I’ve never been to Hawaii (virgin) but I have an free offer in February to pick a time share anywhere in Hawaii for a week. I haven’t a clue which island is better or worse than the next.
I like beaches, but do not intend to lay in the sun all day.
I like some “nightlife”, but do not want to barhop every night, all night.
I would get bored sitting by a palm tree all day, but wouldn’t mind sitting at a cafe looking at palm trees.
I know I am on vacation, but I do not enjoy paying $9 for a glass of Coke.
So…any suggestions on which island I should book this timeshare?
Maui or Kauai, based on my experiences on both islands. Maui, especially around Lahaina, has some good public beaches, shopping and enough touristy stuff and bars (and a mall with a movie theater, if you’re into that) so that you won’t be bored or over-stimulated. You can book fishing charters and dive or snorkeling trips fairly easily.
As an aside, don’t bother with “scorkeling”–snorkeling with tubes, so you can dive down and stay. If you go to the right places, you won’t need anything but a snorkel, mask and fins to see the fish and stuff.
Kauai is quieter, a little smaller, but I like it more. I’ve been three times, and four times to Maui. Somebody once told me that Kauai is where locals go for vacation, and while I have no way of checking its veracity, I would agree. It’s called the Garden Island, and it’s much less unspoiled than Maui or Oahu. I’d go there if you wanted to go hiking, dive, or rent a 4WD and see what there was to see. To my mind, it’s prettier, but that’s MHO.
Being from Oahu, I have a tendancy to be unsatisfied with the other islands.
That said, Oahu has more stuff than the other islands (especially Kauai), but is starting to look pretty “big city” and may not actually meet your idea of what Hawaii should look like. (Kauai, in that case, almost definitely would.) I does, however, have more cafes and (probably) more “narrated” touristy activities than the other islands.
Maui is a happy little medium between Kauai and Oahu, though I should warn you that since the liquor commission is on crack, finding a strip club will be on the difficult side. (Hey, he might want to see the natives au natural, right?)
Honeymooned on Kauai, but saw nothing on other islands.
Kauai is a darn beautiful island. I was amazed that on one relatively small island it can range from deep, dark rain forests to Grand Canyonesque desolation. There is lots of hiking to be had and lots of mountains to enjoy. The beaches seemed fine, but I didn’t spend a ton of time on those.
There aren’t a ton of sights to see and we basically covered everything in about 4 days. The towns are small, but it seemed like we enjoyed ourselves the most on the north side of the island.
Everything shuts down early. If you gt hungry at 9, be prepared to go hungry.
If you can afford to spend about $300 or so for an Aloha Airlines coupon booklet (good for 6 inter-island flights), you can island-hop during your stay and it won’t necessarily matter that much just which island you sleep on.
The Big Island still has lava flowing into the ocean for all to see. But it’s not as accessible as it used to be, it’s a longer hike to get there.
After that Hilo is a pretty sleepy town. I would reccomend getting up Mauna Kea somehow.
Maui is a good place to go since it does have more stuff then any other island except Oahu it is still quite small and very touristy.
Oahu just has the most stuff to do. It’s got quite beaches some of which are quite a drive. It does have a water park which should be enjoyable for half a day. It’s got lots of great hikes. Tours galore! Especially if you like military history. It has a Royal palace there are also Water tunnel tours that go deep into the island itself, they have submarine tours with glass windows. Some of it can be expensive like the submarine and the Duck tours but the Arizona and the Palace are still free I believe. Oh, there’s also a skydive organization which works on the North Shore. The island has tons of gardens too. I’d go to Oahu but rent a car and explore outside of Waikiki, Ala Moana and Pearl Harbor, something most people don’t do. The Water supply tours are very interesting.
Oh man, and February is winter when the waves are at their highest. If your lucky the North Shore might get hit by some 30 to 40 footers, quite the sight let me tell you.
I went to Maui on two family vacations and Oahu on a trip with my high school band.
From the viewpoint of a Los Angeles native, Oahu was just a wannabe big touristy city with some island around it… If you go there, AVOID WAIKIKI! It’s horrid! (Although, it DOES have some cool WWII era shore defense cannons you could probably hike up to)
I would go and stay at Maui and take trips to the other Islands. Also, it’s a very short trip from Maui to Molokini Crater, a great place to go snorkeling, Snuba diving or scube diving, with visibility between 100-200 feet! Very beautiful marine reserve.
Well there is the Army Museum in what used to be Fort Shafter. It’s free but closed on Mondays. It was used for defence in the early parts of the last century and still has some big guns on top.
If you go to Kauai there’s a Russian fort there. In the 19th century Russia established a small presense in the Isles for some reason. It’s not much but it’s neat to see.
LolaBaby! Just the other day I mentioned how it’s been a while since we’ve seen you around. How’s my house?
Anyway, I’m another Hawaii native, with another 2¢ to toss in. My recommendation is that you go to O’ahu. I get the impression from your post that while you wouldn’t mind seeing some pretty scenes, you’d rather do stuff that’s a little more involving. O’ahu’s better suited for that. It has the better shopping malls, cultural centers, flora and fauna attractions, historic buildings, and so forth.
The rest of the islands (with the possible exception of Mau’i) are more about scenic, natural beauty-- small towns, old-fashioned ways… definitely more laid back compared to O’ahu. However, laid back tends to translate closer to boring and limited to some folks. While it’s nice to see maybe three stoplights in an entire town and have such a sense of community that everyone knows everybody’s relatives, there’s not much by way of variety and excitement.
