『Hawaii Travel Podcast | Maui, Oahu, Kauai & Big Island Vacation Tips & Guide』のカバーアート

Hawaii Travel Podcast | Maui, Oahu, Kauai & Big Island Vacation Tips & Guide

Hawaii Travel Podcast | Maui, Oahu, Kauai & Big Island Vacation Tips & Guide

著者： Jennifer Davis and Dan Schulz help you plan a Hawaii vacation covering budget trips honeymoon planning and Hawaii travel hacks for first-time and repeat visitors.
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Hawaii Travel Podcast is your guide to planning a Hawaii vacation on Maui, Oahu, Kauai, or the Big Island — practical tips for first-time visitors on what to do, where to eat, and how to get around Honolulu and Waikiki without wasting money or getting stuck doing the tourist trap version of everything. Hosted by Jennifer Davis and Dan Schulz, every episode gives you seven fast Hawaii tips you can actually use — the warnings, money-saving tricks, and planning advice most people don't find out until they're already in Hawaii wishing someone had told them sooner. We cover resort fees, rental cars, snorkeling spots, hiking permits, restaurants locals actually eat at, cultural etiquette, common travel mistakes, and the booking tricks most Hawaii travel guides leave out. Every episode covers seven tips across the Hawaiian islands so you're getting useful advice no matter which Hawaii vacation you're planning. New episodes every week. Whether it's your first time or your fifth time to visit Hawaii, subscribe to the free newsletter at hawaiitravelpodcast.com for a written version of every episode you can save on your phone and take with you. Established 2012.Copyright 2026 JenDanCo LLC | hawaiitravelpodcast.com 旅行記・解説 社会科学
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  • 55 Big Island Miles With No Gas, Kauai Lifeguards Go Home at 6, and What's the Best Farm Tour on Maui?

    55 Big Island Miles With No Gas, Kauai Lifeguards Go Home at 6, and What's the Best Farm Tour on Maui?
    2026/10/27
    OahuFour hours on a bus is a lot of garlic shrimp you're not eating.If you're staying near Diamond Head on Oahu and want to hit Shark's Cove, a shrimp truck, and Waimea Bay in one day, rent a car for just that day. Becky wrote in with this exact plan, and we're guessing the bay she means is Waimea. The bus from Waikiki runs about two hours each way, so you'd spend around four hours of your day just riding. By car it's closer to an hour, depending on traffic. Reserve the car the day before, check when the Waikiki rental office opens, and aim to be on the road by 8:30. Go to Shark's Cove first, because that lot fills early. Then Waimea Bay, and save Giovanni's Haleiwa truck for the drive home, with time to order before it closes around 5. A one-day rental also means you're not paying to park a car all week. One heads up: Shark's Cove has no lifeguard, and winter surf can close the water, so check the Hawaii Beach Safety website first. Do it this way and you're at a picnic table with a garlic shrimp plate, salty hair, and nobody checking a bus clock.All IslandsYour snorkel crew is hoping you brought small bills.If you're booking a snorkel boat, a whale watch, or any guided tour in Hawaii, put the tip in your budget now, because it usually isn't in the ticket price. Plan on about $5 to $10 a person for a two-hour sunset, whale, or snorkel trip, and about $15 to $20 a person for a snorkel day of four hours or more. For a family of four on a five-hour boat, that's $60 to $80 on top of the tickets. Private charters and tours run higher, about 15 to 20 percent of the price. Most crews and guides take cash, so tuck some small bills in a zip bag the night before, and keep it dry, since this is a boat. Some crews take Venmo, too. Ask when you book whether the tip is already in the price, because some private charters build it in. Tips matter most on small group tours, where the guide often bends over backward to make your day. Hand it over at the end with a thank you. You step off the boat sunburned and happy, the crew knows you noticed, and nobody is doing math at the dock.MauiThe Maui bakery locals drive up the hill for.If you're staying on Maui and want a breakfast worth setting an alarm for, skip the hotel pastry and head up to Komoda Store and Bakery in Makawao. The same family has run the business since 1916, and locals line up for the cream puffs, stick donuts, and guava malasadas. The shop makes hundreds of cream puffs a day and still runs out. It opens at 7 every day except Wednesday and Sunday, and the favorites are often sold out by 10, so go close to opening. Bring cash to be safe. Makawao is up in the cool Upcountry, about 45 minutes from Kihei and about an hour from Lahaina and Kaanapali, so treat it as a morning outing, not a quick stop. Check the hours before you drive, since hours can change. Order a cream puff and a guava malasada while you're there. Eat them on the sidewalk in the chilly morning air, with sugar on your fingers and a little cowboy town waking up around you, and you'll see why a bakery open since 1916 still has a line.KauaiKauai's lifeguards go home at 6.If you're headed to a Kauai beach, look for an on-duty lifeguard before you get in the water, because Kauai has had the highest drowning rate per person in the state for years. County lifeguards work from 8 AM to 6 PM at guarded beaches, so outside those hours even a beach with a tower has nobody watching. The ocean never clocks out. Walk up, make sure a guard is on duty, and ask what the ocean is doing today, because they know where the rip currents are and whether the water is safe at all. Take their advice, even if it means staying out. Watch the waves for 20 minutes, too, since calm stretches can hide big sets, but don't treat watching as permission to swim. Plan to be out of the water by 6. If a beach has no guard and no tower, enjoy it from the sand and save your swim for another day. Do that and you get a long, easy beach afternoon, with towels on the sand and your whole group still smiling at the end of the day.Big IslandTwo giant volcanoes, 55 miles, and not one gas station.If you're driving across the Big Island between Hilo and Kona, fill your tank before you start. Saddle Road runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, it has no gas stations at all, and Hilo to Kona takes about two hours. Between Hilo and Waimea, that's roughly 55 miles with no gas and no food. So top off in Hilo, or in Kona or Waimea if you're heading the other way. Buy water before you go, too, because there's no store up there, just lava and a very big sky. Don't count on your phone for the whole drive, so check your route before you leave. Try to drive it in daylight and skip it in a rainstorm, because the road is remote and visibility drops fast. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has no gas stations inside it either, so fill up before that drive, too. Start with a full tank and the road becomes one of the best drives in Hawaii, with Mauna Kea on one side...
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    12 分
  • Oahu’s Most Famous Hike Can Get You Arrested, The $2 Maui Treat Most Visitors Miss, and What’s the Best Luau on Kauai?

