Big Island Beaches

The Big Island of Hawaii, also called Hawaii, is the largest of the Hawaiian Islands - in fact it is bigger than all of the other islands combined! The Big island has over 100 beaches to choose from with sand ranging all the way from pure powdery white to shimmering obsedian black and there is even a green sand beach.

On the west coast of Hawaii, you find the lovely sand beach Ai’opio Beach. It is protected by offshore reefs which makes the water calm and great for swimming. You might also be lucky and see some of the turtles that comes to this cove to feed on the grasses provided.

One of the most beautiful beaches on the island is Kaunaoa Beach. It is an almost 1/4 of a mile long strip of white fine sand and a natural rock reef provides some protection from the surf. This is one of the most popular beaches on Hawaii and is great for both swimming and snorkelling.

To experience a beautiful black sand beach, you could go to Kaimu Black Sand Beach, a picturesque beach with black sand made of lava from the volcanos. This beach is situated on the south side of the Big Island and is well worth a visit.

Anaeho’omalu Beach on the north west of the Big island is a beach with white sand and black lava mixed together, giving it a “salt and pepper”-look. It is a beautiful resort area with some hotels and tourist facilities in the surroundings. The water is quite calm and good for swimming.

On the south-east side of the Big island near Pahoa is a black sand beach very popular with the local hippies. It is clothing optional and every Sunday they have a big drum circle - this is Kehena beach.

At Kealakekua Bay on the south west shore of the Big island you can find some of the most beautiful reefs in the whole state of Hawaii, making it a perfect place for scuba diving and snorkelling. Napo’opo’o Beach at the southern end of this bay is a mostly rocky beach, but with historical interest - this is where captain James Cook first landed when he arrived to Hawaii in 1778. The water is calm and clear here with beautiful surroundings which also makes is a great place for kayaking.

One of my favorite beaches is Ho’okena on the southwest side of the island. You can camp on the beach and a couple times a week you’ll see pods of dolphins and if you like you can swim with them! This is a magical experience.

These are just some of the many amazing spots to visit while on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Oahu Resorts

On the most popular of the Hawaiian Islands there are many resorts for those that want to make their holiday into a relaxing and comfortable time. The following few are some of the best and have a lot to offer for their visitors.

Turtle Bay Resort is located on the North Shore of Oahu; about 45 minutes drive from Honolulu, the city where most action is going on at the island. Turtle Bay gives you opportunities to relax and get away from this intensity, while still being so close that you can go there for a visit if you want to experience the pulse. The resort has about 5 miles of beaches at its site, with clear blue water and soft sand. There are many activities offered at the resort, such as golf, tennis, horse-back riding, surfing schools, fine dining and shopping. In the area are many trails for hiking experiences in lush nature. On the site are also 2 landscaped pools. This is a great option if you are looking for a place to stay with all you can ask for on site, perfect for a relaxed vacation.

If you want your holiday to be truly luxurious, you might want to make Kahala Hotel & Resort your choice. This is the resort where celebrities, presidents and royalties go on their Oahu holiday, and you will most certainly be treated as a king at your stay here. The resort is situated only 10 minutes away from the popular Waikiki Beach and has a lot to offer. Here you find a spa, fitness center, all sorts of leisure activities and even a private lagoon with its own residential dolphins. This is the perfect place for a very special holiday.

Ihilana Resort and Spa is located on the West Shore of Oahu and is another great resort, well worth to pay a visit. The beachfront location is marvelous with a lagoon that makes the water calm and excellent for swimming. At the site are also beautiful landscaped pools and waterways and here you also find a golf course and tennis courts for your entertainment. The Resort also has a great spa and possibilities to involve you in all sorts of marine and land activities. Dining is of high standard as well as the accommodation which makes this place a perfect resort for a relaxed holiday at this beautiful island.

These are some of the best tips for resorts at the island of Oahu. Enjoy your stay!

Oahu Beaches

Oahu is the third biggest island in Hawaii and has 139 beaches to choose from! It has a great variety of beach types, ranging from more secluded ones to others with lots of people and beach activities.

