Vacation Destination Review: Hawaii Overview

The R and R Review was generous enough to give me a modest stipend and let me travel all the way to Hawaii this year in our attempts to really expand our vacation coverage. It was tough leaving my villa in Italy to make the trip, but I managed. I thought to myself, maybe this trip will make us the next Frommer's? I’m pretty confident we are close…as soon as those credit markets unfreeze. Regardless, the R and R Review decided we needed a second Vacation Destination Review (see the Vacation Destination Review of Door County, Wisconsin). On this trip, I visited the islands of Oahu, Kauai and Maui. If this were one review of all three islands, I think the article would be a bit too long (it already is). So, instead I’m going to break it up over the next few days (who am I kidding, the next few weeks), but really focus on Kauai and Maui. Next month, we will have expanded coverage of Oahu and Hawai’i (the “Big Island”) when the other R makes his visit to the 50th state.

Getting There:

No way around it, you have a long flight ahead of you. There is something a little disappointing when you fly ten hours and are still in the United States. Two years ago I flew eight and a half hours and made it to London (yes, I’m trying to brag that I travel a lot). However, when you step off the plane and see the lush tropical mountains as a backdrop to Honolulu, you realize this is not your typical state. We booked our flight through Delta, and if you read this blog, you might think I’m some former lover of the CEO or scorned employee, since I often review and criticize the airline. My focus on this particular company isn’t because of lost love or a vendetta, but simply the fact they have a stronghold on the Atlanta market. So, of course, I flew Delta to Honolulu. Was it blissful? No.

I can’t criticize Delta too much, because their plane (the Atlanta to LA leg) was actually pretty nice. They had non-cloth seats (this way I can see the bugs or what’s been spilled) and had television sets with on-demand movies and satellite television at every seat. The roughly four and a half hour flight truly went by fast after watching a movie and some real time television shows. Then came disaster. Our connecting flight was a Northwest flight. Since Delta is in the middle of merging with this Minnesota airline, there were bound to be hiccups. Besides the fact that our entire itinerary was wrong (said we only had an hour and a half layover, but was actually scheduled for a four hour layover), the real pain was when we got on the plane. The seats were the dirty, rough cloth fabric and there were only small televisions every five or six rows. This is fine on a two hour flight…but a five and a half hour flight over the Pacific? I want choices. I want WiFi. I don’t want to be forced to watch the Soloist (which was horrible) and reruns of Two and a Half Men.

I thought it couldn’t get much worse, and then I was proved wrong on the return flight on a Northwest 747. They still had ashtrays at every seat and a one grainy projection screen for each set of 100 passengers. I kept seeing promos for Mad Men on the flight and thought maybe they were pushing the 1960’s theme a bit too far with this relic of a plane. So, until Delta completely overhauls the Northwest sky buses, avoid any flight bearing a Northwest mention to the islands. TRUST ME.

Things to Do:

Okay, if you can’t find something to do on Hawaii, then you need to just forward me all your vacation time. There’s cultural stops, movie sights, hiking, water sports, relaxing on one of the many luxurious beaches or if you are in Honolulu, anything that a midsized city normally provides (i.e. nightlife, museums, etc.). I was surprised with the size of Honolulu and to discover that nearly a million people live on Oahu, which is pretty much just Honolulu or suburbs of Honolulu. One of the things that can be luring about Hawaii, is it’s a tropical paradise intersecting with normal everyday American life. If you travel to Hawaii and spend your entire time at Waikiki Beach, you really wasted your money, because a flight to Miami Beach would have been a lot less. My point being, when you go to Hawaii its easy to just pick a mega resort on a crowded beach for a week and say “I went to Hawaii”. While it’s fine to do this, you are really short changing yourself of the beauty of the islands if you don’t rent a car and explore your island (or islands) that you are visiting.

Before embarking on the trip, I read other websites that said you really needed to dedicate a week to every island (and not to island hop). I went to three islands in eight days, so I ignored the stupid advice. Sure, it would be nice to dedicate a week to each island…even a month. But, we all can’t be those kids on Gossip Girl who don’t need to attend school or work and have barrels of money lying around in trust funds waiting to be spent. Plus, I don’t intend on using all my vacation days for the next seven years traveling to Hawaii. There are too many other exotic or unique locations that I want to visit before I die. So, yes you can visit more than an island in a week. Just manage your expectations and your itinerary and remember…it’s a vacation, not a checklist.

