Going to Hawaii from the East Coast.............

[nwcountrygal]

depends on the rain.. light mist rain it nice. It cools you off while your doing a hike or walk along the beach. Downpour is like nothing you have seen before. Sometimes I had to pull over because I couldn't drive. However I was on BI Hilo area almost all last winter. Wet side and to the most part rain didn't stop doing what you want most the time.

You should have a good trip don't worry about it. Just schedule what you want to do by getting up in am looking at the weather outside - getting on internet for dry side weather (sorry don't know Poipu) and decide what you want to do for the day. Don't make a post it schedule and think you are going to stick to it! Relax and enjoy. It is still warm when it rains... to us mainlanders.

Look into some crocs (shoes) for rain because slippers can get slippery when wet. Who care what they look like you will enjoy them when wet or rocky and eveyone wears them. And you can wear them in the water. Don't do what I did when first came over. Made the mistake of too many clothes, brought leather slippers no leather. By a beach towel for a gift back home, rent snorkel gear, get your lotions at stores. Forget your makeup you wont need it being in the sun or it will just melt off from the humidity.

Its all good trust you will find what to do that you want when it arrives!!
Aloha and have fun!!

[vinty]

Did you go yet? I know this is late. Kauai is called the Garden Isle for a reason. The wettest spot in the world is here. In my former years I worked at "why so high" and the visitors took it according to thier personality. All in all, good. Just be perpared knowing it is the winter/rainy season and don't honk at anybody. Have a good time

[Kleenex]

So.......
Got back from Hawaii last night at about 2:30 am (6 hours ago lol.....at work now....)

Kauai was fantastic! well worth the long flight and the hassles of planning and other logistics.
the weather??? absolutely perfect. never rained ONCE in poipu during the day while we were there. Rained for a couple of hours around 3 am once....but no clouds once we work up around 7 daily. went to the north shore twice.....once we got drizzle. that's it.

did the heli ride the first day....paid 196 including everything per person....blue hawaiian tours....got the internet rate (by calling them actually). 1 hour tour worth it (once only!!!)
did kayaking, hiking, visited the secret falls (cold water!!!), rope jumped off of another water fall in poipu, baked in the sun (awesome)....
waves at the sheraton are AWESOME!!!! Waves at the Hayat are SCARY!!! you're basically standing on sharp huge rocks on the beach while 8 foot waves are crashing into you! just insane! Glad we didn't stay at the Hayat (as far as the beach is concerned). grounds are bautiful!

Sheraton was great. upgraded to a full ocean view starring at the sunset straight ahead. upgrade was 50 a day. good deal i think. Breakfast was not worth it at 22 a person.

Went off to Honolulu for two nights. beaches are crap in honolulu in my opinion (wakiki is where we stayed). i would not go there again unless for the nights around town! JUST BEAUTIFUL! and full of life! streets filled with people and performers and torches, and hight end stores and restaurant and the beach on the other side of the street! just great at night! the beach? not so great.

Would i go to hawaii again? Probably not! we on the east coast take the carribean islands for granted! i've been to 5 or 6 islands and hawaii (as far as beaches are concerned IMO) are definitely NOT as good as the beaches in the carribean. we didn't see any white sand beaches (but i'm sure there are a few as we heard about them).

all in all, absolutly great experience. worth doing once IMO. Kauai is one of the most beautiful islands/places i've been to. a MUST see before you die!!!

PM me if you have any specific questions about anything we did or places we went. (while the information is still fresh lol)

cheers.

[hotzcatz]

Actually, buying stuff at a local shop will do more to help Hawaii than buying things at Walmart or Costco. Any money spent at any big box store will be off the island at the end of the day. These places don't even have accounts at the bank, the money is just immediately sent to corporate headquarters. Their employees are pretty much low paid and the corporations don't contribute to local concerns.

If you buy stuff from a locally owned and run store, then those people will be keeping the money in a local bank which other folks can get loans from. They will be stocking things determined by what folks here need (you can buy humming bird feeders at Wal-Mart, yet we have no humming birds in the state. Windshield ice scrapers are also a useful item available at that same place.) The locally owned and run store will hire people and actually treat them as people instead of numbers. The local store will donate time, money and items to neighborhood events. The local store will pay local revenues and increase the amount of social services available to everyone. Their employees traditionally make one and a half times the amount (on average) more than the same type of employee working for a big box store. The local stores also buy a lot more locally produced things. So buy your sunscreen at the local grocery store and shop at any mom-n-pop shop first. Then if there is something you can't find, then try the big box store if you must.

This goes the same for fast food joints.

[tortoise31]

I love Sueoka's in Koloa..

[lvh05]

Originally Posted by Kleenex

Should we buy suntan lotion from here and take it with us? or should we just buy it from costco or walmart over there? (Kauai)

any other tips welcome :-)

Buy it from where you live! Suntan/tanning lotion in HI is soooo expensive. Seriously.

Our last hotel (Westin at Ka'anapali in Maui) wanted $30/bottle. Walgreens wanted I think $10-$15 for Australian Gold. In FL, I can get it from Walmart on special for around $6.