The most famous beach is Waikiki Beach and it is actually made up of five smaller beaches, forming together a two mile long strip of white sand located on Oahu’s south shore. Along the beach you will find lots of hotels and tourist facilities. It’s perfect for people watching, swimming, surfing, boogie boarding, catamaran and outrigger canoe rides. This is the beach where most tourists go.

If you are looking for something more secluded, there are other beaches that you’ll probably prefer. Kualoa Regional Park is situated on the east coast of Oahu and is perfect if you want a enjoy a relaxing day at the beach. It has a stunning location with the Kualoa Mountains in the background and the water here is calm and warm.

Kalama Beach is situated at the south east coast and this area is renowned to have the most beautiful beaches in the whole United States. The water is pretty calm and relaxed here even though it’s possible to do some beginners surfing and bodysurfing at times. This is a relaxed beach with some service facilities but still not over populated.

If you are looking for good surfing beaches, head north. This is where you have the biggest waves in the winter months. Chuns Reef is a sandy and rocky beach for the experienced surfer with consistently large and powerful waves. In the summer months, when the water is calmer, it’s a great beach for snorkeling and swimming. It’s a secluded beach without service facilities.

If you’re looking for a more built up beach but still want big waves, you might prefer Ehukai Beach Park that’s situated just to the east of Chuns Reef. When the surf is pounding, this beautiful North Shore beach can be the most spectacular and the most dangerous in the world. When the waves are steep and powerful, they break furiously on the shallow reef. In calmer months, usually spring and summer, swimming is good over the sandbar.

Hanuma Bay Nature Park is a protected marine life conservation area and underwater park. It is excellent for snorkelling and scuba diving and has a diverse population of marine life and a beautiful large coral reef. Because it’s a protected cove it’s great for beginner divers. This area also provides beautiful beaches for sunbathing, relaxation and picnics. Since it is a National Park there is a small fee to go there and you are required to watch an educational film about the bay while entering the park.

This is a small sample of some of the most beautiful beaches on the Oahu Island. With the great variety this Island offers it’s possible to find whatever type of beach you are looking for.

Molokai Island

If you are one of those people that likes a vacation that offers opportunities to be away from the crowd and in close contact with nature and the origins, Molokai is probably the island you want to visit. Molokai is the fifth largest island yet one of the least unknown. Here you won’t find anything like big malls, high buildings and big tourist resorts. Traffic is minor and in most areas there aren’t even traffic lights.

Here you find instead remote villages, beautiful secluded beaches and diverse nature.

This is the place to go if you either want to experience a calm and relaxed time or wish to be involved in adventurous excursions like hiking, kayaking, whale watching, snorkeling, diving and deep-sea fishing. The island also offers a few beaches that are good for surfing.

Beaches here are either made up by white sand or the black lava sand. At some of the beaches you can rent small cottages or do some camping, and have a pleasant relaxed stay next to a beautiful beach. At Papohaku Beach Park you can enjoy an over three miles long and 300 feet wide stretch of white sand with the ability to give you the feeling of having a beach in paradise all to yourself. This beach is on the west coast of Molokai, but in general it’s a safer pick to go to the east as the surf is less strong there when you aim for swimming.

At Molokai you can get to know how the traditional people in the state of Hawaii used to live. You can visit fishing villages and ranches where people live a simple and calm lifestyle, with little modernity’s. At Kualapu’u, an old leper colony village in the center of Molokai you can feel the ancient atmosphere and visit churches, built by Father Damien, a Belgian priest that colonized the island some hundred years ago.

Molokai offers a range of activities beyond historical sightseeing and beach life. Why not go on a horseback ride through the rainforest or rent a kayak and paddle around the beautiful secluded waters? Here you really have the ability to be out there and get to know the pure, untouched nature and around the island are many different places that offers all sorts of activities.

So if you long for a calm and relaxed time that’s out of the ordinary, go to Molokai and get to experience an unforgettable holiday.

Maui Travel - Airports - Buses

If Maui is the island of your choice you have a few options on how to get there. This island has three different airports: Kahalui Airport, which is the main one; Kapalua, or West Maui Airport and Hana Airport.

Kahalui Airport has a few flights departing from the west coast of the mainland of the United States. There are also a lot of flights between the other islands of Hawaii arriving at Kahalui, and for most destinations this is probably the airport you want to arrive at. To go to Kihei or Wailea is only a half an hour drive, and to Lahaina or Kaanapali it takes more or less an hour.

If you’re going to Lahaina you might consider taking a flight to Kapalua Airport from Honolulu, Oahu. Most flights in general from the mainland to Hawaii go to Honolulu and sometimes you can find an even better deal by changing your flight there. To Kapalua it’s only a 15 minutes drive to Lahaina.

Hana airport is a small airport, located on the east coast of Maui and the service flying there is air taxis, with rather small planes from the other airports at the island and some interflights from the other islands. If you’re staying at Hana this might be a convenient way to get there.

Most visitors that’s arriving to Maui choose to rent a car at the airport. There are a lot of different car rentals situated at Kahalui Airport. These are Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thifty. Often it’s a good idea to book in advance to ensure you have a car waiting for you.

There’s also a public transit service; Maui Bus, that takes you from the airport to a lot of the more popular sites at the island. This is great for those on a budget, with only 1 dollar per ride. Since it’s a public bus this might have the downside that you probably will have to change buses or take a taxi while getting close to you destination.

There are also a few tour companies that offer shuttle services with bus and minibus from the airports to you hotels, check on the internet beforehand and book in advance to get this service.
Outside the airport you also find a pretty good taxi cab service. This is an easy and comfortable way to get to you hotel, and you find taxis waiting for passengers 24 hours a day.

This is all information on how to get from the main airport Kahalui to your hotel. If you are travelling to one of the regional airports, there are car rentals, taxis and some bus-services provided, even though it’s less frequent. You will easily get to your destination.

Kauai Travel Tips - Airports Rentals Buses

If you’re planning a holiday to the relaxed island Kauai, there are a few different ways to get there. The center for air traffic at the Hawaiian islands is in Honolulu, on Oahu island. This is the place most visitors will arrive as the majority of the flights from the mainland go there.

In most cases you’ll likely find your best deal is to get a cheap flight to Honolulu and then take an interisland flight to Kauai.

However, a few airlines also do direct flights to the airport of Kauai, Lihue Airport, from the mainland. Check around on the internet or visit different travel agencies to get your best deal.

A few of the cities on the mainland that has direct flights to Lihue are; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix and Arizona. The flight lasts for about 5-7 hours, depending on where you fly out from. The interflights from Oahu to Kauai depart a few times daily but for best price make sure you book your whole journey on the mainland, with your travel agency or on the net. Air is the only way to get to Kauai; there are no ferries for transportation between the islands.

Well at Lihue airport, which is situated on the south east coast of Kauai, there are different options for you to get to your hotel or accommodation. Many hotels has a courtesy to pick up their guests at the airport, and in these cases, you don’t have to worry much at all on how to find your way to your place.

At the airport you also find a good amount of taxis waiting to transport the new visitors to their accommodation. The taxis provide 24 hour service and there’s usually no problem at all to find a cab and they go to most places at the island. There are also limousine services where you preferably book in advance.

If you’re more on a budget you might want to take a bus from the airport. There are a few different bus companies that take you to a lot of places on the island. You find the buses outside the baggage claim and you find ground transportation personnel there that can assist you in getting to your destination.

If you are planning to drive around a lot on the island and see many different spots, you might find it convenient to rent a car when you’re getting to the airport. There are seven different car rentals and they are all situated across the street from the Main Terminal Hall. It’s a good idea to book you rental in advance, especially during tourist season. On the internet you can find information on the different deals. Alamo, Avis, Budget, Hertz, National, Dollar and Thrifty are the companies that offers car rentals at Lihue Airport.

Hilo Hawaii

Hilo Town is the largest city on the Big Island of Hawaii yet it has a calm, laid-back feel to it. This is not the place where most tourists go even though there are a lot of facilities and activities to choose from while here.

Hilo is situated on the east of the Island, at the foot of the huge volcano Mauna Kea. The east part of Hawaii has more rain then the west and this means that this area is lush and green all year round. The annual rainfall is about 70 inches and it is known to be the wettest city in whole United States. Don’t let this stop you from visiting this beautiful spot though; it has so much to offer.
This city has a lot of historical interest and the surrounding area offers great opportunities to explore the thriving nature. Hilo was first populated by the Polynesians, who arrived here in the 12th century. They inhabited Hilo Bay and made it a center for farming, fishing and trading of goods. Over the centuries it developed into a political and religious center of the island, and has today turned into a friendly and calm city with a mixed population and lot of things going on.

In the 20th century, the city was being hit by two tsunamis; one in 1946 and the second in 1960. The huge waves swept away almost everything on the Hilo Bay and contributed to some changes in the structure of the city. Now there is a big park and a highway in that area so that future tidal waves can be absorbed and cause less harm.

In the area around Hilo you find some really beautiful waterfalls. Rainbow falls is located just on the edge of the city and a bit north of Hilo you find Akaka falls. They both offers a scenery well worth visiting. You also find a lot of beautiful gardens in and nearby Hilo. Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens and the Queen Liliuokalani Gardens offers beautiful nature in their own way. The Queen Liliuokalani Gardens is a Japanese style garden, well looked after, while at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens you get a more wild and lush feeling of natural beauty.

At Hilo you find a good variety of museums and cultural landmarks. At the Lyman Museum you can find a lot of different aspects from the history of Hawaii; Wailoa Center is a great place for art and culture and at the Pacific Tsunami Museum you can learn all you might want to know about tsunamis and their impact on this city. The city is also the one that’s closest to the Volcanoes National Park, and makes it a great spot to start off from. In the surrounding area you can as well do horse riding, hiking and even golf.

To take some of your time while visiting Big Island and stay a few nights in Hilo is something you won’t regret. Here you can often find festival, fairs and open air markets and for your dining pleasure there are a lot of great restaurants to choose from. The city has a good variety of hotels, bed and breakfast and vacation rentals. You can find something in all price ranges.

Maui Waterfalls

The Hawaiian islands all have a diverse thriving nature and many different habitats and ecosystems. The mountains and volcanoes hosts a large amount of waterfalls that offer recreational beauty for those visiting. If you are exploring Maui, there are some waterfalls that you don’t want to miss.

Blue Angels falls are situated on the east of Maui, and are one of the most popular and beautiful waterfall you can find in the state of Hawaii. To get to the falls you have to make a small hike off the end of Ula’ino Road. Well there you can enjoy a swim in the clear and fresh water surrounded by the rainforest that’s filled with wildlife and natural flora.

The Waimuko falls in the southeast of Maui is a great hike and offers you a close contact with nature. You follow the Pipiwai Stream at a trail for about 2miles with a gain of 650 feet in elevation. When you reach your destination you’re at a gigantic waterfall, dropping around 400 feet into a rocky pool.

Seven sacred pools is found just before the Pipiwai Trail to Waimuko falls. It’s also called ‘Ohe’o Gulch and is a series of lovely waterfalls and tranquil pools that lies close to the shoreline. It’s part of the Haleakala National Park and is a popular spot for tourists to visit and enjoy playing and swimming in the pools.

Makapipi falls is one of the most stunning sights at Maui. It’s located just below the Hana Highway, as the bridge crosses the Makapipi Stream. If you lean over the railing you will see the stream fall  down into the chrystal blue pool below.

Maui offers a great variety of gorgeous  waterfalls and many of them are really easy to access. Along the Hana Highway there are actually many waterfalls situated and while driving around you can easily get to see quite a lot of them just next to the road. So an easy way to explore Maui’s waterfalls is to take a day and drive around and you will have the opportunity to visit many of them. Enjoy the freshness of sparkling crystal clear water!