Reddit reviews Hawaii The Big Island Revealed; The Ultimate Guidebook

Kauai is 'the garden island' and is definitely the quietest of them all. It's the most beautiful as well as it's the oldest of the 5 main islands and has the most lush/green/jungle vegetation and stuff. And the NaPali coast along the northern edge of the island is one of the most beautiful sights i've seen. It's illegal to build north past a certain point on Kauai so it's all natural and beautiful. A popular spot for filming movies. Lots of stuff from Jurassic park and 6 days 7 nights and others was filmed there.

If you're looking for a more diverse experience I would recommend the big island (Hawaii). It's pretty cool as it has all temperate zones in the world except for 1 present on the island (Artic temperate zone missing). IT has rainforest, jungle, forest, desert, even snow up on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Being that it is the biggest island there is SO much stuff to do and most of it isn't even touristy. If you're into hiking and/biking there is a ton of trails and hiking paths. If you plan it right you can go in at some places and hike a day or two to a secluded isolated beach (a lot of them black sand beaches) and camp overnight. Those are the best beaches as they're always the quietest. Obviously the beaches that are the hardest to get to are always the quietest and most enjoyable.


If you really want to go to hawaii I would recommend getting ahold of the Big Blue Book of Hawaii and sit down for a weekend and read through it. The book is great and works as an awesome tourguide book. You can literally look up a certain area that you are at in hawaii and it tells you whats there, who is there, any history in the area, tourist stuff to do in the area, non-tourist stuff to do in the area, activities, costs of activities (if any), where to eat in the area (also rates restaurants, etc). There is a book for every island and they're all good.

Keep in mind that it is expensive over there. There are obviously a lot of cool free/cheap things to do though. We spent a day going over to the cook monument (where Captain Cook died). The whole day cost us 40 bucks and that's only for the kayak rental. That day on the way over to the monument there was a school of about 30 dolphins slowly calmly swimming around the bay. At the actual site you can see the monument that's built there and the plaque of where he died (supposedly) and snorkel at the spot (may have to rent/buy snorkel gear if you don't have any). But yeah. That was a day itself and only cost 40 bucks to rent the kayak (plus whatever you have for lunch).

All the beaches are free to visit and hang out as well. Matter of fact every beach in hawaii whether it's private or not, it's state law that they have to allow public access to the beach. So you can go and tan/swim/frolick at the same beach that the Hilton hotel patrons use.

tldr; Hawaii is awesome.

Kona airport is on the west side (the "dry" side) of the island. Its just north of a touristy area called Kailua. In addition there are some big box retail and a grocery stores in this area, if I remember correctly. I don't know your budget, but this is probably a cheaper place to stay as well.

We stayed at the Hapuna Beach Prince, which was great. I also know people who have stayed at the Hilton Waikaloa and loved it.

Restaurants: depends on your taste, but our favorite breakfast/lunch place was the Hawaiian Style cafe in Kamuela. For a more upscale dinner, we really liked Roy's.

More than anything, I would recommend you get this book - it was dead on about EVERYTHINg.