Military or MWR hotel on Maui?

I am in the military based in Oahu and traveling to Maui this weekend. Is there a military-friendly hotel there you would recommend?

Well, there’s no military hotels and no MWR facilities on Maui - it’s the only major Hawaii island that doesn’t have at least something.

I like the Kaanapali Beach Hotel as a military-friendly hotel. In the past, I know, they have given some decent military service discounts. They appreciate the military. The hotel is in a great spot and is definitely an authentic Hawaiian hotel.

The Best Hawaii Guidebooks in My Opinion; Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and Big Island

I have an absolute favorite Hawaii GuideBook series and it is the Hawaii Revealed Series (link is to the Hawaii Revealed books at Amazon). I like these guidebooks because the author’s pull no punches. There is no vague, travel magazine-speak about nothing. The books are filled with their honest opinions based on their actual experiences. I love that. That’s what I try to do with my websites.

One of the best things about the books is the aerial pictures of the hotels, which you can see at their website. Another awesome things about their books is that the authors have actually eaten at every restaurant, done every activity, and stayed at every hotel they review. It’s 100% evident in the way they talk in the book. Not too many guidebooks can say that.

I have each of these books for each island. If I am going traveling around Hawaii, I take these books - and I’ve lived in Hawaii for 14 years. I’ve written a review for each of the individual Hawaii Revealed Guidebooks here, if you are interested.

I also like to recommend my books of course. Mine are free, only digital, and are more like mini guides or ebooklets. They are all available here: http://www.hawaii-lisa.com/answers/hawaii-guide-book/. There is one for The Big Island, Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and then four general books, one about saving money, one about getting married in Hawaii, one for first timers, and one about Island Hopping.

I do have a second favorite paper book, and that is the Hawaii Trailblazer Books . I have personally spoken with the authors. They are nice people and they write solid books with good information. If you are an active person who likes to hike, swim, snorkel, and surf (or take lessons), these books are a good choice for you.

I’d love to know your favorites or which books you have bought and like the best. Leave me a comment. thanks!

Hawaii Honeymoon Booking Questions

Hi Lisa: Wanted to get your input on some things.

We are planning our honeymoon and would like to stay in Oahu for 7 nights. We are looking at July 26 - Aug 2. I understand that flying on a workday is cheaper, than the weekends. It is so hard to find the best package and know which one to trust. There are so many sites to choose from, but it worries me to use one of these 3rd party on line websites, such as “Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc” .

I have personally used expedia, priceline, travelocity, and orbitz and they are all reputable businesses that provide valid services. really

I found yet another website that took me to “Great Hawaiian Vacations”. They are a travel agent who will help you choose your best package. Are they trustworthy?

I have not personally used great hawaii vacations, but it looks they are members of the better business bureau. I also found this post at tripadvisor where many people like them

Do any of these 3rd party websites get any commission if you use there services/website?

Yes, anybody who does booking for you will get some sort of a commission.

We are wanting to stay on the beach in Waikiki. I found that the “Outrigger Reef on the Beach” has the options we want. Do you recommend that hotel? If I go through a 3rd party to make the reservations, how would I communicate to the hotel that it is our honeymoon and what kind of special deals can we expect?

Yes, I recommend the Outrigger Reef on the Beach- I like all the Outriggers and this one is a nice one.

The booking party may be able to input notes that it is your honeymoon, if not you can let them know when you get there. You will not get any special deals probably, unless you specifically book a honeymoon deal and that is normally through the hotel itself. You may get a bottle of wine or champagne though.

When talking to an agent from “Great Hawaiian Vacations”, he mentioned that instead of renting a car from the airport and paying that price everyday + a $25 parking fee at the hotel, he recommends just renting on a daily basis. We can usually go through the hotel to rent a car and not have to pay that parking fee. What do you recommend?

This is a valid idea, especially if you won’t need the car everyday. If it’s important to you, you could actually do the math, confirm with the hotel that their parking fee is $25, then add up the car rental fee, then see how much it would be to just rent it per day.

There are certain activities that we would like to do while we are there. Do you recommend that we reserve ahead of time or wait until we arrive?

Activities consisting of:
snorkeling
go to a dinner luau (the one that has flame dancers). What is the best to go to?
rent a Harley Davidson for one day.
take a Pearl Harbor tour.

