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Planning a Hawaii vacation this year and trying to decide which is the best Hawaiian island to visit? Hawaii trip planning can be challenging if you don't pick the right island from the get-go. So, in today's video we are covering which Hawaii island to visit based on what they have to offer, who they are best for, and some of the most popular highlights of each. These are our top tips for choosing the right Hawaiian island for your vacation.
Whether you are looking for a Hawaii family vacation, a group vacation, or just a small getaway, we will cover which islands will work best for your trip.
*One key Hawaii vacation tip - this is just a general guide. If one or more islands sound good to you, go a little deeper by researching that specific island further. A great resource for that is Hawaii Vacation Guide here on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQKqqaGPElld0rTSvQOEYXA. A big thank you to them for helping with the information in this video.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:20 Kauai
3:23 The Big Island
6:00 Maui
8:18 Oahu
10:39 Recap
#HawaiiTripPlanning #HawaiiVacation
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0:00
So you're thinking of going to Hawaii, but you have no idea which island to go to
0:03
These are our top tips for how to choose which island to go to. Let's go ahead and dive in
0:13
Okay, so one thing they all have in common is they all have amazing beaches
0:17
amazing outdoor activities, water activities, culture, history, beauty in spades and spades and spades
0:25
So that is common to all of the islands. So if that's the case, does it matter which island you go to
0:31
Well, ultimately, any island you pick, you're going to have a good time
0:35
But if there are certain things about certain islands, certain feel of what is available and how the atmosphere is
0:43
that might make it the ideal vacation for you. Or even though it would be enjoyable, maybe not the best place for you to go
0:51
So let's go ahead and jump into each island and what it has to offer. All right, before I jump into all of the islands, I want to thank my friends over at the Hawaiian Vacation Guide, and I will link that below
1:01
They were instrumental in helping me to get all of this information down so that I could share it with you
1:07
But they also have a website where they share some itineraries, and I do recommend visiting that if you are planning to head out and you'd like to get some ideas of what to see and what to do when you go to Hawaii
1:17
So with that in mind, let's go ahead and jump into our first island, which is Kauai
1:21
Kauai is the least populated island with only about 72,000 people in the population
1:28
And it's fairly easy to get around from going from one side of the island to the other
1:32
It only takes about two hours by car, depending on traffic. There is only one main road that goes around
1:38
So if there is traffic, it might take a little bit longer. Now, this is a tropical garden island
1:45
It does have a lot more rainfall than some of the other islands. It's more of a jungle feeling
1:51
Winter especially is when you're going to get a lot of rainfall. And because of the small population, this is a much quieter island
1:58
So this is also the home of Waimea Canyon, which is the Grand Canyon of the Pacific
2:04
It's also the Nepali Coast, which are cliffs that you take boat tours and you can see the cliffs, which are amazing
2:11
Wailua Falls is also here. Hei Bay, Poipu Beach. These are just some of the highlights that you can see and do on Kauai
2:18
Now, this is a great island to go to if you are into, you're wanting something very quiet and peaceful, perfect for romance, those honeymoons, baby moons
2:30
Families could go here, but it's recommended that you go with older children or teens because the smaller children, there's just not as much to do
2:38
Also, really young couples that are looking for nightlife or singles that are looking for nightlife
2:42
This is not really the best island to go to. It's a great island to go to, but if you're wanting that type of entertainment, this maybe isn't your best spot
2:50
Because it's quieter, things tend to shut down earlier, and there's not really a lot of nightlife to have to offer here
2:58
Also, to be noted, is in the wintertime, the beaches can get a little bit rough because the weather is a little different
3:06
So it's not necessarily somewhere you would want to go surfing or swimming or snorkeling, especially in the winter months
3:12
But it is a great place to visit for all of the other hiking and outdoor activities and relaxation and everything else that it has to offer
3:21
All right, now let's move on to the Big Island. The Big Island is the largest
3:27
In fact, if you put all of the other islands together, they still are not as big as the Big Island
3:33
Now, this one actually has about 200,000 people that live on the island
3:37
But because it is so large, it feels far, far, far less populated than it is, even though technically that is the second most biggest population in Hawaii
3:49
This is the home of the active volcano. And oftentimes it is erupting, which is it's not necessarily spewing rocks and fire, but it is a slow molten lava that that does erupt on occasion
4:02
And oftentimes you can take a tour and get as close as possible
4:06
Well, you can't get all the way to the lava, but you can get, well, as close as possible