My recommendation: really decide what you want out of the trip. Beautiful resorts? Outdoor activity? Combination of both? I decided, since we have so many readers, to do a combination. So, I picked Kauai and Maui (with a 24 hour layover on Oahu). They couldn’t have been more different and I felt I got the best of both worlds of Hawaii. My only tip…do the active part of the vacation first, so you feel relaxed when you leave.

Where to Stay:

I will get into more detail when I review the individual islands. Remember, Hawaii is generally expensive. However, there are many different options. If you are taking your family or don’t want to spend a small fortune, you can find condos to rent at various price ranges. Some are much more luxurious than others. If you want that luxury resort, there are plenty of those too, but on some of the islands, the options are more limited. We stayed at a mega family resort, a combination condo/hotel resort and a luxury resort to get a taste of what Hawaii has to offer. We definitely had a favorite.

Where to Eat:

Meals out can be really expensive in Hawaii. First you have restaurants catering to the resort crowd. At these places, imagine one of the more expensive places to eat in your city and double the bill. That’s what you can expect to pay. Part of it is because food is just more expensive on an island, but Hawaii is geared to ripping of tourists and their wallets. There are some great dinning locations, but they’re often not at the resort and their bills are usually less. So, when looking for a place try to avoid eating at the ones located right in your hotel every night.

Next Hawaii Review: Kauai, the Na Pali Coast and Waimea Canyon.

Vacation Destination Review: Door County, Wisconsin

Note: This is the first R and R Review Vacation Spot review, so hang in there . These reviews will be a bit longer, since we review everything about the vacation spot.

Door County, Wisconsin is considered the Cape Cod of the Midwest. I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been to Cape Cod, preferring to spend my summer time in Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons. Before going on this Fourth of July outing, I had never heard of Door County let alone stepped foot into Wisconsin, so the land was as foreign to me as Bangkok or Moscow. I was still excited to spend my July Fourth weekend here, although we had a five hour journey up and back to the peninsula county that separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan and it didn't disappoint.

We had heard horror stories of the drive up to Door County from Chicago, so even though we were up late enjoying spirits and sushi in the city the night before, we woke up early, grabbed a bite to eat and were on the road before 9am. Either the stories were false, or because we left early we beat the traffic. One of those things we will never know for sure, but traffic was light. Soon after we crossed the Wisconsin line, we saw the Mars Cheese Factory calling out to us to make a pit stop to grab some much needed supplies for the weekend. We had been informed that this place contained some real deal cheese…it didn’t disappoint. Grabbing about 6lbs of cheese (enough to really block your bowels for a week or so), the “World’s Best Wine” (claim was unsubstantiated) and a few six packs of Wisconsin beer (some Spotted Cow, try it out if you ever get the chance), we were again off to the promised lands.

Wisconsin is littered with picturesque farms containing those Rockwellian red barns and black and white cows. A real eyesore if you like dirty cities. I couldn’t have conjured up a better nostalgic image in my own mind. Door County itself captures much of the peninsula, but the truly special parts of the county are on the northwestern half past Sturgeon Bay. Throughout our trip we spent time in Sturgeon Bay, Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Sister Bay and drove through the small community of Ephraim. We also drove up along the east coast of the peninsula, but the west had more to do and was a bit more charming. The town of Fish Creek, which is where we stayed, was by far my favorite community in Door County. It appeared larger than Egg Harbor and Ephraim, yet had a lot more charm than Sister Bay (a tourist trap) and Sturgeon Bay (a glorified shipyard). The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for the trip, with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the very cool for-someone-who-lives-in-Atlanta-during-the-summer 50s. I can see why people only come here in the summers, however, as I can’t imagine the brutal winters.

