Vacation ideas? Hawaii?

[dreamingWest]

As a no-passport alternative to Hawaii, consider St. John.

 

[ddd-shooter]

Throw Alaska in the mix. Go visit Denali

Seriously thinking about Alaska as well

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Seriously thinking about Alaska as well

Yep, why not? Everybody else does it. You should at least see it once.

 

[dirtytough]

Virgin islands are nice. Especially coming from the east coast.

 

[displacedtexan]

This year our summer vacation is an Alaskan cruise.

We tend to do tropical when it's cold at home (just got back from Jamaica) and North/mountains in the summer.

Also, we don't have kids, so I'm sure that's a factor.

 

[Mk44]

I've done Hawaii twice... Maui, Oahu, Kauai & the Big Island.
1st time was our honeymoon. 2nd time (recently) with the family. I'm not planning on going back. Too many tourists. too crowded. I would rather spend the $$ seeing a different country.

 

[TCUHunter34]

Seriously thinking about Alaska as well

We saw a pack of wolves that had just killed a caribou. A sow Grizzly fighting with a boar over her cub as well. We had an amazing trip to Denali.

 

[Huntindog45]

i am a big fan of kona. been to most of the touristy places on a few of the islands. I love Maui too but Kona is more low key and usually less expensive. Also been to Kauai a couple times and I would not spend more than a couple days there.

 

[jimh406]

I've been to Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. We've been to each a few times. The island of Hawaii is on our list of islands to go to.

Oahu is most developed, Maui is middle of the road, and Kaui is least developed. All have options for hiking or to go to an area that isn't very developed. You can have a good time at all places in the outdoors, but Honolulu is the only "good sized city" at around 350K vs 50K for the next largest city on any island. That means it has city conveniences and city issues.

I feel a car is pretty much required for Maui and Kauai. Not required at all for Oahu. You can rent a car for a day in the Waikiki area or ride tour buses, taxi, Uber, shuttles, etc.

We do Hawaii to relax and prefer walking over driving while there. So, that means we usually fly to Honolulu and take a taxi to Waikiki where we stay across from the beach. Taxis are not that much more expensive than the shuttle if there are at least two of you and take you direct to your hotel instead of stopping at all hotels. There are a lot of types of restaurants. You can dine in or have it delivered to your Hotel. We usually walk out, but we did have food delivered once to our hotel last time. There are a lot of places to catch the sunset in the Waikiki area.

Have fun.

 

[Mojave Kid]

Maui: La Haina and kaanapali are full of restaurants and bars and are great places for first timers to the Island. Kauai is much slower and is more remote on the Princeville/Hanalei side of the island. The beaches won't be crazy packed and nightlife closes early after dinner. hiking, snorkeling and many other adventure oportunities just like the other islands. You better hurry and book, cause prices get stupid and availability of rental cars can be an issue.

 

[Blacktocomm]

I see in the thread you are debating Hawaii or Alaska and I would choose one vs. the other depending on when you go.

We live in the PNW and attempt to go to each state 1x a year for maybe a week or so. Hawaii every February and Alaska sometime in Late August or Early September.

We always go to Kauai as it is our favorite island and when we go is the height of whale watching. We go to get some vitamin D and just do nothing for a week before work gets busy.

Alaska in the fall is our "fire season" escape and has killer fishing and amazing hiking/outdoors if you aren't hunting.

So I would say Alaska and Hawaii are both totally worth the trip and I would pick where I was going based on the dates for a planned vacation.

 

[Johnny Tyndall]

I've only been to Kauai and the Big Island, but I'm surprised by the lack of love for the latter, I thought it was great. Big, super diverse, all kinds of cool stuff. Great beaches, including some that are a little more remote, everything from desert to rainforest (like 15 miles apart too), good snorkeling all over, active volcanoes, Mauna Loa, South Point, coffee plantations...I'd recommend getting out of Kona and staying a few days on each end of the island.

That's a kind of a cruising around trip though, if you want to hit a resort and stay put, there are probably better options.

 

[dreamingWest]

I agree with the above, the Big Island is great. If I ever go back with my kids, that will my choice. There are plenty of nice beaches and resorts on the west side. I do want to check out Kauai next time.

