In other words, is 7 days enough?
Is 10 enough?
Or is 14 the way to go?
(First time in Hawaii, possibly last)

Depends on length of journey to get there to some extent - west coast folk might judge a shorter trip Ok due to shorter travel times. For me, with a 7 or 8 hour flight just to Honolulu, I'd say a week at least,two would be wonderful, and no, I wouldn't necessarily want to island hop even with two weeks there (speaking of Maui & Kauai as they're the only two I've visited so far). In fact on both those islands you could get variety by just moving to a different location within the island .. just depends on what you like to do with your time away.
Enjoy.

For us, 10 days minimum (but we're traveling from the midwest, so it's quite a hassle to get there). We "did" Oahu last year, and same as you it was our first and (we thought) only Hawaiian trip. What with all the "relaxing" we did, 10 days wasn't enough to see everything on the island we would have liked to.

However, we had such an awesomely wonderful vacation, and loved the island so much, that we're urgently saving our money and planning on Kauai in '03.....

I agree with the above posts, it really depends on the length of journey. I live in the midwest but when I lived in California, I spent 10 days in Maui and it was heavenly. The 10 days flew by and all I did was relax on the beach and read for 10 days. Maui gives you this sense of relaxation that you never knew you had in you. I have heard others describe what I experienced since my return. The beauty is that you can do as little or as much as you want. (I exagerated up there, we did a couple day trip excurtions, however it would have not been necessary to enjoy the splendor of the islands.) My point is this, how many days would you want to spend in a heavenly place, I guess the answer is, as many as you possibly can... Aloha!

in my dreams, the minimum would be 3 months. in reality, i would find 7 days just fly by. went for 3 weeks last time and found that to be great - 2 islands.

I'd go to Hawaii for just about any minimum number of days! I live on the west coast though, so that makes it easier. We just went for four days to Oahu and it was lovely, but of course could have been much longer! For your first trip I'd say more than a week would be nice, but if you can only go for 7 days I'd stay on one island.

I took a four-day trip to Hawaii a couple of years ago that was just great. Of course I would have preferred it to be longer, but it wasn't "a waste". I live in CA, so the travel time was tolerable. And we confined ourselves to one island, and flew direct to that island (no connections). Otherwise, it was just like any other trip, but shorter!

However, since you mentioned that you might not make it back, be sure to do it right!

Susie,

I don't know where you lived in California, but it sounds like you could have done the same thing on a beach in Santa Crus or San Diego.

Mr. Hula

We spend 9 nights in Hawaii this past July/August: 3 in Waikiki, 4 on Kauai (at the Radisson on the east shore), and one night each in Kona and Hilo (Big Island. We did everything, drove all around all the islands, took a helicopter trip in Kauai, saw Pearl Harbor, went snorkeling four times, did a little hiking, saw waterfalls, went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, watched the lava flow at night at Volcanoes National Park. There were two things we didn't do: spend much time lying around on the beach (if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't spend the time and money flying all the way to Hawaii from the east coast) and have very many fancy restaurant meals.

I would have preferred spending two weeks. However, I thought 9 and a half days (we left at 9:30 p.m.) was enough, and I don't regret going to three islands. I don't think we'll go back. I'd much rather go to Europe again--still a lot we haven't seen there--and we have yet to see Alaska. Oh yes, and North Dakota--then we will have been to all 50 states.

My MIL and her adult granchildren are going to Hawaii from the East Coast early Oct. They can only stay 5 days. One of the kids can only stay 3 and has to fly home alone. I think that is a shame but due to work schedules, new jobs it is all the time they have. I guess it is better than no time there at all.

If it's your first trip and you may not return, I would stay 10-14 days. We've taken a few 5 day trips but live in LA so it's an easy non-stop flight for us.

A minimum of two weeks, especially if you may not go back again. In that time, you could do three islands. We usually stay 16 days if we can.......any number of days in Hawaii is wonderful though!

Mr. Hula, Santa Cruz and San Diego could NEVER be a substitute for Hawaii!!! (And believe me, I should know: La Jolla Cove and Del Mar Beaches used to be my yearly favorites UNTIL I went to Hawaii!)

LS:

If you are in Calif. I'd say 7 days. However, if you are from the East Coast or Midwest 10 days would be the minimum. If you could, take 14, can't imagine how wonderful it be to spend 2 wks. in paradise.

