re: 11 days on 4 Hawaiian Islands. Looking for recommendations on places and ‘tours’

Update: We’ve got a lot of days/islands planned out.

Friday/Saturday arrive in Honolulu and board cruise ship. Spend Saturday around Honolulu. Beach area, palace, etc.

Sunday/Monday Maui. Rented a convertible to tour around the island. Parts of Road to Hana, state parks, beaches, hiking etc. Sunrises and sunset views.


Tuesday/Wednesday Hilo and Kona. Not much planned. I know there are plantations and parks. Still working on this one. Don’t plan to have a car due to porting in 2 different spots.

Thur/Friday. Kauai. If the port is open, and that is fluid at the moment. Renting an SUV to tour accessible areas and going on the evening catamaran supper along the Na Pali coast. Capt Andy has been recommended. The rest of the 2 days just touring the island and staying out of repairmen’s way. Any parks or beaches that may be open. It’s not looking too promising for stopping at Kauai with the hurricane damage but hopefully it will be open by then. But again, staying out of people’s way. Don’t want to hinder anyone in restoration of services.

Saturday through Tuesday. Disembark and condo rental by the marina at Wakiki beach in Honolulu. Saturday car rented for the duration and all day at Pearl. We have USS Arizona tickets and all day Admiral tour tickets. Sunday and Monday just sightseeing by car.

On the punch list is Pineapple plantation tour, luau, and maybe helicopter tour. We will have rental cars except for the big island, so mountain sunrises/sunsets are on the list. Just not sure which island will be best to fit these in.

I’m not looking to have every five minutes planned out, just want to have a decent itinerary for each island. And not cram all activities in to one island and nothing to do on the others.

Thanks for the suggestions. Just keep them coming.

In Oahu, there is the Polynesian Cultural Center at northeast corner of island. On southwest side there is Disney’s Aulani Resort and other resorts along that coast,

In Maui, we did the snorkeling at Molokini Crater. Crater crates calm clear water with lots of fish swimming around you, That crater used by US Navy for ammunition practices during WWII.

Luau is overrated imo. Do it, but don’t go out of your way for it.

Take the hike across the lava fields to get where the lava is hitting the ocean. Wear worn, sturdy shoes. It’s not strenuous but the terrain will scuff them up.

Drive up to Mauna Kea, disregarding the waiver you will be asked to sign on the car rental that you won’t.

It’s an experience to literally drive through the clouds. Not mist. Not fog. But low level clouds. And you keep on driving till you get a mile of altitude above it. Just be aware for attire at the summit it is very very not tropical.

Norwegian just altered cruise dates and itinerary. This weeks cruise ends a day early (tomorrow) and ours begins 2 days late due to the hurricane. But they are giving half our money back immediately and giving us the other half of our money back in a future cruise credit. And we are still getting the shortened 5 day cruise with 1 day ports at each island. And that’s without any travel insurance involved. They also offered a full refund as well. Shout out to NCL.

We still have 3 nights booked in a condo at Wakiki at the end of the cruise so the vacation will be 9 days and won’t be a total flop. The cruise company and airline is being very accommodating. We will just have to try another time when we get back. This will give us a glimpse of all the islands though.