Where in Hawaii to find relaxation and solitude?

Question

We went to Hanalei on Kauai for our honeymoon and absolutely loved the laid back, anti-resort paridise Now we want to take our 1 year old baby girl to Hawaii in january and maybe explore somewhere new. What are some very relaxed and magical places on the other islands in your opinion?

Answer 1

In my opinion Hana Maui is one of the most beautiful, laid back places on the face of the earth. Hotel Hana Maui is relaxing, no television or phones in the rooms, good food, excellent service, you can rent a bungalow on the ocean with a hot tub on your lanai. No hi- rise buildings, just lots of waterfalls & pasture land, red sand beaches, it's a rainforest, changes from rain to sunny about 3X/day. I've rented homes out there also that are incredible, & have gone camping many times. Wild fragrant white ginger flowers growing on the side of the winding scenic 52 mile drive or take a helicopter or small plane to Hana Airport. http://www.hotelhanamaui.com/
12 miles past Hana is O'heo Gulch ~ http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=Ohe%27o+Gulch

http://www.hanamaui.com/lodging.html

Answer 2

I totally agree with the third response. I have spent a lot of time in Hanalei and Haena on Kauai. It is a beautiful spot and totally out of the mainstream tourist areas. I've been living on Maui for the last month or so and I would definately say that Hana is the place you're looking for! Different from Kauai but equally as pretty and remote! Pacific Wings runs flights out there if you don't feel like renting a car and making the 2 hour drive. Although the drive is spectacuar!

Answer 3

For relaxation and solitude, Kauai would be my first choice, too, but since you've done it and you're travelling with a one-year old, Maui should be next. (Save Oahu for later, if you've not been there, when she's older and would enjoy the attractions and hustle-bustle.)

Here's what our family and friends do before they come to visit on Oahu. We built a personal web page with the best links we distilled from the literally hundreds of useless sites out there, and also rated and reviewed those sites and the places we've been, many more than once. That way they could look BEFORE they got here and see what they want to do-making a list and narrowing it down from there. We get a LOT of visitors, and just got tired of trying to answer the same questions about "what's to do?" It's at http://home.hawaii.rr.com/gonebananas. I've gotten lots of feedback that it's a great place to start...it's just grown over time, and we're glad others can use it.

- Lastly, continue to use the forums at MSN Travel, Frommer's, Foder's, and others. Wealth of info. There're links to all of them on our page.

Could go into a longer answer here, but with all the work we put into that page, well, you'll see...it will answer your question, or get you to the other places that will.

Aloha
HarleyDog

Answer 4

I would have said Kauai if you hadn't already been there. There is a single hotel in Hana, which is the anti-resort side of Maui, that you might like. Go to: http://www.hotelhanamaui.com/about_us.shtml Some parts of the Big Island (Hawaii) are also relatively relaxed. Of course, there are the minor islands, like Molokai, where it's even more timeless.

Check out rainfall data on the net (easy to find). January can be quite wet in some areas. Go for one of the "dry-side" places.

Answer 5

Go to the big island and stay on the South or East side. Volcano is very nice. There are beautiful beaches, lots of sea turtles on a black sand beach, and just North of Hilo is a very lovely rain forest. There are several nice Bed and Breakfasts to choose from.

Answer 6

I have only been to maui, and the kehei/ wailea area is nice :)