Top 15 Hawaiian Honeymoon Adventures
- Whitney Wisdom
- 27 minutes ago
- 12 min read
Hawaii is the best state in America and I think all who had the privilege of visiting or living there would agree. Its ranked #1 in air and water quality, #1 in health care access, #12 in safety, and not surprisingly #1 most liked by the general public. Hawaiians have a lot of pride and take good care of their beautiful land and marine life. Without even knowing these stats, I’ve dreamed of going to Hawaii my whole life so I was excited to make my magical first trip there, my two week long honeymoon! We visited the three most adventurous islands - the Big Island, Kauai, and Maui. Across our 14 days we had a lot of experiences, as they say - “to write home about.” But, I know you don’t have all day so I am giving you a top 15 highlights reel, in order.
15. Hanalei & Pai’a Beach Towns: I guess technically every town on an island is a beach town but Hanalei Beach and Pai’a beach felt like elevated versions of what I know to be a beach town back at home. I love a little Main Street where there are places to grab a quick lunch, ice cream, and shop for trinkets.
14. Chocolate Farm Tour: It was funny to me because the entire tour they kept saying we are a small company farm we are not like Hershey’s and I used to live only an hour from Hershey, PA! We were on a 10,000 acre farm and got around primarily via golf cart! We got to try real cacao fruit which had more antioxidants in one pod than a box of blueberries. The dark chocolate naturally tasted pretty fruity. The white chocolate had cacao nibs in it a la cookies and cream. It was the best white chocolate I’ve ever had!
13. Maui Gold Pineapple Farm Tour: It was so cool to see my favorite fruit grow because it starts as a pink flower! The Maui Gold tour was specifically fun because they only ship to home, not to stores. Therefore, I’ve never had a Maui Gold pineapple! Most of the pineapples in our grocery stores are picked prematurely in order to make the long trek from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Costa Rica. Since they don’t properly ripen, the cores are hard and they are even harder to cut. Maui Gold’s cores can be eaten in full. We learned pineapples are technically a berry and are dyed yellow via a spray tan-like process, because people shop fruit based on color. Even though pineapples are naturally brown with pink accents, not yellow. We plan to try to grow our own Maui Gold by planting the crown but it’ll be tough since pineapple’s - like myself - can’t survive in sub 52 degrees.
12. Haleakala Sunrise: Waking up before everyone else and getting in the car for a drive always feels like an adventure but going to see the sunrise at Halekala State Park amplified the morning hype that I always feel getting in the car in darkness. The drive up the mountain on pitch black winding roads, all the way up to 10,000 feet of elevation was the scariest part of the trip. (And we saw sharks while swimming, mind you!) One negative, Hawaiians don’t believe in street lights. Park entry fee is $30 and if you want a ticket to get in for sunrise (3am-7am entry) you have to reserve it online in advance for $1. It was so romantic standing up in the clouds in the darkness and seeing the sun slide up rather quickly. When the sun came up locals did a tribal chant. Vibey.
11. Black Sand Beach: The main reason I have wanted to go to Hawaii was to see the Black Sand Beach. My Pop-pop told me about this when I was very young and I just couldn’t believe it! I had to see black sand myself. I had to get it between my toes, and lay in it, and make a castle. You can tell this is an amazing trip as this is only in the middle part of my list. (Although we did plenty of other hikes and gallivanting that did not even make the list.) The first black sand beach we went to was called Black Sand Beach on the Big Island. Pat took me there our very first night even before we checked into our treehouse! It was super rocky - very volcano inspired and more of a campground! We started our trip, the way we ended it by going to a black sand beach on Maui, titled Oneuli Beach. The sand here was more fine like classic beach sand but speckles of red and white sand too. Super cool mix, it kind of reminded me of everything bagel seasoning.
10. Green Sand Beach: This was the first thing we learned about when we touched down on the Big Island. The rental car company told us that the Big Island has a green sand beach and that there are only four in the world. Once we heard that we immediately had to reorganize our schedule to fit it in! The other three can be found at: Guam, the Galapagos Islands, and Norway. The Galapagos Islands are also one of the other places besides Hawaii that has green sea turtles so, flights down there will be on my radar! To get to the USA’s only green sand beach you can ride standing in the bed of a truck driven by locals, but we decided that was too easy and that we wanted to hike it. En route there was a super powdery clay like sand that made our ankles look like a 2010s Jersey Shore prom. It was worth it though because we found a private patch of the most green sand en route to the main beach which was surrounded by cliffs and more public. We didn’t realize you were allowed to swim here so we quickly marked our territory with a “Go Birds” in the green sand and went into the ocean in our hiking clothes.
9. Treehouse: If you ever get the chance to sleep in a treehouse whether it's for one night or several you should take it! There is no better way to unwind than being off the grid! I will disclaimer: that I am the type of person when the weather is warm enough, I want to be outside 100% of the time. If you’re not cool having your living room or bathroom outside then maybe this isn’t your thing but to me it was the perfect level of glamping! The steamy outdoor shower and the tasteful classic Hawaiian decor were house highlights. We had a generator that we flipped on and off as needed. The only room with a door to inside was the bedroom that was enclosed with a pinpad. Otherwise, the rest of the treehouse was fully open and outdoors. It was super far back into the woods and every night we slept to the sounds of the rainforest. I read books in the airbnb about local flowers and birds to try to learn what was around me. For instance I never knew ginger plants are red flowers!? Crazy stuff!