 

[bojangles808]

My wife and I went to all inclusive Excellence Resorts in Cancun last summer for a week without our kids. Including airfare, the whole trip cost us under 3k. I can't wait to go back.

the seaweed situation has gotten really bad down there other wise id wholeheartedly agree that maya riviera is great value. i live in maui and love the caribbean, the adults only all inclusives are hard to beat. however we are headed there next month and the seaweed a bit of a crapshoot. I tried to convince my wife to pivot to turks and caicos but she loves mexico and still wants to chance it so we will see. we had a trip to vieques in puerto rico ruined by the seaweed it can really ruin the vibe.


as for hawaii main islands.
kauai imo is the best to visit, scenery unmatched. you must get a rental car (check costco if youre a member). south shore way less rain. north shore spectacular but rains a lot more so there's more risk. condo and cook your own food best value for all hawaiii.
maui. a lit bit of everything. some scenery but not as spectacular as kauai but a little bit more to do than kauai. maui and kauai most expensive islands.
big island. mauna kea beach hapuna beaches are really nice. way more spread out if you want to explore. but a lot cheaper and better value
oahu. think of LA on an island.bit of a cesspool. I would avoid unless you can afford kailua lanikai condo.
id skip lanai or molokai if its your first time

also any time kids are out of school things are way busier and more expensive, at least for maui but probably other islands too. may and september shoulder seasons best imo

 

[Mag_7s]

the seaweed situation has gotten really bad down there other wise id wholeheartedly agree that maya riviera is great value. i live in maui and love the caribbean, the adults only all inclusives are hard to beat.

We were at Excellence Playa Mujeres last September (defently not a great idea before archery elk). The beaches and water around the resort areas were free of the seaweed, but you could see it about a half mile out.
I totally agree, the value is hard to beat. I couldn't believe how cheap it was.

 

[lundellhunting7]

Me and my wife go to Hawaii every year. Kauai, Maui and Big island are all awesome with lots of things to do!

We are going on a cruise next month to Bahamas and Turks so we will see if we like them.

 

[Macintosh]

Its been a while, but spent several months on the big island, and also a couple summers in various places in AK. Both cool, but I know which one my wife would highly prefer for a vaca. Personally I'd choose based on time of year. Snorkelling was pretty fun in hawaii, thats about the only place that felt like it had some elbow room.

Awesome. Thanks for the info. Im really not a beach person either; this trip is more for the wives. My friend and I are considering packing the 7 weights and hiring a guide to do a little fishing while down there.

I was just around cancun a couple weeks ago. Not at one of those resorts, but we rented an airbnb near playa del carmen, rented a car and drove around a bunch basically looking for mom and pop restaurants in small towns. The strip and beach scene around cancun was not my speed AT ALL, but once off the tourist strip it was pretty cool. Things change fast obviously and I did see the state dept upped the warning level for Americans, but we did not feel unsafe anywhere we went. There is a pretty heavy militarized police presence in the tourist towns to make the tourists feel safer. Obviously anything could happen (same as lots of places in the US and elsewhere), but honestly the economy of that area would crash if it was really unsafe, I'd go again in a heartbeat. Make an attempt to get by in Spanish and everyone we met tripped over themselves to be friendly. The rental car was cheap, if your buddy and you want to get away its a couple hour drive to chichinitza (go early to avoid the heat) and there's a couple cool small and mid-sized towns near there to grab a big sit down lunch, then go swim in one of the cenotes on the drive back. The strip in cancun or playa del carmen was about like a sanitized version of bourbon street, i.e. all the commercialized American and global tourist retailers, ice cream shops and trinket shops, with not much authenticity left. Get off the strip and the food is a heck of a lot better too. There was plento of sargasso on the beaches. Looks like they clean it up every couple days, but honestly its seaweed not broken glass, it isnt going to hurt you and it keeps the obnoxious crowd a bit at bay...there is a silver lining to it!

 

[MattB]

I know you said no passports but I would go to Cabo San Lucas 10 out of 10 times over Hawaii.

 

[bojangles808]

We were at Excellence Playa Mujeres last September (defently not a great idea before archery elk). The beaches and water around the resort areas were free of the seaweed, but you could see it about a half mile out.
I totally agree, the value is hard to beat. I couldn't believe how cheap it was.

That's what I heard is playa mujeres is blocked by isla mujeres so it stays relatively seaweed free. I might book there as a contingency plan and watch the webcams for PDC as we get closer to our trip

 

[EMAZ]

Seriously thinking about Alaska as well

You didn’t mention in your original post where you’re headed from and what you and, likely more importantly, what your wife enjoys doing on vacation…that might help for better targeted recommendations