Hawaii travel advice - are we nuts to consider booking honeymoon?!

[Slightlylessclueless]

We are getting married in October and looking to book our honeymoon. Have considered going lots of places but want to avoid Zika virus areas, but ideally still go long haul.

• I’ve ALWAYS wanted to go to Hawaii and this would be the perfect chance. - except for that darn volcanic eruption!

It’s on the Big Island and travel advice is saying ‘still open for business’ elsewhere. Are we crazy to even consider?! Even if we went to the other islands, it’s mostly earthquakes I’m worried about...

All the islands including the big island of Hawaii are open for business and your fears whilst understandable are really unfounded. Kilauea is located in the southeast corner of Hawaii and is quite a long way away from the many hotels that are situated on the west coast of this island. I have been there and on some of the other islands during such volcanic activity and I never felt any earthquakes there either.

This is a recent article by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser which is the main newspaper for these islands:-

www.staradvertiser.com/2018/07/28/travel/vibrant-puna-offers-much-to-do-beyond-viewing-the-volcano/

Bear in mind too that these islands as well are another 6 hours or so flying time from the US mainland cities of LA and SF. You will need to change planes (and stay overnight) in one of these cities in order to fly onto Honolulu which is on Oahu. You will need to do the same on the return leg.

Any other questions just ask.

My neighbour is there now on holiday. They booked ages ago and didn't change any of their plans.

been a while, but the only thing you will miss out on is the Hawaii Volcanoes park. A shame, but there's lots of other things to see on Big Island and the other islands. It may still be possible to view lava, see what is happening when you get there. And if you aren't pregnant you can go up Mauna Kea, the highest you will ever go with your feet on the ground. That was a serious bucket list moment. (probably best to go on a tour)

as noted; Hawaii is a LONG way and the only flights from the mainland are into Honolulu. There's a couple of days of stuff to see from there (you will have to stay in Waikiki) and then you fly on to the other islands. Book rental cars in advance, they do run out and there is very little public transport except on Oahu.

volcano park website:
www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm

Thanks guys, that’s all really useful and really detailed. Although it has in fact made me want to go there EVEN MORE, it has made me consider flight times. We’ll have to work out our budget more too.

• however hopefully it’s still a possibility!

Maui is gorgeous, especially the area around Kaanapali or Lahaina. I’ve been there during a tsunami evacuation and it was all very orderly, so I wouldn’t worry about earthquakes. There’s lots of snorkelling and boat trips you can take, and a gorgeous drive down the east coast towards Hana. If your hotel is on the beach you may not even need to take a boat trip - we were able to see whales, dolphins and giant turtles from our balcony. Would highly recommend!

Oh and here’s how much of Big Island has been affected by the volcano

But seriously, Maui is amazing, so if you’re worried at all about Big Island, then it’s a definite option.

Definitely go! I was there a few weeks ago, it was amazing. The volcano has had a double damage effect on people out there - as well as potentially losing their homes, a lot of people’s livelihoods depend on tourism so they’ve been hit twice.

I went a bit survivalist when I went, and made sure we had a bag with water, dust masks etc in the car “just in case”; but to be honest it wasn’t necessary - as PP said, the West side is where a lot of the resorts are and it’s not affected at all. Even when drove through the Volcano National Park road and stopped to support the locals/spend some money, we experienced an earthquake which barely made the windows shake, let alone the room!

We had our honeymoon in Hawaii and it was amazing! It was a few years ago (and we were living in the US at the time), so bear in mind the long flight (London to LA, then LA to Hawaii will be around 11 hours + another 5 hours), but if that doesn't put you off then go! We went to three islands - Oahu (which is where Honolulu is), Maui and the Big Island. All were very different and well worth visiting and I wish we'd gone to Kauai as well (but you need time to do each island justice - we had 4 days on each and could easily have spent longer).