Just starting to plan 10 day trip to Hawaii in late January. My wife and I had honeymoon in Maui 30 years ago, and not that fired up about going back except we would really like to see whales, so would be willing to spend a short time in Maui just for that. We do not like tourist traps and prefer quite areas with some easy hiking, good scenery, and probably a little snorkeling and maybe scuba diving for me. Love nature and outdoor stuff. No desire to go to Oahu.

Seems like Big Island would be good place to spend 4-5 days (I'm a geologist so would love to see volcano area!)

Not sure about the other island (Kauai), seems like some people love it and others find it too boring.

If someone has done a similar length trip and has any ideas on how to spend time I'd love hearing about your experiences. We live in Austin area so would be flying from here. Thx in advance!

We spent 10 days on the Big Island this past June. I rented an Airbnb house right on the ocean on the east side of the island that was absolutely gorgeous and more affordable than any hotel in the area. I can give you the link if interested. I'm pretty sure you will see whales from the house balcony.

We were unable to visit the Volcanoes National Park because it was closed due to the eruption, but there were several companies offering guided hikes to see the lava flow that I was interested in. We also did a lava boat tour (unfortunately we missed the lava ocean entry by about 12 hours), went ziplining, and drove up to the Waipio Valley. At Waipio Valley, we did the hike to the black sand beach and then did an ATV tour of the rim. I highly recommend all of these activities.

For the second half of the trip, we stayed on the west side at the Fairmont Orchid. It's a beautiful hotel with a fantastic beach and snorkeling area (best of all the hotels we've stayed at in Hawaii, IMO). While on the west side we snorkeled with manta rays and tried to do a sunset/stargazing tor up to Mauna Kea. We made it all the way up to the 13,800k summit only to find it completely surrounded in fog and mist, and the park rangers were shutting it down. We couldn't see 20 ft in front of us. But there are some amazing telescopes up there and it's supposed to be one of the best places in the world to stargaze. I want to go back to the Big Island specifically to revisit Mauna Kea. The pictures I've seen of the sunset from the summit are amazing.

Anyway, we had an amazing time there, and if you're interested in any specifics, let me know, and I'll give you details.

Tx Transplant, great response, sounds like you had a very good trip and did the kind of stuff we are interested in. I'd very much be interested to AirBNB link on east side, we typically do VRBO or this on our trips. And sounds like you liked hotel rather than AirBNB on west side?

A couple of questions if you don't mind

where did you fly from-to. We will be starting our trip in Austin.

Were you satisfied staying on one island entire trip? I'm pretty sure I'll bag anytime in Maui just to see whales, probably more trouble than it's worth.

Would you recommend consider staying a night or two at Volcano park? If we had 8-9 nights on island, I think we'd be willing to re-locate 3 times to keep things interesting.

Any other specifics you're willing to share on your itinerary or contacts I'd be interested in them.

Pretty sure I'll want to do the night dive with rays wherever that happens. Still getting lay of the land.

I'll answer your questions above, and then I'll post some links.

I liked the hotel and Airbnb equally well...two different experiences, both of which were amazing. We did a two-week trip to Oahu, Maui, and Kauai in June 2017 and stayed at the Grand Hyatt Kauai and the Grand Wailea on Maui...compared to those hotels, the Fairmont Orchid had a far superior beach/snorkeling area.

Both trips we flew on Hawaiian Air. This past summer, we did a layover in San Diego (flew to San Diego on Southwest out of Hobby). We flew San Diego/Maui/Big Island (Kona) there and Kona/Oahu/San Diego on the way back. If you can get a direct flight to Kona, go for it.

Since we had done Oahu/Maui/Kauai on a previous trip, I knew I wanted to focus this entire visit on the Big Island. 10 days was NOT too much time...there is PLENTY to do on the island.

We rented a car for the entire trip. The Airbnb we stayed in was pretty rural. We actually lucked up...we were there when the lava flow inundated Kapoho and Vacationland. We actually met some people who had rented a vacation home there only to not be allowed to check in because that area was off-limits to everyone but locals (and I think the house was ultimately destroyed). The house we stayed in was just far enough away that it was safe. The Kapoho area was home to some thermal pools that were a real treasure to the locals (it was my understanding that there was nothing quite like them anywhere else in the world), and that was completely filled in by lava. I imagine the number of vacation rentals on that side of the island has decreased significantly.

