VERY early planning
 

I am in the very early planning stages of a trip I will be taking with DH and 2 great friends in a few years (yes - years. I love to plan!) I have been to HI with my daughter 5 years ago and visited Maui and the Big Island. This time I will have more time ( my retirement trip) more funds (saving already), and it will be more about me than a teenage daughter...

Initial plans are:

Fly to LA (we are on the east coast).

Spend one day with relatives in Venice Beach/LA

Fly to Oahu. Stay at Paradise Palms B&B for 3 or so days and do Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, and driving around to see other spots.

Fly to Kauai. Stay at a friends rental in Hanalei Bay Villas for a week. Do movie tour, Napili Coast, Waimea, and beach time/exploring.

Fly to Maui. Stay at the Whaler for a week. Do road to Hana (thinking of a company to ride to Hana with so we can ALL enjoy the view and helicopter back), Haleakala, Lahaina, beach.

Fly to Hilo, stay in Volcano (either Volcano Village Village Lodge or Kilauea Lodge) for 3 days and explore the volcano.

Guys are golfers and will want to golf a day each island.

Any early feedback on my plans? I am considering extending a few days to do the Kona side of BI also. I have done it - and loved it - DH and friends have never been to HI at all. If I do, will include snorkelling at Place of Refuge.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Here is my feedback:
Sounds wonderful ((r))
Yes of course add a few more days if you can!
Be sure to leave plenty of room in your schedule for the beach time...most important part of the trip IMO.
Kaua'i is beautiful and a week will be a good length of time there; don't even think about shortening that.

Do you know what time of year you will be going? Congrats on your upcoming retirement.

Thanks for the well wishes! The trip planning is keeping me sane until then.

I'm thinking May... I'd love to see the whales, but we took a trip to Alaska for DH's retirement (how different are we??) and saw those amazing creatures there.

I need so little influence to add a few more days that I'm thinking I must.

It looks as though you are planning a total of 3 weeks, divided into 1 night in LA, 3 Oahu, 7 Kauai, 7 Maui and then another 3 on the BI.

For me that's too much moving around for the amount of time. Since this is a special trip for you and you want to go to four islands the obvious solution is to add days to the vacation and make it a full month.

I'm also looking at retirement in a few years, and by coincidence live on the east coast and am planning a retirement trip to Hawaii. I've been thinking about this for a long time and initially also planned 4 islands. After thinking it through for a while I felt 2 islands would be more relaxing.

So my solution is to pick my favorite islands (BI and Kauai) and limit my trip to just these two. My trip is going to be long, I'm thinking 6 weeks right now, 1 week Kauai, 5 BI, maybe more if I can find ways to cut the costs. Maybe...just maybe...I would add a few day trips to the other islands during the time on the BI.

I didn't mean to hijack your thread...I found it inspiring actually and concur that planning ahead gives even greater enjoyment, the time to think things through, research, and save up. It's easier to save with a goal in mind.

In terms of your planned activities I think you should build in a few days where nothing is scheduled and you can do something spontaneous (or nothing at all).

In any event you have a solid basic plan to work with and I'm sure you would enjoy the trip as it's currently planned.

PS: You might want to change the name of the thread to something that relates to Hawaii.

My wife and I are also recent Retirees and plan to be in Hawaii for about 16 days in May, doing 4 days on each island - Kauai, Maui,Big Island and lastly Honolulu (the only island that we have visited before). We are only interested in touring - getting to see as much as we can , as we live in an area with plenty sun and are not definitely interested in lying on a beach. I have noted remarks by "Aloha" saying that one needs at least a week on an island. Why do you feel like this about length of stay?? We do a lot of touring in various countries and normally do not stay in one place for long. Perhaps we are really wrong about this and would really appreciate your point of view. Thanks in advance.

Lenmiri, I certainly wouldn’t say you are wrong about your travel choices. It sounds like you have found a travel style that suits you. My travel style is pretty laid-back, I like to sort of soak in the atmosphere of each spot. I do not have a checklist of multiple must-dos for each day, maybe only a few must-dos for each trip. I live in the midwest so being at the shore is a big deal for me. I don’t lie on the beach per se, but I love to walk on a beautiful beach or shoreline and watch the surf, and I can do that for hours on end. To me, a week per island is a good length of time to see a lot on each island and still have time for unexpected things and just unscheduled time.

Congrats to Lenmiri and Connecticut Lady also on your recent and upcoming retirements!

I've decided to go ahead and add the few extra days and see the entire Big Island instead of just the Volcano side. Part of the reason for the island hopping is that I doubt we will ever get back that way. We love to travel, and have other destinations that we would like to visit.

Connecticut Lady - I appreciate you adding to the thread! I didn't take it as hijacking at all. The more the merrier - come on in for the planning party! I don't know how to change the title of the thread - I'm new at this

Lenmiri - congrats to you also! As Aloha said, if it suits you great. My only input is that when DH and I honeymooned we went to Moorea, Tahiti, and Bora Bora basically a package with a few days on each. We decided then that we would not spend just a few days as a rule in a spot because you basically lose at least a half day even on a short island hop by the time you do the whole check out, airport, check in thing. However, even the airports in Hawaii are much more fun that the mainland!!

Keep on planning and chiming in friends!

There is more to see & do on Oahu than any other island. You ought to spend more time there.

Road to Hana - It's better if you drive. You can stop where you want & for as long as you want.

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

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