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Message: Emoticon Listing HTML Help	[quote]I went in August. I was in Honolulu for 4 1/2 days, Maui for 2, and Hilo for 1 day and 1 night. Where I stayed: In Honolulu it was the New Otani at the far end of Waikiki Beach, right under Diamondhead. It was a pretty nice hotel and I swam with a sea turtle right there at the beach. The hotel is the last one and is seperated from the rest of Waikiki Beach by a big park (and there's a huge park on the other side as well - so its not at all developed like the rest of the beach). Which makes it nice, b/c all the other hotels are just right in the middle of the main tourist area and aren't really that relaxed. They also did an amazing Sunday morning breakfast right on the beach. A bit pricey, but seeing the sun come up and eating all the fresh fruit was well worth it. I went to Pearl Harbor (not to the Arizona memorial - to see one of our ships that is based there), to the Hawaii Fish Market (open to the public) which was very interesting. Only problem is that the auction is over by 9:00 so you have to get there early. It's interesting to see all the different types of fish and how the bidders check for the best fish. I hiked Diamondhead. You can go by car into the park, but I walked from the hotel. It took me about 45 minutes to get inside the crater from the hotel and from there it was about 30 minutes to the top (would've been less but for all the tourists). It's worth it just for the amazing view you get from the top. We also toured our facilites on the island which included ones at the University and on the far side of the island. There are a lot of great restaurants and the beach is pretty amazing. The only drawback was the traffic. One place I would definitely not recommend was Hanama Bay. Way too many people, and the coral there is crap compared to other areas off the island. On Maui I stayed at the Maui Prince. It was an amazing hotel (nicest one I've ever been in). 2 balconies, one overlooking the ocean, another looking back into the hills. We spent the majority of our time (read, the morning) at the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary on Maui. It's a very nice place and during whale watching season is the bay is the best place to see the whales, since they come amazingly close to shore. At the visitor's center there is also an acient "fish farm" that the locals are slowly rebuilding. It's interesting to look at b/c that was one of the ways the islanders caught their fish for hundreds of years. B/C we were only on Maui for 2 days, I didn't have time to see the back areas which I would have loved. The snorkeling was amazing just from our beach. 3 of us snorkeled for about 3 hours in the afternoon. We swam under a coral arch, saw coral caves, sea turtles, giant manta rays, and all types of assorted fish. There were 2 restaurants we tried, one was right outside the airport and was Italian. Very good, and not that expensive. The other was the hotel's best restaurant which was very good and extremely expensive. Can't remember the names of either. On Hilo, we basically had a very tight schedule. Landed and about an hour later we were headed up to the top of Mauna Loa to see our atmospheric lab. The drive up was pretty interesting, in so much that the road is very windy, bumpy, and hilly, and it is carved out of the lava flows. (last one on the mountain was in the '40s) The views were pretty amazing, but at 11,000 feet I got a little bit lightheaded. The ride back was definitely spent sleeping as to avoid the effects of the drive. That night we went to Volcanoes National Park. No dinner to speak of, just grabbed some to-go food right outside the park. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. Our group had 3 people that lived in Hawaii and 2 of them were locals so they clued us in on a lot of the local customs, why the volcanoes are unique, etc, etc. The drive down (about 40 minutes from the park entrance) was amazing b/c other than car headlights it was pitch black. Then when you get to a certain point, you start seeing this red glow atop a large hill. It takes you a while but then you realize that the glow is from the lava. We got to the bottom and parked and they had arranged a private tour by one of the park rangers. You have to hike about 30 minutes to get to the lava, following these little yellow markers. The trail is walked 2x a day by the Rangers since the lava can break out at different places and force them to move the trail markers. (if you go at night, bring a flashlight, you'll need it and they don't provide it) It was amazing though. You start getting a bit warmer, but you'll crest a hill, and bam, the temp. will go up 15-20 degrees and you can literally feel the heat. As you get nearer, you can look at cracks in the rocks and you see a faint glow and you realize that it's lava maybe 3-6 feet underneath you, flowing or creeping along in tubes. You can get as close as you want to the lava. I, being quite stupid, got about 2 feet from the lava and got a picture (which turned out horribly). It was truly amazing. We stayed there for about 2 hours. When we got back to the parking lot we were amazed at the clarity of the sky. Since you're right at the edge of the ocean and there is no light pollution the stars are amazing. We saw about 4 shooting stars in 30 minutes. Like I said, it was the highlight of my trip. Cost: No bloody idea. Work paid for it, so I really didn't care what the cost was. I think the room in Honolulu was around $140 (gov't rate), the room in Maui was $200 (should've been $150 but they were out and I had to pay for the next higher grade up. Which I didn't mind since I got 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, a living room, sitting room, kitchen/mini-bar, and some free snacks and bottled water). The hotel in Hilo was crap. We only got it b/c we had an early flight out in the morning. You can spend as much or as little on food as you like. We ate breakfast at one place in Hilo that I paid $10 for an amazing meal which consisted of fried rice in a bowl, with a hamburger patty on top of the rice, 2 eggs sunny side up on the hamburger, topped off with brown gravy (there are thousands of different ways to get it made since you can get spam, white rice, eggs cooked any way, etc). However, I think my bill in Maui at the hotel restaurant came out to be around $90. Which was the per-diem per day for me for the whole trip. (I made some money on that!) I bought the usual souvenirs but those cost about as much as any place. Tours are pretty expensive but there's plenty of stuff to do. I'll post a link to one of my professor's webpage. He's a serious day hiker (walks like 15-20 miles a day) and has been going to Hawaii for 2-4 weeks a year since the dawn of time. And all he does is hike. He's got a great webpage with hikes of varying difficulty with great directions, locations, etc. (no maps though, but everything can be located on a map). I've got my pics on my trip on the web. <a href=http://community.webshots.com/user/methos_66 target=_blank>Hawaii Pictures</a> (On the Honolulu page, there's a pic called "Very end of Waikiki Beach". The hotel I stayed at is the last bldg on the right. The other bldgs are townhouses. You can see the park, and it goes on for about another 1/4 to 1/2 mile before you leave the park and get into the "touristy" part of the beach. I was there for 4 days and I didn't see many people down there at that end of the beach except for locals and guests of the hotel.) I plan on going back. Not really sure about going back to Oahu, but definitely want to check out Molokai and Kauai.[/quote]
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methos_6