I thought about staying in Volcano Village, but the options for houses were limited. I just ended up really liking the pictures of house we rented (and they did not disappoint). It is about a 30 min drive from Volcanoes National Park. I don't really feel like we missed out on anything by not staying in Volcano Village (especially since the park was closed and the sulfur levels were kind of high - not problems you will have on your trip).

Airbnb
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19264321

Manta Ray Snorkel/Dive (if you are a certified diver, you can dive rather than snorkel). This was a really enjoyable experience...the crew of the boat was top-notch and had us laughing the entire time.
https://www.mantaraydiveshawaii.com/

Mauna Kea Summit Adventures
There are several other companies that do this trip. This was the only one that would take my son (who was 13 at the time), so that's why we booked with him. Our guide here was also top-notch, and our money was refunded in FULL when our trip was cut short. They didn't have to do that, but because they did, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.
https://maunakea.com/

Ziplining at the Umauma Experience
https://umaumaexperience.com/

Looks like Ride the Rim ATV Tours is out of business...they were unable to renew their land lease. That is a real shame, but here is the link just in case.
http://www.ridetherim.com/index.html

Waipio Valley Hike instructions (the Love Big Island website it a great source of all sorts of info about the island)
https://www.lovebigisland.com/waipio-valley/

We also hiked to Akaka Falls (short drive from Hilo and a short/easy hike that gets you an amazing view of a beautiful waterfall) and Rainbow Falls (Love Big Island has instructions for getting to both).

The Liliuokalani Park in Hilo is beautiful and worth a stop.

I have pics on Instagram that are public, if you happen to use that app. On the second page is a post about Havasu Falls and it has pics that link to my account.

If you're going to spend 10-ish days on the trip, I'd consider spending at least a couple of those on Kauai as well. There may be a bit more variety of activities on the big island (and because of that I'd spend more than half of the trip there), but Kauai is amazingly beautiful. There's nothing else quite like the Napali Coast or Waimea Canyon, anywhere.

Plus, there are whales there too (during the right season), snorkeling, scuba, etc.

Aggie87 said:

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If you're going to spend 10-ish days on the trip, I'd consider spending at least a couple of those on Kauai as well. There may be a bit more variety of activities on the big island (and because of that I'd spend more than half of the trip there), but Kauai is amazingly beautiful. There's nothing else quite like the Napali Coast or Waimea Canyon, anywhere.

Plus, there are whales there too (during the right season), snorkeling, scuba, etc.

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I would completely agree with this. I really enjoyed our time on Kauai two summers ago - much more so than Oahu or Maui. If you don't think you'll ever go back to Hawaii, maybe try to do three nights on Kauai, if the flights work out.

Take the back roads and hit some food trucks! Best bargains and you'll meet some great locals.

Excellent, I've been thinking all day should we spend 2-3 days on Kauai, and I get back on here and see these responses. I like that suggestion, then make our home base on west side of Big Island, I guess skip east side if we can't do both. I'm most excited about snorkeling with rays with my wife then maybe come back the next evening and do the night scuba dive. Now that the volcano is dormant, will skip that.

I still wish I could slip in a whale watching trip, but that might be tough unless we spend one night on Maui and do a quick trip there just for that. Want to do it all!

I'm pretty sure there are some whale watching cruises from Kauai.

We took a trip to the Big Island last year. Flight and five night stay at the Mauna Lani from Austin was $1460 each.

Changed flights in Phoenix going and LAX returning (return flight is an overnighter).

Great vacation at a great price!

Snorkeling off the beach at the Mauna Lani is the best I have ever seen!

Thanks 79, which airport did you fly into in Hawaii?

I have a very detailed itinerary for my trip to big Island I was there 10 nights and drove 970 miles and saw every square inch by the time we left

You definitely have time to see everything, that you might spend time driving, I suggest that it is worth it since you will have plenty of time

See if you can find my previous posts because I put an extremely detailed agenda by day including phone numbers and directions to everything we did

Happy to answer more questions!