Need help planning a Hawaii vacation for my husband’s 70th birthday

hey hey Becky
happy to help with some ideas though you have to decide which island/islands with the amount of time you plan on spending.
have you look at what you and husband plan to see and do on any island? lots of changes with travel to the islands like travels all over the world.
you will need a car on the "big island", maui or kauai. oahu "waikiki" is small & walkable, bus, taxi/uber, rental agency nearby for a day or two rides to see/circle island. parking costs get CRAZY, find a place that offers free parking or have deep pockets, many complaints wanting cheaper places. just add it in the cost of vacation, pros & cons always.
take notice lots of people say kona, kailua kona is small village been here for years and south kohala/waikoloa is 30-45 minutes from airport has been a planned resort that keeps growing, many condos/couple hotels not many are ocean front, lots of walking/have a car, some shopping/restaurants/grocery store
big island:
luanainn.com B & B with kitchenette, pool, private, but above the bay with ocean view but not ocean front, it is 30-45 minutes away from KOA airport considering traffic
konacoastvacations.com
click rentals, kailua kona condos along ali'i drive (coast" with ocean view & front), click info scroll down to printable map to see places all along the south kohala coast down to keauhou. many shops/restaurants/cafes in kailua kona.
the island is BIG travel time is long, many people have moved and condos have had issues with no rentals anymore
costcotravel.com
look at package deals hotel/condo/airfare. check maui & oahu for ocean views/fronts. just an FYI: many complaints/issues about rooms costing $800/night and above, sky high rentals cars, food in restaurants, not enough help/employees, shops closing up or cut hours, housing for locals since the fire in lahaina. also check flights, with hawaiian where it is, alaska who knows, southwest hmmm, if flying to outer island, may have layover in HNL (honolulu) for couple hours, friends are flying to hnl but have an 8 hour layover in kauai WTH. don't know, is using miles, points, booked filghts that were left. it is not a hop skip jump to fly interisland, check in, agriculture security, TSA
waikiki shore, aston waikiki sunset, aliibeachrentals.com, waikikibeachrentals.com, captaincookresorts.com, outrigger.com,
just some info for you to research. take your pick of islands, ask questions, if you are a military member or retired or government check out hale koa right next to hilton hawaiian village "waikiki"
i haven't been to waikiki in years, names have changed on hotels but it's always been a favorite place for me when i lived for 10-12 years before moving back to big island. have a great time & enjoy
aloha

One good option is Maui. We liked Napili Bay on Maui because the condos are not high rises. We stayed for 5 nights at the Napili Surf about 9 years ago and loved the view from our lanai. It has since been renovated and continues to get good reviews. At the other end of the bay is the Napili Kai resort, which gets very good reviews. We liked walking to their restaurant. We also drove the road to Hana and spent two nights there. I think our condo was at the Hana Kai condos. We spent one night at a B&B on the slopes of Haleakala so we could drive to the summit for sunrise.

We also loved the Big Island, but the highlight was the Volcanoes National Park.

Napili Point. Or Napili Kai. Both on Maui. Both are small resorts; low rise.

Napili Point is our “go to.” On a beautiful cove; Honokeana Cove. Two pools. Snorkeling. Rocky shoreline. Great snorkeling and turtles. 1 and 2 BR condos. Around the point to Napili Beach.

Napili Kai is one bay over, on Napili Beach. Sandy beach. Pools. Snorkeling. Beyond our budget. Beautiful setting.

Both have sunset views to Lanai and Molokai. All rooms at Napili Pt. have ocean views. That’s probably true for Napili Kai, as well.

If those two are booked, look at Napili Shores, also on Napili Bay.

Just past Napili Kai is the beginning of Kapalua Resort. Ritzy … as in Ritz Carlton. Several great restaurants; the first of which is Merriman’s and very close to Napili Kai. Kapalua has high end golf. And multiple sandy beaches.

LATE NOTE: indeed each island has its great points. We’ve been to HI 12 (correction 13? 14?) times over 50 years. Honeymoon and one (correction - two) other trips to Kauai. Two trips solely to Oahu and a couple of days there a third time. Twice to the Big Island. Six times to Maui with a seventh coming up in January, for our sixth trip to Napili and fourth time to Napili Pt. In particular.

Kilauea is putting on a spectacular show on the big island, so that could be a draw. But if you want ocean and snorkeling and swimming and a pool, views, and a condo vacation, rather than a resort hotel, then Napili is pretty nice. So are Poipu Beach, Kapaa and Princeville on Kauai … or a beach house rental (no pool, though) on the north shore of Oahu.

