Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

My first big tip for those planning a trip to Hawaii is to definitely buy the “Revealed” series tour books for the islands you intend on visiting. They are AMAZING and tell you EVERYTHING from dining to beaches to hotels to the smallest little adventure…I wouldn’t go to Hawaii without them.

The Big Island
Overall Impression: Very Rocky…Not that hoppin’ at night…great place to stay 3 or 4 days…definitely worth the trip…beaches were far better on the big island as compared to Maui, but there was not as much to do.

Stay: 3 full days 4 nights at the Hale Kona Kai Condos. We rented a privately owned ocean front 1 bedroom condo. The view was amazing, we were right on the ocean! You couldn’t beat having a kitchen and all the room to spread out and relax. However, you don’t get the ritzy hotel feel and someone fluffing your pillow everyday. According to our research, condos on average were half the price of hotels. A warning though, some condos do not have air conditioning. We found that this time of year the breeze off the ocean at night was more than fine…we slept great!!!
View From the Room



Expensive Restaurants:
Pahu I’a (at the Four Seasons Hotel)-Nothing tops the atmosphere and view at this restaurant, food was good. The whole experience was worth every penny.

Sunset At Dinner


Kayaking/snorkeling trip at Kealakekua Bay. We rented a kayak and snorkel gear at Kona Boys. The Kayaking is a mile across the bay to get to the snorkel area at the Captain Cook monument and then a mile back. Snorkeling was OK and there is even a good chance you can see dolphins in the bay (we didn’t get to see them, but other people there did). Overall it is a cheap activity and fun day in the sun.

The Kilauea Volcanoes National Park. I think this is the highlight of the Big Island. The volcano is still active and there is an opportunity to get a glimpse of the flowing lava. This is about a 2 hour trip from Kona, plan a whole day for this trip. You should try and plan on being there at night to see the lava from a distance. You can’t see too much during the daylight hours. But the park is great and you will never see anything like this anywhere else.

Top of Volcano



Hapuna Beach. This was the most beautiful beach we saw on our whole trip. Breathtaking.

Maui
Overall Impression: There is a lot to do in Maui…5 days was definitely not enough. In Maui you can visit waterfall, craters, beaches, nice restaurants, good shows and a nice nightlife. There are a lot of snorkeling and boat trips. We only touched the surface and did a lot of the common things.

Stayed 5 full days (2 half days) and 6 nights at the Valley Isle Resorts Condos: Again we rented a 1 bedroom condo…it was amazing. Balconies off the living room and bedroom and the ocean right beneath the balcony…feet from the shore. This condo was bigger than the one on the Big Island, which was nice, but the view was worth a million dollars. There was no air conditioning, but again the breeze off the ocean was more than enough to sleep comfortably at night.

Views from Condo




Expensive Restaurants:
Pacific O- good view, not the best food we had on the island.
Sarentos-good view, food very good, best sunset view on our entire trip!





The Banyan Tree (The Ritz Hotel) –not so good view (the restaurant is far from the water), food was amazing (especially desert and appetizers).

Road to Hana-this is an all day driving trip on the north coast of the island. On this trip there are breathtaking views of the coastline, romantic spots to sit and very nice views of waterfalls. This is a long day in the car. We spent 10 hours driving. By the time we got to Hana we were exhausted and we turned around to go back. There are supposed to be some great sights past Hana. Consider going through the trip the back way, or going all the way to the end without stopping. It was a great day overall.





The Old Lahaina Luau- Food was OK..the atmosphere is great and the show is really nice. It was a nice night out and I think when you go to Hawaii you need to go to a Laua and this one was pretty good.



Molokini Snorkling Trip. We went with Paragon Sailing. Excellent trip. It is about an hour to Molokini Island, where you do the snorkeling. They provide breakfast and lunch and snorkel gear. The boat ride is fun and relaxing and the snorkeling is amazing. We saw everything from fish to sharks to manta ray.

Ka’anapali Beach: Nice beach. Great boardwalk and some shops and a food court. A great place to walk around at night also. A lot of hotels are along this beach, Hyatt, Marriott and the Sheraton.

Laihiana Town. Lots of Shopping, Open late, nice place to walk around at night.

Warren and Annabelle’s Magic Show. This is not what you think. It was soooooo good. Very funny and a great night out. The stuff in this show is sooo unbelievable you will be talking about it for weeks.

The Haleakala Creator. This is an inactive volcano. Has amazing views and great hiking. It is a half day trip (if you don’t do a lot of hiking) and definitely worth seeing.

Inside of Crater


All I can say is Hawaii is beautiful!!!! Please feel free to FM me about any details that I may have left out.

Vanessa

Re: Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

Wow, great review!!! And beautiful pics!!

Thanks so much-- it had so much great and very helpful information...

Congrats

Re: Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing and best wishes to you and your DH.

Re: Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

Thank you so much for sharing your Hawaii honeymoon review. I am glad to hear about both the Big Island and Maui. We are doing both of those and Oahu.

Re: Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

So beautiful! COngrats

Re: Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

It looks amazing there. Thank you for the review and once again Congratulations!

Re: Hawaiian Honeymoon Review

BEautiful!!! Thank you so much for the wonderful review. Best wishes to you both and congrats!