Pondering Hawaii

[darthVWader]

Originally posted by freshprince1
That's a great deal!

We'll be heading to K'auai with the kids (4 & 2) at the end of this month. We're pumped, this will be our first time in K'auai.

Good luck with the trip!

Make sure to take the little ones to Lydgate park. http://www.explorekauai.com/lydgate.html

[msommers]

This seems kind of silly to ask but anyways, in Hawaii my Alberta Driver's License will be valid right? As in, I don't need a International Driving Permit. The rental agreement just states a valid driver's license which seems like my AB DL should be fine.

[finboy]

alberta license is fine

[taemo]

anyone done skydiving in Oahu?
my cousin and i are thinking of doing it but can't decide which one is the best

[finboy]

Done it twice with skydive Hawaii, amazing experience and THE best view you will get of he island. Get your life insurance first though, once you go skydiving, you are considered high risk and will have a hard time getting insurance for 3 years.

Check the weather, book online for a good price, don't bother with the video, and get some good maps to get the site, because it is somewhat in the middle of nowhere. Also, if you go during whale season, you may see some in the waters.

Definitely do it though, it is an experience you will never regret.

[taemo]

^thanks man, any specific company that you recommend or just whichever the cheapest?

[Stunt66]

I'm booked for june and went with http://www.skydivehawaii.com/. Most of the prices are the same but these guys have the highest altitude jump. 14,000-15,000ft as compared to th normal 10,000ft. I researched like crazy and from what i found all the skydive places in oahu are hit and miss. You could literally wait 2 hours or all day to jump and the weather is a big thing to keep an eye on. They're about an hour from waikiki and offer a shuttle but ive read its not worth it unless you can pretty much waste an entire day, some people have wrote that they jumped early but had to hang around for hours because the shuttle wasnt full(its a free ride tho)
when are you going taemo?

[taemo]

^will be there april 12-22 and will be staying at Kaaawa.
that's the skydiving company I was planning to go as well.

[Stunt66]

Did you go skydiving taemo?

[taemo]

Originally posted by Stunt66
Did you go skydiving taemo?

sure did
We stayed at the Windward side so it was a quick 40min drive for us.
I booked for 8:30 but we didn't get into the plane until about 9:30, had to watch a quick video, weigh you if you look over 200lbs and we had to wait for a group before us.
We got really lucky as the time and weather was perfect, plus it wasn't too bad of a wait.

The ride to 10k ft is a little chilly and the free fall dive but nothing that we canadians have ever encountered.
I was wearing shorts, shirt and sneakers so maybe bring a sweater.

My cousin bought pictures and video of her jump
I wouldn't mind doing it again for sure and maybe train for solo jump.

i'll post some pics of the jump from my cousins dvd later this afternoon

[Stunt66]

Nice!!!!! who did you end up going with?

[freshprince1]

Originally posted by mr2mike
Just got back from Kauai and it was excellent.

My 2 cents to add to help some people out.
Book your car rentals on priceline.com or through costco.ca if you have a costco membership. Way cheaper that way.

freshprince1: I don't mean to rain on your parade but my wife and I were thinking, why on earth would you bring young kids to Hawaii?!?
The flight is a killer for them.
Its not like they'll remember most of it.
Your excursions like kayaking, hiking or items like this are limited with them.
It just seems like you'd be best off with California with them till they get older. And don't get me wrong, you're not the only one. There had to be more little kids on our Hawaii flight than any flight I've taken to California or Phoenix.

Everyone travelling there: Bring ear plugs for the # of kids crying at the end of hour 3.

Also our Westjet plane (there and back) did NOT have TV sets. So bring your own form of entertainment (ipod, tablet, etc.)

Those are the downsides to prepare everyone for. After that, enjoy paradise!

Do you have kids? We've vacationed without them and it just wasn't the same. We like having the kids with us. They travel well, niether of them making a peep on the airplane both there and back. They loved the trip, loved the beaches and had so much fun. The greatest joy in my life is seeing my kids smile and have a good time. The in-laws came with us so they babysat for a couple of days which allowed us to hike Na'Pali Coast, Queens bath and go out for a few nice dinners. We had a blast and wouldn't do it any other way. And I disagree, I think they will remember it, or at least going on the trip and having a good time. They were with us on the big island a couple years ago and my daughter still talks about it.

I'll add some pictures to my thread...the vacation was great, everyone had an awesome time. Kaua'i is a great island.

[Stunt66]

Originally posted by freshprince1


Do you have kids? We've vacationed without them and it just wasn't the same. We like having the kids with us. They travel well, niether of them making a peep on the airplane both there and back. They loved the trip, loved the beaches and had so much fun. The greatest joy in my life is seeing my kids smile and have a good time. The in-laws came with us so they babysat for a couple of days which allowed us to hike Na'Pali Coast, Queens bath and go out for a few nice dinners. We had a blast and wouldn't do it any other way. And I disagree, I think they will remember it, or at least going on the trip and having a good time. They were with us on the big island a couple years ago and my daughter still talks about it.

I'll add some pictures to my thread...the vacation was great, everyone had an awesome time. Kaua'i is a great island.

Said like a true parent We'll be going with our 2 girls, 6 months and 4 years old and would never travel without them(most of the time lol). My 4 year has been on planes many times without hassles, she went to europe when she was 6 months and not a peep. I cant say the same about all kids tho because i've been on flights with crazy kids before.