Things To Do:

We went during the Fourth of July weekend, and I recommend everyone to take part of this event in Door County at least once in your life. You cannot get a better sense of small town American than you do in Door County, Wisconsin on the Fourth of July. If you do come on the Fourth, make sure you go to Egg Harbor to watch the fireworks on July 3rd (or whenever they plan it in future years) and grab a seat early on the hill. You can watch the sun set over the small harbor and Green Bay (the body of water, not the town), while drinking beer and wine. I know the people there are eagerly awaiting my return so I can serenade them again with all the American songs we learned in elementary school. So I had a few beers to drink, layoff. The next night, go watch the fireworks in Fish Creek. These fireworks are longer and more spectacular and you get a small lighted boat parade before they shoot off. Make sure to spend some time, even if it’s just a morning, exploring Peninsula State Park, near Fish Creek, which had great biking and running trails. We came across various types of birds, a snake and even a lone deer on our five mile jog (there was some limited walking). Rent a boat for an afternoon to explore some of the Door County coastline. You can see a lot by car, but much of the beauty you can’t experience unless you are on the water. I also recommend loading up on a lot of beer and playing “I’m On A Boat” over and over again. We rented our beast of a boat (pontoon) in Sturgeon Bay, which gives you some nice lighthouse viewing, but I recommend renting further up along the peninsula if you can, to get further away from the industrial surroundings. Also, only rent a pontoon boat if the lake/bay is calm. We hit a rather large swell from I swear a cruise ship (it had to be at least 25 feet long, that’s big right?) leaving Sturgeon Bay and while I was able to rescue her among the screams and cries for help…an I-pod fell victim to the angry sea that day. While I didn’t care for the food itself, you probably need to experience a Fish Boil. It is truly a tacky tourist thing to do, and honestly I will never eat at one again since the food is marginal at best…but if you go to Door County and don’t “experience” one, you could be seen as a real phony. Additionally, there are plenty of places in Door County to rent bikes, shops to browse and stores that sell fudge and ice cream and plenty of farms to take oodles of pictures.

Where To Stay:

Definitely Stay in Ephraim or Fish Creek, because of their quaintness and prime location between Egg Harbor and Sister Bay. I recommend Fish Creek because it has more restaurants, shops and is not a dry town. There are even some nice places overlooking the harbor. Unfortunately, Ephraim is as dry as the Mojave, but one of the most charming towns, as it sits right on the water. Of course you can bring your own alcohol in…just can’t enjoy a nice bottle of vino at dinner. There are plenty of inns, hotels, timeshares, and bed and breakfasts to choose from in any of the towns. We stayed in the Hilltop Inn, which gets a rating of 3 Sporks, but there was nothing charming about the place…just a comfortable place in a great location at a great price.

Where To Eat:

Gibraltar Grill in Fish Creek was by far my favorite eating spot and not necessarily because of the food (although what we had was good), but for the location and feel of the joint. Grab a spot next to the outdoor fireplace on a cool summer’s night (which we did) and listen to some local musicians play. This is a great place to spend an entire evening, starting with a relaxed dinner (don’t expect fine dining) and finishing it off with a couple (a few, who am I kidding) glasses of wine. Note that prices aren’t super cheap, but there aren’t many places in Door County with cheap prices. Pelletier’s Restaurant in Fish Creek had a decent Fish Boil, as good as a fish boil can be, I guess. Make sure to book reservations in advance and get there on time to see the boiling over. Wild Tomato in Fish Creek was another favorite and is a great lunch spot consisting of fresh burgers, salads and pizzas. Plenty of outdoor seating and there is more parking in the back. The Summer Kitchen between Ephraim and Sister Bay (but considered Ephraim), had delicious sandwiches and salads, which included a cup from the soup bar, making it another great lunch spot. The outdoor seating is better than the inside. Finally, you have to see the goats on top of the roof (they are for real, yo) for breakfast at Al Johnson’s in Sister Bay. Enjoy authentic Swedish pancakes and other Swedish food. Be prepared, though, as this place is a tourist trap and has long waits. While it is an experience, the food isn’t all that spectacular. Also, leave Brian Fellow at home, as he will not like the goats staring at him from the roof.

All in all the Door County experience was great. It is an awesome place to have a romantic weekend or a great family getaway. This trip is not recommended for singles, as you will have very few party locations.

Door County Wisconsin gets a Spork Rating of: