Our guide on Visiting Hawaii for UK travellers
Hawaii is a dream destination for many UK travelers. With lush green landscapes, crystal blue oceans, and year-round sun, there is a lot to desire about this picture-perfect Suft Paradise.
It’s one that has built its reputation from thousands of TV and Film references throughout the years and has been the go-to tropical destination for Movies and TVs for generations. From Elvis’s Blue Hawaii, Hawaii 5-0, and Magnum P.I. to more recent appearances in White Lotus, Young Rock, and the upcoming Disney remakes of Lilo and Stitch and Moana. With endless appearances in between from Pearl Harbour, Forgetting Sarah Marshal, Battleship, Friends, and 50 First Dates. You are even in Hawaii when you don’t know you are in blockbusters such as Jurassic Park, King Kong, Lost, and Jumanji.
Whenever Hollywood needs a Tropical Paradise Setting, Hawaii is often where they head, and this has enshrined HAwaii’s beauty in our minds as THE tropical paradise.
But it’s one destination that is pretty poorly served by UK Travel Agents and tour operators. And even those more specialist operators that do service the Islands, however, they are not what we would call specialists. It’s more of a case of them booking a hotel based on a star rating and sticking you on a plane hoping everything will go ok…
This is where we come in. We can really help offer a personalised and tailored experience to Hawaii. And we do this through our extensive knowledge of visiting the Islands, over and over, for many years.
Choosing an Island
This is an article in itself, but to be brief. There are 4 main Islands of Hawaii. Oahu, Maui, Hawaii (or the Big Island), and Kauai. Choosing which island to visit is a key part of planning your Hawaii Vacation.
Oahu – The Gathering Place
The economic and administrative capital of the State. Home to the Built-up metropolitan area of Honolulu, the world-famous Waikiki Beach and Pearl Harbor, and stunning natural landscapes. This is the Famous island, the one with endless place names and locations you are bound to have heard of.
Maui – The Valley Isle (aka The Honeymoon Isle)
This is more the Hawaii of your imagination. Much less developed yet still modern and westernized. Large ultra-luxury resorts sit next to quaint condo complexes with staggering beaches and natural beauty.
Hawaii – The Big Island
This is Hawaii in its rawest form. Wild Remote and extremely rugged. The Big Island is still not finished and its 5 volcanoes still produce regular eruptions and form new land. On the whole, it’s not as pretty as the other islands, but it’s got a rugged charm and the volcanic landscape is really striking. If you want to see volcanoes, The Big Island is the on;y choice…it’s also really BIG!
Kauai – The Garden Isle
The Garden Isle really lives up to its name. This is the oldest of the 4 and is the most green and lush of all the islands. Home to the wettest location on earth Kauai gets more rain per day than most places see per month. However, fear not, most of this rain is located in the inaccessible interior. The Tourist centers on the coast offer year-round sun. But all that rain keeps Kauai impossibly green and verdant. This is old-time Hawaii with very little in the way of development and offers a more rustic way of life.
Picking out an Island is the first and hardest part of planning your trip. But the good news is there are no bad choices. We can help you find the right island for your trip, along with planning out where to stay and what to see. We can even really help make the choice easier but planning an Island hopping trip to see two or more of the Islands.
Get in touch so we can help you plan the perfect trip
Booking Flights
The first stage of planning your trip is getting the flights sorted. And this is where complications arise as no UK Carrier offers good options for flying to Hawaii. It’s not like just hopping on a plane to Florida or New York…
Direct
Our golden rule is ALWAYS book direct flights to anywhere. The only exception is if the location you are going to does not have any direct flights flying to it, and unfortunately from the UK, Hawaii does not. You are going to have to stop off somewhere on the way for at least a couple of hours…
Lay-Over
The Classic Layover flight is one where you touch down at an airport part-way, de-plane. hang around in the airport, maybe venturing out a little on longer layovers, then re-boarding and carrying onto your destination (assuming it’s a single layover, some travel agents will over double or even triple layovers…)
We have done the Layover option plenty of times and quite simply it sucks. These are LONG flights, often 11 hours and then 5 hours with 2-4 hours in some awful US airport. By the time you arrive, you are turned upside down, inside out, and utterly exhausted. Expect to be awake and on the go for around 30 hours straight. It’s not fun. You need a good 2 hours + at any lay-over single stop and these are not fun parts of the trip. At best you will be stuck in awful departure lounge seats, crammed in with thousands of other passengers, or worse still stuck trying to get through immigration and security hoping you get through in time to catch your connection.
It’s awful and we think the main reason tour operators ignore Hawaii as a UK destination.
Multi-City
This is a better option and you can break the flight up to make the trip much easier, giving you time to recover in between flights and even make more out of your trip. For example, you could break it up and have a few days in San Francisco on the way. Maybe a few days in LA exploring Hollywood, or even stop off for a night or two in Sin City!
