We'd like to combine a trip to French Polynesia (1 week) with Hawaii (2 weeks).
So many tuggers know the various islands and Marriott's in Hawaii very well. I'm afraid of going so far and making a mistake.
Like Pedro we're looking for lower crowds. At first I thought of going for our anniversary which is July 4 but that seems to be busy time. Now looking at husband's birthday which is 5/24. Looking to be inside the dry season with a chance of seeing whales, would like a nice bit of sandy beach and ocean calm enough to wade into. Would like a resort that has more good view rooms than bad (less chance of being disappointed). Don't want to have a struggle finding lounge chairs that surrounded by other chairs within inches of each other. We love walking nature trails, mid-level endurance.
I have all kinds of questions and not sure how other's can answer them but tuggers always seem to come up with helpful tidbits.
What Marriott/island would be best to use II exchange? MVC points? Would like a kitchen to prepare meals. We only need a 1 bedroom. I've considered Ko Olina and Waiohai (I know those are only 2 bedrooms). Wondering about towers in Kauai. Pretty much ruled out Maui since all I know is Lahaina was the most popular place to visit and they are still rebuilding.
Would you go to FP first or after Hawaii?
Pedro please forgive me for tagging onto your thread. Seemed we might want similar information.w
Hawaii is all amazing- there is no bad choice- but which island is best for you really depends on what you like to do.
My advice to anyone is to google “which Hawaiian island is best for me”- you will find a wealth of info and quizzes to help you decide.
Don’t rule out Maui!!!
We just went for the first time and loved it. Lahaina was the major town with shops and restaurants but you can’t miss what you never saw and we found tons to do. Avoiding Maui would be like saying you can’t go to California because there was fire damage or Florida because there was hurricane damage- it’s just one small area.
We prefer to walk to dinners and Maui Ocean club was perfect for that- Whalers village, restaurants along the beach. You may still occasionally read to stay away while they rebuild but we never saw any indication the locals wanted that. You need to stay in the new section (Lahaina & Napoli towers) to get a full kitchen.
Lots of beautiful nature, mountains, drive up Haleakala, the road to Hana. I’ll say you need to have someone willing to drive or be ready to book tours if you don’t want to just lounge at the resort- driving is easy except for road to Hana which was still fine for us. We stayed over night in Hana and would recommend that. We stayed in the Napoli tower on points.
My favorite is Kauai- the garden island- because I love gardens. We spent time at the national tropical botanicals gardens, short hikes to waterfalls. We stayed at Kauai beach club and enjoyed the small beach, great pool, nearby restaurants but there not full kitchens. You can get this resort with an II exchange requesting a year in advance, or book with points. Waiohai is more difficult for exchange and would take lots of points since 2Br. Not sure what you mean by towers in Kauai?
I would recommends staying a few nights in a hotel in Honolulu to see the highlights of Ohau- Pearl Harbor, diamond head, Waikiki beach, etc. Ko Olina is a long drive from there and there is lots of traffic in Honolulu. I’ve never been to Ko Olina but it looks beautiful and I would love to go and relax sometime. You can exchange into Ko Olina on II too.
We have also visited and really enjoyed the big island - it’s like another planet with the lava everywhere. For us that was a very active trip exploring volcano national park. We exchanged to a non MVC though II.
If you have more than a week for HI I would do 3-4 nights on Oahu (Honolulu) and then a week on either Kauai or Maui.
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