HAWAII 2004
What we did and what we recommend you do when you visit the
Islands of HAWAII.
Quick links --- OAHU THE
BIG ISLAND MAUI
HONEYMOON – Ahhhhh,
HAWAII!!!
Just the name alone conjures up images of a pristine tropical paradise; white
sand beaches, palm trees, and crystal blue ocean waters. What better place for a honeymoon could there
be? None we could find, and so decided
Hawaii
was the destination where we would celebrate the first 2 weeks of our
marriage. We were not disappointed one
bit, Hawaii was everything we’ve
heard about, read about, and dreamed about.
A few things to keep in mind as you read through this itinerary: we were
in Hawaii in early April, we went
all out for this one (and it was worth every penny), we like active vacations,
and we wanted to see 3 islands in one 14 day trip. We tried to use a travel agent to book our
trip but that didn’t work out and I ended up doing it all online or over the
phone. In hind sight I recommend the
online approach, we saved tons of cash this way. Hawaii
is incredibly diverse in what it has to offer, you’re sure never to get
bored. And when it’s time for some rest
and relaxation, head to your own beach front cabana where the finest personal
service in the world is waiting. All in all Hawaii
was the best trip I have ever been on by far. (and I’m not saying that just
because it was our Honeymoon, this place really is paradise!)
SCUBA Diving - We dove in both the Big
Island and Maui. The Big
Island was by far the better of the
two. In fact I would almost recommend
you not dive in Maui unless you do the crater during
good visibility. All of the other sites
we went to in Maui were nothing great to write home
about. Now, the
Big
Island was a different matter all
together. I definitely recommend you
dive here; there are lots of excellent dive spots. The best spot/dive I have ever been on was
here at garden eels, a night dive with the manta rays! What an incredible experience for both divers
and snorkelers alike. You rest at the
bottom in about 35ft of water and shine your light up towards the surface. The phosphorescent plankton attracted to
light start to swarm around you and then out of the blackness, at the edge of
your vision, appears a HUGE Manta Ray gliding in to feed. The largest member of the ray family, the
manta looks like a giant bat. Soon more
than a dozen of these mammoth creatures are gliding around us, sometimes
bumping into each other and us, as they go into a feeding frenzy. The manta rays glide literally inches above
your head and allow you to touch their underbellies as they pass. Their gentle nature and graceful movements
deceive their size. The beautiful rays
vary in size and weight, but on average are 14ft in length, have a wing span of
over 18ft, and weight in at around 2500lbs!
That’s more than my car weighs!
My whole head, and body for that matter, could have fit into their huge
open mouths. They feed kind of like
whales do; they open their mouths wide, capture the plankton, and then filter
the water out their bottom gills. This
experience was surreal, the whole time I was awed by the majesty and grace of
these alien looking creatures. I just
wish I had more air!
Other dive sites
worth visiting on The
Big Island are Golden eels, tarapin
station, and golden arches. At these sites we saw hawks bill turtles, white
tipped reef sharks, spotted and green moray eels, Christmas tree worms, hermit
crabs, trumpet fish, spotted scorpion fish, and a couple octopus sleeping. The coral was in great shape all around and
the fish life was abundant. And check
this out, since it was still whale season, we could hear the humpbacks singing
while we were underwater! Talk about
incredible, it doesn’t get better than this! (except for actually seeing the
whale underwater I guess J) Water temps
were a refreshing 77 degrees with visibility of 90+ ft. Maximum depth for most dives was just shy of
70ft.
We dove with Jack’s Diving Locker in
Kailua-Kona 800-345-4807. I highly
recommend them, they run a top notch outfit.
Dive sites worth
visiting in Maui,
well there is really only one, the Molokini Crater. We did both the backside wall dive and the
reefs end sites here. The reefs end is a
drift dive with currents of 3-4knots.
This is a very busy site for both scuba and snorkelers. The wall dive was the best, it drops off to
400+ft. You get that neat spacewalk like feeling as your suspended in the water
looking down into the abyss below. We
could hear the whales here as well and even saw 2 of them topside as we
returned home. Beautiful! My advice would be to skip the other sites in
Maui, like the cathedrals, not worth it.
In Maui, we dove with Lahaina Divers. They had nice boats and friendly enough
service, but the boats were cramped and it is not a full service dive op, you
do all of the heavy lifting and gear setup.
Look elsewhere if you want to be pampered.
Interesting Facts – There are less than 100 fully pure
blood Hawaiians left in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands are still growing via
active volcanoes.
OAHU
3 Nights in
Waikiki
Beach
Quick Links: Restaurants Lodging Shopping stuff to do transportation tips
Restaurants – Talk about variety! Waikiki has a
restaurant selection that rivals NYC.
The first night we went to Lau Yee Chai, a Chinese restaurant
walking distance from our hotel. We had
the peking duck which was excellent.
