Best time to go to Hawaii(Oahu)

[Cyberc]

Hi Tuggers

When is the best time to go to Oahu?

From what I can gather online most rain will fall November - December and the temperature will almost be the same year round 83-88ish.

I'd prefer to go when its not super crowded, plenty of unclouded sun and the risk of daytime rain is the low.

Since we're from Europe we don't have any direct flights at least not from my country, so we might opt to fly to SF or LAX and get a connection from there. Any other suggestions?

I assume most RCI exchanges for 2018 are done for the year unless someone cancels so I guess 2019 is most likely.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Regards

 

[WinniWoman]

We have been there in October and in July and both had great weather. I don't remember any rain in October and just a little in July. I frankly don't think there is ever a bad time to be in Hawaii.

That said- to me Oahu is a crowded place overall- obviously Honolulu is. I prefer Kauai myself. Not that it can't get crowded there either, but you can find plenty of uncrowded spots.

We flew once from NY into San Fransisco, stayed a few days, and then went off to Oahu. I don't remember where our connecting flight was the last time- but it was not in California.

 

[WalnutBaron]

If you're not tied to the school calendar, I recommend you go anytime between January-early May. This is the time when the humpback whale migration is at its peak, and you'll love seeing the whales either from the shore or on a whale watch boat or catamaran. Even though temps are relatively consistent as you have pointed out, the summer months are definitely more humid, and you're also subject to the occasional Pacific hurricane which, though relatively rare, can be devastating when they make a direct hit on Hawaii.

Also crowd sizes are lower during these months except for the Spring Break period (although Spring Break is not a huge deal in Hawaii for college kids, it is a popular time when families take advantage of having their kids out of school to take everyone to Hawaii for a week).

Connections through either LAX or SFO work great, though you have slightly shorter flight from LAX if that makes a difference to you.

Keep an advance request in place with RCI for 2018, as Hawaii owners from time to time will decide not to go for various reasons, and your date stamp priority might surprise you with a confirmation.

Aloha!

 

[LisaRex]

In 2015, I traveled the 2 weeks after Thanksgiving. It was wonderful traveling in low season. Fewer crowds, rental prices were lower, and holiday decorations were up.

 

[bobpark56]

May and Sept are usually the least crowded...also the best weather, though any day in Hawaii is good. May and Sept also give you the best chances for getting a good trade or rental. Oahu is not our favorite island. Kauai, Maui and the Big Island are more our cup of tea. Be sure to try poke and saimin while there (the saimin is better on Kauai than on Maui). You will have trouble finding either anywhere else, though poke is getting around a bit now. Watch out for rainy/windy seasons if planning to stay on the north shore. You may be disappointed in the beaches, but the snorkeling can be good. Watch out for currents in some spots, though. The box jelly fish can be a problem for about 3 days every month (it's tied to the moon), so check this out if you plan to swim or snorkel.

 

[Dean]

May and Sept are usually the least crowded...also the best weather, though any day in Hawaii is good. May and Sept also give you the best chances for getting a good trade or rental. Oahu is not our favorite island. Kauai, Maui and the Big Island are more our cup of tea. Be sure to try poke and saimin while there (the saimin is better on Kauai than on Maui). You will have trouble finding either anywhere else, though poke is getting around a bit now. Watch out for rainy/windy seasons if planning to stay on the north shore. You may be disappointed in the beaches, but the snorkeling can be good. Watch out for currents in some spots, though. The box jelly fish can be a problem for about 3 days every month (it's tied to the moon), so check this out if you plan to swim or snorkel.

Add early December to the least crowded component. In HI it usually rains somewhere most days but worse Nov to March on Average and better the rest. Basically it often rains all day a portion of the wet season and more afternoon showers the rest of the time. I wouldn't go for one week from the the Eastern US, much less from Europe. I'm not sure 2018 is done for exchanges since many resorts don't deposit a full 2 years out. If you can do a 1 BR, you'll fair better. HI in general is a little more difficult for Oahu since there aren't a lot of resorts and definitely not a lot of good ones that tend to be available. Disney likely won't be available, I'm not sure about Hilton but suspect it might be tough to get into. No reason not to give it a try, you can always cancel if you get too close for comfort.

 

[WatsonC2]

We experienced 1-1/2 days of rain on the north side of Kauai over the same 7 day period a co-worker's family had zero rain on the south side. It seems to make a difference which side you plan on visiting for any island. Honolulu is the south side.

 

[dsmrp]

May, June, Sept and October are good months. Early Sept can be humid, as is August.

North side of the islands generally get more rain than south side in winter months. Kauai, furthest north, more than Big Island IMO.

