Hawaii - Oahu and Maui or just Oahu?

Hi all!

I have a 5 day conference in Hawaii in July, and I'll arrive 4 days beforehand in Honolulu. Meaning, I have almost 4 days absolutely free, and a few days where I might be able to head out for several hours at a time (conference in Honolulu).

I'm not sure if I should focus all my energy on Oahu, or try and add a flight to Maui (~150$ round trip extra).
I would like to do day hikes and to be based in a backpackers hostel, ideally.
What do you think is better? Focusing my energy on Oahu or try and make it to Maui as well?

Thanks!

Aloha,

I live in Maui and it is super amazing, but if you have never been to Hawaii in general I would just stay on Oahu to best maximize your time. As long as you do some day trips to the North Shore and over to the Kualoa Ranch side of the island I think you will be more than happy with Oahu.

You will burn a whole day getting over to Maui, getting a rental car and you really need to stay at least 3 days in Maui to really make it worth the cost of the plane tickets. I do think Maui is the best island because it is not as busy as Oahu, but Oahu is super cool too. You will have a great time.

Okay good to know thank you!

I agree, stay on Oahu. You really need a car on Maui and from your other post, you would be taking public transport which is poor on any island other than Oahu.

Here's the map for public transportation: http://www.thebus.org/SystemMap/TheBusSystemMap.pdf

Places like Makiki (intown park with nice hikes in rain forest) and the big parks along the ocean E of Honolulu are accessible, as well as Diamond Head. Be warned, traffic in the Honolulu area can be heavy. Going out from the city center in the am will be a must to avoid the worst of this, but coming back in the afternoon you'll find heavy traffic in all directions on the arterials you'll use to reach major destinations, so make sure you have something to read or plenty of charge on your smartphone. Arterials will have a lot of traffic on weekends, but city streets not so much. There are worthwhile things to see in the city---Waikiki is a tourist trap but makes an interesting walk, there are free guided tours of the downtown area, and the art museum is pretty good and a relaxing place to stop for lunch. The punchbowl--an extinct volcano with a national cemetery and viewpoints over Waikiki is a bit over a mile, uphill from downtown.

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