Hello!
Longtime New Yorker here (25+ years). Looking to move to Hawai’i. Considering a few places where the schools are open face-to-face, there are a number of them on Oahu and just a few on Maui. So, I was hoping to get some resources / info on what it’s like living in the various areas on those two islands. Any great neighborhood guides? Thanks!!
I can’t help you with Oahu or Maui - I live on the Big Island. I know we have at least 2 Oahu-based posters, though, so hopefully they’ll be along to help.
If schools are important to you, you might want to look at the rankings. I’m afraid Hawai’i as a state doesn’t shine in terms of teacher pay, classroom size, test scores, and other measures that are presumably reflective of overall educational quality. There are some good schools on Oahu (Iolani and Punaho, the latter being where Obama went to high school) but they’re private and probably pretty pricy.
And, as you probably know already, Hawai’i is a very expensive place to live. Of course, you don’t have to pay for snow tires, winter heating bills, or lots of winter clothes, so there are compensations.
I love living here and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but you need to hear from Oahu and Maui residents, not me.
I have nothing to offer, but I’ve been fantasizing about doing this since visiting Hawaii, so I’m going to read the replies you get. I was thinking Kauai, though.
Do you worry about lava destroying your home? I loved the big island, but that would concern me.
I’m a bit confused on the face to face requirement for schools- are you thinking about moving now for this fall to ensure your kids don’t end up with an online experience next year, or am I missing something?
@puzzlegal - Not everywhere on island is at risk. The island is divided into flow zones based on the likelihood of a lava flow (actually I think the zones are based on when the last flow occurred - for my house in Honomu the last flow was over 100,000 year ago, or something; it’s late here and I’m sleepy so don’t hold me to any specifics).
Lots of areas of the island have no significant risk of being overrun by lava.
Good to know. I will have to fantasize about the big island, then.
Hey everyone thanks for the responses. A little more info:
So just looking for some local wisdom on where to get started, how to orient oneself and get to know what life will be like in some of these towns!
The wife and I live in Waikiki, which is in Honolulu on Oahu. We have never had children, so I don’t know bupkus about schools here. I can tell you there is a teacher shortage, because the low pay force many teachers to move to the mainland, and yes, the private schools are pricey. It would help to know more specifically some areas you have in mind.
Hawaii is horrendously expensive, but it may not seem too over the top if you’re used to NYC. When we moved back to the US almost four years ago, we did not pick Hawaii just at random. We both came here as scholarship graduate students at the U of Hawaii at Manoa in 1991, the main campus, and so were already familiar with the place. Since I have no family left on the mainland, this was the logical place for us to come to.
Hawaii sounds great to a lot of people, but bear in mind that many quickly become disillusioned and not just because of the expense. There is also a shortage of doctors, one major reason being because their spouses end up bored while the doctor is working so much. There is a shortage of things to do, and you may be surprised how boring the beach becomes after just a little while. We came back so I could build up my Social Security before retirement, and I stay pretty busy at a major hospital. The wife is a retired university lecturer, but she stays busy working part-time in a luxury condominium office. We live literally two blocks from the beach in Waikiki but rarely go there.
So the only tips I can give is to research costs and have a good idea of how you want to fill your time.
Did you write that right, or did I read it right? $15,000 a month housing is cool with you?
Friend of mine has been in Maui for 20 plus years. She said unless you are very rich good luck. No jobs. She has embraced the thing that Hawai’i is occupied. And wants all but natives there. Okaaaay. She’s from Wisconsin. Just saying…
I have to say, $10-15k a month seems excessive even in Hawaii. Maybe the OP is thinking of a really exclusive neighborhood.
The wife and I have a small one-bedroom, 600 sq f, and we pay $1800 a month for that. However, we were lucky to find this, as that’s a bit on the low side for our area, and that does include utilities, cable and WiFi. From what we can tell, the normal range for something like this in our neighborhood is maybe $2200-2500 a month. Outside of Waikiki is usually (but no always) cheaper, outside of Honolulu cheaper still.