4:10
But going to the Volcano National Park is amazing. It is definitely something worth seeing and something worth visiting
4:17
The Big Island is also home to 11 of the 13 climates of the world
4:23
So you can go anywhere from desert to high alpine to rainforest and all of the other things in between
4:30
It really can go from, you know, you can experience everything on the Big Island
4:35
and in certain circumstances with certain weather you could even ski at the top of the island and
4:42
the top of the highest mountain in the island all right some of the highlights of this island
4:46
is it is coffee country if you are a coffee lover this is where you can go to that Kona coffee farms
4:52
and to be able to experience the coffee of the island also as I mentioned the volcano We also had Hilo which is an old and smaller town more on the volcano side of the island
5:06
You also have Kona, which is a resort style town, which is on the drier side of the island and has fantastic weather
5:12
We also have the Mauna Kea Observatories. So this is an excellent place if you are an astronomer or a volcanologist, also perfect for families, for couples, for people who are looking to be active
5:25
there's also horse ranches up on uh some of the interior of the island um coffee lovers
5:32
it's really just can be for a lot of different people now it is on the quieter side as far as
5:38
nightlife and shopping although there is a little tiny bit of that if but if that is your primary
5:44
reason for going i wouldn't go to the big island i would go to another instead which i will talk
5:49
about shortly but otherwise um big island is is good for a lot of different things for a lot of
5:55
different people all right let's go to the next island which is maui now maui tends to be the most
6:04
popular with uh celebrities a lot of celebrities go there it tends to be a lot of people who are
6:10
more luxury travels go there but it's you there is cheaper accommodations available but maui does
6:16
tend to be the most expensive island because they have a lot of luxurious resorts on that island
6:21
But you can also camp and glamp. And there are there are also hostels that you can stay at to make it a little more cost effective
6:29
But Maui is the second largest island. It comes in at about one hundred and forty thousand forty five thousand people
6:36
So it's a tiny bit more crowded and it does get a lot of crowds during the vacation times
6:41
It is fantastic for whale watching, for snorkeling. In fact, they have some of the best snorkeling in the world on Maui, also known for some amazing beaches
6:53
And you can even see their volcano, which doesn't erupt as actively. But that top of that volcano is a fantastic place to see the sunrise and the sunsets
7:03
In fact, you can do a bike ride down from the top of the volcano at sunrise, which is fantastic
7:11
Maui is also the home of the road to Hana. Like I said, it has the best snorkeling in the world and also amazing for whale watching
7:19
which the high season for that is December through March. Maui is fantastic for just about everybody
7:26
It has a little bit of something for everybody, whether you are looking to be more active
7:31
families, couples, romance, luxury. Maui really has something for absolutely everybody. Maui is also the closest location to the side islands of Molokai and Lanai, which you can take a ferry to and explore those when you have a moment when you're on Maui
7:51
Also, it's a good idea if you stay on the dry side of Maui, which is Kanapali or Lahaina, and then you can take your adventures on the wet side of the island
7:59
Now, Maui is a mix of Kauai in the slow, quiet pace of Kauai and the fast-paced crowds of Oahu, which I'll talk about in a moment
8:11
So it's that perfect mix of the two if you're looking for something in between
8:15
Now, speaking of Oahu, Oahu is the most populated. They have about a million people
8:23
It's also the home of the state capital. Also, incidentally, it is typically the main hub that you would fly into from other places
8:31
It's usually the cheapest to get into and usually has the most, usually is your stopover when you're going on to maybe the Big Island or Hawaii
8:40
Not always, but a lot of the times. Oahu is also known for its fantastic triple crown surfing
8:47
It is the home of the North Shore and those mammoth waves that you've seen maybe on TV or in movies in the wintertime
8:56
It's the home of Pearl Harbor. It has a ton of history and museums
9:00
It is also Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head. It also has, again, the North Shore area, Honolulu area, which is like a big city vibe
9:11
So there's tons of shopping, nightlife, high rises, just kind of your typical city feel
9:17
but right on the beach. It also is the home of the Disney Resort Aulani and Luxury Resorts of
9:22
Ko'olina, which is a fantastic, gorgeous place to go. It has really absolutely everything. You have
9:30
the big city shopping, nightlife, everything that you have to offer, all of the amazing surfing
9:34
snorkeling, outdoor activities, water activities in the main city of Honolulu and near Waikiki
9:40
But if you go to other parts of the islands, you can actually get away from the crowds. It's a lot quieter. There's a lot more, you know, forest, not forest, but tropical
9:50
surroundings and hiking, and you can get away from the crowds as well. So Oahu really, really