West side, leeward, drier and sunnier than east side, windward.

Kauai is pretty and lush, but I prefer other islands' beaches, as I heard stories as a kid about the undertows drowning experienced swimmers. South side is usually okay for swimming.

 

[tompalm]

I like May the best because it is least crowded, so you can get the best deals on hotels, flights and rental cars. May is also best because the days are long and you can do more outdoors. The weather is warm, but not hot. The next next time is October because it is off season like May. I agree with everyone else about the rest of the year being nice, good weather, to travel when school is in session and most of all, avoid spring break, summer and Christmas. One other note is that September is one of the hottest months, so not the best time to be in Hawaii unless you like lots of hot weather.

 

[LisaRex]

May is also best because the days are long and you can do more outdoors.

True, and keep in mind that "long" is a relative term. One of my few disappointments about Hawaii is that since they are nearer to the equator and because they don't observe daylight savings time, their days are never really long. Shortest day is ~11 hours and longest day is ~13.5 hours, so a seasonal variation of only 2.5 hours.

Comparing that to Cincinnati, we enjoy 15+ hours of sun in summer, compared to only 9.5 hours in winter, or a variation of 5.5 hours. But thanks to daylight savings, our longest day doesn't end til ~9:15pm, which feels way different than 6 to 7pm on the islands.

(To put it succinctly, in Hawaii, sunrise is always between ~6 and 7am, while sunset is always between ~6pm and 7pm, give or take 15 minutes.)

The good news is that if you're traveling from the mainland US, if you travel close to the summer solstice, you'll actually get to enjoy that extra hour in the evening as well as that extra hour in the morning, because you'll undoubted find yourself arising well before dawn.

 

[ljmiii]

As others have posted, May/June and Sep/Oct offer the lowest crowds and 'best' weather. But those would also be my favorite times of the year to be in Denmark...so why leave? Winter into early Spring is when I like to visit Hawaii and as long as you avoid President's week and the weeks before and after Easter crowds won't be an issue. Other tidbits...

During summer you can be in the swim/snorkel on the North Shore - in winter it's for serious surfers only.
Jan-Mar is whale season so Maui is kind of wacky. But on Oahu it's not a problem.
Winter is 'wet' season so stay somewhere leeward to avoid the rain - on Oahu that means the greater Honolulu area

 

[Cyberc]

Thanks everyone for all the great suggestions I think we will do s trip in either may or sep as we like it hot(we also go to Miami in July )We will hopefully be staying at either Hilton or Disney. I hope to get an exchange for Hilton and use my points at Aulani.

Since we already have plans for early June next year and expect to be going to disney in September we might need to either wait for may 2019 or revise our plans. If we wait for 2019 we or I have more time to plan and we could also potentially bank/save some vacation points.

I will definitely setup a RCI search for both locations, you’ll never know if you are lucky. We only need a 1Br so hopefully that will ease things a bit.

Which other RCI resorts/hotels are just as nice as Hilton and Disney?

 

[Cyberc]

As others have posted, May/June and Sep/Oct offer the lowest crowds and 'best' weather. But those would also be my favorite times of the year to be in Denmark...so why leave?

Well, potentially you could be right. Challenge is that the weather in Denmark is like a box of chocolate you never know what you’re gonna get but if you bet on rain you have better chances of winning than if you bet on sun.

This year we didn’t have any summer days in July. A summer day is above 77F. May, June and August have been decent but nothing to write home about. As most Danes has their summer vacation in late June - early August (If you have children) most travel abroad in those months to make sure we have warm weather.

As a family with yours, mine and our children we always go on a family trip in July and the rest of the year we plan to go as a family but can’t expect everyone to be able to come.

 

[normab]

We just were on Oahu a week ago and the weather was perfect. If you haven't done so, we recommend driving up the east coast and stopping at the beaches, most have changing areas and picnic tables. Don't forget to pack a lunch or pick something up at one of the food trucks....

 

[hjtug]

One other note is that September is one of the hottest months, so not the best time to be in Hawaii unless you like lots of hot weather.

Our one trip to Hawaii was some years ago to the Big Island at the end of September. We happened to hit a hot spell which was high temperatures around 90. Not too bad, but we would have preferred a bit cooler.

 

[alwysonvac]

If you're going to Aulani and/or HHV and want to avoid major crowds, I would avoid the following:

• Major US Holidays (especially the week before/after Easter, late June through Labor Day weekend, Thanksgiving extended weekend and XMAS/NYE week)
• Major Japanese Holidays (especially Golden Week and Obon)
• Whenever local kids are out of school (due to Kama'aina staycation rates) - http://www.hawaiipublicschools.org/Pages/Calendar.aspx