I agree with the previous posters: two weeks minimum from the Midwest and the East Coast. You eat up at least two days in travel time, not including flight time between islands if you island-hop. We visited three islands in two weeks and found it manageable.

We spent 5 nights on Oahu and 5 on Maui this past Spring. It was our first (but definitely NOT our last) trip to Hawaii. We could have used at least another 2-3 days on Oahu and another 4-6 days on Maui. Next trip we will do 14-15 days and will try to hit Big Island, Kauai and Maui again. We live in South Florida, so to make the extra LONG trip worth it, we'd never spend less than 10 days there. The longer the better....you won't regret it!

LS:
I went on my honeymoon to Hawaii in June 2000 for 10 nites/11 days and a few more days would have been great!
We went to Maui for one week, then to the Big Island to see Volcanoes Nat'l Park (stayed in Hilo). VNP was neat and we went there two days--just enough. However, it was at the end of our trip and the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, which is supposed to be one of the best in Hilo, was just so so compared to the Hyatt Regency Ka'anapali on Maui. If you are interested in VNP on the Big Island, which I would recommend, try to do it at the start of your trip, That way, the hotels, scenery, etc, just keep getting better!
On Maui, we biked down Haleakala thru "Haleakala Downhill Adventures" and we had a blast. It is almost entirely coasting downhill, so the only thing that may get sore are your wrists from leaning on the handle bars and squeezing the brakes. This company is not a guide co.; they did drive us up the volcano (it's been dormant for a LONG time), did a short tour of Haleakala Nat'l Park then dropped us off with the gear/bikes they provided and we had 8 hours to get to the bottom. Other co.'s do group, guided tours down the volcano, so you go at their pace only. If you lag behind, the van following behind picks you up. We liked doing it on our own so we could stop to take pix or just enjoy the incredible views whenever we wanted.

We also had a rental car, so we drove "the road to Hana" one day. It was about 8 hours roundtrip which included many picture-taking stops, scenery lookouts, waterfall stops, black sand beach etc. If you do this, we went to a sandwich shop which advertised two sandwiches, chips, drinks and cookies in a styrofoam cooler (that you had to return at the end of the day) for approx $12-15 (2 years ago). That was nice b/c we had lunch and snacks kept cool for the trip. Also, buy one of the CD's or cassette tapes with a voice guide to play while driving (gives tidbits of info, directions, and points out things you would probably miss w/o it).

Also, do a catamaran sail and snorkel trip while in HI. We did one thru the Westin Hotel in Ka'anapali and really enjoyed it. They provided, gear, instruction if necessary, lunch and drinks (alcoholic included as long as you were done snorkeling for the day) for approx. $70-80pp.

Don't forget to just sit and relax on the beach and by the pool too. For every "active day" we had, we took a day to relax (it was our honeymoon). Do lots of research and don't try to overextend yourself (if you see two or three waterfalls, you don't need to see anymore, esp. if you must drive any distance to see it; there is too much to do in HI as it is).

Please feel free to email me if you'd like to know anything else

Depends on the number of islands you visit because transit time eats up at least 1/2 day. Also depends on your accomodations. Factor both in. For first time you need a lot. My wife's first time was our honeymoon (Maui). We stayed 9 nights and wanted to stay more but we were tired and had an awesome honeymoon suite at the Kealani. Second time we went to Kauai and stayed 10 nights, five at Princeville and 5 at Hyatt. I was ready to go mostly because I'd beend to Hawaii several times and because staying in a hotel - regardless of how nice it is (these were the best on Kauai) can get tiring. I missed cooking my own meals and laying in my couch at night.
but if this will be your first and potentially last time then stretch it as long as you can possibly afford and visit at least two islands and maybe choose a condo for the second island since you will be somewhat acclimated.

Mr Hula can't possibly have been to both CA & HI, or he would know there is no comparison in any way, shape or form!
We spent 9 days on Maui for our honeymoon, from the midwest, and it was great, just right. For our 3rd anniversary, from SD, we spent 10 days on 3 islands (Maui, Kauai & Hawaii) and we felt rushed, but we did see alot, snorkeled alot and had a great time.
So, 7-10 days on 1 island, 2 weeks to hop. Have a great vacation!