[taemo]

Originally posted by Stunt66
Nice!!!!! who did you end up going with?

Skydive Hawaii, didn't see many cars heading to Pacific Sky Diving that day

[msommers]

Just got back this morning and I must say, I can see what the attraction is to Hawaii. Everyday was great. The one place I never have to see again is Waikiki, what a dreadful place. Ok maybe that's harsh, but it's definitely not what I think of for future Hawaiian vacations. Every where else was pretty darn good! Travelling around was quite easy (thanks to the car rental via priceline) and hostels were cheap and clean. Eating was probably the most expensive but worth it.

I'll post up a little summary of my trip for anyone interested once I've edited some pictures.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by msommers
Just got back this morning and I must say, I can see what the attraction is to Hawaii. Everyday was great. The one place I never have to see again is Waikiki, what a dreadful place. Ok maybe that's harsh, but it's definitely not what I think of for future Hawaiian vacations. Every where else was pretty darn good! Travelling around was quite easy (thanks to the car rental via priceline) and hostels were cheap and clean. Eating was probably the most expensive but worth it.

I'll post up a little summary of my trip for anyone interested once I've edited some pictures.

I can't wait to see this.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Look forward to your write up Matt - hope you liked Kauai as much as I did! I'm going back in 2 months.

[taemo]

Originally posted by msommers
Just got back this morning and I must say, I can see what the attraction is to Hawaii. Everyday was great. The one place I never have to see again is Waikiki, what a dreadful place. Ok maybe that's harsh, but it's definitely not what I think of for future Hawaiian vacations. Every where else was pretty darn good! Travelling around was quite easy (thanks to the car rental via priceline) and hostels were cheap and clean. Eating was probably the most expensive but worth it.

I'll post up a little summary of my trip for anyone interested once I've edited some pictures.

for how long were you down in Hawaii and which islands did you go to exactly?
We were in Oahu from the 12-20 and met a Calgarian at the Polynesian Cultural Center travelling by himself on all 4 islands.
Pictures, I uploaded some here http://www.flickr.com/photos/itaemo/...7626993797121/
I love Oahu and the fact that it has every thing, we stayed 2 nights in Waikiki and 7 nights in Windward side.
I think we are ready to go to Maui or Kauai next as we've pretty much done anything we wanted to experience in Oahu.

[msommers]

^^Was probably me!

Some of guys should just add me on facebook since I have most of the photos there. I'll still do a writeup here but nothing extensive

[msommers]

As promised here is my concise(well that was the plan) review of my 3-week adventure in the state of Hawaii. This was my first travelling adventure where I had a lot of stuff pre-booked and things planned out daily. I was expecting it to be a lot busier than it was and probably didn't need to although it made flights and dealing with rental cars a breeze. Thank you, Priceline!

Oahu

I arrived in Honolulu in the morning, picked up my rental and was on my way cruising down the freeway towards The North Shore. The hostel I stayed at was gorgeous. Located right across the street from Rocky Point Beach, it's in prime surfing location and really there isn't much else to do up there but lounge and surf! Past Turtle Bay Resort is an assortment of shrimp trucks that are very tasty so do make the drive over there if you’re even 30minutes away. Haliewa is a neat little town with a delicious bakery and even better Mexican restaurant called Luibueno's. This was also my first taste of Hawaiian beer and it wasn't too bad - I ended up sticking with mostly Kona Brewing Company's Wailua Wheat and Longboard.


DSC_5301-1 by msommers00, on Flickr

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Upon accident, I ended up at the Waimea Valley botanical garden. It seemed interesting, until I saw how expensive it was to get in, $15/adult. Soooo I strolled around until I found an “alternative” entrance and checked out the park. I think I stayed an hour total. Would be very cool for those interested in plants from all over the world but the waterfall isn’t overly impressive unless you’re only staying on Oahu then definitely see it.


DSC_5350-8 by msommers00, on Flickr

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I spent a few nights up there, one day was at the Polynesian Cultural Centre(PCC). I think the highlight of this trip was hanging out with a cute Australian chick in my tour group, and the show was actually quite enjoyable. An organized tour here is not needed, every little "station" you stop at tells you everything the guides tell you anyways and if you can go at your own pace (ie: want to go fast), you can at least get to see all the stations - I didn't which I was quite disappointed in considering I got there as soon as it opened and the price I paid. The PCC is largely run by students of the BYU Mormon university located nearby. The short video they show you on the trolley ride after dinner was interesting enough to give you some depth of how the ownership came to be. The small town of Laie is all on Moron land and according to an owner of the hostel, all the businesses have to sign contracts saying they will, 100%, be closed on Sundays. Should go to the PCC? I didn't learn much, the dinner was decent and watched a show I couldn't take pictures in. If you have kids or enjoyed it before, yes. If not, probably alright to pass on this.


DSC_5411-16 by msommers00, on Flickr


The next day I headed out down to Waikiki via the east coast road. Beautiful scenery and barely any traffic. I did a short hike to the Makapu’u Summit and headed to Hanauma Bay for the rest of the day. Only one night here, caught the sunset, partied like crazy, found a plethora of hookers and homeless on the street back to the hostel, dragged my ass out of bed and walked Diamond Head before my flight to Maui.


DSC_5419-18 by msommers00, on Flickr

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