ? no thanks. So we headed for the street and made our way back to our little piece of paradise. Walking down the streets, I felt like I was in NYC. Traffic, crowds, high-end jewelry and fashion stores. The only thing that gave me a sensee that I was in Hawaii was the tourist shop squeezed somewhere in middle on each block. There are 1 Million people living on Oahu and 800,000 are in Honolulu ? add to that all the tourists and you?ve got a lot of people.
We got a coupon upon check-in to take part in the High Tea at the Halekulani. It was very, very good. Nice yummy appetizers and desserts.
We ate each morning at the House without Keys. They have a nice breakfast buffet.
3660 on the Rise ? Rate 8. This didn?t get a 10 only because we had to drive 10 minutes out of Honolulu to a kind of dumpy area of town. I would never have guess that the restaurant would be any good here. But the food was wonderful.
Sam Choy?s ? I confused this place when we drove by with Alan Wong?s. It was just a causal mediocre dining experience.
I had not done much research on Oahu because we weren?t spending much time here so we winged everything.
The day we left for home our plane did not leave until 10:20 pm so we took the day to drive to around the island. The north shore is very pretty ? some of the jagged mountains look a lot like Kauai but just further inland instead of right along the coast. Kauai was prettier because there was not the need for powerlines along the way and it?s quiter. But if you are going in the winter to watch the surfers Oahu is a good choice.
Pearl Harbor:
We decided that things wouldn?t be too busy in September at Pearl Harbor so we did not rush out at 7 am to wait in line until they opened and gave out tickets at 8 am. We had breakfast and headed over about 10:30, got our ticket (you can only get one for yourself) and had 11:30 tour time. We looked around the museum, sat on the lawn and waited for our time. We enjoyed the Arizona very much and were out of there by 12:30.
Diamond Head:
Because we are accustomed to hot temperatures living in Florida, we headed to Diamond Head to high to the top. It was probably 88 degrees but in the islands there is always a breeze and we found the hike to be challenging but not terrible. My only surprise was how small the lookout at the top was and the hole you had to climb through to get out to the little stairs to take you to the very top. I expected to have this wide open landing to walk out onto, instead there was only enough room for about 10 people and that was pushing it. But it was very neat to see Honolulu and Waikiki from up there.
Just a few other comments: The one thing I found most annoying about all the driving maps we got was there were NO MILE MARKERS printed on them. It would be so much easy to find your way if they would just include at least one every 10 miles. It made it so much easier to follow along in the Blue Bibles for this reason, but I hated lugging them around everywhere. Please map makers ? add some mile markers.
Rainbows ? we saw so many beautiful rainbows. It was obvious why the Hawaii license plate has a rainbow on it.
I can?t think of anything else right now ? I?m sure I?ve left stuff out.
Halekulani
A beautiful intimate hotel right in the middle of it all!!! Rate 10 for Oahu hotel. After driving around on the one way streets trying to get to the hotel which was at a dead end, we finally arrived at this elegant hotel. We had a beautiful ocean view and could look down on the House without Keys. We were greeted to our room with a wine/cheese/fruit plate and it hit the spot. It was 4 pm and we sat out on our nice size balcony and watched the people down on the beach and just chilled. Waikiki was very neat. It is a true swimming beach. People on floats everywhere and people out further on surfboards. It was much different than the beaches on the other islands but was beautiful in a different way. We enjoyed the view.
Later that evening we walked down the beach to Dukes and tried to get for dinner but there was an hour wait ? no thanks. So we headed for the street and made our way back to our little piece of paradise. Walking down the streets, I felt like I was in NYC. Traffic, crowds, high-end jewelry and fashion stores. The only thing that gave me a sensee that I was in Hawaii was the tourist shop squeezed somewhere in middle on each block. There are 1 Million people living on Oahu and 800,000 are in Honolulu ? add to that all the tourists and you?ve got a lot of people.
We got a coupon upon check-in to take part in the High Tea at the Halekulani. It was very, very good. Nice yummy appetizers and desserts.
We ate each morning at the House without Keys. They have a nice breakfast buffet.
3660 on the Rise ? Rate 8. This didn?t get a 10 only because we had to drive 10 minutes out of Honolulu to a kind of dumpy area of town. I would never have guess that the restaurant would be any good here. But the food was wonderful.