This message was updated on 1/19/2003 11:24:19 PM by methos_6

Re: Hawaii, anyone been recently?
replied on: 1/19/2003 11:22:12 PM

I went in August.

I was in Honolulu for 4 1/2 days, Maui for 2, and Hilo for 1 day and 1 night.

Where I stayed:

In Honolulu it was the New Otani at the far end of Waikiki Beach, right under Diamondhead. It was a pretty nice hotel and I swam with a sea turtle right there at the beach. The hotel is the last one and is seperated from the rest of Waikiki Beach by a big park (and there's a huge park on the other side as well - so its not at all developed like the rest of the beach). Which makes it nice, b/c all the other hotels are just right in the middle of the main tourist area and aren't really that relaxed. They also did an amazing Sunday morning breakfast right on the beach. A bit pricey, but seeing the sun come up and eating all the fresh fruit was well worth it.

I went to Pearl Harbor (not to the Arizona memorial - to see one of our ships that is based there), to the Hawaii Fish Market (open to the public) which was very interesting. Only problem is that the auction is over by 9:00 so you have to get there early. It's interesting to see all the different types of fish and how the bidders check for the best fish.

I hiked Diamondhead. You can go by car into the park, but I walked from the hotel. It took me about 45 minutes to get inside the crater from the hotel and from there it was about 30 minutes to the top (would've been less but for all the tourists). It's worth it just for the amazing view you get from the top.

We also toured our facilites on the island which included ones at the University and on the far side of the island. There are a lot of great restaurants and the beach is pretty amazing. The only drawback was the traffic. One place I would definitely not recommend was Hanama Bay. Way too many people, and the coral there is crap compared to other areas off the island.

On Maui I stayed at the Maui Prince. It was an amazing hotel (nicest one I've ever been in). 2 balconies, one overlooking the ocean, another looking back into the hills. We spent the majority of our time (read, the morning) at the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary on Maui. It's a very nice place and during whale watching season is the bay is the best place to see the whales, since they come amazingly close to shore. At the visitor's center there is also an acient "fish farm" that the locals are slowly rebuilding. It's interesting to look at b/c that was one of the ways the islanders caught their fish for hundreds of years.

