My wife and I took our fifth anniversary vacation in Hawaii, and if you don't want to read what follows, suffice it to say we had a great time and are looking forward to returning.
We took a packaged tour through Pleasant Hawaiian. I'm glad we did, since this was our first trip to Hawaii. Pleasant gave us introductions at both islands, and included some useful coupons for the typical things a first-time visitor does. No one ever mentions how much they paid for their vacations, but I think it's important to say that Hawaii is very expensive. Goods and food are 20-100% more expensive there than here in Oregon. Our typical dinner was $55 for two; it adds up fast. Our trip cost about $2900 for an eight-night, two-island stay including air from PDX, hotels, tours, food, etc.
We arrived in Honolulu in the afternoon. Our flight left PDX in the early morning, and with a one-hour layover in SFO, that made for a long day of traveling. I think flight time SFO-HON is 5.5 hours. We stayed at the Outrigger Reef based on our travel agent's recommendation. We had a "city view" (of the McDonalds across the street) from our second story room. We didn't mind, since we probably spent less than one non-sleeping hour in the room a day. There's LOTS to do on Oahu (FYI: Waikiki is the beach, in Honolulu, on Oahu), and we saved money not having an ocean view. We liked the hotel. It's huge, but it's right on the best beach area in Waikiki.
I was amazed at the cultural diversity. I've never seen such a mix in any other area. According to a pie chart I saw, 35% are Japanese, 30% are Caucasian, 20% Hawaiian, and then tons of others.
We toured the Dole Pineapple factory. A must see. Great samples. Go to Hilo Haties if you want a muu-muu (ugly Hawaiian flowery dress), but otherwise stay away. Take the 50 cent Pineapple Express bus trip to Ala Moana shopping center. It's huge, and has everything from Woolworth (a K-Mart type) to Gucci and Chanel. I was amazed at the number of incredibly-overpriced stores, and the only people in them were Japanese.
Right across from the shopping center is Ala Moana park. It's very big and is the place to go to get away from the hussle and crowds on Waikiki. It'd be good for a barbecue, but I forgot to pack my charcoal.
There's a whole lot of skin cancer goin' on in Hawaii. Some of the "beautiful people" would be at the same spot on the beach every day, from 8 am to 8 pm.
We took the #20 bus to Pearl Harbor. Don't bother taking a packaged bus tour. It'll cost you $15, whereas the public bus gets you there in the same amount of time and only costs $0.50. It's a 55 minute ride from Waikiki to PH. Take the free tour and boat ride out to the Arizona Memorial. I felt kinda strange there. About half the people there were Japanese, and in case you forgot, that's who bombed us in 1941.
We took a package tour to the Polynesian Cultural Center, way on the other side of Oahu. It costs $66 per person. Our bus driver was great, very funny yet educational, and proud of his Hawaiian heritage. The only part I liked about the Center was the Samoan area. One of the guys there was incredibly funny. I overheard a tourist say "If I could get that guy in my NY nightclub, he could make $1M/yr easily." The rest of the Center was okay, and the dinner was more of a Kings Table food orgy than the traditional roast pig, etc. The night show (with fire, etc.) was pretty neat, but my wife liked it a lot more than I did.
Make sure you are in Honolulu over a weekend. It's got a happenin' nightlife. Partying goes on into the wee hours. That is, if you like that kind of stuff. We retired early.
There's tons of money in Honolulu. The Japanese own 60% of Waikiki, and they drop $300 a day when on vacation there, as opposed to $100 for 'mericans. For you car buffs, I saw lots of Mercedes S-class, Bimmers, Lexi, a Ferrari or three (including a white Testarossa for rent!), and Porches (sic). The typical 2 bedroom apartment goes for $1K/mo, and my $85K Oregon house would be worth about $450K there!
We took the #22 bus (50 minute ride) to Hanauma Bay for snorkling. Rent the gear there, and plan a whole day there. It's neat, with a huge coral reef, but kinda crowded.