Keep in mind that this is an authentic Chinese restaurant and this is
reflected in the menu which is heavy on the fish. This restaurant is on the top floor of the Waikiki
shopping center. The meals are
inexpensive with good quality. The
second night we stayed in the hotel and went to Orchids, an excellent seafood
restaurant with some of Oahu’s best views. Now this is fine dinning at its finest! Orchids offers views as spectacular as any
you have seen, day or night. The oceanfront setting is accompanied by splendid
and creative seafood specialties. Orchid’s panoramic view of Diamond
Head and Waikiki
Beach
are the stuff of postcards. The food
here was superb, the service flawless, and the deserts mouthwatering! For a high roller dinning experience it would
be hard to beat Orchids. Our last night we had a craving for some spicy
food. Our concierge recommended the
Singha, a very nice Thai restaurant also walking distance from our hotel. The food here was awesome! They have live entertainment in the form of
several graceful Thai dancing girls performing while you eat. The Singha has many Thai artifacts and
tropical plants throughout. This
restaurant is consistently rated best Thai in Hawaii,
some say in the world. We couldn’t agree
more. Prices are very reasonable and
dress is business casual. We had daily
breakfast included in our package at the Halekulani. Each morning we would wander down to the
“House without a Key” restaurant where we were greeted, by name, and seated at
our beachfront table near the century-old Kiawe tree. The buffet and service were both
excellent. They have some of the best
fresh fruit and baked good going. If you
stay at the Halekulani I highly recommend you get the breakfast package.
Lodging – We
stayed at the Halekulani Resort in Waikiki
Beach. Halekulani translates as
"House Befitting Heaven" and the translation says it all. It was selected the number-one hotel on the
island in 2003 by every top travel magazine and publication you can think of: Condé
Nast Traveler, Travel and Leisure, Zagat's Top US Hotels, Resorts and
spas, and so on. We were absolutely
blown away by this place! We have both
stayed at some very nice hotels before this one, but I have to say Halekulani
stands apart, far apart. Everything
about this resort says each guest is treated like a VIP big shot. Starting with a very private check-in where
you are greeted by a receptionist who escorts you to your room for a private
registration. Then ending with the
stretch limo service to the airport, which is at the cost of a regular cab ride
for their guests. This resort treats
you like a VIP. Complimentary Champagne,
fresh chocolate covered strawberries and assorted fruits were prearranged on
our coffee table with a personalized card congratulating us on our honeymoon. Our room was very large and lavish for a
partial ocean view room. We had an
incredible view of the pool, diamond head, and Waikiki
beach from our private lanais. We had a
better view than some of the ocean view rooms did! The service was A+, right from arrival to
departure everyone addressed us as Mr. and Mrs. Heary. Even the staff you don’t expect, like
housekeeping, bell staff, wait staff, and pool attendants addressed us like
visiting VIPs. The pool at Halekulani
was very nice with oversize pool towels.
Our only complaint was that it closed at 6pm
every night. It would have made a
perfect moonlit swimming spot. The
resort is of course right on a great stretch of Waikiki
beach with a stunning view of diamond head in the distance. The beach was impeccably maintained. The
central location of Halekulani made shopping, eating, and site seeing a
breeze. As for the restaurants, see the
restaurants section above. Overall this
is the best hotel we have ever stayed at and recommend it even given its hefty
price (it IS worth it). We will never
forget our experience at the “house befitting heaven”.
Shopping – The excellent location of our hotel gave us
walking distance access to 3 of the top shopping centers in Waikiki.
Everything from high end boutiques to tourist shops were
everywhere. Every night we picked up a
fresh orchid & tuberose Lei for Becca, they smelled awesome. We did a lot of window shopping and picked up
a few tourist trinkets but nothing big.
Other cool stuff to do and places to visit – The list is long of things to do on Oahu and we only had 2 full days here. We had to prioritize. We did Pearl Harbor in the morning and
Hanama Bay in the afternoon. I would recommend this plan of attack for
others. It worked out great. Pearl Harbor
is a definite must see. We did both the
Battleship USS Arizona Memorial and the Battleship USS Missouri tours.
A very moving experience and one I will not soon forget. We then ventured on to
Hanama Bay for snorkeling. We had heard much hype about this place and
were sadly disappointed in the underwater scenery. As for the Bay itself topside, it is
incredible! A huge volcanic crater with
steep lush green sides dropping sharply into the Hawaiian blue waters where there
is a golden beach that lines the edges.
