After a week of the rugged, untouched beauty of the North Shore and Kauai, the hubs and I decided we’d spend two nights in Waikiki, which equated to about a day and a half because of our flight schedules. Everyone warned us that Waikiki is very different than the rest of Hawaii, so we weren’t too concerned about limited time. Everyone was right. Waikiki is, for lack of a better comparison, the Times Square of Oahu. It’s the place you just kind of have to see for yourself, partly because if you tell people you’ve been to Oahu and haven’t…

As one of the world’s most beautiful coastlines—and the second fastest eroding—there’s no question: if you find yourself in Kauai, you have to dedicate time to exploring the Na Pali Coast. Tour operators around the island offer various ways of seeing the jagged emerald coastline, and options include everything from an eleven mile hike to a helicopter ride to a boat tour. Given our budget and lack of interest in walking six hundred million miles, we knew we’d go with the boat option, and thanks to a year and a half of saved up credit card points, we eventually found…