On our several trips to Hawaii, Honolulu was by far our least favorite place.
My wife said we could go to LA a whole lot faster and cheaper, and have the same experience.
OTOH, I could see having a little place in the mountains of Maui…
If someone offered to set me up anywhere I want to go, Hawaii wouldn’t even be on the list. I’ve never been there and I’m not all that interested in visiting, tho I might consider a cruise from California and back. Never watched a TV show set there and thought “oh, I want to live there…” Most of the reasons cited apply.
For those with interest, this is a channel that I like, covering a topic that’s arguably quite relevant to this topic:
Not enough parking, and Rust.
Where I live, not even Fiats and Jeeps rust.
This is just like the thread on Why Don’t You Lift Weights? The answer is, it never occurred to me that it would be a good idea.
Lifting weights is healthy. Honolulu? Perhaps an acquired taste. FWIW the “top ten liveable” EIU cities in the US are…
The 10 best cities to live in the U.S.
(cnbc.com summary of Economist article below)
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Atlanta, Ga.
- Pittsburgh, Penn.
- Seattle, Wash.
- Washington D.C.
- Chicago, Ill.
- Boston, Mass.
- Miami, Fla.
- San Francisco, Calif.
- Minneapolis, Minn.
From Atlanta to San Francisco: These are the 10 best U.S. cities to live in based on culture, education, infrastructure and more
Of course, others have their own arbitrary lists.
https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live
While resort areas in the mountains don’t have the same kind of issues that Hawaii has, it’s still a challenge. That’s why prices are so high.
When the ‘highway’ turns into a slow crawl because of tourists, well that screws every one. But, I’m not kidding myself, the county needs the tourists. I just wish they would stop inviting them.
Tourism drives prices through the roof. I don’t blink an eye at a $100 lunch with my wife. It’s just the way it is. Hawaii didn’t seem expensive to me.
I have spent a big of time in Santa Barbara. I am amazed by the temperate weather. I think that section of coast has a lot of similarities to Honolulu. And I think the net cost of living is cheaper. You can travel to varied places in a day. Etc.
So why don’t “you” move to Santa Barbara?
(I moved here 4 years ago just weeks before FtGGrandKid1 was born. It’s been amazing watchingi her grow. FtGGrandKid2 was born last Friday. I am hoping for a wonderful repeat. I couldn’t do that anywhere else.)
It’s located directly above the Ventura-Pitas Point fault line. Midwestern blizzards, I can handle. Not interested in earthquakes. Or wildfires, for that matter.
A couple of years ago, my company had an opening on the Big Island. I loved Hawaii thirty years ago when I was in the Navy, I liked that my girls could get better services for disabled adults, and the housing prices I saw were high as opposed to being ridiculous like they are on Oahu. But they wanted me to take about a 20% pay cut because they figured that the cost of living was more reasonable than Southern California. Seriously, people?
Needless to say I gave it a hard pass. If I ever write my great American novel and make stupid amounts of money from it, I may reconsider. 
I don’t want to live in a city, and it looks like a lot of the island is city.
Because I live in Ventura, and I know how freakin’ insane the housing prices are there.
I always thought the weights are just fine there on the ground. They don’t need my help.
Well, I did. Back in 2014. What’s that get me?
I’ve live in a lot of places, including Honolulu. It wasn’t my favorite, but there were a lot worse.
By some coincidence, Hawaiians and us Wisconsinites have a lot in common: we both operate on a very flat trajectory (that is to say, we rejoice in our bumpkiness), love too much to eat, can enjoy the worst beers just fine, and are both a bit goofy at heart. I found Honolulu to be a lot like Milwaukee and Chicago: everyone was aware of the different ethnicities and the dynamics, but making an issue out of them was strictly for assholes.
My late wife had grown up there (her defence-contractor dad transplanted them there after there the fall of Saigon, as it was the best place to raise mixed-race kids in 1975), and my current SO was born there, holds inherited properties there, and now that we’re both retired wants to return soon.
We’d gone through the above-mentioned veterinary hoops for the cat, but then decided to let it live as long as it could here in Georgia rather than risk death by Delta. We finally had to say goodbye to him last Wednesday, so perhaps things should soon be moving along presently. We’ve already been looking at the Honolulu humane society website. I’ve lived a lot of places, but there should always be a cat in residence.
I lived on the Big Island for several years after getting out of the service. They were some of the best years of my life. I had my GI bill and I was young and a floozy. It was wonderful.
But that was when I was mid-twenties and could tolerate living with roommates.
Despite being comfortably retired now, I couldn’t afford it, am tired of getting bits and pieces cut off my sun abused skin and would go broke trying to help pay to fix the feral cat population. Plus, I’m no longer a floozy and my husband wouldn’t want to move now that we are back home for him.
Moving sucks. Moving to another country sucks even more. I’ve done that once, I have no desire to do that again.
The majority of comments below reflect my residence on the Big Island; if I’m referring to Honolulu/Oahu I’ll say so.