Sam Choy?s ? I confused this place when we drove by with Alan Wong?s. It was just a causal mediocre dining experience.
I had not done much research on Oahu because we weren?t spending much time here so we winged everything.
The day we left for home our plane did not leave until 10:20 pm so we took the day to drive to around the island. The north shore is very pretty ? some of the jagged mountains look a lot like Kauai but just further inland instead of right along the coast. Kauai was prettier because there was not the need for powerlines along the way and it?s quiter. But if you are going in the winter to watch the surfers Oahu is a good choice.
Pearl Harbor:
We decided that things wouldn?t be too busy in September at Pearl Harbor so we did not rush out at 7 am to wait in line until they opened and gave out tickets at 8 am. We had breakfast and headed over about 10:30, got our ticket (you can only get one for yourself) and had 11:30 tour time. We looked around the museum, sat on the lawn and waited for our time. We enjoyed the Arizona very much and were out of there by 12:30.
Diamond Head:
Because we are accustomed to hot temperatures living in Florida, we headed to Diamond Head to high to the top. It was probably 88 degrees but in the islands there is always a breeze and we found the hike to be challenging but not terrible. My only surprise was how small the lookout at the top was and the hole you had to climb through to get out to the little stairs to take you to the very top. I expected to have this wide open landing to walk out onto, instead there was only enough room for about 10 people and that was pushing it. But it was very neat to see Honolulu and Waikiki from up there.
Just a few other comments: The one thing I found most annoying about all the driving maps we got was there were NO MILE MARKERS printed on them. It would be so much easy to find your way if they would just include at least one every 10 miles. It made it so much easier to follow along in the Blue Bibles for this reason, but I hated lugging them around everywhere. Please map makers ? add some mile markers.
Rainbows ? we saw so many beautiful rainbows. It was obvious why the Hawaii license plate has a rainbow on it.
I can?t think of anything else right now ? I?m sure I?ve left stuff out.
Oct 15th, 2004, 09:44 PM
#45
Sorry your Oahu experience was not as special as some of your other islands. I think your comment that you had not done as much research is correct. You missed a lot of our really good places! 
At least you had a good hotel and a good dinner at 3660. Had t0 laugh at you comment about 3660 being in a dumpy part of town though... Kaimuki town is very hip and has a bunch of really great small restaurants. Homes here start at $500,000 for an 800 sq ft old house on 3,500 ft of land on the flat area near the restaraunt and go well into the millions on the hill above!
Down the street about 5 blocks and you are in Kahala where cottages start at a million!
Anyway, great report...I'm sure lots of people will be printing this! Congratulations on your wedding too...you looked gorgeous in the photos!
Lucy
At least you had a good hotel and a good dinner at 3660. Had t0 laugh at you comment about 3660 being in a dumpy part of town though... Kaimuki town is very hip and has a bunch of really great small restaurants. Homes here start at $500,000 for an 800 sq ft old house on 3,500 ft of land on the flat area near the restaraunt and go well into the millions on the hill above!
Down the street about 5 blocks and you are in Kahala where cottages start at a million!
Anyway, great report...I'm sure lots of people will be printing this! Congratulations on your wedding too...you looked gorgeous in the photos!
Lucy
Oct 17th, 2004, 09:16 PM
#46
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Wow, I'm exhausted just reading this post! Haven't even made it to the pictures. Well done Nancy03! Not many a poster can pull off 5 islands. Poor Lanai....such great people......sad you missed it!!!!!!!!! Therefore a 1 year 5 year anniversary is due, to see the rest of the islands! Mahalo for your thoughts.
Oct 18th, 2004, 05:00 AM
#47
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Thanks GuppieLou and Icuy: I chose Molokai over Lanai and we wanted to get the most "different" feel from the other islands we visited. We tried to mixup our trip into doing different things on each island. I try to plan our accommodations to go with the island. We could have done the resort thing on each island, but it would have become boring pretty quickly. We really felt like we had a good variety. My order of my favorite accommedations are as follows:
Kauai - Secret Beach Hideaways
BI - Rainforest Retreat - Volcano
Close behind - 4 Seasons Maui
Icuy - we went to 3660 on the Rise after dark so we couldn't see alot of the surroundings, but it just seemed like the place was kind of in an low-end commercial area. But the food was excellent!!