You are going during the busy season, so I would recommend prebooking your harley davidson rental and your luau. They are all good in Oahu but I recommend the paradise cove luau. There’s nothing to book for snorkeling unless you take a boat tour, for which case I would recommend prebooking, and for pearl harbor you are not able to prebook - you have to do it onsite.

When should we book our vacation/honeymoon to get the best price?

Well, I would ask the great hawaii vacation guys what they think, but generally, if you aren’t going to book last minute then you will want to book as early as possible. 2 months out is smart if you can do it.

Congratulations, and have a wonderful time!

Hawaii For the First Time

Planning to visit Hawaii for the first time can start out as a an exciting adventure that quickly becomes overwhelming. There are just so many choices! Where to stay, what to do, which island or islands to visit…Plus, visiting the “Aloha State” is not like visiting any of the other 50 states. For extra help, see my first timer ebook here with my other free hawaii guidebooks.

Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. that has its culture and language. But don’t worry, English is the primary language spoken here, meaning English will be spoken at the places you stay, shop, visit, etc. Many of the locals speak Hawaiian Pidgin, mostly to each other at home, at play, etc. It’s much like slang but with a melodic rhythm and is based on English with influences from other languages, especially Hawaiian.

Of all the tropical places to vacation, Hawaii is the easiest for Americans to visit because, well, it’s part of the United States. There’s no currency exchange or passports to hassle with, but you still get the warm tropical weather (average 82 highs and 67 lows near the shores) and beautiful beaches.

If you are flying from the West Coast, jet lag won’t be much of an issue because Hawaii is only 2 hours behind Pacific Standard Time. When it’s 7 a.m. in the islands, it’s 9 a.m. in California. We don’t have daylight saving time, so add another hour during the summer. It’s about a 5-hour flight from LAX to Honolulu.

As far as what island to visit…if I could only visit one island, I think it would be Oahu.

I know Waikiki is crowded and all, but there’s so much to do here and I love all the energy (maybe that comes from living on the laid back Big Island). Oahu has lots of beaches too that aren’t crowded. And it’s got the royal palace, Bishop Museum, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor…

Maui, the second most visited Hawaiian Island, has the famous Hana Highway and more humpbacks than the other islands all put together. Kauai, the Garden Isle’ lives up to its name and is where you’ll find the legendary Na Pali Coast, and the Big Island (Hawaii Island) is home to an active volcano.

To help you plan your first visit to Hawaii, I have a free first timers ebooklet available for download (no strings) at: http://www.hawaii-lisa.com/answers/hawaii-guide-book/

The most visited islands in Hawaii are Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island. It is impossible to see them all in only 8 days. A good vacation would involve staying all 8 days on one island. Even if you want to see 2 islands in 8 days, you will spend too much time and energy getting from one island to another. The Big Island has the only active volcano. Pearl Harbor is on Oahu. All islands have luaus. I would recommend getting a Hawaii travel guide that describes the sights on each island and after reading that, you will get an idea of which island seems to draw you the most. First Time to Hawaii Adult Kids and Parents

Punaluu on Oahu, Windy? Nice Place?

Hi, Lisa. I have found your site very helpful. My husband and I have some questions, and I hope you can offer some help.

We are planning a trip to Oahu the end of June, beginning of July for 7 days to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are trying to decide on which area of the island will suit us best for lodging. This is our first trip to Hawaii, so we are fairly clueless about the various areas of Oahu.

We plan for this trip to primarily be a laidback, romantic trip rather than a very active one, so we are thinking the North Shore area would suit our needs better. We are not shoppers, but we do plan to spend a day or 2 in the Honolulu/Waikiki area at Pearl Harbor, the zoo, the aquarium and Diamond Head. Other activities we are interested in are the Polynesian Cultural Center, Dole plantation, and hiking around some waterfalls. We are looking at a condo - Pat’s on Punalu’u - and are wondering if this would be a good location for us. We like that it is directly beachfront, so that we can spend some time on a quiet, peaceful beach, maybe do a little snorkeling, and also see the beach from the lanai/condo. We have read some reviews of this location that mention that this is a windy location. Is Punalu’u a terribly windy area, and is it noticeably more windy than other locations? Would you think that this location is a good place to base ourselves in consideration of the activities we are plannning and interests we have, or do you have a different suggestion? Also, if you have any input about Pat’s (or anything else) that would be welcome as well.

