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I love Hawaii, and I could live there too temporarily, if it wasn't so isolated. I think that is what bothers me the most about it is its isolation. It's just not isloated, it's like super super super isolated. I mean if it was the size of California with the same cities Cali has but in the same location as Hawaii that's more doable as its bigger. But being that Hawaii is so small and has about the same population in size of the Chicago metro, sorry just way too isolated and small for me.
I hear you.
I've been to Hawaii once, visited a family member who moved there. Was there for 2 weeks and while I certainly enjoyed my time, it's not a place I would ever want to live. It's WAY too expensive, not just in shipping costs (5$ for a small box of cereal, no joke) but also taxes, most of the people I met there were working multiple jobs just to survive and rarely got any downtime. Not too mention that very, very few people who I met there owned their own house, and the few that did was passed through family.
Isolation though is what really sucks. Rarely ever seeing friends or family back on the mainland, it would get lonely fast. And it isn't cheap to fly back, or even to the other islands. I was on the Big Island btw. What's interesting is how drastic weather can change in Hawaii, for example my brother lives in Hilo, which was cloudy and very rainy, more rainy than any where else I've ever seen, not a very sunny place. However drive over to Kona, which was about an hour drive, and the weather was very sunny and humid, reminded me of my native Florida. There are even deserts on Hawaii, it all depends on what part of the islands you choose to live on, it's not all sunny and tropical like many people think.
Also, aside from Honolulu, living in Hawaii is like living in a small town. Actually more like living in a village almost, there are no real "towns" or " cities " to speak of (again besides Honolulu). It's a nice place to relax buy not a lot to really do. I got kind of bored and I drove around the island a few times, that's all you get to see. No mass shopping centers, or restaurants, or even some big stores we have here on the mainland.
But it is a very beautiful place and I have never regretted my time there. But for me, Hawaii is a great place to visit but not to live. For the reasons I mentioned above. I'm personally looking at visiting the Caribbean soon, it's closer for me to get to, cheaper, and it looks just as beautiful as Hawaii. Not to mention the islands are not isolated either, you can easily visit the others. Only downside is that not all the islands are safe, and some are 3rd world countries.
You don't need to own a car in Chicago if you live in one of many areas. I do not have one and most of my friends don't either. Amongst my friends who have cars - they either barely use them, or they ended up getting rid of them. The only ones who still have them are the ones who need it for a tougher type of commute (i.e. reverse commute) or ones who end up going to a neighboring state/Michigan every other weekend.
It's not terribly limiting unless you want to randomly eat at a restaurant that is way out of the way public transit wise. There are ride sharing programs like ZipCar all over some areas of Chicago, so there's that option, or if you need a car to go on a road trip or what not, you can cheaply rent one. Not to mention thousands of cabs throughout the city, which can be costly if you take for long distances, but still not as costly as letting a car sit out and pay insurance for it while not using it.
Funny to note too is that Chicago has beaches in the city too. Of course, they're only open from about May until early September An ex girlfriend of mine is from Honolulu, who's never been to Chicago (went out with her elsewhere). One day I sent her a few pictures of the beaches here without saying it was Chicago and she asked me why I was sending her pics of Waikiki. I've stayed in Waikiki before, and in a way it's similarly built up as parts of downtown Chicago, but dt Chicago has a lot more buildings and the architecture is a little different, and Chicago has a mini highway-esque road between the buildings and the beach/lakefront areas where Waikiki and other areas of Honolulu don't. Obviously some differences, but it's interesting to note this that they aren't terribly unalike in that way.
A few uses of zip car a month is still higher than insurance if you are a good driver on a cheap paid off automobile, esp if you share one with a spouse. I wasn't saying it can't be lived in car free, I've done it. I was saying I still think optimally you'd have one for a car lite experience. Though I travel a lot, and do enough extended road trips in a typical year where the price of renting significantly outweighs the cost of ownership. Chicago where most people live is not prohibitive to having a car like some of the cities I mentioned are. 9 out of 10 times I'm taking the el, but those 1 out of 10 times for example and traveling throughout the year make up in cost of ownership/insurance. The longer I've stayed in Chicago, the more spread out people I know live, therefore having a car has come more in handy than the first few years of living in Chicago where I was still learning the city.
Hawaii isn't really hot. It's not like Miami where it is oppressively hot and muggy. There's always a breeze and it's just warm, nowhere near as humid as Florida either.
Hawaii isn't really hot. It's not like Miami where it is oppressively hot and muggy. There's always a breeze and it's just warm, nowhere near as humid as Florida either.
Well I'm from Germany so to me it's pretty hot here, but I think with me hating everything over 72 degrees in general is a special situation anyway
Well I'm from Germany so to me it's pretty hot here, but I think with me hating everything over 72 degrees in general is a special situation anyway
It's depends entirely on what part of the islands you are on. For example on the Big Island, if you are in Hilo the weather is warm but also very rainy and cloudy, it's also very green because of this. Go over to Kona however and it's pretty muggy and sunny, it reminded me of my native Florida.
This is how it is on all the islands. One side is cooler but more rainy and less sunny, the other side is warmer and drier but also more humid and less green. It has to do with the winds and the mountains.
As you can see hear, Kona gets just as humid as Florida does. Again it varies greatly depending on what side you are on. Generally speaking, the south and west sides of all the islands tends to be more humid and hot.
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