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I really think you would be much happier on Oahu. You can have the perfect mix of urban and rural on Oahu. Kauai is to Oahu as Portland (OR) is to Los Angeles. You should visit Kauai to make up your own mind, but I really think Oahu will fit you better. You can even find some lovely places above Honolulu that are rural with only a 10-15 minute drive into downtown. Tantalus drive winds through the hills and there is some hiking trails in the area to satisfy your outdoorsy nature
Whichever island you end up on, I envy you the ability to make your move there. I am working on that plan myself and hope to make it happen soon.
That's potentially misleading to people who aren't familiar with all the places being discussed. More accurate would be, "Kauai is to Oahu as the Southern Oregon coast is to the Portland metro area." Portland has a population of about 580,000, versus Honolulu's 380,000. Cultural differences aside, I find Portland and Honolulu similar in that both are small cities with a population big enough to support a fair amount of diversity in terms of food, shopping, cultural activities, etc., although Portland probably has more diversity due to its larger population. Both have bad rush-hour traffic, but not as bad as that of Los Angeles, Seattle, or Atlanta. Once you get outside of Portland and its suburbs, you're quickly in rural areas, as is the case on Oahu, once you get outside of Honolulu and its 'burbs. Kaua'i, like the Southern Oregon coast, is mostly rural, with a handful of small towns, a few artsy areas, and beautiful scenery. (I just didn't want anyone to get the impression that if they like the size and urban/rural mix or Portland, they'll like Kaua'i, or that if L.A. is too big and crowded for them, Honolulu will be the same.)
Hanalei is not a city...not even close. As someone posted before the only city in the entire state would be honolulu. You can easily get the best of both worlds living on oahu. We have malls, outlets etc for your shopping. There are farmers markets, a couple whole foods and down to earth markets for organic food, and you can live on the windward side or the north shore of oahu and go days/weekswithout seeing the city but you are always a fairly quick drive from the city (without traffic that is). There is a huge outdoor sports community here on oahu, so whatever it is that you are into you will be able to enjoy it here. The biggest issue for you will be your cats. You will have to have your cats put into quarntine for awhile. If you are able to afford the cost of living herre in hawaii, you will love it
Lol I believe it. Driving into town from my place with no traffic (very very rare no matter what day it is or what time you're driving honestly) takes about 25-30 minutes. Normal traffic (like the kind you'll get on a saturday afternoon) it takes about 90 minutes to get to town. Rush hour, about 2 hours to get into town. If its slightly drizzling anywhere along the highway between my place and town, you may as well give up...lol
To HonuMan.
I actually heard (or read) that Honolulu had the second worse traffic after Los Angeles.
Honolulu has the worst *rush hour*, not the worst traffic. That means that the *difference* between a non rush hour drive time and a rush hour drive time is the greatest here. Which means, among other things, that it's not so bad if you can avoid driving certain times of day.
I grew up in So Cal and moved here straight from LA a few years ago. Trust me, the traffic here is *nothing* like LA. In LA, I would often spend 4 hours a day in my car (for a 35 mile all highway commute, usually done during non rush hour times).
The traffic may seem bad to folks moving from the midwest, and I'm sure it's awful to have to take H1 from Ewa to town during rush hour. But if you can avoid rush hour, the traffic is really not bad at all. That's definitely not the case in LA. You can't avoid the traffic, no matter when or where you drive.
Honolulu has the worst *rush hour*, not the worst traffic. That means that the *difference* between a non rush hour drive time and a rush hour drive time is the greatest here. Which means, among other things, that it's not so bad if you can avoid driving certain times of day.
I grew up in So Cal and moved here straight from LA a few years ago. Trust me, the traffic here is *nothing* like LA. In LA, I would often spend 4 hours a day in my car (for a 35 mile all highway commute, usually done during non rush hour times).
Los Angeles is a big place and commuting times vary by location. I used to commute from Manhattan Beach to La Jolla and it would take me 2 hours to go 110 miles during rush hour. During "off-peak" times, the drive from Manhattan Beach to La Jolla would take 1 hour and 50 minutes. On O'ahu, it used to take me 90 minutes to commute 36 miles from Wai'anae to Mānoa during rush hour. However, during "off-peak" times, the drive from Wai'anae to Mānoa takes about 50 minutes. The main difference between commuting in Los Angeles and O'ahu is that there are more alternative means of transportation and routes in Los Angeles. If the 405 in L.A. is backed up, one can usually get off and get to their destination via surface streets. If the H1 is backed up, there are few alternatives. Approximately 5 years ago, one of the worst traffic jams in Hawai'i history occurred when a military excavator damaged a H1 overpass... "Stuck" -- Honolulu Star-Bulletin 09-06-2006 "Drivers Try All Winding Circuits Home" -- Honolulu Star-Bulletin 09-06-2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by newUHprof
The traffic may seem bad to folks moving from the midwest, and I'm sure it's awful to have to take H1 from Ewa to town during rush hour. But if you can avoid rush hour, the traffic is really not bad at all. That's definitely not the case in LA. You can't avoid the traffic, no matter when or where you drive.
If one drives during "off-peak" hours in L.A., there's hardly any traffic. A couple of days ago, I arrived at LAX at 5:15 AM after a "red-eye" flight from Hilo. There was virtually no traffic. It took me longer to walk to my car in the parking lot at LAX's Terminal 6 than it did to drive the 5 miles to my house in Manhattan Beach.
If one drives during "off-peak" hours in L.A., there's hardly any traffic. A couple of days ago, I arrived at LAX at 5:15 AM after a "red-eye" flight from Hilo. There was virtually no traffic. It took me longer to walk to my car in the parking lot at LAX's Terminal 6 than it did to drive the 5 miles to my house in Manhattan Beach.
Well, I'm definitely not a 5am commuter. I used to drive OC to USC (straight shot up the 5, with a little jaunt over on the 10). I would drive in around 11am and home anywhere from 7-10pm. Traffic was nearly always bad unless I went home very, very late (11pm or later). There seemed to be no morning time that was do-able (again, I never tried 5am... nor will I!).
But personal anecdotes aside, the study the previous poster mentioned pretty clearly was talking about the *difference*: regular commute and rush hour. It doesn't appear in the headline, but if you read the article, that's what they're saying. Honolulu's traffic among worst in U.S. | starbulletin.com | News | /2008/06/18/
Sample quote, "Regions like southwest Connecticut, Honolulu and Austin may not rank high in terms of overall congestion, but it's a safe bet that if you are on highways in these regions in peak hours, congestion is the norm."
Also, I guess I want to add... it's a lot easier for me to arrange my life here so that I don't have to drive very far very often.
In So Cal, all of my friends lived 30-35 miles from where I worked, and all in different directions. To get *anywhere* (movies, restaurant, friend's house, park, beach, work...) meant a long-ish drive on the freeways, sometimes a very long drive. And it was impossible to get together with more than one or two friends at a time... no reasonable place to meet up.
Here, I can walk a lot of places I want to go, and I rarely drive over 10 miles in a single trip, unless I'm doing a weekend North Shore jaunt. Work? 2.5 miles. Beach? 2.5 miles. Downtown / Chinatown? Less than a mile. Movies? A mile or so. Parks? Several within a one-mile radius. Friends' houses? All within 10 miles, most within 2 miles, several walkable. Lots of beach BBQs, cookouts at friends' places, dinner parties, etc. Even with all this bad traffic, I spend way less time in my car because life isn't so spread out here. (At least if you live in town.)
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