First time vacationing to Hawaii.....suggestions please?

[mcohen1021]

It makes no sense to me to drive to Hana and not see the one and only Hawaiian Red Sand Beach.

Re Haleakala, I'd rather hike there in the park after the sunrise than bike down the road (which imho is touristish, cheesy, and a waste of time). Also, I've been told that watching the sunset from Haleakala is as spectacular as watching sunrise, but the place is not so crowded and you do not have to wake up at 3 am if you are staying in Lahaina. We watched the sunrise after staying the night in the camping, then found good spots to watch. Then the busloads of tourists arrived, some puking from motion sickness.

The Bike Tour is a little bit cheesy yes, but fun one time... I couldn't go into full detail or I would have just published the entire book

For a real Adventure they need to look up the Mad Hawaiian that guards the blue pool LOL

 

[Hoag]

Several years ago I spent a weekend on the Big Island (to celebrate my 50th birthday). One of the things that I did was to go down to where the lava is flowing into the ocean. I was able to get a few good pics, but I would love to do it again and to position myself to shoot the Milky Way with the lava flow in the foreground.

 

[KDAD]

The thing about Haleakela, especially if you are from the East Coast, is to do it early in your trip as you may not have adjusted to the time difference and waking up at 2 am may not be such a shock to you.

 

[mcohen1021]

The thing about Haleakela, especially if you are from the East Coast, is to do it early in your trip as you may not have adjusted to the time difference and waking up at 2 am may not be such a shock to you.

Not to mention, you could get bent going up there!

 

[Deinonych]

The thing about Haleakela, especially if you are from the East Coast, is to do it early in your trip as you may not have adjusted to the time difference and waking up at 2 am may not be such a shock to you.

This is great advice.

 

[ericg753]

Hi everyone, I haven't been on this page in a few days and just saw all the replies. I greatly appreciate everyone's input!! To answer some questions I believe were asked, I am the only one certified in my family, I'm AOW and Nitrox certified with approx 125 dives. I'm open to any type of dive (except cave), I would like to be situated in an area of Hawaii with great diving (including the famous manta ray dives I've seen on YouTube), but also in an area with an abundance of tourist attractions for me and my family to do. Water sports is great, water park, amusement park, shows, restaurants.....that sort of thing. Looking for best time to go where it's the most affordable and can see the most attractions.

I will read everyone's comments on here and again I appreciate the input!!

 

[Chavodel8en]

When I went to Oahu a few years back, I hooked up with local divers to do some shore dives - Not spectacular diving, but pretty good, and cheaper than boat dives. I used Meetup.com to hook up w divers, but this website is also a possibility.

I dived at Sharks Cove on the north shore - a very busy tourist spot & Electric Beach - a fairly isolated site on the west of the island (a power plant that expels warm water into the ocean, attracting fish - hence the name).

I suggest these also because both locations are good snorkeling spots as well, in case your fams wants something to do while you dive. (Altho Ive read warnings about car break ins at Electric Beach - mainly bc its so isolated).

Oahu also has some good wrecks - Ive dove the Sea Tiger (really liked - a big ship looming out of the viz, with lost to explore), the LCU (lots of reef sharks under the upside down amphibious vehicle) & the Corsair (IMO less impressive - its a sunken plane - a small site), but I get the impression that the diving is not as impressive in Oahu as the other islands.

We also stayed on the North Shore (airbnb in Haleiwa) and really liked it -- for its laid back atmosphere. But not much tourist attractions or development on the North Shore.

 

[tarponchik]

Hi everyone, I haven't been on this page in a few days and just saw all the replies. I greatly appreciate everyone's input!! To answer some questions I believe were asked, I am the only one certified in my family, I'm AOW and Nitrox certified with approx 125 dives. I'm open to any type of dive (except cave), I would like to be situated in an area of Hawaii with great diving (including the famous manta ray dives I've seen on YouTube), but also in an area with an abundance of tourist attractions for me and my family to do. Water sports is great, water park, amusement park, shows, restaurants.....that sort of thing. Looking for best time to go where it's the most affordable and can see the most attractions.

I will read everyone's comments on here and again I appreciate the input!!

In Hawaii, Nature is your amusement park For general vacation planning, I highly recommend using Andrew Daughty's guides. Re shore diving at the Big Island, here is a new book, if you or anyone else is interested.

 

[spoolin01]

Have you seen the new book? Does it offer anything new beyond shorediving.com?

I see Kona Honu Divers has made a small number of shore diving videos now, as well.

 

[tarponchik]

Have you seen the new book? Does it offer anything new beyond shorediving.com?

I see Kona Honu Divers has made a small number of shore diving videos now, as well.

Of course. The book adds some sites along the leeward side (Kapa'a, Pebble Beach, "The Rock") and omits most sites inside Kona and on the Hilo side. The big difference with the reviews at shorediving.com is that most of the latter were written by people who did only 1-4 dives at any given site, so their reviews do not give much help in planning the dive. We tried to use shorediving.com reviews during our 1st trip and ended up with pretty much random trajectories underwater. The hardest question was always "Which way we go, left or right?" Also, there is no big picture at shorediving.com. How do the sites compare in various terms? Talking to local divers who already did hundreds (if not thousands) shore dives was way more helpful.