Originally Posted by
SJCFlyerLG
Easy choice for me, since I own a home there - Hawai'i (Big Island). Compared to Oahu and Maui, the Big Island is quite affordable. You can buy a 2BR condo across the road from the beach for $150k. The cost of living is not nearly as high as some have exaggerated it to be, and the weather on the Kona side is fabulous. Of course, if you base your life worrying about disasters, the volcanoes and tsunamis will scare you off. But I'd bet that the Spanish economy will collapse before a natural disaster does any appreciable damage on Hawai'i.
With the big island, you will definitely save a little money vs the likes of Maui and Oahu. When I took a glance at rooms, I didn't see a decent condo for under 250. Which, isn't terrible for such a location, but I didn't quite see 2BR for $150k. A shoebox of a house is $300-400k. Still, highly priced. Hawaii is one of those places that just screams high costs, taxes, and other reasons that will likely only make it worse as time goes on. Still, I've always considered it.
For all of its faults, I would probably pick Florida. There are many reasonably priced locations and many very nice cities. It's also far easier to most places travel from Florida than it is from Hawaii