Paradise is Hawaii
Hawaii is amazing! Truly paradise. We’ve made five separate trips to Hawaii and visited Oahu and the Big Island twice, Maui and Kauai each three times. Each of the islands are different and each island has things that make it unique. Our two favorites are Kauai and Maui. There are eight Hawaiian islands, with tourism mainly on Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. There’s a Four Seasons Resort on Lanai, but I think that’s the extent of tourism there. When referring to the Hawaiian islands, we’re talking about Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, and Kauai.
We really like leaving Nebraska during the winter, so each of our trips has been in January, February, or March. This is the wet season in Hawaii. We haven’t experienced a lot of storms, most of the rain showers we’ve seen have come in the afternoon and last for about 15 minutes. However, the seas are rougher, which can limit safe swimming on some beaches or cancelation of sailing trips. On the plus side, this is whale season! We’ve seen more whales while on Maui than on the other three islands. You can see the whales from shore or up close on a whale watching tour.
The Island of Hawaii (The Big Island) is the biggest at 4,028 square miles and has about 185,000 residents.
Maui (The Valley Isle) is the 2nd largest at 727 square miles and has about 144,000 residents.
Oahu (The Gathering Place) is the 3rd largest at 596 square miles, but has the largest population, with over 950,000 residents.
Kauai (The Garden Isle) is the smallest, at 552 square miles, and least populated with about 67,000 residents.
How to Get to Hawaii
We’ve flown to Hawaii each visit. Cruise ships do sail to Hawaii, but we have no interest in spending that much time on a boat. You can’t take a train to Hawaii and the bridge from California to Hawaii isn’t completed yet.
Where to Stay in Hawaii
Other than in Honolulu, we’ve mostly stayed on the beach. We are Marriott Bonvoy cardholders and tend to use our Bonvoy points to stay at a Marriott. Also, we own a Marriott Vacation Club property, so we have traded to stay at many different Marriott Vacation Club properties on the different Hawaiian islands as well.
What We Did in Hawaii
We’ve visited Pearl Harbor, soaked in the sites on a helicopter, explored Kauai on ATV’s, sailed around the Na Pali Coast on a catamaran, gone whale watching, gone scuba diving, taken surfing and stand-up paddleboarding lessons, played golf, driven the road to Hana, hiked up Diamondhead for great views of Honolulu, saw the sunrise from 10,000 feet above sea level at Haleakala, rode a bike down from 10,000 feet to 230 feet above sea level in Paia, seen waterfalls, walked around Waikiki and have spent plenty of time lounging at the pool and the beach and enjoying all of the amazing views!
We haven’t done any hiking or kayaking, but maybe on our next trip. There are lots of options for these activities, we just haven’t made time for them yet.
Where to Eat in Hawaii
We’ve eaten at many great places during our trips. From food trucks to fine dining, we’ve had some delicious meals. Some of our favorites are Duke’s (which can be found on three of the four major islands), MonkeyPod Kitchen (Maui and Oahu), Mama’s Fish House, and Paia Fish Market (both on Maui), anywhere that serves Loco Moco and Smitty’s food truck on Kauai that had amazing burgers!