    Oahu’s Most Famous Hike Can Get You Arrested, The $2 Maui Treat Most Visitors Miss, and What’s the Best Luau on Kauai?
    2026/10/22
    Seven Hawaii tips this week, from a famous Oahu hike you can’t do to a hundred-year-old Maui treat most people drive right past.OAHU The most famous hike on Oahu is one you’re not allowed to do If you’re planning an Oahu hike off a photo you saw online, make sure the trail is still open. The Stairway to Heaven, also called the Haiku Stairs, still shows up in old blogs and travel videos as a bucket-list climb. It’s been closed to the public since 1987. The city started tearing it down in 2024, and what’s left is still tied up in court. Police have cited and arrested people at the bottom for trying to sneak up. So skip it. If you’re up for a hard climb, put the Koko Head Stairs on your list instead. They’re on the southeast tip of Oahu, about 25 minutes from Waikiki, legal and free: 1,048 old railroad ties straight up the side of a crater, roughly 1,000 feet of climbing. There’s no shade, so start close to sunrise and bring extra water. Park at Koko Head District Park. At the top, you’re on the rim of an old volcano with Hanauma Bay below you, Diamond Head in the distance, and the whole south shore lit up in morning light.KAUAI Kauai’s alarm clock goes off at 4 AM, and you can’t hit snooze If you’re staying on Kauai, pack earplugs. You might want them around 4 in the morning. Kauai has wild chickens everywhere: parking lots, beaches, the lawn outside your hotel. Unlike Oahu, Maui, and the Big Island, Kauai has no mongoose population going after their eggs, so the birds are all over the place. And the roosters don’t wait for sunrise. Plenty start crowing at 3 or 4 AM, right outside your window. Put foam earplugs in your carry-on, or load a white noise app before you leave home. When you check in, ask for an upper-floor room or one away from the grass and the parking lot, where the birds hang out. Do that and the rooster becomes part of the soundtrack instead of your alarm clock. You’ve got a much better shot at waking up rested, coffee in hand on the lanai, while a very proud bird struts across the lawn like he owns the place.MAUI The rock you shouldn’t stand on at Maui’s 100-foot blowhole If you’re driving the north coast of West Maui, the Nakalele Blowhole is worth the stop, as long as you watch it from the right spot. Waves push into a lava tube under the rock and blast water out of a hole about the size of a tire, sometimes as high as 100 feet when the surf is up. People get in trouble by walking too close. In 2011, a visitor standing near the hole was knocked down by a wave and pulled in, and he was never found. The Maui Fire Department’s rule: if the rock is wet, waves are reaching it, so don’t stand there. Dry rock isn’t a guarantee either, because a big set can come out of nowhere. Stay well back from the hole and the water’s edge, watch from higher ground, and never turn your back on the ocean. The trail down from the pullout near mile marker 38 is steep and loose, so wear real shoes, not flip-flops. Do it right and you’re standing in the sun, feeling the boom through your feet, sometimes with a rainbow hanging in the spray.BIG ISLAND The Big Island lava tube with no lights, no fee, and no line If you’re staying in Hilo, there’s a better way to walk through a lava tube than the one everybody else does. Most visitors only see Nahuku, also called Thurston Lava Tube, in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It’s paved and lit, and at midday you’re shuffling through in a line of people. Kaumana Caves is the wild version, about 15 minutes from downtown Hilo on Kaumana Drive, just past mile marker 4. It’s a free county park, open year round. You walk down steep stairs into a spot where the roof caved in, and two big tubes open up in front of you, one on each side. This lava came down from Mauna Loa in 1881 and stopped just short of Hilo. There are no lights and the floor is rough, so bring a flashlight or headlamp for each person, plus a spare, and wear closed-toe shoes. Stay near the entrance and follow the posted signs, because the tube runs under private land farther in. Then switch your light off for a few seconds. Cool air, dripping rock, and nobody else’s voice.ALL ISLANDS Your $90 interisland flight just cost $160 If you’re splitting your trip between two islands, add the bag fees before you call that interisland flight cheap. In April 2026, Southwest doubled its interisland bag fees for visitors. Now Southwest and Hawaiian both charge about $30 for your first checked bag and $40 for the second, each way. If you each check two bags, that’s $70 a person, and a $90 ticket becomes a $160 flight. For a couple, that’s $140 for a hop that’s over in less than an hour. Price the flight with your bags included, not just the fare. Then get the two of you down to one shared checked bag, keep it under 50 pounds to avoid an overweight charge, and carry the rest on. Leave bulky beach gear at home and rent it on the island if you need it. Going from ...
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    11 分
  • Where Your Rental Kayak Can’t Land, Haleakala Without a Reservation, and What’s the Best Boat Tour on Maui?

