The Best 7-day Hawaii Vacation Itineraries?
I completely understand the daunting task of planning your Hawaii vacation. If you’ve never been to Hawaii, it’s difficult enough to select which island(s) you want to visit. Once you’ve selected an island, you have brief sense of accomplishment before you realize that you’ve got to plan your itinerary. Can I get an amen?
We all want to make the most of our vacation time. So, how do you get to see all the best sights and do all the best activities? How do you plan to see it all logistically? To find your ideal itinerary that suits your tastes, you’ll have to do a bit of researching. The good news is that there are some useful free online resources to aid you in your personal research. I’ll list some of the top resources that make a good starting point. Though these online recommendations may be self-described as perfect, I hesitate to describe them as being perfect. There can’t be a perfect once size fits all.
So, let’s take a look at some good websites to use in your research:
Hawaiian Airlines has useful vacation itineraries. If you click on their “trip details” button, the website will provide you with estimated time to allocate for each activity. Here are links to their suggestions:
Fodor’s has itineraries that are a bit more general, but still quite good. Here are their free suggestions:
Frommer’s also have itineraries suggestions for one-week Hawaii vacations. Their recommendations are quite a bit more specific – even to the point of recommending a few businesses. A big caution I have about Frommer’s plans is that their day one arrival suggestions are way too ambitious! For example, on Maui they suggest you go to a luau on your arrival day. I can tell you from much experience, if you are coming from the Midwest or East Coast, there is absolutely no way that you’ll have the energy to enjoy a luau on the day of arrival. Still, I think their free vacation plans are still worth reviewing, though I wouldn’t necessarily take all their recommendations on blind faith.
If you haven’t already seen my suggestions of what to see and do in Hawaii, be sure to review these budget friendly recommendations. Almost all the activities are free. They aren’t necessarily in itinerary format, but you could easily use them for that purpose.
- Maui’s Top 7 Free or Nearly Free Things to Do and See
- Top 5 Things You Should See and Do on Maui
- 10 Best Free Activities and Sites on Oahu
- Best Free Activities on Kauai
- Best Big Island Budget Activities
If you’ve been to Hawaii on vacation, please share what resources you used to help you develop the ideal itinerary that worked for you. What seemed to work? What didn’t work?
SEARCH FOR GREAT HAWAII VACATION DEALS BELOW:
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I hope this isn’t tacky and I understand if you don’t want to post this but…this is what I do for a living!
My main truealoha.com site (which needs an overhaul but I digress) shows what I provide. So far I haven’t had a disappointed customer! I started it because I think family, friends and old co-workers were going to smack me if I didn’t! LOL So I got certified through the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau as a destination specialist, quit my day job and here I am. The feedback I get is lots of people don’t have the time to extensively research everything they want to do.
If you don’t want to pay, other than the great resources you listed here word of mouth is always a great way to get some tips on places and restaurants. Of course perusing Hawaii oriented blogs almost always has some great tips or posts about places that may be off the beaten path!
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I had no idea you did that. Personally, I could never turn my vacation over to someone else to plan. I’m too much of a nerd for that.
Coincidentally, I’ve been taking HVCB courses online. I literally just got started on it today and just passed the Big Island test.
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@Sheila – see! You’re giving this great advice away for free, when you could be charging for it!
It’s no wonder so many people visit Go Visit Hawaii each day, they’re getting this awesome advice without having to pay a penny!
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I am trying to cost out a trip for a group to Hawaii. Do you recommend any particular island to stay if it is a 6 day trip; arriving on Saturday – departing on Saturday? How do you visit other islands?
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Norma – you can’t make a bad choice between the 4 major islands – Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island. For 6 days, I don’t recommend seeing any more than 2 islands — but you’d be best off just concentrating your time on one. There’s so much to do and see on each island, you won’t run out of things to do.
Here’s how to get around in Hawaii: http://www.govisithawaii.com/2009/03/24/a-guide-to-inter-island-travel-in-hawaii/
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Sheila,
Me, my husband and 2 kids [8 and 4] anre planning a trip to Hawaii. I would like to concentrate just on Oahu and Maui.
How many days do need? If I stay in Oahu,do i drive to Maui? would appreciate some tips here please. I don’t know where to start.
I was planning on going the week of March break 2010. Anywhere not so expensive but good hotels we can stay at?
thanks in advance.
sandy.
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jane Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
As Oahu and Maui are both islands, driving would be impossible. Stay outside of the Honolulu area on Oahu. Too commercial and city like. Food is VERY expensive in Hawaii. Be prepared. My 9 year old loved the jet skiing on Maui.
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sheila Reply:
September 24th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Hi Sandy,
I’m not sure how your comment fell through my cracks, but thankfully Jane commented and that brought it to my attention.
As Jane mentioned, you can’t drive from Oahu to Maui. You will have to fly, which will be very short flights.
I would suggest a minimum of 4 days on each island. That should be enough time to let you see the highlights of both.
Since you have kids and are hoping to stay in a place that’s not so expensive, I’d recommend looking into a condo. Aston and Outrigger are two condo management companies you could look into. Also, if you have the time, you could consider VRBO.com. We’ve found some awesome condos that way, but it can be time consuming.
Here’s an article I wrote on the advantages of renting a condo: http://www.govisithawaii.com/2008/01/30/why-staying-in-a-condo-on-a-hawaii-vacation-is-a-savvy-choice/
On Oahu, maybe consider the Turtle Bay area. It’s on the North Shore and it’s so beautiful there. On Maui, I’d recommend Kaanapali/Lahanina area for first timers.
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