The views are spectacular as you walk down the twisty pathway to the
beach below. It was pretty crowded the
day we went, mostly tourists. Under the
water, the bay was pretty lifeless. The
lack of abundant fish life was surprising given what we had heard prior. The coral reefs were in major need of help
with most of the coral dead or dying from being walked on, kicked, and
otherwise abused by snorkelers. We saw
tons of people just standing on this fragile coral, PLEASE don’t be one of
those guys. I would say that if you are
a scuba diver then skip Hanama Bay for snorkeling you’ll probably be
disappointed, if you are less experienced with underwater scenery then it is
probably worth the trip. But regardless
it is a nice place to hang out and relax on the beach.
Just walking down Waikiki beach for as far as you care to is worth a
good part of any nice day, and that is exactly what we did. It makes a great walk down the beach to the
Honolulu Aquarium and back. We were
really impressed with the aquarium here; they do a good job of showing off the
native species. We left very well informed about the fish and creatures that
live in the Hawaiian waters.
Transportation Tips - We flew
into the Honolulu Airport
and did not rent a car. The cab ride to
our hotel was about 25 minutes and cost about $28. We did rent a car for a day at the hotel for
our trip to Pearl Harbor and Hanama
Bay. Given our hotels location we didn’t need a
car any of the other days. If you were
staying in Oahu for more than just a couple days, then
it might make sense to rent one for the duration. Just make sure you have free parking at your
hotel or that could be a huge expense.
Again because of our hotels excellent location our main transportation
was our 2 feet, we were able to walk to most everything in Waikiki. We flew Aloha Air to the
Big
Island, remember to get their a
little early because it is first come first serve for seating. The plane was a jet not a prop puddle jumper,
so don’t worry about that. Overall I
would recommend Aloha over Hawaiian Air.
We had a couple missteps with Hawaiian Air, changed flight times and
direct flight changed to non-direct flight.
The BIG ISLAND
5 nights on The Big Island of
Hawaii
Quick Links: Restaurants Lodging Shopping stuff to do transportation tips
Restaurants – Unlike Oahu,
the Big Island’s
restaurant choices are slim outside of Kona and mainly consist of in resort
choices. The one excellent exception is Merriman’s in Kamuela/Waimea. The food here was delicious, the atmosphere
somewhere between semi-casual and dressy.
Considered by many to be the birthplace of Hawaiian regional cuisine,
Merriman’s offers fresh local seafood and local ranch meats done in sauces
bursting with flavor. Our favorites were
the Asian fusion dishes like Prime NY steak with a szechuan rub and Kahua ranch
naturally raised rack of lamb. I have to
say the lamb is awesome!
We drove our car completely around the Island
and found, not far from Volcano
National
Park, a really tasty Thai Restaurant aptly named Thai Thai Restaurant. It had a good kick to it! I would recommend the beef spicy basil, pad
thai, and panang curry. If you are going
to Volcano National
Park, this is worth the stop on your way
out. It is located right in
Volcano
Village so you can’t miss it.
There are several restaurants in Kona
Village, we had lunch at Bubba
Gump’s and it was fun and good. The
pails of assorted fresh seafood are good.
We did lunch at Roy’s
restaurant. Excellent food, highly recommended. Roy’s
is located in King’s shops so it makes for a good shopping/lunch outing.
We found the restaurants at our hotel to be way over priced
with pretty blah menus so we skipped them.
Except for the breakfast buffet, this was included. Comparing it to the awesome buffet at the
Halekulani, we were very disappointed in it.
They didn’t even have an omelet chef.
The food was of both poor quality and selection. Their service was atrocious, slow, and
generally very cheap all-inclusive like.
And they reminded you that the service sucked every morning when you
left the restaurant, walked right by the hostess station, and nobody ever said
thank you, or enjoy your day to us. NOT
acceptable at a Marriott Courtyard, let alone a $300 per night resort! We recommend you skip it.
Lodging – We stayed at the Mauna Lani Bay Resort. It is a massive place complete with 2 golf
courses, tons of historical fish ponds, several hotel buildings, and more on
their 3200 Acres of lush tropical and volcanic grounds. We were happily upgraded to an Oceanview
Suite that was very large, complete with a full living room. The bathroom was bigger than my master bath
at home! We had a nice view of the ocean
and the fish ponds with waterfalls. The grounds were meticulously kept and the
2 beaches were very clean. The blue
beach cabanas were great, couldn’t think of a better way to relax by the
ocean. We had one spa treatment
included in our package so we indulged in a couples massage in our own private
hale, or outdoor garden hut. It was
first class all the way! The service
here overall was sub-par. As I wrote
about above, the restaurant service was terrible 5 days in a row. Overall we didn’t feel like VIPs, like at
Halekulani, so we suffered some culture shock at first. The staff was not as friendly or outgoing,
and suffered from a general apathetic attitude.
Maybe they all just need raises!J I could go on but wont. This is a very nice resort but not a world
class resort and ended up the least favorite resort we stayed at. The island, however, was by far our most
favorite with all it has to offer for adventure! So given the price, a better value could be
had at the 4 seasons down the road. If
Mauna Lani ever fixes their service then it would be a fantastic place to
stay. To sum up, I would not recommended
Mauna Lani unless you get a great deal (i.e. less than $300/nt).