B/C we were only on Maui for 2 days, I didn't have time to see the back areas which I would have loved. The snorkeling was amazing just from our beach. 3 of us snorkeled for about 3 hours in the afternoon. We swam under a coral arch, saw coral caves, sea turtles, giant manta rays, and all types of assorted fish.

There were 2 restaurants we tried, one was right outside the airport and was Italian. Very good, and not that expensive. The other was the hotel's best restaurant which was very good and extremely expensive. Can't remember the names of either.

On Hilo, we basically had a very tight schedule. Landed and about an hour later we were headed up to the top of Mauna Loa to see our atmospheric lab. The drive up was pretty interesting, in so much that the road is very windy, bumpy, and hilly, and it is carved out of the lava flows. (last one on the mountain was in the '40s) The views were pretty amazing, but at 11,000 feet I got a little bit lightheaded. The ride back was definitely spent sleeping as to avoid the effects of the drive.

That night we went to Volcanoes National Park. No dinner to speak of, just grabbed some to-go food right outside the park. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. Our group had 3 people that lived in Hawaii and 2 of them were locals so they clued us in on a lot of the local customs, why the volcanoes are unique, etc, etc. The drive down (about 40 minutes from the park entrance) was amazing b/c other than car headlights it was pitch black. Then when you get to a certain point, you start seeing this red glow atop a large hill. It takes you a while but then you realize that the glow is from the lava. We got to the bottom and parked and they had arranged a private tour by one of the park rangers. You have to hike about 30 minutes to get to the lava, following these little yellow markers. The trail is walked 2x a day by the Rangers since the lava can break out at different places and force them to move the trail markers. (if you go at night, bring a flashlight, you'll need it and they don't provide it)

It was amazing though. You start getting a bit warmer, but you'll crest a hill, and *bam*, the temp. will go up 15-20 degrees and you can literally feel the heat. As you get nearer, you can look at cracks in the rocks and you see a faint glow and you realize that it's lava maybe 3-6 feet underneath you, flowing or creeping along in tubes. You can get as close as you want to the lava. I, being quite stupid, got about 2 feet from the lava and got a picture (which turned out horribly). It was truly amazing. We stayed there for about 2 hours. When we got back to the parking lot we were amazed at the clarity of the sky. Since you're right at the edge of the ocean and there is no light pollution the stars are amazing. We saw about 4 shooting stars in 30 minutes. Like I said, it was the highlight of my trip.

Cost: No bloody idea. Work paid for it, so I really didn't care what the cost was. I think the room in Honolulu was around $140 (gov't rate), the room in Maui was $200 (should've been $150 but they were out and I had to pay for the next higher grade up. Which I didn't mind since I got 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies, a living room, sitting room, kitchen/mini-bar, and some free snacks and bottled water). The hotel in Hilo was crap. We only got it b/c we had an early flight out in the morning.

You can spend as much or as little on food as you like. We ate breakfast at one place in Hilo that I paid $10 for an amazing meal which consisted of fried rice in a bowl, with a hamburger patty on top of the rice, 2 eggs sunny side up on the hamburger, topped off with brown gravy (there are thousands of different ways to get it made since you can get spam, white rice, eggs cooked any way, etc). However, I think my bill in Maui at the hotel restaurant came out to be around $90. Which was the per-diem per day for me for the whole trip. (I made some money on that!) I bought the usual souvenirs but those cost about as much as any place. Tours are pretty expensive but there's plenty of stuff to do. I'll post a link to one of my professor's webpage. He's a serious day hiker (walks like 15-20 miles a day) and has been going to Hawaii for 2-4 weeks a year since the dawn of time. And all he does is hike. He's got a great webpage with hikes of varying difficulty with great directions, locations, etc. (no maps though, but everything can be located on a map).

I've got my pics on my trip on the web.
Hawaii Pictures

(On the Honolulu page, there's a pic called "Very end of Waikiki Beach". The hotel I stayed at is the last bldg on the right. The other bldgs are townhouses. You can see the park, and it goes on for about another 1/4 to 1/2 mile before you leave the park and get into the "touristy" part of the beach. I was there for 4 days and I didn't see many people down there at that end of the beach except for locals and guests of the hotel.)

I plan on going back. Not really sure about going back to Oahu, but definitely want to check out Molokai and Kauai.

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