Must see in Kauai, Hawaii, Maui?

nycfan

nycfan

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About to head to Hawaii for the holidays — we’re doing a couple of nights in Honolulu before doing the cruise as a floating hotel approach to spend two days in each of Maui, Hawaii & Kauai.

Staying on the beach in Waikiki and will probably spend Thursday night sleeping after the long trip and Friday adjusting to the time zone. I do have us on a boat to view Waikiki and fireworks at night. We’re renting a car in Maui and Kauai, so have a lot of flexibility (subject to weather). Doing cruise excursions to Volcano National Park and Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

I’ve been to and driven all over Kauai once before, but that was nearly 30 years ago. We will definitely be back to canyon and TBD on a boat around the Na Pali Coast — it is stunning but the seas are rough and right now might be too rough the two days we are there.

Anyway, any suggestions on must see things in Maui, Kauai, Hawaii or Honolulu?

Fair warning, my son is going through college student let’s not exploit anyone White Lotus reaction and he doesn’t like to snorkel. My husband suffers vertigo. Sooooo I won’t get to be nearly as adventurous as back when we hiked and kayaked all over Kauai back in the day (when we spent a week there on the cheap due to relatively recent hurricane damage and cheap airfare).
 
nycfan said:
About to head to Hawaii for the holidays — we’re doing a couple of nights in Honolulu before doing the cruise as a floating hotel approach to spend two days in each of Maui, Hawaii & Kauai.

Staying on the beach in Waikiki and will probably spend Thursday night sleeping after the long trip and Friday adjusting to the time zone. I do have us on a boat to view Waikiki and fireworks at night. We’re renting a car in Maui and Kauai, so have a lot of flexibility (subject to weather). Doing cruise excursions to Volcano National Park and Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

I’ve been to and driven all over Kauai once before, but that was nearly 30 years ago. We will definitely be back to canyon and TBD on a boat around the Na Pali Coast — it is stunning but the seas are rough and right now might be too rough the two days we are there.

Anyway, any suggestions on must see things in Maui, Kauai, Hawaii or Honolulu?

Fair warning, my son is going through college student let’s not exploit anyone White Lotus reaction and he doesn’t like to snorkel. My husband suffers vertigo. Sooooo I won’t get to be nearly as adventurous as back when we hiked and kayaked all over Kauai back in the day (when we spent a week there on the cheap due to relatively recent hurricane damage and cheap airfare).
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How does your crew deal with windy roads? Road to Hana is excellent if you are willing to take it slow and make lots of stops along the way for short hikes.
 
Calheel said:
How does your crew deal with windy roads? Road to Hana is excellent if you are willing to take it slow and make lots of stops along the way for short hikes.
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We drive winding roads in the NC mountains regularly. I definitely want to do that, trying to figure out if we should do it in first day when we can’t start the drive until later morning after cruise docks or day two when we can’t start start as early as I can roust my son out of bed but need to be back to the ship by 4 pm. From what I’ve read an early start might be better but I could do different parts on both days, I guess.
 
If you have a car in Waikiki the H-3 is pretty cool. Think of it as a Blue Ridge Parkway Linn Cove Viaduct on steroids.

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NCK9 said:
If you have a car in Waikiki the H-3 is pretty cool. Think of it as a Blue Ridge Parkway Linn Cove Viaduct on steroids.

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And if you are there over Christmas, you can take the H-3 to Kailua, get some shaved ice, and maybe run into Barack and Michelle.
 
nycfan said:
We drive winding roads in the NC mountains regularly. I definitely want to do that, trying to figure out if we should do it in first day when we can’t start the drive until later morning after cruise docks or day two when we can’t start start as early as I can roust my son out of bed but need to be back to the ship by 4 pm. From what I’ve read an early start might be better but I could do different parts on both days, I guess.
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I would go with option 1. I would not want a hard stop on the Road to Hana because it would be stressful being behind slow cars trying to make it back by a hard deadline. It is not easy to break the road into 2 days, since it is really only accessible in one direction. I guess you could take some side trips on day 1 and then take different side trips on day 2, but you would be spending an awful lot of your Maui time retracing steps on the same, windy road.

I think better to get a late start and then see how everyone feels in terms of how far to go. There is absolutely no need to go all the way to Hana. There is nothing particularly special about Hana. You can turn around on any portion of the road. That is very much about the journey and not the destination.
 
North Shore on Oahu. Check on the surfer dudes and dudettes. DO NOT even consider venturing into the water there. Currents are too strong.
Or, much closer to Waikiki is Pearl Harbor, which is of course worth doing.
Say hey to Magnum and Higgins for us.
 
IllegalMotion9999 said:
North Shore on Oahu. Check on the surfer dudes and dudettes. DO NOT even consider venturing into the water there. Currents are too strong.
Or, much closer to Waikiki is Pearl Harbor, which is of course worth doing.
Say hey to Magnum and Higgins for us.
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If you want to see the Arizona, you need to make reservations in advance -- especially around Christmas. But it is pretty easy to get on the Missouri, which has a good view of the Arizona and gives you about 90% of the experience.
 
We did a helicopter tour in Kauai, I enjoyed it immensely. Of course, I'd love to go up in a helicopter pretty much anywhere just to look around, but it was especially captivating in Kauai. Evidently the area atop the mountains there is classified as rainforest, very cool seeing it all from above (lots of waterfalls and such too). Our tour included no doors on the copter, which I really liked (we were strapped in real tight) so you could really see everything out and below. Felt like flying...
 
hedge said:
We did a helicopter tour in Kauai, I enjoyed it immensely. Of course, I'd love to go up in a helicopter pretty much anywhere just to look around, but it was especially captivating in Kauai. Evidently the area atop the mountains there is classified as rainforest, very cool seeing it all from above (lots of waterfalls and such too). Our tour included no doors on the copter, which I really liked (we were strapped in real tight) so you could really see everything out and below. Felt like flying...
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Yeah, I’ll never get my husband on a helicopter. I suggested it for Maui and got a firm never in a million years. Vertigo and related fear of heights.
 
BubbaOtis said:
I think the volcano on the Big Island is active now. Don't know how close they'll let you get to it....
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It is and agree, not sure, but we’ll find out. I definitely don’t want to have my end be dissolving in lava.
 
The highlight of our trip to Maui was the road to Hana in a Jeep with scenic stops along the way. We visited the red sand and black sand beaches and overnighted at Hana Ranch. The following day we drove south and back around the island visiting the Seven Sisters and following the rugged south coast and into a hilly farming area, all of which was lovely and unique.

This wouldn’t work if you have to return to the ship each night. In that case I would stick with daily excursions that intrigue. The trip to Haleakala was amazing at dawn and can include a drop to the top and bicycle down if you’re adventurous. Finding non-aquatic options could be a challenge given the limitations.
 
Have you seen the movie A Perfect Getaway? It's largely filmed on the wilderness trail on the north side of Kauai. Good movie, too...
 
The Tunnel of Trees was a photo op on Kauai when we wee there forty years ago. I think it got hammered a few years later but has hopefully recovered.
The guide book "Hidden Hawaii" by Riegert was a great help for us, but it looks like it hasn't been updated since 1992. I'd recommend picking up a used copy of a later, well reviewed guide book on Amazon or check AAA if you're a member.

For car travel the Gypsy GPS guided audio tours are great. They served us well in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons.
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