Aulani Visit- which island to "hop" to

nikkistevej

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 30, 2004
Hi, my family(me, DH, and DD) are in the very early planning stages for June/July 2021- my daughter will be graduating high school and it's mine and DH's 25th wedding anniversary. We will be staying about 8-9 days in Aulani, but are thinking we want to island hop to possibly the big Island or Maui one of those days. Can't decide which one though. Any suggestions about 1 or the other for a "day trip" visit?
 
Both are doable; however you will have a better chance of seeing most of what the Big Island has to offer if you do that. If you do Maui, you will have to decide if you want to focus on The Road to Hana or everything else on Maui (Mt. Haleakala, Lahaina, Kihei, etc.).

The logistics will be the next thing to decide. Your options are:

1) Book your own tickets on Hawaiian Airlines and rent a car on either island for the day. Get an early morning flight from Oahu to maximize your time.

2) Book an island hopping tour that leaves from Oahu to either island. Aulani’s website has some mentioned under the excursions tab. You can also look at Roberts Hawaii and Grayline Tours to get an idea of prices and itineraries.

Good luck with your planning.
 
Both are doable; however you will have a better chance of seeing most of what the Big Island has to offer if you do that. If you do Maui, you will have to decide if you want to focus on The Road to Hana or everything else on Maui (Mt. Haleakala, Lahaina, Kihei, etc.).

The logistics will be the next thing to decide. Your options are:

1) Book your own tickets on Hawaiian Airlines and rent a car on either island for the day. Get an early morning flight from Oahu to maximize your time.

2) Book an island hopping tour that leaves from Oahu to either island. Aulani’s website has some mentioned under the excursions tab. You can also look at Roberts Hawaii and Grayline Tours to get an idea of prices and itineraries.

Good luck with your planning.
Thanks so much!! I will look into that!
 
If you island hop, I would consider spending more than one day to do so tho. There is a lot to see on the big island for instance. I will be there for a few days and then going to Aulani in Jan. I have a coffee farm tour, chocolate farm tour, Akaka Falls, Macadamia nut factory and whale watching tour planned in the 2.5 days we have there to sightsee
 


Have you considered Kauai? I think it's the most different from Oahu and is my favorite island. It's a small island and you can see most of it in a short amount of time. I suggest taking a boat tour of the Napali coast, it's where they filmed the first helicopter scene from Jurassic Park. the island is super lush and beautiful. Just a thought.
 
Have you considered Kauai? I think it's the most different from Oahu and is my favorite island. It's a small island and you can see most of it in a short amount of time. I suggest taking a boat tour of the Napali coast, it's where they filmed the first helicopter scene from Jurassic Park. the island is super lush and beautiful. Just a thought.

We just returned from Kauai (our first time there) and Aulani. Loved Kauai.
 


I think it is important to consider what each of the islands have to offer and what you would want to do before you decide.

Big Island is really environmentally diverse in that the Kona side almost feels like you landed on the moon because of the climate and the old lava flows. The Hilo side is lush and green which is where you would land if you wanted to go down to the volcano for the day.

Maui has some touristy stuff as an OP mentioned like driving the road to Hana, Haleakala, Lahaina so you might want to research first and see what it is that would draw you here for just the one day
 
We visited Maui and Kauai, in addition to Oahu. We found Maui was most similar to Oahu with a good mix of commercialization and natural beauty. Kauai felt the most exotic to us with the least commercialization and the most natural beauty - the Na Pali Coast was one of my favorite things we saw. I would vote for Kauai first, the Big Island second.
 
Thanks for all the advice all!! I'm actually going to look into staying a few less days at Aulani possibly and flying to one of the other islands, staying there and flying home from there. I have always been obsessed with volcanoes and all, so thinking BI will be where we actually go. These are great suggestions!!!
 
If you do decide to do a one-day island hop to the big island, we did exactly that when we were staying at aulani a couple years ago. We took the very first flight to the BI (I believe it was 5:00) and made sure we had seats on the left side of the plane, since the timing was such that we saw the gorgeous sunrise. When we arrived we rented a car (very easy and convenient) and stopped across the street from the airport entrance at Kens Pancake House. What a great breakfast. We proceeded to the crater rim though really didn't have much time to spend there since we had scheduled a lava boat tour around noon and wanted to make a stop at the Thurston lava tube. After we got back from the boat tour we took our time working our way back up to Hilo. We grabbed some food then took a helicopter tour over the volcano. The tour starts right at the airport. After that we headed back to aulani and arrived some time after 9:00. Granted, it was an extremely busy day, and I'm not even sure if there are still boat tours or if the lava tube has reopened since the eruptions last year. And given the time constraint of being there just one day, we saw none of the west side of the island. A tour of a coffee plantation in the Kona area would have been great. But for us it was a great day to see some BI highlights!
 
Volcanic activity is extremely variable and unpredictable!

Last year, helicopter and boat tours were absolutely spectacular with an abundance of flowing lava. Today, Kilauea eruption has paused and there is no flowing lava. There is not much to see from the helicopter or boat tours except the devastation from previous eruption. You might even be bored and disappointed.

Even the best scientist cannot predict the next eruption, exception that will happen again ... someday.


-Paul
 

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