A friend from Oregon told me “We keep thinking about taking a trip to Hawai’i but Cancun always wins because it just seems to be a better value for our money.”
I respect the fact that people have to get the most value for their money, but the truth is – there is nowhere that compares to Hawai’i for the vacation of a lifetime. Here are the top five reasons why Hawai’i is still the best vacation destination for anyone.
1) Hawai’i is safe. Violent crimes are extremely rare here. We do not have kindnappings, gang violence, or drug cartels to deal with here. Yes, your rental car may get broken into when you leave your purse in it and yes the cost of your hotel (and everything else) borders on the ridiculous – but unless you are acting like a drunken idiot – your chances of a violent encounter are close to zero.
2) Hawai’i is exotic. In Honolulu there are fifteen languages that are spoken on a daily basis by a large number of residents. (English, Mandarin, Japanese, Tongan, Fijian, Micronesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Samoan, Cantonese, Hawaiian, Pidgin, Korean, Visayan and Illongo) In addition there are many other smaller ethnic groups here which have vibrant communities. Hawai’i residents practice Christianity, Shinto, Taoism, Buddhism, and modern Native Hawaiian traditions. You can have Japenese food for breakfast, Korean for lunch, and Moroccan for dinner.
3) Hawai’i has volcanoes, tropical rain forest, great ocean beaches, and a healthy tourist infrastructure. It’s incredibly rare to hear horror stories from tourists who come to Hawai’i. In fact, I only have met one woman who didn’t enjoy Hawai’i and she said it was because she missed her swimming pool at home…so, not exactly a normal tourist.
4) Hawai’i is a part of the United States but not a part of North America. This means that for Americans, there are no visas, no changing money, no need to bring a language guide book, no extra vaccinations, and lots of the same protections they get at home. For international travelers – Hawai’i is a chance to experience the most unique culture in the American Empire.
5) Hawai’i has a rich history of war, conquest, betrayal, and colonization and a vibrant natural history that includes more endemic plant and bird species than anywhere else on the planet. Hawai’i is the most remote place on the planet and the species that made it here became different from those in every other place. It’s my belief that this is also true of the human culture here, though Americanization is destroying that uniqueness at an unbelievable rate.