Overnight in Kona from Honolulu - our planned itinerary. Suggestions? Critiques?

[mikeerdas]

Hi Cruisin' Chick,

 

Our cruise to Hawaii back in 2006 was with Norwegian and very port intensive. In fact there were zero port days if I recall correctly, and we embarked and disembarked in Honolulu.

 

I am often a "no rental car" guy, but mostly when visiting non-U.S. countries--often too stressful. But I found car rental in Hilo, Maui and Kauai to be easy. Distances are short (at least Hilo to Volcanoes NP), you already know the road rules, etc.

 

But it sounds like a trip to Mauna Kea, esp. at night for astronomy, would be best done on an excursion due to low light conditions and narrow roads. Not to mention, some car rental contracts may exclude driving on Saddle Road--one of the roads to take to get to Mauna Kea. Others can chime in hopefully, or look for my other recent post on car rentals in Kona and Maui.

 

The brilliance of the NCL itinerary is that is had overnight port stops in both Maui and Kauai. And also, if I'm remembering correctly, we were able to part our rental cars overnight right in port where the ship docks in both places, for free. Someone please correct if that's not currently the case.

 

Anyway, Hawaii was my first ever cruise, having been a lifelong DIY Rick Steves' influenced "Independent Traveler"--was mostly horrified at the thought of cruising. But it was such an efficient way to see several Hawaiian isles in a very short period of time. I've not since found any cruises that have two overnight port stops. I know they exist, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

 

But if you love sea days (I do not--I cruise for easy access to different locations for exploration and adventure), and your cruise is not port-intensive and has no overnights, maybe sticking to excursions for you is best.

 

Funny though how Rick Steves finally caved and admitted that cruising can be even more cost effective that cheap budget european travel--having published two excellent books on how to DIY at cruise ports. He has one covering Mediterranean ports and another covering Northern European cruise ports. I own and have used the former book--fantastic. And just placed an order for the latter.

 

Learned about the Rick Steves' cruise books via Cruise Critic members.

 

Not sure if the astronomy center you're considering is the same one that my daughter wanted to go to during one of our Hawaiian cruises' date=' but that one turned out to be closed on the day of the week we would be in Hilo. When we're narrowing down possibities of sites to see, I'll try to find the website for the place and find hours of operation. On our last cruise, we were going to be in Lahaina on Christmas Day, and between websites and Facebook pages, I found a place we hadn't seen in our two previous Hawaiian cruises that would be open, and a quick taxi or bus trip away, and we all had fun.

 

My hubby's requirement for the port days is no rental cars. So I get a bit creative on my recommendations. But then we went to Kauai and Honolulu on our honeymoon years before we went on these cruises, and did rent a car on Kauai and drove all over (Honolulu, we stuck with places we can walk to). And we each had gone to Hawaii before we met (I went on one of those 3 islands in 9days type of tour). So we were introducing our girl to Hawaii, but she doesn't need days to visit an area. And we go on our cruises (with lots of sea days such as the Hawaiian cruises) to relax so we obviously have different priorities than you do.[/quote']

[Cruisin' Chick]

Hi Cruisin' Chick,

 

Our cruise to Hawaii back in 2006 was with Norwegian and very port intensive. In fact there were zero port days if I recall correctly, and we embarked and disembarked in Honolulu.

 

I am often a "no rental car" guy, but mostly when visiting non-U.S. countries--often too stressful. But I found car rental in Hilo, Maui and Kauai to be easy. Distances are short (at least Hilo to Volcanoes NP), you already know the road rules, etc.

 

But it sounds like a trip to Mauna Kea, esp. at night for astronomy, would be best done on an excursion due to low light conditions and narrow roads. Not to mention, some car rental contracts may exclude driving on Saddle Road--one of the roads to take to get to Mauna Kea. Others can chime in hopefully, or look for my other recent post on car rentals in Kona and Maui.

 

The brilliance of the NCL itinerary is that is had overnight port stops in both Maui and Kauai. And also, if I'm remembering correctly, we were able to part our rental cars overnight right in port where the ship docks in both places, for free. Someone please correct if that's not currently the case.

 

Anyway, Hawaii was my first ever cruise, having been a lifelong DIY Rick Steves' influenced "Independent Traveler"--was mostly horrified at the thought of cruising. But it was such an efficient way to see several Hawaiian isles in a very short period of time. I've not since found any cruises that have two overnight port stops. I know they exist, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

 

But if you love sea days (I do not--I cruise for easy access to different locations for exploration and adventure), and your cruise is not port-intensive and has no overnights, maybe sticking to excursions for you is best.

 

Funny though how Rick Steves finally caved and admitted that cruising can be even more cost effective that cheap budget european travel--having published two excellent books on how to DIY at cruise ports. He has one covering Mediterranean ports and another covering Northern European cruise ports. I own and have used the former book--fantastic. And just placed an order for the latter.

 

Learned about the Rick Steves' cruise books via Cruise Critic members.

 

My family are the opposite. We love sea days as I stated above. Our last three cruises were the RT trips to Hawaii from the west coast on Princess. For us, no flying (I'm a white knuckle flyer) and lots of Hawaiian activities (a smart cruise director at Princess hired the musical duo Elua about five or six years ago -- and he and the duo created a fantastic program, that has many people repeating this particular cruise -- I've known some who have done this cruise more than five times).

 

To us, it's the cruise itself, and often the ports (even Hawaii) are just a bonus. Even our teen is more about finding kids her age and going swimming, eating (she's skinny, so that's a good thing), and seeing movies and shows, while at sea. And we don't usually do excursions -- just tour on our own based on my research. If we want to spend more time in Hawaii in the future, we'll fly there and spend time in a hotel for a land visit.