There may be some confusion here about the name Punaluu. There is a Punaluu Beach on the Big Island that is on a south shore and frequently can get very windy. I wonder if some of what you read was about this place. Pat’s at Punaluu is in a town called Punaluu on Oahu, which is on the North-East side of the island. This side of the island will get tradewinds and more weather than the west and some the south sides of Oahu, but I wouldn’t be worried about the wind. You might run into some weather, but most likely it will be sunny and beautiful and the tradewinds will just cool you down

I can recommend Pat’s and I don’t think it’s too far from what you want to do. Just try to avoid going into the Honolulu area during morning commute and out of Honolulu during evening commute - try a late morning drive in and stay in Honolulu for dinner and you should be good.

Kona to Hilo Bus Schedule

I will be visiting Hawaii later this month and will be travelling to the Big Island. I have two nights accommodation booked in Kona and then two nights in Hilo. I very much want to experience everything that both towns have to offer including diving with the Manta Rays and seeing active lava flow. I will be travelling on my own and I have heard that car hire in Hawaii is very expensive when you take all the extras into consideration. I was thinking of taking the bus from Kona to Hilo but I am not sure where I would need to catch it from. I will be staying at the Keauhou Beach Resort, would appreciate your advice on what would be the best option.

Hi Robyn, the hele on bus schedule is here: http://www.heleonbus.org/schedules-and-maps/kona-hilo-bus-schedule-1 - as you can see, the bus stops at the Sheraton Keauhou at 6:20 am, every day but sunday. The Sheraton Keauhou is just down the road from the Keauhou beach resort - maybe 15 minutes or so walk. If I were you, as soon as you check in, I would tell the front desk your plans to take the bus and see what they suggest - maybe they could even call the sheraton keauhou and find out exactly where the bus picks up at over there.

Maui and Kauai Areas and Driving Times

first, thanks for offering those free books which i promptly downloaded. my boyfriend and i are staying at a timeshare in lahaina, maui for 6 nights. i have put together a list of things to do, with as much free things to do as possible.

we will be renting a car, and it just seems like all the things to do are in the east (like the haleakala crater, and hana, and even the winery seem to take hours to get to). i have looked at previous answers you have given, but i guess my question is not so much as “things to do” but the order to do them in so we are not just spending this vacation driving back and forth, and passing the same things. for example, the road to hana. we want to drive that, and sites suggest that be the whole day, which is fine.

however, it seems i will be passing all these other attractions and should take advantage of being in the same proximity, you know what i mean? like a suggested beach or snorkling in the molokini crater.
what do you suggest taking advantage of while in that area? light walking around is fine for me, but nothing resembling strenuos hiking. snorkeling for free ourselves at a nice beach would be fine, too, but i guess to get to the crater we would need to get out there..hmm. of course we want to do a luau.

then, after 6 nights, we are flying nonstop to kauai (pupoi) for 4 nights. i guess we will need another rental car, so can you help me with the same strategy with driving? ie, doing things convenient to each other and knowing what can be done in one trip. it would be nice to be at a beach, and then actually shower before going on a dinner cruise, for example.

Well, here’s what I would do, I think. I would plan a whole day for the road to Hana. Hit whatever you want to on the way there - like Paia and some easy hike waterfalls and then once you get to Hana check out the Oheo gulch, it’s easy to get to and a main attraction there.

Then, do an upcountry day where you hit the winery and the Haleakala park.

then, do a beach and site-seeing day along the Lahaina and Kaanapali and maybe Wailea coasts and fit in any boat tours too - I think you are already on the absolute right track and all this will come together a bit more once you get there and see that the island is smaller than it seems to you now.

If you wanted to get a guidebook that would really spell this out for you, I really like the Maui Revealed book - it breaks up beaches and sights and adventures by areas of the island. Sometimes libraries have it too.

Now, once you get to Kauai, this really won’t be an issue, because Kauai is even smaller. No matter what you want to do it will probably be within 20 minutes of what you are doing, and wonderful sunset dinner cruises will be right there in poipu, so you can hit your hotel room to shower first.

heading all the way out to the farthest west side of the island can take a while but not to many people do that - and hitting the Na Pali coast from Poipu can take a while too, but everything else on the island is on the way to the Na Pali coast - so don’t worry, I don’t think you are going to have any problems.