Visiting anywhere in Hawai’i as a tourist probably sucks. My half-sister who lives in Pennsylvania visited me a few years ago, over significant objections from some of her friends - “why are you spending ALL THAT MONEY to fly to Hawai’i - so much cheaper just to go to the Bahamas, and there is nothing special about Hawaii you couldn’t get from the Caribbean?”
Well, of course that was a dumb comment because she was coming to visit family, not just for a mindless sunny vay-cay. However, as a resident, I was able to show her all kinds of amazing stuff that tourists don’t know about. She couldn’t wait to tell her friends when she got home that they had no clue to how terrific Hawai’i is.
Honolulu isn’t terrible, but if you can work remotely, unless you want an urban setting I would check out other islands.
Probably true. You are smart to be aware of that problem.
Agreed, but that’s true of almost any major city, not just Hono.
Quoted for truth!
Animals are not the problem to bring in that they used to be. For anyone whose only significant barrier is beloved animals, I’d advise researching the matter. It’s really not THAT hard these days and your pet does NOT have to rot away in quarantine.
Landslides are not infrequent but they are minor - worst case, one lane of a road is closed for 2-3 hours. Hurricanes generally don’t do a lot of damage here, we don’t have tornados, volcanos are extremely easy to avoid simply by not purchasing land where flows are possible. Likewise floods, tsunamis and wildfires are avoidable simply by choosing a location wisely. What exactly are you worried about? (I don’t mean to be insensitive to the people of Lahaina - they did not choose their level of vulnerability. But as someone who could choose a location from scratch, you do have that option. For the most part, so did the folks whose homes were lost in the last eruption - the homes they bought were DIRT CHEAP because they were subject to lava flows, and most people knew that. Anyone who didn’t had no one to blame but themselves.)
This brings to mind the old tale about a farmer tending his farm next to a road, and along came a traveler who stopped to chat. “I’m thinking about moving here,” said the traveler. “Tell me, what are the people in your community like?”
The farmer scratched his head. “Well, tell me,” he said. “What are people like where you come from?” The traveler smiled. “Oh, quite delightful really. I must say, I like most of them.”
The farmer grinned. “Well, they’re just like that here, too.” And the traveler went on his merry way.
Along came a second traveler who stopped to chat. “I’m thinking about moving here,” said the second traveler. “Tell me, what are the people in your community like?”
The farmer scratched his head. “Well, tell me,” he said. “What are people like where you come from?” The traveler rolled his eyes. “Oh, kind of grumpy and a pain in the ass. I must say, I don’t like most of them.”
The farmer winced. “Well, they’re just like that here, too.” And the traveler went on his not-so-merry way.
I don’t know how often something like that is a problem (it’s not affected me in 6 years of steady living here, but I think it’s come close to being an issue one or twice). But yes - that is definitely a possibility when you are on an island connected mostly via a circumferential road.
Intelligent use of storage space (I have a BIG freezer) and on-line purchasing can largely mitigate that issue, but I would say more generally that even without disruptions, there are some limitations. Recently I posted about my desire to select a new range. Key considerations included: will the ideal model even be sold on my island, and if I manage to get it shipped in, will I be able to get it serviced?*
Communities at higher elevations are still nice and cool. If I go to Volcano or Waimea, I need a jacket, and if I forget, I curse myself and freeze.
Locals don’t pay tourist prices; you get all kinds of discounts at most stores. And you figure out where to eat well at a reasonable cost. I just had an elegant, delicious lunch yesterday - my order was $22, my companion’s was $20. This included an entree, a huge and delicious salad of fresh locally grown greens, homemade tortilla chips, delightful soup of the day, and a brownie.
No, even Oahu has a lot of gorgeous, rural areas. I probably wouldn’t want to live there (property is too expensive) but it’s not correct to characterize all of Oahu as urban. And the Big Island is definitely not urban at all.
(*) I haven’t seen acknowledgment of a related drawback, true to one extent or another on ALL the islands: service, of almost any kind. You need a plumber? An electrician? Someone who can repair your broken walkway? Yeah, have fun with that. It can be done (we’re working with some fantastic contractors now) but expect to spend more and wait longer for anything significant.
Another issue is health care. I sometimes see surveys/rankings that claim Hawai’i State health care is awesome. Well, no, it’s not. We have a terrible shortage of health care professionals and it is hard to get young doctors, nurses, and technicians to move here because the public education system is terrible and private education is limited/expensive. The one positive about health care here is … damn, but everyone is NICE. A few months ago I wound up in the emergency room for something at 11pm (details not important, I wound up just fine) and damn, the staff was amazing. Everyone was kind, patient, helpful, willing to explain and listen - I’ve had medical care around the world, and never was it so human and caring.
Enough! Don’t move to Hawai’i (unless you are a health care professional, in which case pleeze pleeze PLEEZE come) because that’s more peace and quiet for me.
But if you must come, look me up. Truly, this is an amazing place and I couldn’t be happier to land here for my retirement years.
Earthquakes, wild fires, and a serious water crisis on the horizon.
I like Hawaii in general, and Honolulu is fun. I visit a lot of places where I don’t want to live.