Wife and I have either 8 or 9 days for Hawaii. This will be our first time. We want to see all of Hawaii at some point but realistically I can't see us going more than every 3 or 4 years. We have time and money for 1 trip per year and also like to do Europe pretty often and would like to make trips to central america, brazil, australia, and a few places in asia. Basically we can not go to hawaii more than 1/3 or 1/4 trips. That may even be generous because I just thought about how I want to see the rockies, british columbia, and alaska too.

We are pretty active and really into nature and beautiful places. We also like to hang out on the beach if its relatively uncrowded and pretty. We are not interested in shopping, restaurants or nightlife. I am pretty sure we have zero desire to visit honolulu.

In general we move at a pretty fast pace. We have never spent more than 5 nights anywhere and that was one place on our honeymoon last year. Otherwise we have spent no more than three days anywhere. To give you an idea of us, consider our trip last year. This was about the right pace for us and most would probably consider it to be pretty hectic.

Day 1: Geneva
Day 2-5 Avignon area hitting avignon, orange, les baux, arles, st. remy, point du garde, nimes, aix en provence.
day 6-grand canyon du verdon
day 7-9: Cannes, Nice, st. rafael, antiibes, grasse, gourdon
day 10-12: Monaco, Cinque Terre, Milan
Day 13: Lugano
Day 14-16: Jungfrau region

I have already redeemed a one way award to kauai. I got the date I wanted and was pretty sure I wanted to go to Kauai so I just booked it. I could cancel but it would cost $100 to redeposit.

So I was thinking that we should do two islands with 8 or 9 days. These days are full days and do no include flights to the mainland. Total days gone from home will be 10 or 11. Have not decided if I want to burn the last day of vacation.

So my brother has basically steered me away from oahu. Thought it was too comercialized and says its like California. Nothing special about it. My buddy was telling me that it does have some really good beaches away from HNL that I might enjoy.

My brother and his wife really love Maui. He says that he has seen more awesome sights there than anywhere and that there are so many places to see. I was originally thinking kauai and maui but my brother and sister inlaw made me take out Maui. They basically led me to believe that there are more sights there than anywhere and that I should spend more than 4 days there. They led me to believe that I want to spend a week there. I don't know why but neither of them really enjoyed Kauai.

I was kind of thinking that we will make two trips in the next few years for 8-9 days each. So i was thinking one trip with kauai and big island for four days each and then one with maui and oahu split like 6 and 2. But I am really not sure when the second trip is going to happen and for how long. I am pretty sure that if we have two weeks to work with though we are going to Asia or Australia and anything under a week we are unlikely to go to Hawaii.

So I was going along with the idea of kauai followed by big island for 4 days each. I am running into the problem however that there is really no good flight from LIH-KOA. The last flight of the day I want (2/23) is at 5:40pm. It requires a connection. I am just pretty annoyed at the connection and the fact that the flight is so early. I am wondering if a schedule change is likely to result in a later flight. I kind of feel it takes a good portion of the day and ruins half of it. If I could fly at 8pm or so I would then feel like the day is not ruined. Only dinner is spoiled which I don't care so much about.

So it started crossing my mind that maybe kauai and big island should not be mixed. They are the only two islands that require a connection. I then asked my wife's sister and her husband and they have basically told me the opposite of what my brother said. They think I can easily spend 8 days in kauai alone. That we will not get bored. They also think that if I do another island it should be maui. In there opinion maui has less to see and deserves less time then the big island. They also think that I should spend two nights in Hilo for the volcano and I was thinking day trip from Kona.

So now I am totally confused. I was hoping to use the week around presidents day. I already have saturday 2/19 booked from ORD-LIH. It will cost me $100 to cancel it. I have KOA-LAX-ORD on 2/27 late night held until tomorrow.

Coming back from maui looks difficult right now as first available flight is 3/1 and that is probably too late. ORD-OGG on 2/19 is available. 2/27 and 2/28 are ok to come back from LIH, KOA or HNL. If I don't book the KOA-ORD flight on 2/27 that I have held I am pretty sure it is going to dissapear, but 2/28 should be OK.

I don't know whether I should book the 2/27 KOA-LAX-ORD I have reserved, book 2/27 HNL-ORD nonstop or 2/27 LIH-LAX-ORD or wait and see what's available later.