Hawaii – Visiting Paradise – The Intentional Travelers

Hawaii is a dream destination on many peoples bucket list. If this Pacific Paradise is on yours, what are you waiting for?

There are eight major islands in the Hawaiian archipelago so the first decision is which ones to visit? As a great introductory visit consider a cruise. Cruising is a perfect option as you are able to see several of the islands in one trip. An alternative is to select an island to visit and focus your planning on that one island, and Oahu is a popular first choice. Time is always a factor and there are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, so be sure to do research before making your final decision.

If you go with a cruise, only one company at present does weekly sailings around just Hawaii and that is Norwegian. They offer 7 night trips in and out of Oahu with stops usually on three additional islands. Alternatively, if you have around 14 nights available, you can sail round trip from several different California ports or even sail one way from Vancouver Canada*. The advantage to the one way sailing is that allows you to spend extra days on the island where the cruise begins or terminates and only pay for a one way airline ticket. With any of these options, you are likely to visit four or five different ports giving you the ability to do some exploring on your own to get to know the islands.

As part of your planning consider rental cars to get to see more. Cars are surprisingly inexpensive and because you’re still in the United States your insurance will cover you.

A major advantage to cruising is that you know many of the costs up front and you know you will have meals included along with a comfortable bed every night. You’ll also get sea days to relax and port days to see as little or as much as you want. You also have the option to try food and drinks ashore and see highlights in each port (don’t miss trips to volcanoes), and shop at local stores and galleries. Some ships also bring on board Hawaiian performers and craft instructors to teach you things like making leis or naturalists who lecture on whales and other things Hawaiian. The disadvantage to cruising Hawaii is that your time in port is limited so you may not get to all the highlights on particular islands.

If you decide to fly, you need to focus which island you want to visit. Roundtrip air can be pretty expensive and, if you want to visit more than one island, you will need additional inter island flights, also not cheap. Flying is the main transportation between islands as there is only one ferry service and it only connects Lahaina (Maui) and Lanai. Hotels are also fairly expensive as many of the hotels are beach resorts. Food is more costly than what you find on the mainland, especially in restaurants. If you don’t mind fast food, there are lots of options available to help keep costs down and Hawaii has some unique fast food offerings that are different. Because of the Asian influence you will see lots of sushi and noodle places and don’t pass up the food trucks, they are an institution and represent good value.

Once you get over how expensive Hawaii can be, having several days to explore a particular island is a plus. You can walk, ride public transportation or hail a taxi but if you want to do a lot of exploring, renting a car is the way to go. If you book in advance, rental cars are not expensive but you will need GPS either in the vehicle or on your phone. The islands are easily drivable but the long and unusual road names make navigation a bit of a challenge.

Whichever way you decide to visit Hawaii, plan your trip in advance so that you can get the most out of it. There is so much to see and do, it will be difficult deciding on priorities.