Things to do in Hawaii (besides drink on the beach)

I forgot to mention you should check out the Place of Refuge for some nice history, photo ops and snorkeling.

 

And you have to eat anyway - might as well pony up for one of those luau dinner shows at a hotel.

 

Thumbs up to the Road to Hana. The black sand beach is before you get to Hana next to a little village with about 20 letters in the name. At Hana, there is nothing. Keep going to Seven Pools and take some time to explore that area. Then keep going from there. Lindbergh's grave is out there. You drive through rain forest to get to Hana, then on the other side, it's like the surface of he moon. You can't circle the whole island because of private property and locked gates, but the road takes you back through the Upcountry.
Double thumbs up on the Trilogy trip. It's an awesome day and worth the expense. The crew's first duty it to learn everybody's name so they can address you by name throughout the day. You can take a van tour of the island or a 10-minute walk from the dock to the beach. If you take the tour, they bring you back to the beach. Homemade sweet rolls, coffee and fruit juice on the way over. BBQ lunch at the dock before departure. They try to get everybody involved in some sort of activity (snorkel, volleyball, etc.), but if you just want to lie on the beach, they'll leave you alone.
Mama's Fish House in funky Paia Town is excellent, but way too expensive. Lahaina is the party town.
If you can't have a good time in Maui, you probably can't have a good time.

 

eat lobster, drink Piña Coladas. At sunset, make love like sea otters.

 

Actually blogged about the top attractions on each island for our website:

Where To Visit On The Hawaiian Islands - Dream vacation experiences | Great Getaways

 

Just wanted to follow up on this. Got back about two hours ago (and I'm already back in the office). Missed you guys but not really.

I pretty much took all of bigpern's advice regarding Kona. Drove to South Point and the volcano in a Jeep with the top off. Grabbed dinner at the Kona Brewpup. Got breakfast at Bongo Ben's. Put my feet in the sand at Huggo's On the Rocks. All were amazing. Bigpern batted 1.000.

On Maui, I took the advice several gave, rented a Mustang convertible and did the Road to Hana. It was probably the highlight of the trip. Every turn was an amazing view, and there were cool little stands and marketplaces all over. There is a stand at Mile 17 called Halfway to Hana that sells the most amazing banana bread I've ever had. And the black sand beach right before hitting Hana was the most picturesque location of the entire trip. That was also a homerun.

And now for my word of advice/caution for anyone venturing to Maui. When we arrived, we were planning to take the south route to our hotel in Ka'anapali from the airport, but there was a major wreck along that route and it was shut down completely for hours. On this part of the island, there are only two routes to the resort-filled coast, the south route and the north route. Thinking we were smart, my girlfriend and I decided to take the north route. It was longer, but at least it was open, and maybe we'd get some great coastal views.

Little did we know that this route, known I believe as the Kahekili Highway, is one of the most hellacious driving experiences in the world. I read one article after the fact that called it the "Death Road of Maui." Not only is it nothing but hairpin turns on the edges of cliffs, but the road is also rarely two lanes wide. You either get 1.5 lanes or one lane. At every turn, you could easily be turning blindly into another car. We hit an insane traffic jam right before a two-mile stretch of one-lane road in a valley where cars were backed up for miles. We waited two hours to get past it, which required the help of locals in a nearby village to orchestrate all of the backing up and moving forward that had to occur. I seriously had never been so scared for my life while driving. Besides that, the views were amazing.

So that's my advice - avoide the nortern route of Maui at all costs. And eat the banana bread.

 

Ah, the northern route. Did it once, years ago, counterclockwise like you did. The fun part about that is the girlfriend in the passenger seat felt like she was hanging off the cliff. I felt a bit better being the driver - at least I was in the center/inside part of the road and felt in control. Anyway, it can be extremely scary for a passenger.

That said, there are some very picturesque spots along that route. I recall a house on a hill a bit off the road that must be awesome to live in - views all around.

 

UH Manoa Cartography Lab

 

Glad I could give some decent advice and even happier that you had a great trip. I can't wait to get back there someday, but in the meantime, I love talking about it, particularly the Big Island.

 

Ty, I'm really pissed at you.

I've had that Halfway banana bread...and now, I can't get it out of my mind. It really is amazing.

 

I saw a bumper sticker once that said: "I only shop at Bloomingdale's, Macy's and Hasegawa's".
(Hasegawa's is the cool general store in Hana that seems to have everything).

 

Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw in the Delmarva area:

"Everyone west of the Chesapeake Bay is a moron."