I need your expert advice please!

We are a family of 5, ages 64 to 4. We want a great Hawaiian vacation with plenty of time to explore ports , where do we start?

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Have a look at Norwegian's Pride of America - 7 day cruise that starts/ends in Honolulu and goes to the other 3 main islands in Hawaii (Maui, the Island of Hawaii - aka the Big Island, and Kauai.) It overnights on Maui and Kauai which allows extra time for exploring on those islands, and has stops on the east and west side of the Big Island.

Reading through some of the reviews posted here on this board as well as in the CC review section will be a good start.

Adding on 2 or 3 nights pre-cruise in Honolulu (Waikiki would be a good choice) will give you a chance to explore on Oahu plus adjust to the time change before the start of your cruise.

If you like to explore on your own, rental cars are a good choice as they are inexpensive and driving in Hawaii is easy (other than Honolulu traffic which is busy - we've rented cars there a couple of times and it was good, but if you're reluctant to drive there, public transportation and taxis are a good option.)

If organized tours are of interest, scroll through the board here to look for recommendations from others.

Lastly, is a land trip a consideration instead of a cruise? If so, suggest having a look at the Hawaii Tripadvisor Forum for suggestions there or ask here and we can provide feedback on land trips as well. The Top Questions in the TA link that I provided has some helpful info on travel to Hawaii.

Good luck with your plans ... it's a great family destination!!

We were a family of 4, and the POA cruise was just too high priced for us. We opted to rent houses (from VRBO dot com). We stayed 5 days on Hawaii then flew to Oahu and spent another 5 days there. With airfare, car rental, gasoline, food, souvenirs and activities, we spent $100 pp per day, whereas the cruise would have been almost $200 pp perday. And you don't have to worry about times in port. You are on your own schedule and can spend as much or as little time as you want at each venue.

Unless I could get the cruise at a really reduced rate, I will continue to do land vacations to Hawaii. I've visited the four major islands (Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai, and Maui) about 7 times, all land vacations. Have a great trip, Hawaii is one of my favorite destinations.

The winner itinerary is NCL Pride of America. It offers an excellent adventure for visiting Hawaii- with meals lodging and transportation all in one. :) Hawaii is one of the simplest places to tour with a rental car- booked in advance, since so much of Hawaii is drive up beauty. There are various options to consider with land visits. For me, I do both, adding weeks on each side of a NCL cruise, and doing multi city flights along with cheap interisland flights.

Head to your library and get the Hawaii Revealed, along with other Hawaii travel books. Figure out what you want to do and see. Read POA reviews, especially what people did from the ports.

I don't place costs at the top of my traveling list instead, for me, it's itinerary and my priority for activities. I don't compromise with my preferences- reason I add the extra time.

A land based vacation is the best way to get the most from Hawaii....a cruise simply doesn't give you the time you need.

A land based vacation is the best way to get the most from Hawaii....a cruise simply doesn't give you the time you need.

Well, it depends on how much time you have. No schedule to keep? Then fly island to island and explore at your leisure. With a cruise equivalent of 2 days on each island plus 2 or 3 wasted days flying and checking into a new hotel every few days, it would take at least 9 days to duplicate the cruise.

But if you only have 7 days give or take, then there is no way to duplicate what you would see in a 7 day POA cruise to 3 islands. You are going to waste lots of time with inter island flights, hotel check ins, packing and unpacking. We did the land vacation once between Maui and Kauai, flying into and out of Honolulu. Never got to Big Island due to time constraints. 3 inter island flights.

This time we flew into Honolulu, got on the POA, unpacked and packed once and then had 6 very full days to explore at our leisure. Much more relaxing, and I feel like we actually had more time to explore. We added several days to see Oahu after we got back to Honolulu. We will do the same land/cruise split next trip as well, maybe on the Big Island pre or post cruise, or if we are lucky like Budget Queen, we'll do both pre and post!

A land based vacation is the best way to get the most from Hawaii....a cruise simply doesn't give you the time you need.

We've only done land trips to Hawaii as that is our preference, but I disagree with your comment that "a cruise simply doesn't give you the time you need."

