Just got back from Hawaii a week ago and wanted to share some reviews:
Kauai 5 nights/4 days
Oahu 1 day
Big Island 3 nights/2.5 days
Hotels:
Aston Kauai Beach at Makaiwa - regular room/pool side.
Normal/nothing special hotel, I'd compare it to a Holiday Inn Express. Clean, comfortable. $12.50/day resort fee. This got us a not very good Mai Tai reception and s'mores on the beach. Upon check in they upgraded us to a poolside room and gave us a bottle of champagne, but it was pretty bad. Location was good though, fairly centrally located for all activities.Very small lanai (balcony) and probably not really worth what we paid for it, but it was in a package so I don't know what the actual cost/night was.
Did not spend the night on Oahu
Kilauea Military Camp - Located in Volcano National Park/Big Island. Open to active military/reservists/retirees/those sponsored by military. We had a cozy little cabin with a fireplace. Was great being in the park as we were able to spend a lot of time there and actually enjoyed the Hilo side of the island more than the Kona side. 3 hour trip to Kona though if that is your focus. Would highly recommend if you're able to stay there.
Car rentals
Alamo - Kauai/Big Island
Great on Kauai, upgrade to a Jeep for an additional $13/day and a free second driver both with a military ID. Great staff, very helpful. No discounted changes given on the Big Island, something about it being a prepaid reservation and they weren't bending on policies. Would recommend Alamo on Kauai, not so much on the Big Island.
Hertz - Oahu 1 day rental
Horrible, horrible, horrible, car had burn holes in the backseat and smelled funny, always thought Hertz was held to a higher standard than that, totally wouldn't recommend them, wasn't allowed to get a free second driver with AAA card because of the 'prepaid' reservation, bad customer service. Thank goodness we only had to drive that car for 8 hours.
On both islands we followed the Hawaii revealed books.
Activities
Kauai -
Wailua Falls - not so spectacular, not a must see for us
Spouting Horn - awesome, totally recommend
Waimea Canyon - didn't get to do much hiking since it was rainy and it wasn't nearly as beautiful as is shown in the guidebook because of the weather. Nature just wasn't giving it good lighting
Helicopter ride - Inter Island Helicopters - pay cash and you get a discount and if you're filling up a flight you get a discount, regular rate was $260/person, we got it for $200/person cash. They're located in Hanapepe which is much closer to the Canyon/everything you want to see so you don't waste flying time getting there. Can't say I thoroughly enjoyed the flight as I started to feel a little sick towards the end. But it was a nice way to see the island.
Kalalau Trail hike down the Napali coast - we did the 8 mile round trip hike to the waterfall, really awesome would highly recommend, keep hiking until you reach the BIG waterfall as you'll pass a LOT of smaller ones on the way. The big one is stories and stories high, really muddy, just hike through the streams as you'll have to eventually anyways. Totally want to go back and do the full 22 mile hike someday. Best day on the island and unfortunately it was our last.
Tip - we spent most of our time on the south/west side of the island not knowing how great the northside was (bummer I didn't do more research) The Napali coast was the best part of the trip
Also - red dirt shirt shops are everywhere, but ask to see a shirt that's been washed a few times as it is way less impressive and convinced us that we didn't really want one.
Food Kauai -
Brick Oven Pizza - really good pizza, the wheat crust was a bit too wheaty for our tastes and we're usually into that
Shrimp Shack in Waimea - most awesome Shrimp ever, totally recommend this roadside stand
Jo-Jos Shave Ice - the flavors were great, huge cup
Wapooo - great fish entrees between Lihue and Kapaa
Marks Place - Lihue best chicken salad I've ever eaten hands down, totally recommend this place and pretty cheap too
Bubbas Burgers - good burgers, but probably not worth the price
Sushi place that began with a B on the north shore in Hanalei - decent sushi, pretty expensive, but we were starving
Foodland - got a lot of hiking and breakfast staples here. The yogurt selection was great with flavors like papaya, lychee, and mango
Noodle house Saiman or something like that in Lihue, it's behind the Salvation Army on Rice St - great noodles, really busy on a Friday night, but we got take out, recommend getting the fried wontons.
Oahu -
Pearl Harbor/USS Bowfin/USS Missouri/USS Arizona memorial
The submarine was cool - but DH is a submariner so it was up our alley. They had free headphones which were helpful if not a little corny
Missouri - no free headphone tour but they had free tourguides which we didn't utilize, didn't get as much out of that tour
Arizona - probably would have meant more if I was up on my WWII history/ had more informational plaques around to explain things. Pretty anticlimatic for me personally.
Diamond Head Monument - great views, killer hike, don't try to drive across town and do it in under 2 hours, we raced up the path and didn't have a lot of time up there because we had to get back for the Arizona boat.
Food - hot dogs at Pearl Harbor - great!
Big Kahuna pizza by the airport - okay pizza, but not great (they claim they're the best on the island, I'd hate to try other pizza there)
Big Island
Activities
Volcano National Park - stop by the visitor center for hiking information, we did a 7 mile loop through the caldera floor, lava tubes, etc. The fern trees are awesome, caldera floor takes FOREVER to get across. Don't forget a flashlight to go further into the lava tubes, we forgot ours and were bummed.
Crater Rim Drive was mostly closed due to high sulfur levels.
Chain of craters road is cool - check out the Petroglyphs, the sea arch at the bottom and the turnout by milemarker 14.
Also at night go up to the Jagger museum to see the crater glow - very cool
Wished we had time to go to the Puna side to see if lava was moving
Punaluu Black Sand Beach - awesome, stopped twice, no turtles :-(
Green sand beach - long walk, not as spectacular as I had imagined, would skip if on a time crunch
Kona - very touristy, just had lunch and bought coffee, Greenview coffee was the best hands down and they even gave a tour which was worth taking
Akaka Falls - nice, but nothing spectacular
Ahalanui Park - volcano heated pool - dirtier than expected/mossy, we did this before we flew home without a shower - no issues, but felt a little grubby afterwards, lots of fish swimming around and crabs too
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens - gorgeous and DH got in completely free with his active duty military ID
Food Big Island
Kilauea Lodge - expensive, but great food, would highly recommend
Normal food restaurant slightly before the Lodge - average food, overpriced
Punaluu Bake Shop - best bread ever, get the tricolored loaf
Woodshop cafe in Honomu Town - best food on the island - curry ahi tuna was great - recommend the ginger ice cream, nice paintings too for souveniers
I think that's most of the highlights - hopefully this is helpful to some!