Kauai - Secret Beach Hideaways
BI - Rainforest Retreat - Volcano
Close behind - 4 Seasons Maui
Icuy - we went to 3660 on the Rise after dark so we couldn't see alot of the surroundings, but it just seemed like the place was kind of in an low-end commercial area. But the food was excellent!!
Oct 18th, 2004, 06:17 AM
#49
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I forgot to mention the hike in VNP. We did the Kilauea Trail. It's about a 2 or 3 hour trip and we followed the advise of the Big Island Revealed and went counterclockwise. If you don't have this amount of time still try to do part of this trip. The trail comes to the road at 2 places. One at the Thurston Tube and one to the north about 1/2 mile.
If you don't have a lot of time, start at the trail head right across the street from the Thurston Tube. Walk clockwise down the trail. It takes you to the bottom where the steam vents are the quickest. Head out onto the black lava and walk over to where some of the steam is rising and feeling the warmth of the steam. Take in the view and turn around and head back up. You won't walk the entire floor of the crater but this will give you a good experience in about 45 minutes.
If you don't have a lot of time, start at the trail head right across the street from the Thurston Tube. Walk clockwise down the trail. It takes you to the bottom where the steam vents are the quickest. Head out onto the black lava and walk over to where some of the steam is rising and feeling the warmth of the steam. Take in the view and turn around and head back up. You won't walk the entire floor of the crater but this will give you a good experience in about 45 minutes.
Nov 19th, 2004, 08:53 AM
#51
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Aloha Nancy,
Lovely & informative reporting! I'm so grateful you topped it... I missed it the 1st time around.
DH & I are planning to renew our vows for our 25th... Secret Beach looks like a strong consideration... we were thinking of French Polynesia, but my
is in Hawaii.
Your pics are wonderful... breathtaking shots from the heli ride!
Many mahalos and congratulations to you both! Thanks for sharing your special time with all of us.
Lovely & informative reporting! I'm so grateful you topped it... I missed it the 1st time around.
DH & I are planning to renew our vows for our 25th... Secret Beach looks like a strong consideration... we were thinking of French Polynesia, but my
is in Hawaii.Your pics are wonderful... breathtaking shots from the heli ride!
Many mahalos and congratulations to you both! Thanks for sharing your special time with all of us.
Nov 19th, 2004, 07:44 PM
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Nancy03 - I literally gasped aloud at your beautiful pictures of the Napali pictures from your helicopter tour and of the sunrise on Kauai. Incredible!!! Thank you for sharing. Now I'm going to finish looking at the rest. I just had to write now, after seeing them!
Nov 29th, 2004, 03:07 PM
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I was very intrigued by you mentioning the Secret beach Hideaway on Kauai, especially because you also stayed at the Kona Village Resort (KVR). We went to the KVR in May, and loved it. May and September are usually adults only, as the KVR shuts down their kids programs. We are looking for a similar exclusive getaway location where we can feel as though we have the place to ourselves. Would you say that KVR and Secret Beach Hideaway are similar in the secluded aspect of their locations? Thanks in advance.
Nov 30th, 2004, 03:13 AM
#55
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Secret Beach is much more intimate because the next cottege is 150 yards from the Hale Lani and cannot be seen because of the way the land dips. We loved Secret Beach Hideaway and we very much liked Kona Village as a resort - it just wasn't worth the money.
The cotteges at Secret Beach are VERY well furnished with high-end kitchen appliances, bedding, bath products. To cook out on the patio overlooking the ocean and Bali High and watch the sunset is heaven. I can't think of a more romantic, beautiful, relaxing stay. and the Beach below (a 15 min stroll down to the beach) is picture perfect. I have lots of pictures of the Secret Beach area in my photos on line.
Let me know if there is anything else I can answer for you.
The cotteges at Secret Beach are VERY well furnished with high-end kitchen appliances, bedding, bath products. To cook out on the patio overlooking the ocean and Bali High and watch the sunset is heaven. I can't think of a more romantic, beautiful, relaxing stay. and the Beach below (a 15 min stroll down to the beach) is picture perfect. I have lots of pictures of the Secret Beach area in my photos on line.
Let me know if there is anything else I can answer for you.
