Originally Posted by
controller1
First of all, welcome to FT!
Mrs. controller1 and I have gone to Hawaii each of the last three years and will be in Hawaii in late May/early June this coming year. IMO, you have too much time in Oahu especially if most of your time is in the Honolulu area. (Imagine big city such as Dallas or Houston, with their traffic problems, on the Pacific Ocean). IMO, Oahu is just not the idyllic Hawaii one thinks of when they see Hawaii postcards. I would take those last two days scheduled for Oahu and split them between Maui and Kauai.
Have fun!
Aloha!
I disagree a bit. Yes, Waikiki is very busy - too busy for my taste as I've gotten older, but we just spent 11 nights at Ko Olina on Oahu (June 2009) and had the best vacation! We used to live on the windward side (on the Marine Corps Base at Kaneohe Bay) so we love exploring Oahu, and have taken our kids back 4 times only to Oahu (mostly due to being too lazy once there to spend a day traveling to and from another island, but next year will do a week on the Big Island as well as a week on Oahu).
Ko Olina is a long drive from Waikiki, but has a neighbor island feel. It has excellent snorkeling at their man made lagoons, and we have a timeshare at the Marriott, so have a condo with a kitchen, they have gas grills for bbq (yum, fish!) and a brand new Costco and Target right there for staples. To us, that was a great vacation, with day trips to the North Shore, Kailua beach, Waikiki, the Dole plantation, etc... Plus lots of downtime.
I think three islands sounds rushed, with the travel time between them added in. You do lose a day each time, or the better part of one, so if it were me, I'd try to maybe concentrate on two islands instead.
We've spent two and three nights on Kauai at a time, and saw a lot. It's small and easy to navigate. Maui, though, is very large, and we've spent a week at a time, and didn't see everything! The Big Island was so great, to fly into Kona and out of Hilo, with so much to see and explore. We did five days of that, and had a great trip (with baby in tow, DS was 6 months old, great age for that as he rode in the backpack for our hikes).
With a large group, I'd look into condos instead of traditional hotel rooms. On Waikiki there is a new Embassy Suites even, maybe too small for the whole group, but they have two bedroom suites. Also, I've heard great things about the Aston (I forget which one) condo unit in Waikiki. It is nice to have a washer/dryer (the Aston does) as you only need casual clothes and swimwear in Hawaii, and we change a lot (in the heat and all).
Definitely do not miss the Aloha Flea Market on Oahu - every weekend and Wednesday. We always pick up macadamia nuts, dried fruits, homemade jams, and $3 tee shirts at it! It's very near Pearl Harbor, at the stadium.