For those with limited time and a desire to see some of each of Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island, the POA cruise is a great choice IMO. Also, many people prefer cruising instead of land vacations and on the POA cruise they are getting 'the best of both worlds.'

For a land trip it doesn't make sense to spend 2 or 3 days per island due to the time/cost involved in moving from one island to the next - with limited time, I think it's best to choose less islands for a longer time and not worry about getting to every island on that first trip. Seven days per island is ideal (longer is better) because each island offers more than enough to do/see for a week or more. At the most, I would do 2 islands in 10 days.

You have about the same age spread as us - give or take a few years.

We flew to Waikiki, stayed 4 nights, did sight seeing around Waikiki day one and a bit of sleep catch up.

Did pearl harbor day 2 and Waikiki beach in the afternoon.

Then did the "north shore turtle tour" on day 3 - KC in his "fun bus" picked us up at about 7am, stopped at the blow hole, macadamia nut farm, the park outside kualoa ranch (china mans hat) lunch at a shrimp shack, swimming with the Turtles, and dole whip/pineapple farm in the afternoon, back about 4-4:30pm (other stuff in between, just listing the highlights).

Day 4 we did some shopping and then hung out by the pool in our hotel and then onto the beach again in the afternoon

Day 5 We went to the Waikiki aquarium and checked out of the hotel before boardin the Pride of America and then you can read about that in my review on my sig block.

Post Cruise - we did the Honolulu Zoo on the second last day (day 12 I think)

Day 13 we hired a car and drove back around to Kualoa Ranch, we did the movie site tour, and had lunch on-site... did a little bit of driving around that side of Oahu, then returned the car in Waikiki.

Day 14 was an early rise and over to the airport.

I think it was a good balance of site-seeing and relaxing... time runs faster in Hawaii, I'm sure of it... the days seemed to fly by - maybe because we were having too much fun.

Sure we would have liked to do a few more, but that's what return visits are for right??

Enjoy!

Matt

If you have never been to Hawaii, I think a few days pre & post cruise and the cruise gives a good "taste" of Hawaii.

We stayed 4 nights pre-cruise in Waikiki Beach then did the POA cruise and the 3 nights post-cruise in a beach cottage on the North shore of Oahu.

We saw a good portion of Oahu and did most of the highlights there pre & post cruise. We were very happy with the cruise too, a great 1st visit option.

For us, we now have a plan for next time, and yes, if you go you will want a next time ;). DH is telling people who ask about Hawaii not to go....as you will NOT want to leave! :D

For a 2nd visit, we would spend 3-4 nights on Oahu to finish it up and re-do our favorites...Kualoa Ranch is fantastic!! Then we would spend a week on each of 2 more islands...hard to choose though, we liked Maui, Big Island & Kauai....they are all a bit different but fabulous in their own rights.

My first two times in Hawaii were land trips. A 3-island-in-9-days guided tour (my college roomie was separating from her husband so she offered his spot to me to buy in). Then hubby and I went on our honeymoon there (just Kauai and Honolulu).

Our last three cruises were the holiday ones RT from LA on Princess and we love this. No flights (I'm a terrible flyer) for us. Yes, it's a two-week cruise, but the sea days are full of fun, including some Hawaiian activities and talks. Even live Hawaiian music. Just about every day of our last two cruises, we were treated to Elua's beautiful music on the pool deck or in the Piazza. And both times I took the series of hula classes that the female half of this duo taught.

To me, it seems like the POA is more of a floating hotel, while the Princess cruises are an experience. Otherwise, I would say just pick one or two of the islands and stay there.

A land based vacation is the best way to get the most from Hawaii....a cruise simply doesn't give you the time you need.

I agree. As much as we've enjoyed our Hawaiian cruises (one way and POA) nothing compares to a land trip. Of course, I'm biased as I type this from a condo on the north shore of Oahu :). Prides itinerary is stellar but not a cheap vacation anymore. Glad we did it when we did.

We just came back from the POA and we rented cars on all the islands and saw tons. I disagree with the poster saying on the cruise its not enough time to see enough of Hawaii.

If you have a rental you can easily get almost anywhere quickly. We drove about 1500 kms between all the islands and 2 days on each was very good.. the islands in general are small. You can see lots each day.