    Where Your Rental Kayak Can’t Land, Haleakala Without a Reservation, and What’s the Best Boat Tour on Maui?
    2026/10/20

    Episode 105

    Seven Hawaii tips today, including Haleakala without a reservation, a Big Island shore most kayakers never stand on, and the Oahu bus trick that caps your fares at $7.50.

    MAUI

    The Haleakala show that doesn't need a reservation

    If you're going to Maui and missed the Haleakala sunrise reservation, go for sunset instead. It's not the backup plan. Sunrise needs a $1 reservation for every car entering the summit area between 3 and 7 AM, and those go fast. Sunset needs no reservation at all. You pay the $30 entrance fee per car, good for three days, or show a park pass if you already have one. The park is cashless, so bring a card. The catch is parking. When the summit lots fill, cars get turned around at the gate, and in the busy winter season the park says to arrive at least three hours before sunset. So pack a dinner, head up early, and bring real layers, because it gets very cold up there once the sun drops. When the sun goes down, don't rush for the car. The road down is dark and winding, and the first wave of traffic is the worst of it. Stay a while. On a clear night, the sky over 10,000 feet goes from orange to purple to black, and then the stars come out, thick and bright, more than most people have ever seen in one sky.

    ALL ISLANDS

    Once a hurricane has a name, it's too late to buy this

    If you're booking a Hawaii trip for summer or fall, the plan to buy travel insurance only if a storm shows up doesn't work. Hawaii's hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. Most standard policies treat a storm as a known event once it gets a name. Buy after that, and losses from that storm generally aren't covered. In September 2026, Hurricane Lowell hit Kauai hard, and for a while officials asked visitors to postpone their trips. So buy your policy the same week you pay your first big deposit. Before you click buy, check two things. First, that it includes severe weather coverage, since that isn't on every plan. Second, the list of reasons it will actually pay for a cancellation, like a canceled flight or a hotel that can't open. Check what your credit card already covers too. It's a little homework, once. After that you can close the weather map and spend the rest of your planning months on the good stuff, picking beaches, booking dinners, and counting down the days.

    BIG ISLAND

    The Big Island shore most kayakers only see from the water

    If you're planning to kayak to the Captain Cook Monument on the Big Island, a rental kayak gets you across the bay but not onto the shore. Kealakekua Bay, south of Kona, is a protected bay, and every boat on it needs a state permit. Permitted rental kayaks can paddle the bay, and you can snorkel there, but you're not allowed to land at Ka'awaloa, the flat where the monument stands. Only a small number of guided kayak tour companies, listed on the Hawaii State Parks website, can bring people ashore. So if stepping onto that shore is the goal, you have two ways in. Book a guided kayak tour with a company on the state parks list. Or hike down the Ka'awaloa Trail. It's
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    12 分
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