Hawaii Honeymoon - Recommendations?

Mkincaid2014

Hi ladies!  My fiance and I finally decided on Hawaii for our honeymoon after our Oct 18 wedding.  (I offered Oktoberfest in Bavaria as an option, but it was surprisingly turned down.)  My job situation is a little iffy right now, so we're looking at only 10 days versus two full weeks as we had originally wanted.  Do any of you have any recommendations of places to stay, things to do, how many islands we should do, etc.?  Neither of us have been there before. 

Based on our admittedly limited research, this is what we want to see:
- Maui (hoping to do a nice resort here and go to the beach quite a bit)
- Volcanoes
- Observatory on the Big Island
- Pearl Harbor
- Snorkeling
- Luau

I know this would involve quite a bit of island hopping.  Is this doable in 10 days for under $6k flying from the east coast?  We have our first meeting with a travel agent on Saturday morning, but I'd like to have my expectations in check beforehand.  Your thoughts are appreciated!   

Jells2dot0

If you want to see Maui, the volcanos on the big island, and Pearl Harbor, you are looking at 3 islands. A day trip to Oahu is possible (and easier than the BI) fom Maui, but it might not be worth the quick turnaround. I think with your budget, you'd be looking at more condo-type accommodations to keep costs lower. 10 days and $6K from the East Coast, with 3 islands especially, is tight. You may want to consider basing yourself in Maui for 8-10 nights and then take two days trips (one Oahu/one BI), but expect the day trips to be LONG DAYS. Or, another possibility is 2 nights Oahu and the remaining time in Maui, with a day trip to the BI.

daria24

If you really want to do all three islands, I would fly into Oahu, stay the night, go to the Arizona the next morning, then head to Maui that night. And then split your time equally on Maui and the BI. I'm not a huge Oahu fan. And the BI is my favorite island. The BI is also far less expensive than Maui. 

OliveOilsMom

I have been to Kauai, Oahu, and Maui.  I probably won't head back to Oahu again.  It's very busy compared to the other island's laid back style.  H feels the same way.  We only went to Oahu for our honeymoon so that H could see Pearl Harbor, I had been previously and did a visit to Pearl Harbor then.  I like Daria's idea about how to do the 3 islands.

H & I just booked our return trip to Hawaii.  We will be going back to Kauai, Maui, & BI.  I'm excited about the BI since I haven't been and I'm excited to show H Maui.

I remember when we were booking our Kauai portion of the trip that one of the adventures offered from the island was a day trip to Pearl Harbor.  It was like $300 pp, but you could do it cheaper for sure on your own.  So a day trip to Pearl Harbor is possible.  Fly in early, rent a car, pre-book your Pearl Habor tickets and the Missouri (this cost $, but worth it!), after that time you could probably even do a drive around the North Shore of Oahu, before getting back to the airport for your flight home.

I think your largest obstacle is your price limit.  We went in July, so higher airfare, but it cost $3400 for both flights for H & I, we flew in and out of Philly airport.  So while you can do it on your budget (I've heard October is an "affordable" time to go to Hawaii), your budget may be tight.  

MayDay513

We are going to the big island in about 8 weeks. We will do snorkeling, see volcano and observatory etc while we are there. There are lots of quiet beaches on the big island. I've been to Oahu, and plan to go back for the sole purpose of having H see Pearl Harbor. Oahu is ok, it's very touristy and a little too busy for me. With 10 days, I personally wouldn't island hop. It just sounds like too much moving around for me, but then again, I rather relax on vacation.

CrazyCatLady3

We are going to Hawaii for 10 days for our HM in June.  We are skipping Oahu for many of the reasons stated above.  We are doing 3 nights in Maui, 3 nights on Big Island, and 3 nights in Kauai.  From NYC this is costing us $9k for everything for both of us (airfare, hotels, transfers, rental cars, taxes) except for food and excursions.  However, we are splurging on the best resorts, so I feel like if you went to more affordable resorts (i.e. the Sheraton instead of the 4 Seasons) it would be doable for you for $6k.  We booked everything through a travel agent so she was able to get the best prices for us.

Mkincaid2014

Thank you all for your perspective on this!  I did a lot of international travel for work over the past 2 years and have accumulated about 200k in miles, so I'm hoping to cash that in to pay for at least one round trip ticket (or maybe upgrade both of us to business or first class).   

For those of you who have been to both Maui and Kauai, which did you like better?     

Jells2dot0

Hands down I prefer kauai. But, it depends on what you want to do while you are there. Kauai is more laid back, quiet, a lush. Maui is bit more commercialized, but because of that, there is more to do.

daria24

Kauai, all the way. Honestly I pretty much hated Maui, though there were certain experiences I liked. I really liked Haleakala, and enjoyed driving around Hana (though it is a stressful, long day). We stayed in Ka'anapali which is basically Hawaii Disneyland-it's a "manufactured" experience. The beach is great, and the snorkeling is top-notch, but it was so tourist-y. Most of the places we went to felt like no one actually lived there.

Kauai is much more low key, you definitely feel like people live there. The locals are a lot nicer -the road rage in Maui (and I don't mean around Hana where it's understandable, I'm talking about the west coast) was comparable to what I've seen around Boston. The Na'Pali coast is gorgeous-a boat trip is a must. The one downside to Kauai is that the beaches tend to be much smaller-depending on the time of the year the water goes right up to the vegetation at many of them. There are some really long stretches on the west coast, but for the most part, it's not swimmable. The north shore has the best beaches, but they may not be the long stretch of sand you might picture. 

Kauai is also cheaper. I live in NYC and Maui has been the only place I've ever been to where I've thought "oh good it's SO EXPENSIVE." 

Miclan88

to be completely honest, I think you will be spreading yourself too thin. My husband and I stayed on the big island for 8 days and went to Oahu for 2 and we were BUSY. the volcanoes take at least one full day, and from what I have read the observatory takes a full day as well. We did pack a lot in and tried to see everything, which didn't really leave any downtime. We carefully planned to maximize our time and I still feel like there were things on our list we just didn't have time for. Also, island hopping will eat up your time. the flights aren't very long, but you have to factor in having to get there early and also delays. our flight back to the BI was longer then the actual flight. Plus its more expensive than I thought it would be. Each of our tickets cost over $100 a piece. Lastly, the BI requires A LOT of driving, so make sure to consider that as well. Sounds like the BI has most of what you are looking for, so I would recommend spending most of your time there.

Pepper6

With 10 days, I would do 2 islands max.  On my first trip to Hawaii (we went for 7 days), we went to Oahu and Maui and it totally wasted 2 whole days just in travelling in between.  Yes, the flights are short, but you've got to check out of your hotel, return your rental car, go through security, check your bags (normal sized carry ons are too big for the inter-island flights and have to be checked), board, fly, wait for your bags, go get another rental car, drive to your hotel, check in, etc.  It's a LONG day for a 30 min flight.

It's really up to you which 2 islands you'd do, but my favorites in order: Big Island, Kauai, Maui, then Oahu.  They are all amazing in their own way, and you are guaranteed to have a good trip no matter what, but for the style of travel H and I like, that's how we feel about them.  We much prefer the laid back, non-touristy style, which is best on BI and Kauai.

Coalette2013

We are going to Hawaii for our honeymoon too! We haven't been yet, but we leave this Saturday! But anyways we are planning to stay in Oahu for 10 days since neither of us has been before, but we are both interested in island hopping. 

Some of our friends who have been recommended this tour group  http://www.affordabletours.net/nframe.html.

We plan on using them to go to the Big Island, so I'd be happy to report back on how that goes if you are interested  

Good luck planning!!

winelover123

We went to Maui and the BI for our honeymoon. With that much island hopping, your budget is going to be tight. Our ideal budget was the same, but we ended up going over. I'd suggest sticking to 2 islands. I really liked being able to fully explore 2 islands rather than get little snippets of a bunch. 

We looooved Maui. There were definitely commercialized areas, but go off the beaten road and you'll find some awesome things to do. Maui has a wonderful mix of lush rain forest and beaches that the BI just didn't have. We stayed in the touristy part of the BI (the dry part) and hated it. It looked like a desert and the beaches were tiny. It didn't help that the national parks were closed when we went, so I'm sure that if they are open when you go, you'll have more to do! We did do a helicopter tour of the volcano which was really awesome - I'd highly recommend it. If we ever go back to the BI, we'll be staying on the northern part of the island where it's green. 

abernzy

@CrazyCatLady - We have the same honeymoon booked but in July!  Where are you staying?  We are doing Kauai first for 4 nights, then BI for 4 nights, and last Maui for 6.

PrettyGirlLost

I'm sad to see all of this Oahu hate- Oahu is my fav!

mollyringwald15

My finance and I have also decided on Hawaii. I haven't been in years, so all this info is helpful to me as well!

You know what did crack me up though - I get that some islands are better than others, but I would happily be on the "crappiest" island for an extended period of time then in rainy pacific northwest! Made me laugh when one you mentioned "I hated that island".

Yeah... I hate islands too..... lol!