Have a truly wonderful vacation! Lisa

Best Price for Inexpensive Maui Surfing Lessons

We want to learn to surf in maui. Can you turn us on to the cheapest lessons available. Anywhere on the island is fine

Generally, the best prices are going to be for group lessons. I have found group lessons as low as $60. Rates may be better for larger groups. You’ll get a free board rental with your lesson - and you could ride a wave on your first ty

One good company is maui waveriders.

Semi private lessons - for couples or groups of three are good too, maybe $85 to $90 is the best price available.

Do you have a business with rates around here or better than this? Add it in the comments. Or, have you had an experience with surfing on Maui? I’d love to hear from you. Lisa

Hilo and Kona and Honolulu Cruise Port of Call Help

I’ve come across your website while researching our trip (boyfriend and I). We are planning a cruise in September and wanted to know how accessible shuttle services are from the ports.

1. Hilo cruise ports to Akaka falls. Should we take a taxi or is there a shuttle, what are the costs?
2. Honolulu port to HNL international airport. We want to be at the airport by 630-7am, how much would a taxi cost, I see that the airport is fairly close by.
3. In Kona we plan to follow your advice and visit Kahaluu Beach, is this difficult to get to? How much would a jet ski/ boat be?

We were just wondering how close attractions are from the ports, and what to expect if we took cabs or if public transit was easy/reliable (we don’t want to miss our departure at each ports).

Honolulu port to the airport would be about $20 to $30.

Hilo to Akaka falls, you probably will need to take a taxi, although sometimes shuttles are offered. You may have to wait till your are on the ship or even till you get off at port to know about the shuttle. Taxi is $3.20 a mile, so it could cost you $64 one way. Many times the taxis are vans, so if you could fit three couples in a van you could split it three ways.

In Kona, Kahaluu Beach is around the 5 mm, while the cruise ship is around the 0 mm, so that will be much more reasonable by taxi. - less than $20 one way.

Jet ski is $100 something for the hour but it’s just on a circular track. To rent a boat is going to be $370+ for a half day. Renting a scooter or bikes is easy too and not too much money.

Each port is different, and each port will have a different amount of resources trying to help you see what you want to see. Hilo and Kona are generally the hardest to figure out because the island is so big and in Hilo not as many tourists come in, so there’s not as many companies catering to them.

Don’t worry, I’m sure it will all come together nicely for you and you’ll have a great time Lisa

Shopping Locations in Hawaii

Now Lisa, Can you say on which Island the Shopping is the best? Such items as Shoes, clothing, perfumes?. Can you give an address or location to make it easier to access them?
If we can know that answer then it may pay us to stay on that Island for the last 4 nites prior to flying back to Aussie and means we do not need to “Carry” all the shopping with us!!

Shopping is the best on Oahu, in Waikiki - this is high end and low end shopping both. whatever you want. All the islands also have a Hilo Hatties that will have all the Hawaiian-themed stuff you want, especially clothing. Here’s the locations of all the hilo hattie’s

also, Walmart and Kmart are both on all the major islands and both will have a souvenir section with much of the stuff you would buy other places for usually better prices. They will also have stuff like mac nuts and Hawaiian sweet bread.

Have fun!

Honeymoon Campervan Vacation on Kauai or Maui?

We are planning our honeymoon to hawaii for around april this year for around ten days. We fly into Oahu then were planning on staying just a couple days there before heading over to Maui or possibly kuaui? Have any suggestions on which one would best suit honeymooners? We love to explore and though it might be fun to rent a campervan for a few days…and travel around the island? How long do think it would take to drive around the entire island? Also do you think it is possible to do all these three islands in ten days or should we stick to just two?

Well, I can answer this one easily because as far as I know Kauai doesn’t have any campervan rentals available on the island. So you should go to Maui. And Maui is lovely, you will love it.

How long it will take you will depend on how often you stop and play. You could do it in a day if you just drove - of course you can’t completely circle either of these islands. On Maui, the road ends in Hana, and on Kauai, the road ends at the Na Pali Coast.

Honestly, I always recommend no more than two islands on any vacation around a week in length - otherwise there is just too much standing in airports and packing and unpacking and renting and returning for me. However, you’ll need to decide if you will kick yourself or not for just doing two islands. That’s a very personal decision.

Congrats, and have a great vacation - and check out my digital guide books to the islands
- no cost!

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