Shopping – We did some shopping at the very nice king’s lake shops down the road
from our hotel. All sorts of nice things
to buy. We mostly window shopped though.
The best shopping is found in Kona although we skipped it due to lack of
interest.
Other cool stuff to do and places to visit – Where do I begin? The Big Island offers so much in the way of adventure
you’ll be hard pressed to fit everything in.
Trust me, we tried and it wiped us out.
Well first the must do’s:
Volcano National Park, Mauna Kea
star gazing, Scuba or Snorkeling with the Manta Rays at night (see the scuba section above), and a Kayak/Cave jumping/snorkeling
coastal adventure! Other really neat
things to do while here: scuba diving,
nature walks in Waipio
Valley, "the land of the falling water",
visit to Hilo and rainbow falls on the other side of the
island, an easy hike through Akaka Falls State Park, and a drive around the island stopping at
the lookouts and small towns along the way.
Our sunset and
stargazing trip up the 14,000ft mountain of Mauna Kea was breathtaking. Mauna Kea is
snow capped year round, and even has ski/snowboard slopes, we could see the ski
tracks as we ascended. The temperatures
at altitude on our trip were about 5 degrees below freezing. Not to be worried, our outfitter had cozy
down winter parkas and ski gloves for all.
The ride to the summit is via a steep, 4X4 only, dirt road. The views going up were spectacular, you
could see all the way to Hilo. We drove through some thin cloud
banks on our way up, once we popped through the full moon was just cresting the
summit. It was the biggest moon I have ever seen. The summit is dotted with
modern observatories everywhere set on a very
mars like landscape. As the sun
sets, and night approaches, you begin to hear the mechanical whine of their
huge protective doors opening, exposing the massive telescopes hidden
inside. Time on these telescopes costs
around a dollar per second, now that’s expensive! The reason is these all digital behemoths are
situated in the cleanest air mass at the greatest elevation found on Earth,
Mauna Kea Summit. We parked at the
summit and viewed the best sunset ever.
After checking out the sunset and observatories, from the outside only L, we headed down to slightly warmer elevation and setup our own 2
telescopes. Our guides, experts in
astronomy, took us on a 2hr journey through the stars. From here you can see both the northern and
southern hemispheres due to Mauna Kea’s
close proximity to the equator. It was
neat being able to see stars and constellations I can’t see from home. Here is a link to a great write up on Mauna Kea by Outside Online. We arranged our tour with Mauna Kea Summit Adventures. They are the original and absolute best
outfitter on the island. We got to see the others while on our trip and they
didn’t compare. Everything was done top
notch and our guides were extremely knowledgeable about the
Big Island, Mauna Kea,
and astronomy. The trip starts with a long, but fascinating drive to the
mountain. They drive the rustic and
infamous saddle road, which was off-limits to my jeep because it voids your
rental agreement, to the mountain. It is
an interesting road for intrepid travelers, with its close-up views of the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes and the lava fields covering the
"saddle" between the two.
Overall I highly recommend this trip to everyone. It is a must do for sure!
For our kayaking
shore excursion we went with Kona’s Ultimate Adventure. They had great gear, guides, and food. The trip includes kayaking along the volcanic
rock shoreline and stopping to explore some water caves. We ran into a pod of spinner dolphins along
the way, they were jumping and spinning just like at sea world J. They swam right next to my
kayak, just like the post cards show! We
went cliff diving, snorkeling, and it included a shore picnic. We highly recommend you take this adventure,
it rocks!
Our trip to Volcano
national park was surreal. Their lava
landscapes are other worldly. You go
from desert, to jungle, to lava fields in the span of a couple miles. Unfortunately, when we where there none of
the lava flows were active. We did hike
up a hill and were able to peer down into a lava cauldron from afar. To do the park justice you need a good half
day, so plan accordingly. All of the
spots are interesting but the Thurston lava tubes and Kilauea Caldera were our
favorites.
We definitely
recommend you visit Volcano
National Park, a trip to the
Big Island would be a waste otherwise.
Transportation Tips - We
rented a much needed Jeep for the week. I
would definitely recommend you step up to the Jeep Wrangler. It was tons of fun driving around the island
with it open, and the four wheel drive came in handy too. You will absolutely want to rent a car on
this island, things are very spread out.
MAUI
(coming
soon)
5 nights on Maui
Quick Links: Restaurants Lodging Shopping stuff to do transportation tips
Restaurants –
Lodging –
Shopping –
Other cool stuff to do and places to visit –
Transportation Tips -
Click here to view our honeymoon Pictures from Hawaii!
Click here to view our honeymoon video
from Hawaii!
Have Fun!
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Last
updated: October 17, 2004