Hawaii - where, exactly?!

[BIWI]

DH has expressed an interest in going to Hawaii (the golf is currently on there), so I was idly Googling - but if you were going to go to Hawaii, which island would you go to?

Anyone been/would recommend a specific island/location?

TIA

Wow! Thank you everyone. It does sound amazing. We already have plans for this year and next year (in terms of 'big' holidays), so it will give me plenty of time to plan for 2025!

I’ve been to Kauai a couple of times. Supposedly the least commercial island, but in a way it reminds me of a cruise ship holiday. I find it very relaxing as there isn’t a whole lot of pressure to go anywhere and the island is very small so if you do go somewhere, it’s a day trip.

Tourist stuff is the usual like helicopter tours, catamaran trips, botanical gardens, coffee plantation, a couple of small towns with restaurants and shops. Beaches too, obviously.

If you play golf might be different as there are lots of golf courses. Don’t know if they are technically any good as I don’t play golf, but they are pretty enough to walk around.

But it is a very long way to go. A week is too short for the travel time, I found 10 days to 2 weeks better, and I’d imagine it would be the same for any of the islands. If I had two weeks to be away, I’d maybe do a week in Hawaii somewhere and then the second week in the US somewhere, maybe east coast? Otherwise it’s two overnight flights in a row to get back to the U.K. from the islands.

Length of trip won't be an issue, @Throwawaytheusername (well - beyond funds/budget, obviously!), as we're no longer working. I'm very much in favour of longer, more relaxed holidays these days. Although DH is hard to shift out of his '2 weeks off work' mindset!

I was away for almost a month when I went. 3 days were in San Fran on the way back.

"Otherwise it’s two overnight flights in a row to get back to the U.K. from the islands".

The second flight back to the UK would certainly leave in the evening entailing an overnight flight. However, the flights from the Islands to the US mainland mainly depart early to mid afternoon. With the three hour time difference between the Islands and the Mainland, flights usually reach their US mainland destination between 9-10pm.

If you do go to the Islands I would suggest you break the journey both ways and stay in a US city overnight before continuing on. American airlines have a good choice of routings to the Islands from some mainland US cities.

All of those islands are lovely to visit even if Oahu is very commercialised; it has been that way for years. Interisland air travel though is expensive due to Hawaiian having the monopoly.

Went to Maui first, then both Maui and Oahu the second time and had great times, prefer Maui. Beautiful, nice beaches and food. We stayed at Kihei in Maui.

We didn’t experience any hostility as well but it’s possible as increased tourism is a double edge sword, brings in jobs and investments, but can also impact the lives of locals. If you respect them and focus on the rousing areas you will be fine.

Another island you can consider is Puerto Rico, we had an amazing time there too, stayed near San Juan for a few days then went to a resort on the west side of the island, nice beaches which are calm for kids to swim and snorkel, hiked El Yunque rainforest which was a blast, kid had fun swinging from trees into the streams, good food especially the seafood.

To add we live in the US and it was still a 9 hour flight from Chicago so the trip will be loooong from the UK. Might be better to break the trip and stop somewhere on the west coast like LA before heading to Hawaii.

I so hate that we can’t edit posts on MN.

French Polynesian is also beautiful but Hawaii has a lot more going for it in my opinion, and I would exactly call tourism in Hawaii mass, yes it’s been growing and sometimes can be busy (depending on the island) but it’s also very expensive and far so it’s nowhere near mass tourism.

We went to Maui on honeymoon, stayed in Wailea, loved it and want to go back asap but it is a bloody long way, I hadn't quite realised!

Definitely maui. This was our favourite island. Such a beautiful place.

We did San Francisco - Hawaii - New York for our honeymoon and felt the stop offs helped break up the long journey.

We stayed on the Big Island and loved the setting and the activities. We did sea kayaking, scuba diving and hiked around Volcano. Found the food a bit hit and miss.

@AttilaTheMeerkat Good to know! It must have been how I was booked. Flight from kauai used to leave at around 10pm which meant missing the morning flight back to the U.K. from the west coast, irrespective of whether it was LAX or Seattle. Long day in airports which I hated.

I can’t remember why I couldn’t just leave earlier in the day, maybe the availability of miles seats on a particular airline but yes, there must be earlier flights to the mainland than the 10pm ones…

We had a great time on Big Island but I was surprised by how American everything was. We went as part of a long stint of travelling and having come from other Pacific Islands I wasn't quite prorated for it to be presented as one of the States as much as it was.

I found Pearl Harbour really moving and interesting.

i liked going off the beaten track more than the tourist hustle and bustle, and the main beaches really did nothing for me.

Driving around was fantastic, amazing views and scenery. I loved visiting the Japanese temples. Smaller/quieter beaches were gorgeous but the waves in some places were pretty fierce!

Food was expensive and mostly fast food/snack/junk. DH and I quite happily shared one portion of most things between us.

i really wish we had made more of our stop in LAX. We wasted an opportunity there I feel. All our luggage stayed there though, didn't come back for weeks! (Thanks BA) I would def recommend making a thing of the stop as the flights are so long anyway!