The only problems are Airlines are limited in the flights and routes they can offer and their systems only offer certain options and often come up blank. And they can even serious price gouge making the flight too expensive. And there is a better way.
Two-Stage Booking
This is our preferred way of doing things now, after lots of trial and error, overly expensive flights, and poor advice. This is essentially a Multi-City Booking, but doing away with single airlines. Essentially what we do is break the journey up into two parts.
Part 1: Getting to the States – Using a UK CArrier, or at least a carrier that operates as a UK route, we book flights to the States. This can be any City really, but for Hawaii the West Coast world best, L.A., Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, and Seatle…we have even done this through Vancouver and Canada…it’s all the Same. Just get yourself booked on a flight to the States, to a city you want to visit and spend some time in. You can even do this as a Multi-City, such as flying into Vegas and out of LA, as we did on this EPIC three-stop trip we did in 2022.
Part 2: Domestic/Internal flights – For this stage, we just book directly with a US carrier. These flights can be a real steal when not packaged up as a horrible layover flight. You might even find you are on the same flight Virgin or BA were trying to put you on but for much less. There is a lot of choice and a lot of competition between the US carriers so you can get some really good deals just by flying directly from a major USA airport. We use Skyscanner or Google Flights to find the best flights and then book directly as ALWAYS.
Doing it in two parts gives you TOTAL flexibility to customise the trip how you want it. When booking Multi-City and Layovers, airlines are limited to their partners and do not always provide the best option. By splitting it into two parts YOU are in control and you get the flights and the trip you want.
Example:
Day 1 – London Heathrow -LAX Virgin Atlantic
Day 2 – 3 Exploring LA
Day 4 – Hawaiian Airlines – LAX – Kahului (Maui)
Day 5- 19 – Two Weeks in Maui
Day 20 – Hawaiian Airlines – Kahului (Maui) – LAX – Overnight in LA
Day 20 – Morning in LA* – LAX – London Heathrow
While this is the best way, it can be complicated and hard to plan with a lot of research. However, can help you find the best flights, book some great accommodation on your Stopovers, and really make the best out of this part of the adventure, turning something that must be endured into something that can be enjoyed! You’re Welcome!
* book with us through one of our preferred partners and we can sometimes offer you a Late Check-Out amongst other exclusive perks, so you can spend the morning relaxing.
ESTA/VISA
You will need either an Esta (an electronic Visa Waiver) or a Tourist Visa to gain entry to the United States on a UK Passport.
Most travel agents or tour operators will mention this at some point. Normally after booking, when all your hard earned has gone through as a non-refundable payment. But we want to get you on board with this right from the get-go. Get your Esta’s or Visa’s in place before committing to anything.
Applying for an ESTA only costs $21 per person and once successful lasts 2 years. However if declined, getting a Visa can take months and if you leave this until a few weeks out as most travel agents suggest you risk losing your trip and NO travel insurance will pay out because YOU failed to get your VISA in place. You will have lost ALL non-refundable monies.
So before paying out anything, just get your ESTA in place. At worst you will know you need a VISA and can start working on that. Chances are you will be approved and it’s one less thing to worry about…
we will happily guide you further on this matter if you choose to book through us.
NOTE – There are several ESTA Scam Sites out there. We only advise you on ESTAs, we advise you to fill out your own application and do so through the Official site – found HERE
Accommodation
Next up, you are going to want somewhere to sleep.
Hotels
The obvious solution is a hotel, right? And this is a fantastic way to spend your vacation in Hawaii. However, it’s one we rarely choose for our Stays. Infact, outside of Honolulu we have never stayed in a hotel in Hawaii. Instead, we tend to opt for more rustic settings, more on this in the condo Section. Essentially hotels in Hawaii, again outside of Honolulu where the is more of a range, hotels tend to either be ultra-luxury and way outside our personal budgets, or Condo Complexes.
Most Hawaiian Hotels are stunning luxury resorts with endless amenities, manicured grounds, and stunning dining options. However, with prices starting at $1000 a night for some locations, they are extremely costly.
Condo’s
This is where condos come in. The majority of the Cheaper hotels offer condos rather than Rooms. These are similar to the Apart-Hotels you get in Europe and offer fewer amenities outside the condos, but more features within, such as a fully fitted kitchen, dining rooms, and the all-important Lanai (Balcony).
We love condos and these are our primary choice when staying in Hawaii. Not just because we find them more cost-effective, being both cheaper initially and allowing you to shop in the local supermarkets to reduce dining costs, but because they allow a more immersed feel. They feel like you are living in Hawaii, albeit for a short stay. Hotels always make you feel like a guest, but condos allow immersion in the surroundings and end up feeling like a home away from home.
