I have heard that honolu sucks.

Huh?

do you mean Hawaii and Honolulu?

I've never been, deal with the islands all day for my job. A lot of people move to Maui and the Big Island (Hawaii). Oahu is pretty popular, but I believe it is more city like than "paradise" like.

If I went to hawia, I would definitely go to mowie. its beautiful

O-wah-hoo is too crouded. Go to either Mowie or hawia.

They're the best.

Oahu is the island and Honolulu is the name of the city. And it is spelled Maui. But it depends on what you want to do. Kauai is the garden island, it has the fewest people of the bigger islands and the prettiest natural sites. It is also where all the movies are filmed. Oahu has Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head. Maui has the best surfing. The only thing to really see on big island of Hawaii is the volcanos.

what hotels are good to stay at? is the whole state like a city or are there alot of areas that are natural?

hands down....stay on Maui. The Ka'anapali or Lahaina areas are very nice.

I've heard from my fiance that Kauai is the most beautiful and the most private.

Why don't you go and then tell us.

how many days would you recomend on Maui?


are there places to go camping?

Maui rocks! My husband and I went there on our honeymoon. We stayed 6 days and we really could have used a couple more days. There is just so much to do. Definitely say in Lahaina or Ka'anapali beach. And you have to do the drive to Hana. It's beautiful. I don't really know about camping though. But I'm sure you could go to the state's website and find out.

The Marriott resort on Kauai was awesome. Very tropical. Have also stayed in Waikiki which was more commercialized. If you stay on Oahu, check out the Marriott Ko Olina resort about 20 miles outside of Honolulu

DP

[This message has been edited by pwalnuts (edited 2/10/2004 1:49p).]

Usually, we spend 10-12 days in Hawaii total...the majority of the time, we spend on Maui. Maui is good for kickin' back and relaxing, but there are still things to see there.

Oahu is the big tourist island. If you haven't been there, it is at least worth a day or two.

If you can make it to the big island, the volcano stuff is definitely worth seeing. If Kilauea is errupting, and you can afford it, the helicopter tour over the volcano is probably one of the neatest things I have ever seen in my entire life.

[This message has been edited by FireAg (edited 2/10/2004 2:02p).]

sounds keen!

how much is the helicopter tour?

Helicopter tour is not cheap (at least not when I last did it). I want to say it was less than $200 per person, but we flew right over the crater while it was errupting.....pretty dang cool. This was about 8 years ago, or so, so it could be more. I just don't know. You could probably Google Kilauea Helicopter Tours and get a pretty good idea.

Go see the fat guy who sings Tiny Bubbles

what hotels do you recommend? what do they run? are they private? how big are they?

btt

I've been to Oahu, Mauai, and the Big Island of those I would not recommend the big island if your looking for a tropical vacation. The reason for this is most resorts are on the south side of the island which has a lot of black lava in the area. The reason the hotels are there is the weather but all the tropical areas are on the North side of the island near Hilo, so it might be a little disappointing if you expect a tropical paradise. The volcanoes can be cool but if you expect to see any erupting lava you'll need to get a helicopter tour.

Now depdending on what your looking for, pure relaxation, some activity, or and being able to do a lot will determine which island is best for you. Kauai is the garden island as someone already said and is the spot a lot of movies are filmed. Mauai is the spot a lot of Americans go to (a lot of Japanese go to Oahu as well as americans) it has a mix of relaxation and activity and is what I would recommend.

When most people stay in Oahu they stay in Honolulu on or near Waikiki. If you want to be on the beach but be able to walk to a lot of things this is a good spot. Waikiki is lined with hotels and its quite breathtaking.

So really it comes down to what you want to do. Regardless Mauai, Kauai, or Oahu would be a lot of a fun.

Charger, when we went to Maui, we stayed at the Royal Lahaina Resort on Ka'anapali beach. It was an older hotel, but we had an ocean front room and it was big enough and it was clean. My only complaint about the room was that is only had a shower... there was no bathtub. But the hotel is on a great stretch of beach in a great location. My favorite thing about it was the stretch of beach outside our hotel, at most, had like 10 people on it at a time. Most of the time, there were like 4 others or so. My husbands parents booked the trip, and did the flight and hotel through Continental. They got a really great deal on the hotel (can't remember exactly how much though).

Oh yeah... about the helicopter rides... we researched it a little and if I remember correctly, you could get a short ride for like $75.00 per person. If you wait until you go, your hotel should have one of those channels that highlights tours and stuff to go on. That's how we looked into it.

I have been to Oahu, Maui, and Kauai and like Kauai the best by far. It is quite simply the most beautiful place on earth imo and far less crowded than the other islands.

Oahu is highly commercialized and other than going to see the historical sites (such as the Arizona) it isn't noteworthy. The Dole Plantation is kind of neat and The North Shore is nice. Waikiki though (the famous beach next to Honolulu) is about the most crowded beach area on the planet though. Great if you are into people watching and highly developed tourist areas but that is about it. Oahu is the least majestic of the major islands.

Maui is very nice. It has a very California kind of feel to it as most of the folks there are from Cali. Lots of hippies and that kind of thing. Lahaina is a neat little town with some great restuarants. Kapalua is the best golf course I have ever played at. The trip up to the summit of the volcano is fun with the ride down from 10k feet straight down for 26 miles to sea level. The road to Hana is beautiful but very crowded and slow (most of Kauai looks like it). The Hana side is neat, kind of quaint little town. One thing I would reccomend is driving to the "other side" of the island on the way back from Hana. You go from a spot where it rains over 300 inches per year to less than 10 in about 2 miles. The "other side" is totally barren and serene where you can see dry landscapes that go into the ocean and you will be lucky to see 10 people on a 20 mile drive. Maui is a huge island compared to Kauai or Oahu because it is essentially 2 volcanoes instead of 1. It is less commercial than Oahu but far more commercial than Kauai.

Kauai is my favorite. It has the famous cliffs. It has the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It has the wettest spot on earth in the crater of the volcano that feeds hundreds of waterfalls. The North Shore of the island up by Hanalei is absolutely amazing. There are no buildings over 2 stories on the island and only about 40k people, enough to be able to do just about anything you could want but not commercialized. Last time we stayed at a little rental on the beach overlooking a small bay with only about 6 other houses and it was very reasonable. Here is the website: www.rfreedom.com

Haven't been to the Big Island but have heard the volcano is the only thing to really see anyway. I would reccomend flying in for a day trip if that is what you want to do.

I liked Kuaui best. Although nothing wrong with Maui. Hawaii is cool if the volcano is your thing. Kona is the place to stay on the big isle. Oahu is too busy, but good for a couple of days, especially the north shore.

When you go snorkeling, take some frozen green peas. Much cheaper and much more effective at drawing in fish than the bars of stuff you buy at the dive shops (local secret).

My wife and I went to Kauai for our honeymoon. We stayed at Princeville and it was by far, the coolest place I have ever stayed in the world. It was the shizznit. Expensive, but worth it. Golf magazine rated it one of the best resorts in the world. www.princeville.com

We also took a helicopter tour which was incredible. I think it was Blackjack Helicopter Tours or something like that. We didn't book it until we asked our concierge who the best to go with was. But the cool thing about this company is that they have rights to land at this very remote place where you have lunch and swim in this private lagoon with a big waterfall. It was awesome. Strongly recommend it.

Kauai is low key, but beautiful.