So it’s farewell to Hawaii. We had a great time spread over 2 islands. Talking to some locals they say all the islands are very different, and this certainly showed to be true.
Overall, it’s really an American experience (which you would expect as Hawaii is a US State), rather than a Polynesian one, but again the extent of this varies between the islands.
Maui
Maui is a very chilled out island, and feels less American than Oahu. Where we stayed was a great mix between the real world and catering for Tourism, this helped by the accommodation we had – a small family run pension, which was so chilled.
I think Maui is tourism bound; without it, the economy would falter I think. On our travels around the island we found a complete town (I believe there are others) which housed many thousands of people, which was planned and built for tourists only. No locals, schools or anything like that. There was a central mall but with shops like Rolex, Louboutin etc.. nothing to do with the real world. This was quite a weird place, clearly built for people who like their holidays highly sanitised. To me it felt like being in an episode of the prisoner. I had my eye out for bubbles around every corner.
Oahu
Oahu was quite different. The taxi driver on the way to Maui airport warned us it was quite busy and it was. Honolulu is essentially a big American City, no different. All of tourism in Honolulu is concentrated down in Waikiki where there are lots of hotels, beaches and bars. It’s almost a town within a town, it is, however, still part of the real world and there are locals who are resident there who live and work there.
Somewhat surprising, there were also huge amounts of Japanese tourists, so much so that lots of the signs are in both languages.
Conclusion
We’d certainly head back to Maui again, probably even stay at the same place as it was great, but Oahu not so much.