We did this at the end of our National Parks leg of our trip and we thought it might be fun to do the same now that we’ve finished our Hawaii leg too. We have each done a round-up of our highlights without conferring, and based on a few different categories which are below.

Si’s Picks

Best island

I’m going to go with Maui for the best island, which was the fourth and final island we visited. This was the island that for me, looked and felt the most like how I imagined Hawaii to be, and how it’s depicted in movies and on TV. It had loads of amazing beaches as well as lots of greenery and tropical plants and flowers.

There was a real good mixture of things to do here which were all very different too. From being up at >10,000 feet in the clouds at the top of a volcano, to being in wet, rainforest areas on the east of the island on the Road to Hana. There was also a good range of shops, bars and facilities on the island as it caters well to tourists, but without the big city feel that Oahu and the Honolulu area had.

Kauai would be a close second to this, and we did some brilliant things there for sure – the helicopter ride, mountain tubing, cycling down the coast, visiting Waimea Canyon (the “Grand Canyon of Hawaii”), but Maui just edges it for me as it had a bit more going on, better beaches and resort areas, and loads of interesting things to see and do.

Best hike

We did a lot of very different hikes while we were in Hawaii. Some bare landscapes at the Volcanos, some rainforest and bamboo forest walks, loads of waterfalls, lots of cliff top and seafront paths.

My favourite I think was the first walk we did in Hawaii which was on Oahu on our first day there. We’d been kayaking (not very successfully!) before and then hiked up the Pillbox trail. It was a short but steep and tricky climb up, but this gave us our first proper view of the island and ocean, and it was good fun climbing on the roof of, and climbing inside of the old army lookout points.

Best beer

I said in my wrap up from our West Coast National Parks that I hoped to find another pineapple IPA, and Hawaii didn’t disappoint!

Maui Brewing Co, who had bars on a couple of the islands we visited, and whose beer you could also buy in all the supermarkets as a local selection, had a really nice “Pineapple Mana” wheat ale. I had this whenever I had the opportunity, including on our last night in Hawaii before flying back to the mainland.

Best bar / brewery

This is a tricky one as we found lots of nice bars across the islands. It’s a close call between the Maui Brewing co bar we found on our last day in Hawaii, and the Kona Brewing pub and taproom on the Big Island. I’m going to have to give the edge to the Kona Brewery though. They had a good happy hour, big selection of beer, a nice beer garden to sit in, and a short walk away was their actual brewery where we popped over to their tasting room which was good. It was really quiet there, they gave us a few samples to try before we decided, and they even had free popcorn!

Having just looked through the mass of photos we’ve taken, I also need to give mention to Deck., which was a rooftop bar in Waikiki where we sat and had cocktails as the sun went down, with amazing views out over Diamond Head. That was really cool too, but it wasn’t a brewery with a big beer selection, more of a hotel bar nearby to us.

Best food

It’s too obvious to say the burger that we had at the Cool Cat Cafe on Maui (photo above), which was amazing. I’m going to go with a different choice and say the fresh pineapple we had from a roadside stall on one of our driving days on the Big Island.

He just chopped up a whole fresh pineapple, put it in a zip-lock bag, and that lasted us the whole day and in to the next. Locally grown Hawaiian pineapple tastes a lot sweeter than the stuff we get back home, and it was a really nice snack to have on the drive

Best wow moment

This is an obvious one really, the helicopter ride on Kauai was amazing! We saw loads of the island you just can’t otherwise access or see, and it was a brilliant experience we hope to do again somewhere.

Because this was too obvious a choice, I’ll also give mention to some other amazing things we had chance to do – the mountain tubing, cycling down the coast of Kauai, going to a Luau (with free bar!), watching live country music at Maui Gardens. There’s too many actually….all amazing.

Lucy’s Picks

Best Island

Each of the islands were unique in their own way but Kauai was definitely my favourite. It was the quietest and most laid back of the islands, and the scenery was very green. All these qualities are hammered home even more because we came here from Oahu which in many ways is the complete opposite.

It being the smallest also meant that nothing was too far away to get to in terms of mileage so we didn’t need to spend much time travelling around. Our apartment was also in a great location, with an excellent pool, and there were lots of amenities nearby. It is also the island where we did a lot of great activities such as the mountain tubing, helicopter ride and bike ride, which will long live on in the memories of the holiday.

Best Hike

Located in Ha’ena State Park, the Hanakapi’ai Falls Trail was long and strenuous hike which had a bit of everything (and more!) – elevation changes, stunning views along the Na’pali coastline, wet and muddy paths, tropical rainforests, bouldering, river crossings. The first 2 miles of the hike took you to Hanakapi’ai beach and then from there it was a further 2 miles to the waterfall, which was stunning!

You obviously then had to get back so it was around 8.5 miles in total, which was like 6 hrs walking. I’m not going to lie, it was heavy going and really hard in places to navigate underfoot, but it was worth it to see the waterfall at the end. That’s why I have chosen this as it was by far the toughest but also the most rewarding once you’d completed it.

Best beer

Again, we sampled a fair amount of beer in Hawai’i but Hanalei Island IPA from Kona Brewery just edged it. It is a fruity IPA, with notes of passionfruit, orange and guava. According to research online the inspiration for this beer is the lush Hawaiian Island of Kaua’i. We had this a few times in the trip but the nicest was when it was freshly poured at the Kona Brewery itself on Big Island.

Best pub

We went to a few of the Maui Brewing Co. pubs on the various islands but my favourite one was the last one we visited, which was located at one of the resort hotels in Maui. It was right next to the beach so you had great views of the water. It was the ultimate beach bar!

Best food

As you can imagine we did sample a lot of lovely food throughout the 3 months but my choice here are ‘Malassadas’ which are like doughnuts – deep fried and coated in sugar. You could also get various filled flavours. Obviously really healthy! We first had them in Oahu (in a food court), and they were so good we had them again in Kauai (at a local café) and finally we got them in Maui from a food truck area.

Most wow moment

This was really hard to narrow down as we did so many great things, but if I have to pick one, which is kind of the point of this round up :), it would definitely be the helicopter ride in Kaua’i. Having never been on a helicopter ride before I wasn’t sure what to expect but about 5 seconds into the trip it was amazing. Getting to see the island from above was incredible, as was moving in for a closer look so you were right next to cliff edges and waterfalls.