We had dinner at the Tratoria Italian place near the Reef. Not too exciting. The next night, we ate at Buzz's, also near the Reef. Again, nothing to write home about. We had a breakfast buffet at the Reef for $7/pp. Pretty good. We had a dinner at the Outrigger Waikiki. It's right on the beach, with a great view. Good food but inattentive service. Worth it just for the location.
Almost all the restaurants have a buffet option for all meals. You've gotta watch it or you won't be fitting into your pants when you get back home. Trust me on this one.
Try some "apple bananas." They're small, sweet tasting bananas. And by all means bring home as many pineapples as possible. Ours was great.
After four days in Honolulu, we took an inter-island to Kauai. Even though it's only a 30 minute flight, it took us 6 hours from check-out to check-in, because of all the transfers, waiting, etc. A car is necessary in Kauai. (But if they'd just put in a single light-rail system all the way around the island, they wouldn't need a single car. All the businesses, hotels, etc. are right off the circle drive around the island.) We got a Geo Metro tin can (I mean car) with a whopping 1.5 liter 3 cylinder engine. But it was certainly adequate, and given the $1.50/gallon gas price, economical. We got about 32 MPG, and I had the thing floored (literally) about half the time. Dollar really tried to push a bigger car on us (I'm 6'4"), or a convertible. I'm glad we stuck with the Metro. It was plenty big, and I wanted to be OUT of the sun while driving, so a convertible would have been useless. The only thing I missed was a trunk. The Metro doesn't have a cargo cover, so you have to take everything with you, if you don't want it stolen. It had a good AC.
We borrowed a copy of "Kauai: A Paradise Guide" by Don and Bea Donohugh from our travel agent. It is quite complete, but our copy was four years old, so it was a bit out of date, given how fast Kauai is changing. There are some neat shops in the Poipu and Koala areas.
We stayed at the Sheraton Kauai, which is in the Poipu (southern) area. I'd recommend staying in Poipu, since it's much more sunny than the other hotel areas on the east and north sides. The Sheraton sprawls, since buildings are limited to four stories on Kauai. We were a 10 minute walk from the beach. The Sheraton had probably the nicest beach area. The garden view room was nice. The hotel was reconstructing the cabana and registration areas, so it was kinda messy.
Our Pleasant orientation (with free continental breakfast!) on Kauai was at the Kilohana ranch. We drove around the area and saw the waterfall from Fantasy Island, the Westin Kauai, and then drove up the east and north coasts to Princeville. Make sure you take bug repellent. I didn't and was scratching for days at the 25 mosquito bites I got in 10 minutes at the Princeville beach.
While we were sunbathing on Poipu beach, a Hawaiian Monk Seal "beached" itself. There were two uniformed guys who quickly ran out and put up police lines around it and posted a sign. I guess the seals do this all the time after eating a full meal. They sun themselves for the day while digesting their food. They've become endangered, so the guys made sure people stayed away. The seal was oblivious to the crowds that gathered behind the lines. It was huge.
I really agree with maverick@vaxkab.lne.kth.se, who posted a message in May saying:
> Lucky ones that have bought a place on Kauai. The island is soooooo
> beautiful. But I think it hurts so badly when you see what is going to
> happen with the island. The Japanese will build an international airport
> so that their huge jumbo jets can land and all Japanese can play golf
> on all the uncountable numbers of golf courses they are building and
> projecting. Also they will live in these big awful hotels that they are
> constructing. I'm afraid that the paradise that Kauai, together with the
> rest of Hawaii, is might disappear shortly if nothing drastic is
> done now. But these are just my own reflections from my visit there.
I couldn't believe the number of "planned residential communities" that were springing up. 50 lots here, 80 lots there. I guess I can't blame people. Kauai is very beautiful, and if I had the money, I'd probably want to retire or have a summer home there too. But once again overpopulation is ruining a pristine natural area.