Over on the other side of Pearl Harbor, Kapolei and Ewa Beach are popular communities. I know lots of people who commute from over there. I also know some who do the long commute from Mililani, right in the center of Oahu, because they love that community, but I would stay away from that city’s neighboring Wahiawa, which is a military town and full of seedy bars and liquor stores. Kailua over on the Leeward side is hugely popular and really is a nice place, but it’s also a long commute into Honolulu. Lots of quaint little communities all over the North Shore and the Leeward coast, but I’d stay away from Laie if you’re not Mormon.
My husband and I are both working from home. If we were willing to get up early in the morning, and had good internet, there’s no particular reason “home” couldn’t be Hawaii.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), student performance in Hawaii is atrociously bad:
https://www.educationnext.org/files/ednext-blog-oct15-chingos-naep-chart.jpg
I would also caution that the coming school year is up in the air, what with the Covid pandemic. They don’t know yet what’s going to happen.
I live in Honolulu, Hawaii, Oahu island. No kids. Born and raised here.
To be brutally blunt, coming here to get away from the pandemic is a very poor excuse to relocate here and you’ll come across as a rich haole (if you’re caucasion) or rich whatever (we are very ethnically biased, in a usually friendly way) using his/her money to take advantage of the islands. And believe me, word will get out why you moved here. Word of mouth spreads fast and the anger and frustration will be taken out on your children.
As mentioned above, our public school system is woefully poor. I was deeply saddend when I passed a school in Kalhi, a generally lower income neighborhood had a sign that proudly proclaimed “WE PASSED MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS”. SIGH
There are a number of private schools, some with long waiting lists and stringent academic requirements with Punahou (forgot the ‘u’ Cairocarol. 
), Iolani topping the list with tuition of ~26K a year. Another highly respected school is Damien, with tuition starting at ~12K a year for sixth grade. Note that Damien School is named after Father Damien de Veuster who helped, lived and died with the leper colony on the island of Moloka’i and is part of the Catholic Church.
Come to visit (we need the tourism to survive), plan to stay if you love and respect the islands style and maybe someday your family will be accepted a kama’aina (locals), but don’t please come to run away!
LOL … thank you! I’m still working on my local spellings.
Missed the edit window:
As a haole and malihini* who probably has a relatively good understanding of what it means to move to Hawai’i compared to your average mainland haole (my Pacific connections go way back - I lived in Micronesia from 1986 to 1989 and have had connections to the Asia-Pacific all my adult life) I fully endorse all the posts above. Sadly, it’s not unheard of for outsiders to move to Hawai’i expecting “paradise” but having no real idea of what Pacific Island life entails. Some adjust beautifully. Many do not.
*for the OP: in the vernacular, “haole” is a Caucasian and “malihini” is an outsider/newcomer, though a step above a mere tourist.
Sorry, three posts in a row is poor form, but I keep thinking of stuff when it’s too late to add.
I liked this recent article, about Hawaiian attitudes toward ethnic differences:
Carol, I’ve been around a lot longer than my current join date and you’re definitely a Kama’aina “Hawaiian](Hawaiian language - Wikipedia): kamaʻāina , literally “child or person of the land””*
*Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama%CA%BB%C4%81ina#cite_note-1
For better or worse, there’s still a sense of “Us vs. Them” in Hawaii. Malahini vs Kama’aina going back to overthrown of the Hawaiian government and near slave conditions of indentured plantation workers. A fear of rich Malahini coming in and further changing Hawaii’s unique lifestyle.
You can buy your way to Paradise and you may be able to buy the “respect” of some. But you can’t buy the affection of the local people of Hawaii, that comes with showing respect for others first.
There was an editorial in our local newspaper, the Star-Advertiser in which the writer stated that in Hawaii, our mask usage is high as a way of showing Aloha in one of it’s many definitions. In this case meaning “We care about you and others”.
While I understand the OP’s desire to get away from New York, coming to Hawaii because of our low infection rates is not full of Aloha, but understandably, IMHO self-centered and will likely be seen as such by others here.