Oahu or Big Hawaii Island?

Question

When you go on vacation to Hawaii

Do people usually stay on one island?

There's things I want to do on both Oahu and Kona

Most of the stuff I want to do is on Oahu

Like swimming with the Dolphins

scuba diving, surfing, wake boarding, etc

But the thing I want to do most is night diva with the manta rays

http://www.konahonudivers.com/mantaray.shtml

Answer 1

Inter-island flights go at reasonable rates, and will probably only take around 45 minutes. Many people stay on more than one island during their stay, depending on what they want to do. If you have the money to travel between islands, go for it. The Big Island is pretty, and great if you want to chill out. If you're a big "city" person, I don't recommend it...you probably will be bored.

Oahu is great- there's a lot to do. Waikiki is the center of the tourism industry, so I guess to tourists it may feel extremely crowded and busy. It's very pretty, and there's lots of shopping, surfing lessons and tour trolleys. If you want a quieter experience, head out to the North shore to scuba dive, or go to a more remote hotel (outside Waikiki) like the Ihilani Resort, Kahala Mandarin, or Turtle Bay to relax. Waikiki is NOT really what Hawaii is like, obviously its a lot of "show" for the tourists to enjoy.

I'm not sure Oahu has something similar to the night scuba dive with manta rays...Hopefully you'll able to have a great vacation no matter what you do!

Answer 2

You are the first person I've ever heard call it Big Hawaii Island. Most folks call it the island of Hawaii, or the Big Island. "In Hawaii" means in the state, but when I say "on Hawaii", I mean on the Big Island.

You can island hop. It just means spending more time in the security line at the airport, packing and unpacking, like someone said.

For specific adventures like you're talking about, you may not need a specific tour. Sometimes there are places where you can just swim there and know there's a good chance of dolphins showing up. I know of one on Oahu, but there's probably one on Hawaii, if you know the right locals to ask...

The thing about scuba on Hawaii is that it's such a young island, in geological terms that it doesn't have much coral reef. The best coral reefs in the archipelago are on Molokai, but there's only one hotel there now, and jets haven't flown there for 4 years, but you can catch a prop plane from HNL or OGG or a ferry from Lahaina.

You should probably also look at Maui. You can do all the things you've listed on Maui, with less traffic to deal with, since Maui is bigger than Oahu and has 1/7 the population.

Answer 3

For you, s***w Oahu. Go to kona. Kona's got better scuba diving all around. I've done the manta night dive in Kona and it's awesome.

Other dive spots I recommend in Kona are: City of Refuge, the marine sanctuary around Captain Cook Monument-kyack across and pack a picnic...it's the BEST!! (Kealakakua Bay), the Old Airport...really, almost anywhere around the South-East shore. There's a really great shop in town to refill your tanks.  

Don't go in the winter: somtimes the swells can make it difficult to get in and out with a tank.

You can swim with the dolphins at the Hilton Wikaloa in Kona as well.--The surfing's pretty good on that side of the island as well.

Answer 4

I think it would depend on how long your trip is.  Many of my friends do "island hop" when they go to Hawaii.  The flights between the islands are very quick, easy, and convenient.

When my husband and I go, we prefer to just do one island extensively.  That way, we only have to unpack and pack once, and we don't have to worry about schedules until the end of the vacation when we have to go back to the real world!  Plus, I think if you spend a longer time on one island, you get a better "feel" for it instead of rushing and trying to get to all the "must sees" before you go to the next island.  Sometimes, the "maybe we should sees if we have enough time" are way better than the "must sees!"

As for Oahu versus the Big Island, it's a matter of personal preference.  I don't care much for Oahu.  To me, it feels overbuilt and over populated, very crowded.  However, if you want lots of shopping opportunities and some good nightlife, Oahu would be your best pick.

The Big Island is my favorite of the two.  Because it's the biggest of the islands and people are spread out across a larger area, it feels very uncrowded and serene.  There are fabulous snorkel spots here, some nice black sand beaches, rain forests and waterfalls.  Plus, the Big Island is the only one where you can see active volcanos.  It's very cool to do the night hike and see the orange lava spilling into the sea.

Whereever you decide to go, though, I'm sure you'll have a fabulous time.  It's Hawaii, after all!  :)

--->Enjoy your trip!

Answer 5

I'm 20 years old and have lived in Hawai'i my entire life. I have lived on every island and have experienced much that hawai'i has to offer. On The Big island  you can experience kilauea and see the beautifully flowing lava and the erupting spews at night are like natures own fire works. you can also experience Mauna loa which is the highest peak on in island in the world one of the greatest views hawaii has. other then those two mountains and some snow you can do all the same stuff on oahu. I love oahu and yes you can swim with the dolphins, scuba dive, surf and wake board all in waikiki alone, but can also experience the "post card" and much more laid back and beautifull side of hawaii on oahu's north shore.

Answer 6

OAHU!!  I spent 8 days 7 nights there and wasn't ready to leave.  We didn't get to do the night swimming that we say because of the jellyfish.  Remember, 9-10 days after a full moon, they have box jellyfish and won't hold any snorkeling.  We found that out the day we planned on going,  If you are going in the summer, there are not many surfing waves, those come in the winter months (no waves while we were then in June, even on the North Shore).  It costs a lot more to island hop and you can spend a lot of time on just one island.  I've heard the Big Island is neat to see the crackling lava, but other than that, it's hard to stay on for long.  I think you should go to OAHU

We stayed at the Ihilani and it was AMAZING!!  We went snorkeling (for free) on property and saw turtles 2 different times.  

Also, I recommend you buy the "Revealed" book for whichever island you choose, we bought Oahu, Revealed and it was soooo helpful!!