All of the islands have sandy beaches, palm trees, and mountains. If that’s all you want, the other islands will do just fine. But if you enjoy doing stuff past 9pm or aren’t just interested in sunbathing, O’ahu is your best bet.
To everyone else, THANK YOU for helping me narrow this down.
OK…I used to live in NY and LA and so far, Oahu is starting to sound big city-ish, and Mau’i maybe a notch below city.
I don’t mind big cities - but is Oahu a “walkable” place, meaning, can I just go out and wander from the beach, into town, and amble around without getting hit by panhandlers and druggies (maybe I lived in LA & NY too long)?
And re: Mau’i - it’s not like I want to start a conga line at 2:00 am, but is there anywhere that I could have a beer at - oh, 10:00pm and not have to be sipping it out of a bottle, in a paper sack, on the stoop of my time-share?
I like to hike, if it is not a major trek requiring maps, rock climbing and helicopter rescues. Love to swim, but think I’ll pass on scuba diving - snorkling sounds just fine. I do NOT want to see local folklore dancing [shudder] but I don’t mind some light “touristy” areas with umbrellas in drinks and gawking at the other stupid tourists. I’m not much of a history buff, but if I pass a monument I look - otherwise, I will not go out of my way to see it.
I think I want to see the Hawaii of lush green, blue sky, waterfalls and oceans, gentle breezes, pretty flowers and all that within 15 minutes of a bar/cafe that doesn’t close at 8:00 pm.
Oahu is not a “walkable” town, by any means. IMO, if you want freedom of movement, it’s rent yourself car or remain house- or timeshare-bound. I’d probably suggest booking a timeshare either on the North Shore, or on Maui, but make sure you have your own transportation so you can ensure you have some options.
Well Oahu is an island divided. On the southern part of the island is Honolulu, Aiea, Pearl City and Hawaii Kai. It’s pretty built up, probably contains about 600,000 people there. Tons of stuff to do and especially in Waikiki all crammed together. I mean you could get a drink at Duke’s and watch the sun set into the ocean as you sit on their little fenced off part of the beach.
The center of the island contains the pineapple fields and whatever else they’re trying to diversify into.
The south west, west coast and the north east are the smaller town areas of Kailua, Kaneohe and Ewa. Getting sleepy but still some stuff to do. Mostly residential. Kailua’s where I’d live if I could.
Then the north shore of the island is the venue of the really small towns like Big Sur, CA and stuff, one road in and about 1 private property deep on one side and beach on the other.
And then smack in the middle are the two mountain chains that make up the island, the Ko’olaus and the Waianaes. With lots of good hikes from easy strolls to professionals only and their’s lush vegetation throughout. The most famous being at Waimea Bay which is actually quite the ride from town. But if the waves are up you simply have to go. Waimea is where they set the record for largest wave ever ridden.
But really jungle is accesible from any part of the island. For instance I can head straight back from Waikiki to Manoa valley and at the back of the valley there are hikes and a botanical
garden. Manoa’s a real quite little neighborhood.
I don’t really think there’s anything special about Maui, it’s just Oahu with less stuff spread further apart.
As for panhandlers they really aren’t a presense on Kalakaua Ave which fronts the beach. Further back on Kuhio where the buses run and lots of locals live there are some. At night you will see some hookers on Kalakaua and you may get asked if you want some buds but above and by far the biggest thing you will see is a police presense. Lots of their little 3 wheelers. And the Aloha patrol. There are also street performers, which are usually boring. I mean silver men are only interesting the first few times yet there are some that play music.
Now that I’d debate. From my house I can stroll along the Ala Wai cannal, watching the canoe paddlers practice, one way to the zoo, the library, the golf course, Kapiolani Park and the beach which is course everywhere. Going the other way I can reach Ala Moana shopping center, the Ala Moana beach park, and all the bars, clubs, restaurants and whatnot in Wakiki, although I never go there. The 3 movie houses in Waikiki and the IMAX and if I’m feeling peppy I can even make it to Ward Center and Ward Warehouse to the 16-plex, Borders book store and other dozens of other restaurants. And if I want to go further there’s The bus which is cheap and plentiful. $10 will get you all you can ride for 4 days, $27.50 gets you a month. 1 fare is $1.50 and usually is good for rides for 4 hours.
Or if I’m by the capital I can walk all around there from the main library, Restaurant Row, Aloha Tower Market Place, which is a neat place, and to China Town and the Hawaii Theater and the Palace.
Now I can’t walk to Pearl Harbor or the North Short but then you’d no more walk their then you would walk to Central Park from Brooklyn.
Ok, Osiris good points. But you live in Waikiki, with that whole strip available for strolling, and for some reason I was assuming that DMark didn’t want to stay somewhere that was so populated and touristy, but was maybe looking for something more moderately busy. I was thinking (and I should have previewed to make what I wanted to say clearer) that finding a timeshare that was a little out-of-the-way, and then renting a car or taking the bus as you point out to go sightseeing might be something to consider on Oahu. If you want the best of both worlds: the pretty Hawaii and the local flavor. Not that the North Shore in February is going to be the ultimate remote island getaway. I’ll revise what I said before and agree that yes, parts of Oahu are certainly walkable, but to maximize options and such (still IMO) you might be better off having some kind of transportation at your disposal.