9:56
does have just about anything you can imagine And if you somebody that likes the nightlife and the shopping it the perfect place to go because it gonna have the most of that of anything It also fantastic for families for historians
10:10
for singles and couples and surfers, for shoppers, for foodies. It's really something for everybody
10:16
And again, if you don't like that big city feel and crowds
10:20
if you're on Oahu, you can stay in other places like Ko'olina and on the other side of the island
10:26
which will be quieter or you can always escape to those other areas for it to be quieter
10:30
but if you absolutely hate crowds and don't want anything to do with crowds you might want to pick
10:35
one of the other islands as your first stop all right so that is just a really quick overview of
10:40
each of the islands so if you want a little bit of everything including shopping and nightlife and
10:45
food and everything oahu is a good bet if you want to stay away from the crowds but you still
10:50
want everything there is to offer. Maui is a good bet. If you're looking to get completely away of
10:56
the really high popular islands and want to go someplace far more quiet, I recommend the Big
11:01
Island or Kauai. Kauai is going to be more rainforest and garden. It has that Grand Canyon
11:07
of the Pacific, Waimea Canyon, the Nepali cliffs, or the Big Island, which is going to have the
11:13
volcano, the observatory, and it's going to have the coffee farms and things like that. So hopefully
11:20
that's a good overview to help you pinpoint which island you would like to go to on your Hawaiian
11:24
vacation. Let's go ahead and hop over. I want to talk to you about some of the deals that are
11:29
available right now to get to Hawaii. All right, let's talk a little bit about finding the best
11:36
prices for your Hawaii trip. Now, right now, I am on one of my favorite all-time websites for
11:42
finding flights, Google flights. And the reason I like that, and there are many, and I have many
11:47
videos to explain why and I'll link those somewhere up here. But they consolidate all of the prices
11:54
across the internet. So it's nice one place where you can find the absolute best pricing. And I love
12:00
it because you can really tweak it and hone in so you know and feel confident that you're always
12:06
getting the best price. And to learn more about that, go take a look at one of my other videos
12:11
But for now, I just want to show you Hawaii and kind of illustrate some of the pricing that you
12:16
can get right now. Now I'm looking for kind of a popular time. I'm looking July 2nd through July
12:23
11th, and it is currently 2021. So still the tail end of COVID, but I have a feeling that they are
12:30
anticipating higher travel in the summer as more vaccines get across the nation. And so I see
12:37
pricing starting to go up a little bit for Hawaii. If I were to leave right now to go to Hawaii or go
12:42
maybe between now and March, and for me right now, it's February. If I already go between now
12:47
and maybe about March before spring break, I can actually get prices as low as $198 per person
12:53
But as we get closer to the 4th of July holiday, of course, prices are going up
12:58
and the anticipation that there'll be more travel this summer with the vaccine
13:02
things are starting to go up. But I wanted to show this to you so you can see an idea of which
13:07
islands are more expensive and less expensive to get to, because this might affect your decision
13:11
to which islands you're going to go to. So as you can see, as I was saying before, this is the
13:17
island of Oahu where Honolulu is. And this is usually the cheapest entry point into Hawaii
13:23
It's also oftentimes the primary stop if you're going onto Kauai or onto the Big Island
13:29
Occasionally you can find direct flights, but a lot of times you'll go through Honolulu on your
13:32
way out. But as you can see for this timeframe, getting to Oahu is about $317 per person
13:38
whereas Maui is $440. The island of Hawaii which is the big island goes up to about $450
13:47
Kauai comes in at about $430 for this particular time frame and you can scroll through all of the
13:54
airports that are available in Hawaii so you can decide which ones will work best for you
14:00
Again take a look at one of those videos where I show you all of the little tips and tricks and
14:04
things that you can tweak to make sure you're getting the best price. All right. So now that
14:09
you know, which islands are cheaper to go to, depending on what timeframe you're looking for
14:13
let's go ahead and hop over to hotels and take a look at those as well and see which ones are
14:19
coming out as the cheaper options. All right. So now we are on the Google hotel screen and I like
14:24
them for the same reasons. It consolidates a lot of prices from all over the web and helps you to
14:29
hone in on who has the best price. You don't actually book anything on either Google Hotels
14:35
or on Google Flights. All it does is point you to who has the cheapest rate, and then you go to
14:40
their website in order to complete your bookings. And again, those videos have more information
14:45
But I wanted to show you what Hawaii looks like from a hotel perspective, and you can see that it
14:50
is very similar. Let me reduce this down just a tiny bit. So this is the big island here. This is
