Visiting Hawaii

Tips
1. When you get to there, just pick up free tour books at the airport.  Tour books give you ideas about what to do, where to visit, and have coupons too. After reading a few of them, you will know all the best places you may visit and plan them ahead.
2. Book boat tours as earlier as possible as it gets filled up soon and weather may change.
3. Bring or prepare your own snorkeling/diving gears. At least, buy a good mask. I have completely different experiences with different masks. The one from costco doesn't work well. It does leak water in, and the lens gets blurred. Go to a local dive shop, try one, and ask the clerk to help you pick the right size with high VISIBILITY. Now I bought mine at Blue Water Aquatics on homestead. The prices of the mask is good, it is even cheaper than Amazon. Buy a pair of socks or booties to avoid that hard rocks or coral may scratch or hurt your feet while you try to stand up. Fins are not required, though it helps floating.
4. I like to live in residential area as it is less crowded, more family friendly, feeling more relaxed like being at home. I booked the places at http://www.vrbo.com. It have more listings and price is much lower than other places too.
5. Hawaii still has Winter and Summer seasons. But don't let the words fool you. During Winter, one can still wear bikini:P. For summer, it is a better time for snorkeling, as the ocean is more calm, almost no waves. It is much more sunny I guess, so the visibility in the water is higher too. During winter, it has waves, so it is good for surfing.

Maui
1. Hana Drive. We did Hana Drive starting from Kahului airport and ending at Kihei area. Yer, we did a tour of east island and passed the broken road. I will say, it is a nice drive, but I may not do it again. We enjoyed the part of the broken road more, but the experience and scenery is similar to drive on Highway One passing Sausalito area. The sunset over the sea was terrific while driving along the broken road.

2. Snorkeling. I went out with a boat tour. It was supposed to go to Monokili but due to the bad weather, it went to Coral Garden instead. It is really beautiful under the water. I didn't do diving, so I don't have any experiences for that for now. For self-supported snorkeling, just locate the famous, expensive hotels, the best beaches or snorkeling sites are just in front of them and are open to public access. The beaches at Kaanapali area are terrific.

3. Wailea-Makena area are worth a visit too. A lot of new condos, hotels, nice beaches.

4. Visit Lahaina downtown to get some cheap tours. There are a lot of deals.

5. West Maui is always pleasant to live both in Winter and Summer. I guess Kilei area is a litte cheaper. As the Island is small, it really doesn't matter so much where you live for a few days visit. But if you would like to stay longer, it depends on what you like better, for snorkeling, west Maui. For surfing, around Kilei.

Kauai
1. Great place for surfing and whale watching at winter time.
2. We stayed at Poipu area. Around Poipu beach park, it is a terrific place to watch sunset. For winter, it is a good place for both snorkeling and surfing. Though Kauai is small, it really doesn't matter where you live, one can easily drive from one side to the farthest side around one hour. Princeville area is pretty too, one may consider to stay there during summer time. The problem to live at Princeville is the driving. Look at the map carefully, the road at HaEna is an dead end.
3. Piaw did scuba diving with dive shop, he loves it.
4. Biking/walking on the paved road for 2-3 hours at Kappa area.
5. Visited Hanalai Bay, one can drive till the end of the road, then it reaches Haena. It is a nice swimming and snorkeling site.
6. Took boat tour to Napa Li Coast.