That first morning, when we rise far to early due to jet lag, and sip that first Hawaain Coffee on the Lanai…ahh it just makes it all melt away and you know you are back home.
The big issue with condos is the HUGE range of quality. Some are pretty basic and run down, a lot were built in the ’60s and ’70s and not all were maintained well. There is also a huge array of choice as many owners rent their condos privately. And there is the huge issue of illegal lets, something that is getting worse and worse as the governments crack down on these to help a very serious housing crisis happening on the islands.
Having stayed in multiple condos across all the islands we are really well placed to help advise where is worth staying and where you should avoid!
Guest Houses
We also like the smaller more rustic Guest house-style accommodations that are scattered about the islands. These offer a more budget approach to travel and like condos help immerse you into the Hawaiian lifestyle. We tend to go for these in the wilder, less traveled parts of the Island such as Hana, or the North Shore.
All-Inclusive
This is just not a thing in Hawaii. No hotels offer this option, and at best you may get a little resort credit and breakfast included. Really this is a good thing as there are SO many amazing dining options on every island the last thing you want is to be stuck in a resort eating at the same old Buffet Station!
Cruises
The Closest you will get to an All-Inclusive is a Crusie. There are some excellent cruise options in Hawaii, most notably the Norwegian Cruise Lines Pride of America which sits in Hawaiian Waters year-round and allows you to experience all four islands in 7 days.
However, we feel the cruise option does not really give you the real Hawaii experience. The joy of these islands is waking up every morning, with Koina Coffee, knowing you are feet away from the ocean, nestled in a real tropical paradise…you just don’t get that docked in a Cruise port with 2000 other holiday makers.
Camping and Van-Life
If you are looking for some seriously budget travel then you can look at these sorts of options. They are not for us, and tbh not really very good for Hawaii in general. There are far too many restrictions as to where you can pitch a tent or park your RV/Van that you basically have to spend the whole trip in a few pretty grotty campsites. It’s not the freeing experience you might think it is.
Let us help you pick out the PERFECT location for your Hawaiian getaway. Be it a cute little oceanside condo, ultra-luxe resort, or quiet little guesthouse in the sticks. There is a lot of choice in Hawaii, and we have a ton of first-hand experience – get in touch NOW
Getting Around Hawaii
Getting around whichever Island you choose is going to be an issue. Most of Hawaii has very poor public transport links. This essentially boils down to the buses, tour groups, taxis, and Ubers.
Ubers and taxis are costly and only work in the more populated parts of the Islands. You are not going to be able to use these in the more remote areas which many people will still want to visit.
Bus services are good, but they are limited to, again, only really servicing the more popular areas. They are more designed for locals to get around with little thought into the needs of tourists. And really…who wants to be waiting around at a bus stop, in 30-degree heat when you are in paradise?
Organized tours are a decent option. If you are staying in a resort and just want a couple of days heading out to see the sights and do activities then these tours will get you to the real Hawaii. But they are not cheap and you are always on someone else schedule…seeing the things they want to show you. They are always fun and the guides do an amazing job, but they have a lot of limitations.
All of this is really to try and shepherd you into the idea that there really is only ONE way to get around any of the Hawaiian Islands…and that is a Rental Car. Hiring a car is relatively cheap, you will be on your own schedule, can go wherever you like, and really get to see the real Hawaii.
It really is the best way of visiting any of the Islands, and we strongly suggest considering this option. We know some from the UK may be a little apprehensive about driving in the States, but Driving in the Islands is a breeze. Everyone is on Island time, and the roads are mainly small regular roadways (there are only 3 Freeways in all of Hawaii, all of them in the Honolulu area).
If you choose to let us assist with your bookings, then we can help arrange car rentals, and as you are from the UK you can get full coverage insurance much cheaper than most US visitors thanks to our compulsory insurance inclusions.
Drop us a message and see if we can help arrange your Dream Hawaii vacation.
What to see and do in Hawaii
The Fun Part…and here you are going to be spoilt for choice for attractions, tours, and things to see and do. With so much on offer, you might need a little help narrowing down all the amazing things Hawaii has to offer. These attractions obviously differ by island and really deserve their own articles, and we have written just such articles over on YourUSACityGuide.com
- Things to do in Maui
- Things to do in Oahu
- Things to do in the Big Island
- Things to do in Kauai
We know that’s a lot to get your teeth into and we would love to help you narrow it down and find the best sights and attractions on the Island, or island of your choice. Let us plan your trip for you and we will have plenty of time to talk about all things Luau, Snorkelling, Crusing, Helicoptering, Exploring hiking, Zip lining, and everything else these amazing islands have to offer.
What are you waiting for?
Drop us a line today for your FREE, no-obligation consultation to see if we can help you plan out the ultimate Hawaii Vacation from the UK