14:56
Maui this is Oahu and this is Kauai So as you can see as far as just some basic pricing so this is going to include your very cheapest hotels all the way up to your most expensive hotels So there are some cheaper
15:09
hotels to be had here in the Hilo area by the volcano. This is the Kona area of the big island
15:16
so that gets a little more expensive because that's like the main resort section where it has
15:21
the really good weather and that's where most of the resorts, the big resorts are on the big island
15:26
on Maui you can see prices go up quite a bit because they do have quite a bit of luxury
15:32
hotels available on Malakai you can actually stay there as well and there's some a little
15:38
bit less expensive hotels available and again these are pricing per night again right now I
15:44
have it set for May 22nd through the 31st so it's hovering over that Memorial Day weekend
15:49
so prices are a little bit higher if you can go on non-holidays you might be able to get better
15:53
pricing. Oahu's kind of in the middle here, as you can see from, if you stay in the Kona area
16:00
you know, from the 160s high kind of in Maui, a little mid in here, and then a little bit higher
16:05
in Koi. So Oahu still ends up having more cheaper options, but you can still find good deals on the
16:12
big island at Maui and on Koi. But this kind of helps you to get just a basic idea of which
16:18
where you can find prices in your range on these islands. And again, I have a video about this
16:25
where it shows how to tweak all of these parameters so that you can make sure you're getting
16:29
the absolute best price for where it is that you would like to go. All right, that being said
16:34
one of the things that I always recommend when you're planning a trip to a major area
16:39
such as Hawaii, Europe, Japan, like when you're going to, or even Mexico
16:45
if you're going to a major typical touristy kind of a place, chances are you're going to be able to
16:51
find package rates at most package companies. And let me tell you a little bit about what I mean
16:58
So if you go to here, for instance, is Costco's travel package planner, and this is for Hawaii
17:06
And if you scroll down, scroll down here, you can see some of the packages that they have available
17:12
currently. And again, it is February of 2021. So these are some of the packages they have available
17:17
Now, one of the things and the reasons why I always recommend at least checking with certain
17:22
package suppliers is that they can offer little extras. So for instance, here you get a hundred
17:28
resort credit, you get a tour credit. Some of these other ones here, you know, this one's a
17:35
$300 resort credit. You get a full size rental car. They can offer you little extras that you
17:40
wouldn't be able to get by planning everything on your own individually. So if you booked your
17:45
hotel here and your car here and your airline here, you wouldn't necessarily get all these
17:50
little extra perks. By going to a company that gives you a package, oftentimes you can find these
17:57
little perks. So this, for instance, is Costco. If you happen to have a Costco card, there is also
18:02
AAA. They have a lot of specials, always for Hawaii. And again, different little added on
18:09
things, activity vouchers, best price guarantees, certain little add-ons and things that you can do
18:15
The other place I always recommend checking is if you have either a credit card for a certain
18:20
airline or you are a member of a certain airline. So say you're a member of Delta's plan or
18:26
American Airlines or whomever. Always go to the airlines website because almost all of them have
18:33
a vacation package section. So for instance, this is American Airlines and I just did just a basic
18:39
search for Hawaii. And here are a couple of the packages that they have available. If you have
18:44
Delta, if you have United, if you have Hawaii and Alaska, all of them have packages available for the
18:50
main touristy kind of places that you would go. And it's always worth looking at them. If you
18:57
happen to be a member of that, you know, airline plan that they have the, the miles plan that they
19:03
have, or you have a credit card for that airline. Reason being is not only do you get the perks of
19:10
whatever package they happen to have at that time, but by having points for that, or miles
19:17
available for that airline, you can use some of those miles towards your vacations. You can also
19:22
use them for upgrades and for other little perks that you can do. So if you do happen to belong or
19:28
have a membership to any of those airlines, I always recommend checking their vacation options
19:33
as well, their package options as well. Okay, so that was a ton of information on not just what
19:39
island to go to, but how you can find the best prices and how to book your vacation to the
19:44
Hawaiian Islands. If you would like to learn more about booking those really cheap flights, or at
19:48
least how to know you've gotten the most, the cheapest flights available, take a look at this
19:53
Google video here. And if you'd like to learn the latest COVID restrictions in Hawaii, take a look
19:57
at the video here. And other than that, I want to thank you so much for stopping by. Stay safe
20:02
and I will see you on the next video. Bye-bye
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