HAWAII Fall 2013: Multi-island cruise and the big island


Three weeks in paradise - what could go wrong? Planning was extensive. A long flight from Newark to Honolulu, but 3 nights there before the cruise to recuperate. Then a cruise hitting the high points of Oahu, Maui, Hawaii (the big island), and Kauai. Followed by 10 nights on the big island, at a series of 4 different B&Bs on different parts of the island. Lots of national parks and monuments to see. Not so much. Leave it to the federal government to screw things up.

We did make it to the airport on time, in spite of last minute car problems reported by our driver - dead battery. Long flight, but The Ilima Hotel room was very nice, with a balcony that saw a lot of use while we tried to adjust to the 6 hour time difference. The second day in Honolulu we took a private tour from Adventure Tours Hawaii that was custom designed to our tastes and level of "adventure". We were picked up at the hotel in the morning and returned in the evening, after seeing a number of sights accompanied by a very personable and knowledgable guide. Highly recommended.

Saturday we started a 7 day cruise with Norwegian, with stops on the 4 main islands. Typical cruise - too much access to food and too little exercise to mitigate the effects. We did manage to visit a single national park on Maui before the shudown hit. The planned commercial tour of the Volcano National Park on HI was replaced with a nice set of alternative destinations, but ones we had planned to hit later on our own while driving the big island.

After the cruise, we flew to Kona and picked up a rental car. One night at Hale Maluhia Country Inn in Kailua Kona, three nights at Waipio Rim B&B , three nights at Shipman House B&B in Hilo, then three nights at Volcano Rainforest Retreat allowed us to see 4 different areas of the big island.




We took lots of photos, but will only include a fraction of them here.

Display of this set of photos takes advantage of the Google+ Web Albums. The mechanisms are more robust there to display the pictures in your browser in different ways. Default is "Highlights" (fewer photos, random order), use the "All photos" button (all photos, chronological order) to see all the photos in the album. Use the little "v" button to the right if you want a slideshow.


Click here for Hawaii 2013 photos web album


Last updated: 01/31/19