Oahu Four hours on a bus is a lot of garlic shrimp you're not eating. If you're staying near Diamond Head on Oahu and want to hit Shark's Cove, a shrimp truck, and Waimea Bay in one day, rent a car for just that day. Becky wrote in with this exact plan, and we're guessing the bay she means is Waimea. The bus from Waikiki runs about two hours each way, so you'd spend around four hours of your day just riding. By car it's closer to an hour, depending on traffic. Reserve the car the day before, check when the Waikiki rental office opens, and aim to be on the road by 8:30. Go to Shark's Cove first, because that lot fills early. Then Waimea Bay, and save Giovanni's Haleiwa truck for the drive home, with time to order before it closes around 5. A one-day rental also means you're not paying to park a car all week. One heads up: Shark's Cove has no lifeguard, and winter surf can close the water, so check the Hawaii Beach Safety website first. Do it this way and you're at a picnic table with a garlic shrimp plate, salty hair, and nobody checking a bus clock. All Islands Your snorkel crew is hoping you brought small bills. If you're booking a snorkel boat, a whale watch, or any guided tour in Hawaii, put the tip in your budget now, because it usually isn't in the ticket price. Plan on about $5 to $10 a person for a two-hour sunset, whale, or snorkel trip, and about $15 to $20 a person for a snorkel day of four hours or more. For a family of four on a five-hour boat, that's $60 to $80 on top of the tickets. Private charters and tours run higher, about 15 to 20 percent of the price. Most crews and guides take cash, so tuck some small bills in a zip bag the night before, and keep it dry, since this is a boat. Some crews take Venmo, too. Ask when you book whether the tip is already in the price, because some private charters build it in. Tips matter most on small group tours, where the guide often bends over backward to make your day. Hand it over at the end with a thank you. You step off the boat sunburned and happy, the crew knows you noticed, and nobody is doing math at the dock. Maui The Maui bakery locals drive up the hill for. If you're staying on Maui and want a breakfast worth setting an alarm for, skip the hotel pastry and head up to Komoda Store and Bakery in Makawao. The same family has run the business since 1916, and locals line up for the cream puffs, stick donuts, and guava malasadas. The shop makes hundreds of cream puffs a day and still runs out. It opens at 7 every day except Wednesday and Sunday, and the favorites are often sold out by 10, so go close to opening. Bring cash to be safe. Makawao is up in the cool Upcountry, about 45 minutes from Kihei and about an hour from Lahaina and Kaanapali, so treat it as a morning outing, not a quick stop. Check the hours before you drive, since hours can change. Order a cream puff and a guava malasada while you're there. Eat them on the sidewalk in the chilly morning air, with sugar on your fingers and a little cowboy town waking up around you, and you'll see why a bakery open since 1916 still has a line. Kauai Kauai's lifeguards go home at 6. If you're headed to a Kauai beach, look for an on-duty lifeguard before you get in the water, because Kauai has had the highest drowning rate per person in the state for years. County lifeguards work from 8 AM to 6 PM at guarded beaches, so outside those hours even a beach with a tower has nobody watching. The ocean never clocks out. Walk up, make sure a guard is on duty, and ask what the ocean is doing today, because they know where the rip currents are and whether the water is safe at all. Take their advice, even if it means staying out. Watch the waves for 20 minutes, too, since calm stretches can hide big sets, but don't treat watching as permission to swim. Plan to be out of the water by 6. If a beach has no guard and no tower, enjoy it from the sand and save your swim for another day. Do that and you get a long, easy beach afternoon, with towels on the sand and your whole group still smiling at the end of the day. Big Island Two giant volcanoes, 55 miles, and not one gas station. If you're driving across the Big Island between Hilo and Kona, fill your tank before you start. Saddle Road runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, it has no gas stations at all, and Hilo to Kona takes about two hours. Between Hilo and Waimea, that's roughly 55 miles with no gas and no food. So top off in Hilo, or in Kona or Waimea if you're heading the other way. Buy water before you go, too, because there's no store up there, just lava and a very big sky. Don't count on your phone for the whole drive, so check your route before you leave. Try to drive it in daylight and skip it in a rainstorm, because the road is remote and visibility drops fast. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has no gas stations inside it either, so fill up before that drive, too. Start with a full tank and the road becomes one of the best drives in Hawaii, with Mauna Kea on one side, Mauna Loa on the other, and miles of empty lava fields all to yourself. Oahu Oahu has a trail where giant birds have the right of way. If you're hiking to Kaena Point on Oahu between November and July, stay on the trail, because you're walking through an albatross nesting ground. These seabirds, called moli, have wingspans of about six and a half feet, and the state calls this the only protected area in the world where hikers can walk beside nesting albatross without a guide. On land they're clumsy, so give them room. No dogs, no drones, no camping. Dogs, cats, and mongoose have killed chicks here before. Storm damage this fall has closed the trail from the Waianae side, so plan on the Mokuleia side on the North Shore, and check the state parks website first. It's about 2.5 miles each way, with no shade, no restrooms, and no drinking water, and the park closes at 7 PM, so bring water and a hat. If a bird is sitting on the trail, wait it out instead of walking off the path. The point is also a sacred place in Hawaiian tradition, so we walk it quietly. Go in winter or spring and a fuzzy chick might be sitting in the middle of the trail, looking at you like you're the visitor. Big Island Lava swallowed a Big Island forest, and you can walk through what it left for free. If you're staying around Hilo on the Big Island and have a free morning, add Lava Tree State Monument to your list, because most visitors have never heard of it. It's a small park less than 3 miles southeast of Pahoa, off Highway 132, and admission is free. In 1790, lava flowed through a wet forest and wrapped around the trunks of ohia trees. The trees burned away, and the lava hardened into hollow stone towers that are still standing today. A paved loop trail, about 0.7 miles, takes you right past them in around 30 minutes. Give yourself 45 minutes so you can stop for photos. There are restrooms and picnic tables, but no drinking water, so bring your own. The park is open in daylight only, so don't save it for the end of the day. Look into the hollow towers for the marks of the bark pressed into the stone. Walk it slowly, with moss on every trunk and huge ferns all around you, and it feels like a forest that got frozen in time.
