Stayed in Waikiki Beach at Hotel Renew. Great location for much less than surrounding hotels. Took the walk up Diamond Head. Absolutely worth the walk if you are able to handle the climb. Prior trip we had visited Pearl Harbor so we did not visit the memorial this trip.

Kauai: The MOST BEAUTIFUL of all the islands. If we ever return to Hawaii, this is where we will spend our two weeks or longer. Once we rented our car, we headed to Waimea canyon. Total driving time to the lookouts is about one hour. We took the second entrance at Kehaha Beach to the road up the canyon at the advice of some locals who indicated we would have a better view of the coast line and they were correct. We stopped at several of the lookouts and made it to Puu O Kila Lookout before turning around. This is like going to the Grand Canyon but with more color. It is NOT to be missed.

On our return trip, we stopped at Poipu. No golf this time but we visited Spouting Horn and did some shopping at the village.

Kona: You will have to tender at Kona but it is very well organized and the trip is very short. We love the little village of Kona. This trip was special for us since a former IBM engineer I use to work with retired on the Big Island and we met him and his wife for lunch at a local spot on the outskirts of town. After lunch, we returned to the town for some shopping.

Hilo: Once we obtained the rental car, we headed to Rainbow Falls and Boiling Pots. I would skip Boiling Pots and just visit Rainbow Falls. After visiting rainbow falls, we drove to Onomea Bay area and took the scenic drive by the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens. Great views and picture taking opportunities but you will miss the turn off unless you have done your research.

From Onomea, we make a quick visit to the Mauna Loa factory to buy many bags of Macadamias for the trip home. We then returned to the airport to catch the helicopter ride over the volcano. This was fabulous and is a must do at least once when visiting the Big Islands

Maui: Rental car shuttles are on the pier and the ride to the airport (our driver showed us the back road) took about 5 minutes. Parking overnight is just a short walk to the ship and is free so we rented the car for two days.

We DID NOT take the road to Hana. Tried that the first trip and found it to be a waste of time. All day trip with too much traffic. Instead, we visited Iao Valley and the needle. Short drive from the ship on route 32. After Iao Valley, we headed west along route 30 to Lahina. Spent a few hours in this small “whaling” village and make sure we had our picture taken under the Banyon Tree which covers an entire block.

We left Lahina and toured the resorts in Kaanapali and Kapalau before heading back to the ship.

On day 2, we visited the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium. We spent about two hours at the aquarium before heading to the beaches in Wailea.