All six of the major Hawaiian Islands have their own personalities.  The temptation is to try and see as many as possible during a visit.

Our advice is don’t.

It may seem tempting when you realize that flight time from, say, Honolulu to Maui is less than half an hour.  But remember that you have to get to and through an airport, which can be as much trouble as catching a flight across the continent.  By the time, you and your baggage are in the rental car pulling up at your next destination, you’ve sacrificed half a day—and probably have lost that wonderful sense of relaxation you came to Hawaii to find.

Rather than hop from island to island, you might be best off choosing one or at the most two.  All the islands reward an extended stay.

The key is to pick the one or ones that will most suit you.  Here’s a quick primer:

Oahu

If your goal in coming to Hawaii is to escape civilization, Oahu may not be for you.  Much of the island is urban—sidewalks, traffic, highrises.

On the other hand, if you like to feel in the center of things—well, Honolulu is the center of things for 2,500 miles in any direction.  A compact, diverse city, Honolulu has the museums, the theatres, the restaurants, and the shopping.

Its historic Chinatown has been transformed into an arts and culture district where galleries and wine bars sit near lei shops, Chinese markets and Asian herbalists.

Waikiki, which was getting a bit tatty in the early 90s, has undergone a renaissance.  The streets have been cleaned up, greenscaped, made more pedestrian friendly.  The parks and beaches have been expanded. Waikiki’s had $2 billion worth of construction and refurbishment—which opened up the area, given it more of a Hawaiian feel, and created yet more things to see and do.

Of course, Oahu is more than just urban pleasures.  It has 64 beach parks, mostly empty on weekdays.  It has two mountain ranges, filled with hiking trails.  It has three botanical gardens, an arboretum and a marine preserve where a novice snorkeler can feel like Jacques Cousteau.
Oahu is a lot of things—boring isn’t one of them.
 



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