I have been all over Latin America and the Caribbean, but for a variety of reasons (mostly financial), have avoided travel to Hawaii and Florida.
My new fiancee has no passport, and we need to take a beach vacation. Here are places where I've enjoyed the beach experience:
- Punta Cana, DR
- Samana Peninsula, DR
- Vina del Mar, Chile
- Costa Chica / Zipolite area, Mexico
- Isla Mujeres, Mexico
- Nantucket
- Manhattan Beach, CA
- Zuma Beach, CA (hell, most of the coast ...)
Places I did not dig:
- Martha's Vineyard (too boisterous)
- Cancun (just: ewww)
- Maryland Shore
After hours of web research, I'm feeling foolishly unable to grasp some very simple realities about either the FLA Keys or Hawaii. And though I know there are a million threads on them, I'm asking you to be kind, and deal with the specificity of my questions:
In the Hawaiian Islands, are there any locations where you have the same bathtub-warm aqua-tinted water as the Caribbean?
How about in the Keys?
* If you are NOT staying at a beachfront-resort, where are recommended beaches at either destination for frolicking?
For personal reasons not directly relevant to the thread, we are compelled to travel in May or June.
thank you for any responses.
The Hawaiian waters will be bathtub warm in September. In May/June it won't be that warm, but Hawaiian waters never get all that cold. I don't know about all the islands, but there's plenty of beaches on the west side of the Big Island that are good for frolicking at that time- from the north down: Pololu, Spencer, Secret, Mauna Kea, Hapuna, 69, Kua Bay and so on down past Kona. Kua Bay is aqua tinted. Do you care about anything else, like snorkeling or other water activities?
Wow, thanks!
For her, the important thing is having a nice warm spot to relax. If there are nearby restaurants or bars, so much the better. I guess she'd be bummed if the waves were big enough to make swimming dangerous.
I favor ridiculous amounts of activity, so snorkeling and etc. are cool, but not really required (I'm under dr's orders to learn to relax a bit). Uh, that said, if one of the beaches has climbing areas nearby ... cough ... that'd be cool. She rides horses, so that'd be good.
Also, I know this might sound odd, but the beaches you named ... do you just park and walk up a trail? Are they public w/parking areas clearly labeled? I grew up in New England, trained since birth to assume I can't simply walk onto a beach. Bear with me!
Kua Bay sounds beautiful. Are there any places to stay around there? I can do budget or high-end, can go with the flow either way.
Hawaiian rock, being all lava, is very frangible and not good for climbing in general. There are a few cliffs I've scrambled up, but sticking a cam in a crack will only annoy Pele and won't save you! Besides the ground cover is so dense that getting to the base is tough enough. Snorkelling is good to fabulous at most of the places mentioned in post 1. But the best on the island is generally from Kona around Captain Cook and to about Punalu'u. I've never been there when one or the other beach wasn't swimable. It'll be bathtub warm there, though it rarely gets to the kind of uncomfortable heat you get in some Caribbean waters.
For accom try alternativehawaii.com hawaiibnb.com and vrbo.com
Ed
FL Keys generally don't have wonderful soft sand beaches which is why you're having trouble finding info about that. You can enjoy snorkling from the tiny sandy beach area at Dry Tortugas National Park, but you need to take a pricey boat or ferry ride from Key West to get there. The best beach we found in Key West was at the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, where we explored the fort earlier in the day, then returned to have a picnic supper & watched the sunset sailboats and a cruise ship leave the harbor before enjoying an unobstructed & quiet sunset view. Take a flashlight if possible; since the park closes at sunset (you’re expected to leave within 30 minutes afterward) it is unlighted and coming back across the uneven beach path to the parking area was a bit of a challenge.
In FL, the gulf coast beaches of western coastal FL and the panhandle area have the turquoise waters you seek. The beach area near Clearwater, FL has miles of great beaches. St Pete Beach area was where we stayed most recently. In February the water was still chilly, but we were told that it gets much warmer quickly around this time of year.
In the FL panhandle area, the towns of Destin and Seaside may be your best choices. Seaside in particular is charming (if pricey) with many intentionally quaint rental homes.
I agree with #1 that the beaches on the west side of the Big Island-in Kohala and Kona-are some of the nicest, safest and prettiest in Hawaii. But they aren't "bathtub" warm (I've been a number of times, including in late summer)-they are certainly nice and not cold, but not bathtub warm the way I've heard the Carribean described. The water temps in the Carribean can go into the upper 80s, but in Hawaii they stay in the 70s, maybe 80 at the most. Even in summer I still sort of ease myself in, but I am always cold, so take that with a grain of salt.
All the beaches I named, with the exception of Secret, have their own parking lots, and most have toilets, showers etc. Secret is a 20 min walk along the shore from Spencer. Pololu also involves a walk down into a valley (and back up again). In May/June the waters at these beaches will all be quite calm. As #2 pointed out, the best snorkeling is south of these beaches, particularly at Place of Refuge (2-step) and Capt Cook (involves a kayak or boat trip to get to the snorkel site). There's a clump of nice hotels between Spencer and 69 (namely Hapuna Prince and Mauna Kea, the latter is currently closed from earthquake damage). Then a bunch more between these and Kona. Some cheaper lodging can be found in Kona.
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