Many readers have traveled to Hawaii and are in no need of itinerary suggestions as they have their favorite islands, hotels, resorts and restaurants. But for those who have never traveled to Hawaii, here is an itinerary I put together as my travel companion was a first-time visitor to the Aloha State.
For those wondering if I lost interest in current events or politics, heck no! For this newspaper column, I was asked to write about travel and more benign topics, which I have been doing over the past few months. I am still a regular columnist at American Thinker, Rasmussen Reports, and on Substack at “Dr Brian’s Substack”, the latter of which offers a free subscription, so you receive all my opinion articles.
Our Hawaiian adventure started with a nonstop flight from Denver to Honolulu, much better direct than a layover on the West coast with dodgy connections and delays. We spent two nights in Waikiki, enjoying a variety of restaurants and lots of good shopping opportunities.
A trip to the Pearl Harbor Museum takes most of a day but is a must for a sobering US history lesson. Honolulu has traffic worse than Denver, so allow ample travel time around town.
Leaving the hustle and bustle of Oahu, we then took a short flight to the Big Island, staying in one of the Kona resorts. The landscape is a giant lava field, barren and bleak, much like the surface of Mars. Interestingly NASA has a base on the island to test the Mars rover on the landscape.
A drive across the island to Volcanos National Park took us from sea level over a 6500 ft pass, like driving from Denver to the mountains. The national park was beautiful with many smoldering volcanoes. A late lunch in Hilo then a drive through rainforest terrain, in sharp contrast to the rest of the island, back to our hotel and a dip in the pool.
Our third island was Kawai, again a short flight on Hawaiian Airlines. Kawaii is lush and green, and a good middle ground in busy-ness between Oahu and the Big Island. Highlights included a sunset dinner catamaran trip around the western coast to the north end of the island, seeing beautiful scenery.
The next day we took a helicopter tour over the island, viewing otherwise inaccessible areas including waterfalls and valleys featured in the movie Jurassic Park. There are lots of helicopter companies to choose from.
Finally, a short flight back to Honolulu and another nonstop flight back to Denver. As flights home leave in the evening, nonstop is the best way, and better yet, fly business class through points or cash to catch some sleep before arriving in Denver at around 600 AM.
We skipped Maui, famous for beautiful resorts at Wailea, but to me that’s a trip better suited for a week of just Maui, rather than island hopping. On all islands the seafood is fresh and delicious, and the days are generally warm and sunny with a nice breeze.
For my travel buddy, she saw the highlights of Hawaii in 8 days and thought my itinerary was ideal for a first-time visitor to our 50th state. Mahalo!