National Parks
10 days in Hawaii: The Big Island and Maui
When planning our trip to Hawaii, we were overwhelmed by the amount of things to do in Hawaii. We’ve saved you the long hours of research. Follow our itinerary below to experience the best sites in Maui and The Big Island.
- Table of Contents:
Our Top Tips for Planning
Step 1: Decide trip duration and which islands to visit
- Aim to spend at least 5 days per island. There’s so much to do that it will be a waste of time and money to travel between the islands within a few days of each other. We had 10 days so decided to travel to two islands
- We chose Maui and the Big Island mostly because of the chance to visit the ONLY 2 NATIONAL PARKS in Hawaii. Maui is home to Haleakala and Hawaii is home to Volcanoes NP.
Step 2: Pick your flights
- Now that you’ve picked which islands you’re visiting, then next deciding factor is determining which island to travel to first. We made the decision on costs of flights. We love flying Southwest, so we created a large spreadsheet with costs of different flights to decide how to make our trip.
- Although Maui and Hawaii are both home to two airports, Kahului and Kona will be the largest and more likely of the two on the respective islands to travel to (with the most options for available rental cars).
- In the end, Houston –> Maui (Kahului – OGG) –> Hawaii (Kona- KOA) –> Houston won!
Step 3: Be COVID aware
- Currently (as of 11/2021) Hawaii requires all visitors to be either fully vaccinated or have a recent negative COVID test from a trusted site in order to bypass quarantine
- Another consequence of COVID on the island is that rental cars and hotels are not cheap! In the end, we booked through AutoSlash and found Airbnbs to stay at.
OUR ITINERARY
Check out our instagram for more details about each of our stops on our itinerary!
Day 1 – Fly from Houston to Kahului
- Total flight time was 8 hours. We left at 5:30AM and landed at 2:30PM in Kahului (8:30PM Houston time). It was a long day, but we landed with just enough time to explore some of Maui before sunset.
- Our first stop was the Iao state Needle Monument and Kepaniwai Park on the way to our airbnb in Kihei
Day 2 – Explore Maui
- We knew we had to snorkel when visiting Hawaii! The Molokini Snorkeling and Turtle Town tours were the most popular. The Molokini crater is a popular snorkel area due to the quiet waters near the crater formation.
- There was so many tour options to choose from and all were pretty similar. All of them seem to provide complimentary breakfast and lunch for approximately 5 hours of snorkeling. Here is a link to a list of all the options by a third party website. In the, end we chose PacWhale EcoAdventures based on emphasis on conservation, cost, reviews, and availability.
- After the snorkel tour, we headed to explore the cities. First stop was Lahaina to see the large Banyan Tree.
- Followed by the famous Nakaleke Blowhole via the Acid War Zone Trail and the Dragon’s Teeth/Labyrinth
- Then, we drove to the west coast of Maui to our airbnb near Paia
Day 3 – Haleakala NP and Road to Hana
- One of the highlights of our trip was the Haleakala Summit. Here you can catch the sunrise above the clouds. Once in a lifetime experience! Make sure to reserve in advance for this experience and pack for the cold – it was in the 30s and very windy.
- After viewing the sunrise, we explored the Haleakala NP summit area and saw a few of the overlooks.
- Next up, was the road to Hana after a quick stop at our airbnb. The drive back to our airbnb was long, but given how early we had gotten up that day it was only 10AM by the time we started road to Hana.
- We knew Road to Hana is long, so we chose to divide our day into two
- We did the Road to Hana backwards this day. We drove all the way Pipiwai Trail and Oheo Gulches and hike up to the Bamboo Forest before heading in for the night.
Day 4 – Road to Hana
- Today, we drove all the way to MM14 checking out Twin Falls, the Huelo fruit lookout stand, the free Ke’anae arboretum, and Aunty Sandy’s banana bread.
- We had just enough time to head to beach after this
Day 5 – Flight to Hawaii
- This morning we checked out Maui Swap and Meet, which occurs every Saturday morning
- We did a Maui Tropical Plantation tour at 11AM
- After a quick stop at Ululani’s again we headed to the airport.
- Our flight from OGG –> KOA was at 5pm
- Next thing to do was pick up our rental car and drive to Hilo. We spent the rest of our nights in Hawaii staying at the doubletree Hilton due to a membership discount.
Day 6 – Volcanoes NP
- We spent the entire day exploring Volcanoes NP. There’s so much to see here!
Day 7 – Wai’pio Valley, Akaka Falls, Rainbow Falls
- From our hotel in Hilo the Wai’pio Valley was a 1.5 hour drive. While you can choose to hike down, the trail is very steep and we didn’t have time on this day.
- We also visited Akaka Falls Sate Park and Rainbow Falls (located in Hilo)
Day 8 – South Hawaii
- Today we explored a black (Punalulu’u Black Sand Beach) and green colored beach (Papalokea Beach) and even saw the southernmost bakery in the USA (Punalu’u Bakery).
Day 9 – Explore Kona
- This was our last day in Hawaii! We spent it exploring Kona
- After catching brunch, we visited Hala Coffee Farms for a coffee farm tour, the Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park, and went boogy-boarding at Maninio’wali/Kua Bay Beach
- We stayed at an Airbnb in Kona tonight in preparation for our early flight home the next day
Day 10 – Flight home
- Our flight left at 8AM from KOA and landed at 12:10AM in Houston
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