Hawaii Hotels and Vacation Ideas
When you’re shoveling snow off your car this winter, or standing in a busy check-out line doing holiday shopping, or just in the middle of a typical hectic work week, do you ever just long to get away from it all? For many of us, soft sand beaches, warm sun on our shoulders, and tropical breezes are the perfect salve to alleviate our stress. Hawaii is the quintessential winter escape — perfect weather, breathtaking scenery, plentiful attractions, and world-class hotels. Hawaii is also just a hop, skip, and a jump from the continental United States, making it easily accessible to all kinds of travelers. Today we offer you some ideas to plan your next trip. Get ready to catch some rays! Your welcome lei is waiting.
Honolulu
Hawaii’s capital city Honolulu has immense popularity, and all for good reason: its hotels are some of the nicest in the world, and award-winning restaurants combine innovative menus with a dining experience that takes advantage of the balmy Hawaiian climate with plenty of patio seating. Top that with superb nightlife, great shopping, and gorgeous beaches, and you’ll never even have to leave the city! If you do want to experience all the natural wonders of the island, a short drive will get you to volcanoes, waterfalls, mountains, and more.
Check out our Honolulu Hotels page to see the variety of accommodation options available. Looking for another city in Hawaii? Here is a handy hotel guide, listed by city: Hawaii Hotels.
Attractions
Looking for more ideas besides Honolulu? How about swimming, scuba diving, sailing, dancing, or visiting cultural sites and museums? If you’re a surfer, winter boasts the biggest waves. There are no shortage of things to do in Hawaii. While on her vacation to Oahu this past September, Realtraveler Brisbird experienced scenic drives, visited a macademia nut farm, toured a pineapple plant, and saw many sites including the Halona Blow Hole and the Japanese Byodoin temple. In the evening, she saw a great show:
“The Magic of Polynesian Show was a visual spectacular of polynesian dance and illusion show. It had all the regular tricks - disappearing assistant, cut-off head, escape artist, appearing helicopters from nowhere, disappearing magician appearing in the middle of the audience - lots of dancers and a flame twirler. Joe and I both agreed it was a great show. After this we wondered back via the International Market, window shopping and buying souveniers.” (more…)
Spas
Some of the best spas in the world are found on the Hawaii archipelago, especially on the Big Island and Maui. It’s easy to find a package deal that includes accommodations, lavish breakfasts, and soothing spa treatments like massages, facials, and more. Pamper yourself while you’re on vacation!
For Golfers
Many Hawaii hotels have their own golf courses or are in close proximity to one. Hawaii is famous for its spectacular golf, with the rolling greens backdropped by some of the world’s most stunning scenery. Jonathan (of the duo Siobhan & Jonathan) thoroughly enjoyed his time on the Hawaii golf scene:
“The golf course was awesome, perched up on the the hill over-looking the islands of Molokini and Molokai and sometimes we just had to just stop and soak up the view. I had bought these really cool salmon coloured balls, 9 of them, figuring that they would be really hard to lose. I started in on the balls that the guy in the golf shop gave me by the end of the 3rd hold. Oops. Didn’t matter though, we had a blast…difficult to describe the course with words and can’t show you pictures because we forgot the camera but take my word for it, it was gorgeous.”
These globetrotters also experienced another Hawaii vacation must-do: snorkeling! Check out this excerpt from their blog:
“Everyone was meeting down on the beach in Wailea just to relax, swim & snorkel. So, we drove down taking an accidental detour that ended up in a stunning drive along the coast of Maui. The sights were absolutely breathtaking! When we finally met up with everyone else, Mike suggested that we take our snorkeling gear and go explore a little point about a half mile down the beach. Other people had told us the coral was a bit pretty, but we never expected what we actually found! We were lucky enough to come across a group of green sea turtles gnoshing on the kelp that was floating around. I even took a bit of kelp in my hand and had one of the smaller turtles take a nip from it! There had to be at least 15 turtles; they were everywhere you turned! It was truly a ‘Finding Nemo’ moment!” (more…)
This only scratches the surface of the things to do in Hawaii and the gorgeous hotels to be found there, so plan your winter getaway today!
Hawaii Hotels and Vacation Ideas
by: Carrie Katz
Add comment May 11th, 2008