Kauai weather was sun one moment, clouds the next. Mostly the temps were 80-85 'F. It ended up raining some days for about an hour. But it was still plenty nice enough for sunbathing.
We ate at the Plantation Gardens restaurant twice. It was tasty. Neat botanical gardens on the grounds. Great Hula Pie dessert. Near Princeville, we had a good Mexican dinner at Norberto's El Cafe. Charo's looked nice too. Back in Poipu, we had a great steak and crab dinner at Kieoki's Paradise.
I much preferred the Hyatt over the Westin on Kauai, even though I stayed at neither and didn't get to see in either of the hotel's rooms. The Hyatt's grounds were beautiful, and breakfast there was great. I overheard someone say they transferred from the Westin to the Hyatt because the people were so snobby at the Westin. I didn't like the Westin's grounds, except for the great swimming pool. It was very ostentatious.
The Hyatt has another thing going for it: It's near Poipu beach, a nicer area than the more cloudy Westin area on the East side. However, the Westin actually has a hotel-front beach, whereas the Hyatt requires a 5 minute trip.
Anyway, both the Westin and the Hyatt cost mucho buckos.
My wife took a helicopter tour (with Papillon) of Kauai. It lasted 55 minutes, cost $130, and circled the island. She really enjoyed it but probably wouldn't take another.
We took a 3 hour tour of the Pacific Botanical Gardens ($15/pp). Although I'm not into plants, I enjoyed it. We saw the setting where they filmed South Pacific; very spectacular. From there, we traveled up the west coast to the Waimea Canyon. Wow. This puts the Grand Canyon to shame. Even though it's not quite as big, it has lush tropical greenery everywhere. You've gotta see it. We also went to the end of the road near Mt Waialeale, the wettest spot on earth with 450" of rain a year. Our orientation person warned us that if the mist obscured the view of the Na Pali coast we should just wait a while, and sure enough, after 30 minutes of staring into solid mist, the mist broke and we could see much of the coastline. Definitely worth the wait. We could also see some small four-legged animals climbing around the cliffs, and there was a bird sanctuary nearby with thousands of birds soaring around the cliffs.
On our last day, we were supposed to take a 6 pm flight to Honolulu and a 9 pm flight to SFO. But since our car was due back at noon, we got on an earlier flight back to Honolulu (it's open seating, so Aloha Air is flexible about this), and had an extra 8 hours to spend in Waikiki. That was a good decision, rather than sitting around the Lihue (Kauai) airport all afternoon.
The redeye flight to SFO was a killer. I only slept one hour. I was wiped out two days after getting back because of the jet lag.
As you can see, I ran out of different adjectives to describe Kauai. If you're going to the islands, make sure you go there. In retrospect, we decided we chose the perfect itinerary: 4 days on bustling Oahu, then 4 days on tranquil Kauai.
I want to thank the many people who have posted to rec.travel over the last few years, telling about their experiences with Hawaii. We picked up about the same number of tips from those postings as we did from the travel books we borrowed.
I'd recommend you try to learn the Hawaiian language. It's very easy.
Although I've mentioned the Japanese an inordinate amount, I have nothing against them. But I am very concerned that the overdevelopment of Hawaii (mostly be the Japanese, according to the real estate reports I read) will ruin it. Since they have all the money, I guess that means they make the rules. It's sad.
After being to Mexico three times, and most recently to Hawaii, I'll probably not go back to Mexico for quite some time, and instead save my pennies for Hawaii. It's cleaner, safer, more lush, has drinkable water, more stuff to do, speaks 'Merican, has just as nice beaches, and has the old stand-by fast food joints for when you want a quick, relatively cheap lunch. But it will be a while before I save that many pennies again.
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Jim Battan - Sequent Computer Systems, Beaverton, OR
battan@sequent.com or uunet!sequent!battan
+1 503 578 5129
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