No need to fly through Honolulu to any of the other three main islands. All can be reached nonstop from SEA.

Becky, how long do you have? We have been to Kauai twice, the big island once, and Oahu once. Oahu was just in 2024 and we celebrated hubby's 81st birthday there. Haven't been to Maui, and not as interested in it only because it seems to be the most "touristed". A probably dumb reason. We loved all our visits, but my heart lies mostly on the Big Island, especially the Hilo side. That reminds me of what I think old Hawaii was like. Yes, it has more rain than Kona, but it is so lush it seems like Paradise. We spent 3 nights on the Kona side, then took a rental car all around the island, counterclockwise. We stayed 4 nights in Hilo. Our drive was one made up of many stops to admire and gasp at Hawaii's beauty, just about everywhere you looked. In April you may be there for the Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition. I won't go into detail about Mauna Kea, Volcanoes N/P, the beaches and waterfalls (like Akaka Falls), the paneolos (cowboys), Pololu Valley, etc. etc. etc., but you can find info on all there is to see and do.

On Oahu we stayed at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel at the end of Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, across from the zoo and away from the madding crowd closer to downtown. The prime things we enjoyed there were the Arizona Memorial, the fantastic Bishop Museum, the sunsets at the beach, some great meals, and our one day drive to the North Shore, stopping at several very scenic beaches on the way. (We just rented the card for the day and returned it that evening. Parking is very steep.) In town we took the bus (using the senior Holo card) or used Lyft.

On Kauai we stayed with a friend one trip, and at a hotel at Poipu the other time. We had a car for the whole time while there. It is lush as well, and is the oldest island. I recommend a helicopter ride to see the Na Pali coast, and see the lighthouse at Kilauea Point, Wailua Falls, Allerton Gardens and Limahuli Gardens, the town of Hanalei, a coffee plantation.....again, tons to see and do.

We never used a pool where we stayed (we have one at home), but did venture into the ocean on our first trip in 1996 with teen-aged kids. r later trips we admired the sea, but also, living for decades in California, we have pretty much used up our body-surfing yens.

Each island is different. If the beach is your main goal, just about any island will do, but take some time to explore what each island offers. We are so lucky to have such beautiful places so accessible. Have fun on your birthday trip!

P.S. On Oahu we visited Punchbowl National Cemetery. Hubby is a VietNam vet who also lived in France as a boy right after WWII, so we always try to pay our respects wherever we go. The Punchbowl is one of the loveliest military cemeteries we have been to, aside from Arlington and in Normandy, of course. It is too much of a long trek by bus. For anyone who is on Oahu and wants to see it, take an Uber or Lyft.

Living in the Seattle area for 30 years, I’m thinking you probably would like the best chance for a location without rain. The west side of the islands usually helps. We stayed in Maui multiple times, the Big Island a few times (my husband’s favorite), and Oahu.

Can you narrow this down a bit? Are you wanting something like the Kāʻanapali area of Maui where it’s busy for a good reason, or are you hoping for a less busy atmosphere, such as the Big Island?

Have you never been to any of the islands? Oahu is our least favorite island, even though there are some lovely parts when you rent a car and get away from Waikiki. We enjoyed Maui (road to Hana!) and the Big Island (snorkeling with manta rays!) but Kauai is the island we chose to visit twice. We especially loved renting a condo on the north shore. For our first trip to Kauai we also spent a few nights in the Poipu area so we could visit the Waimea Canyon. On our second visit we just stayed at the north shore. These trips were when we were younger and we spent our days hiking and snorkeling from beaches. What are your interests? Each island has special features.

I'm not a Hawaii expert by any means. A couple of thoughts, though.
On Oahu, you don't have to stay in Waikiki. We stayed a few nights downtown and then moved to Lanikai (highly recommended if you can find a place there or in nearby Kailua). We should have stayed the whole time in the house on the beach on the north shore that I saw, but I didn't appreciate how small the island was. The drive up the middle (past the Dole plantation--don't bother) and around the east side of the island was gorgeous and fun with stops at the food trucks in Kahuku and Byodo-In Temple.
On Maui, we enjoyed the Shaka Guides audio tours of the Road to Hana and of the drive up to Haleakala. Probably available for other islands, too. Entertaining and informative. GPS-based, download to your phone and play on the car's speakers.

