Hawaii
Where can I see your posts on Hawaii?
Click the see articles button on the right sidebar, or scroll to the bottom of the page for mobile.
When did you travel to Hawaii?
June, 2019.
Which areas of Hawaii did you visit?
We spent the bulk of our time on Maui, primarily Kihei and the Hana area. We also took a quick trip over to Kona on the Big Island.
Why did you go to Hawaii?
A friend of ours from Honduras had been living there for the past five years and we decided it was time to pay him a visit.
How did you get to Hawaii from the continental US?
We flew United Airlines from Birmingham (BHM) to Denver (DEN) (3h), and from DEN to Maui (OGG) (7h).
Traveling between Hawaiian islands is not as easy as you might hope, given that the only option is flying, and flights tend to be expensive. We were lucky to time our visit with Southwest Airlines arriving on the islands. They happened to be offering good deals on inter-island flights.
What advice do you have for someone visiting Hawaii?
→ If you are used to traveling to off-the-beaten-path places in third-world countries, don’t stress packing for Hawaii. Remember, it is still a developed, US state, and thus has all the modern conveniences you can find back home. If you forget something, there is a Target or a Walmart a short ride away.
→ Plan ahead! Hawaii is not a destination where you can show up and just wing it. Airbnbs book up months in advance. Activities book up months in advance, particularly during the summer months when kids are out of school.
→ A trip along the Road to Hana is a must. Camping along the way makes it even more fun, but once again, camper vehicle rentals book up, and permits to park at the camping grounds go fast, so plan ahead if at all possible. Kipahulu is the only campground where you can buy a permit upon arrival, and Plenty Kiawe is the only non-official campground where no permit is required.
→ Be prepared for not all areas to look like the lush green mountainsides you see in the photos. There are many different climates in Hawaii, from rainforest to desert, and many areas are nothing more than large cities.
→ Don’t go overboard on the diving. It is overpriced and overrated. If you are a fellow aquaholic, then you may feel the need to at least get wet and see what’s going on. I wasn’t overly impressed though, and wouldn’t recommend planning a trip solely for the diving.
→ This is going to sound harsh, but I found Hawaii to be vacationland for Americans who are afraid to leave America. We’ve taken a beautiful group of islands, and turned them into more concrete jungle, full of highways and sky rises and lower quality food. If you want your vacation to feel like your normal life, plus the pretty beach, then Hawaii is a great option. Otherwise, if you really want to get out of your bubble, there are way cooler places to go for a fraction of the cost.
→ This isn’t really advice, so much as just interesting information that ties in with there being too many people in Hawaii. The population density in the state is technically 221 people per square mile. This isn’t really an accurate number though, as 48% of the state is designated conservation land, meaning no one lives there, and 47% is agricultural area, meaning very few people live there, so for the sake of argument, let’s just remove that number as well from the habitable area on Hawaii. 1,420,491 people live on 321 square miles of land, making the habitable areas of Hawaii 4 times as densely populated as the state of New Jersey. Now don’t forget that we’re only talking about residents here. Hawaii also hosts an estimated 9.3 million tourists every year. You can imagine how long the lines at Costco get.
Basic Information:
→ Capital: Honolulu
→ Population: 1,420,491
→ Area: 6,423 square miles (16,638 square kilometers)
→ Currency: US dollar
→ Time Zone: UTC -10 (Hawaii-Aleutian Time)
→ Official Languages: English, Hawaiian