If you are interested in the Big Island, my trip report from 2023 is here:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/much-more-than-beaches-the-big-island-of-hawai-i-2023

Thank you all for the helpful ideas and suggestions. They will definitely help me plam.

hey hey Becky
here's another site to check out about the islands

coffeetimes.com click hawaii guide and click each island
it gives info about the different areas of each island. hope it helps
aloha

Thank you!

Looks like we have 2 to 4 weeks. We’re planning to visit the Big Island fo sure, but also want to visit a second island. We would like to rent an apartment on the big island, near Hilo. On the second island another rental would be nice, We would only stay in a fancier place for. 4-6 nights over my husband’s birthday.

Oahu x 3; Maui x 6; Kauai x 1; Big Island x 1.

Becky, we are big fans of Maui, which I think has the best beaches. But our last trip was the first to the Big Island and it is my favorite. What I would definitely recommend is an all-day tour that will take you around the island with a visit to the active volcano. The best part of that tour, was crossing over between the two largest volcanoes in the evening (it's cold up there). The view of the stars and galaxies from that elevation was astounding and worth the whole trip. Completely different than looking up in my backyard.

Come back when you've decided on your destinations, and I know you'll het a ton of good recommendations here.

hey hey Becky
giving you some ideas of apartments in hilo to stay. hilo is an old historic plantation town, like rustic, artsy/fartsy that's not fancy. it's old hawaiian style without big fancy resorts, some beachs, lush & green since hilo does get rainy, single lanes roads, lots of small/local restaurants, waterfalls, hilo bay, farms/gardens & flowers/ranches, "fire & ice" madame pele volcano to snow atop mauna kea mountain. i send more info on places to go and see.
stay within hilo town, traffic gets really crazy with long bumper to bumper lines, especially mornings/afternoons. stay away from keeau, volcano/mountain view & pahoa, so many have moved up & down hiway 130 & hiway 11. even going out the hamakua coast hiway 19.
aaronscottage.com
arnottslodge.com
hiloreedsbayhotel.net (under rates click bayview, has small kitchenette)
booking.com
yonegan plumeria hilo hotel
paradise cottage at anthurium hale
one thing to be very careful about in april: easter and good friday, spring break and merrie monarch hula festival (april 5-11). rooms/apts go soooo fast with so many people flying from everywhere, plus all the halau's. book EARLY!!! some rooms may be full already
good luck looking, i'll be away till friday evening dog/house sitting, need more help ask.
MELE KALIKIMAKA & HAUOLI MAKAHIKI HOU

It's been awhile since we went,but Kauai is my favorite island because it's so green. The canyon there is beautiful, seeing the Na Pali coast in a zodiac boat but that may not work at your age(and mine now). We also really enjoyed our stay at the Hilton Wauikiloa on the Big Island.

Hi Becky,
Disclosing up front that I am very biased toward staying on Kauai. You mentioned "splurging" for a few days for your husband's actual birthday. I highly recommend the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Poipu.
You would never need to leave the premises for the few days you are there and be pampered....if that is your desire.
I would highly recommend including breakfast with your reservation. The grounds are spectacular...walking trails in both directions, from Shipwreck beach along the Makawehi bluff in one direction and towards Poipu in the other.
The pools on the grounds are awesome. My favorite, the lazy river. They have an adult only section. Also on the premises are several restaurants. One drawback, the beach directly in front of the hotel, is not swimmer-friendly, but Poipu is very close by.
I've stayed there twice...I'd go back in a heartbeat, if the budget allowed.

Becky,
In response to Stan, I feel Kauai and Hawaii Island would be shortchanged with one day each. Since you may have 4 weeks, you could give each island a week. With two weeks only, I would say Oahu 3 full days, Maui 3 days, Kauai 3 days and the Big land 5 days. It is, after all three big island, so just covering the island will take more time. I don't have any splurge recs for lodgings. We have only stayed at mid-price locations (hotels and apart-hotels), and never at any of the resort-type places.

What a delightful problem to have! I am sure you will find wonderful places to stay. Have fun and a happy birthday to your husband!

Oops, auto-correct typos! If I am unclear I apologize.

Becky, I forgot to mention that we celebrated hubby's 81st birthday in Honolulu at the very nice upscale restaurant, "The House Without a Key", in the Waikiki area. It has a great rep, IMO well-deserved. Reservations are a must. Just in case you are on Oahu for the big day.