8. Mountain Tubing: Mountain Tubing felt like something that was manufactured. And that is the coolest thing about Hawaii - everything we try to simulate on the mainland is natural there. This is the most popular attraction in Kauai as the tubing course is 80% underground. It's a family run business with passionate tour guides who take you through the back country of Kauai and finishes the trip with a sandwich bar. Its BYO bathing suit and water shoes. Gloves and a helmet with a head lamp were provided. Picture a natural lazy river through caves and then add a bit more speed. I would love to go back here!
7. Lei Making: Making leis - aka a fresh flower necklace was something I knew I had to try! We did this at a Kauai Community Center and got one on one attention from two sweet old ladies. They had plumerias - the classic lei flower in white and red as well as queen’s crown flowers for us in light purple that their friend gathered. You thread the center of the fresh flowers on a needle and then through the string. I was impressed how good and how into it my husband got; I thought this was going to be more of a me activity. We got to make two leis each and a flower crown with the extras. We told the teacher that we were going hiking after so she gave us a cooler with plastic baggies filled with paper towels to help absorb some of the moisture. We added drinks to our new cooler and loved wearing the leis while hiking, going to dinner etc. because they had a cooling effect. With the leis on, we got recognized as honeymooners and people kept congratulating us! If we had more of a flower abundance back home, I would certainly add leis to Whitney Wisdom Beading.
6. Sailboating Napali Coast: Something that I’ve learned since traveling more over the last 4 years is that my favorite day of the trip will always be the boat day! My husband learned this about me too and scheduled three different boat tours all with different themed snorkel stops - one per island. I’ve never been on a sailboat before and this was a huge one! Conditions were very calm so we only got to drop the sail for part of the trip there. The snorkeling here was cool, we saw tons of fish but the other snorkeling trips we did on our trip were more intense. The highlight of this Blue Dolphin tour was we did get to see dolphins (which they guarantee) and just vibing on the boat. We were served cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit for breakfast and kaula pork sandwiches for lunch. There was also an open bar on the way back with mai tais and Maui brewing beers and seltzers, so it was a party boat! The crew looked like they were having such a fun time! I thought, I have experience as a waitress and lifeguard. I should be on this crew!
5. Luau: Everyone probably already knows that a luau is a must-do when in Hawaii, but we quickly learned when we got there that all luaus are not created equal. Some are just fire shows with a buffet. I’d recommend not doing the one at your resort and instead doing one at the place that specializes in luaus with a stage, traditional luau seating, and wait staff who explains what you’re about to eat. Ours also included unlimited drinks! We took advantage of the mai tais and lava flows (strawberry pina colada) the most. When we first got there we got to explore traditional games and instruments which reminded me of going to Disney’s Ohana and Spirit of Aloha dinners. Then we got to see the pig come out of the ground.
The whole thing was right on the beach so we had a perfect view of the sunset, which was tough to time because the sun was setting earlier than expected. When the palm trees turned into silhouettes and you could still hear the ocean crash, it felt like we were on a movie set. The hula dancers performed throughout dinner and after dessert as well. They had a special dance for honeymooners and wedding anniversaries which was the moment we decided we wanted to come back for our 10 year anniversary. The luau was one of the coolest dinners I’ve ever experienced. And you know ya girl loves dinner and a show!
4. Molikini Crater Snorkeling & Turtle Town: We did this with Red Boat Rafts and it was truly 5 hours of nonstop snorkeling. They drove us out into the middle of the ocean and told us which sections to avoid due to converging currents and then we could swim and explore the rest of the Pacific! As someone who loves to swim more than just about anything, it was a dream come true! I used to swim 13 hours a week just back and forth in a 25 yard pool so, to have coral, eels, turtles, fish, and cliffs to look at was so cool. After this trip I was inspired to take my goggles and swim out deeper into the ocean at our resort’s beach. I accidentally stepped on a green sea turtle because I thought it was a rock! It was insane! Anyways, back to Molikini!
The Molikini Crater is one of those little land mass dots off of Maui. There was so much life to explore along the Molikini Crater! The species of fish were so diverse and so many of them looked like fish in Finding Nemo that I asked our guide about it. Even though Finding Nemo is set in Australia, the divers who selected the types of fish to be in the movie dove in Molikni. We even got to explore the famous “drop off” from Finding Nemo. Next we went to Chang’s Beach which everyone calls Turtle Town to swim with sea turtles. My new favorite hobby became being the one to find the turtles for our tour group since, when resting they truly just looked like rocks and were tough to spot. So fun! But I wouldn't recommend it if you aren’t comfortable swimming without a life vest for 5 hours as the raft we went out on is really small and wouldn’t be as much fun to hang back on the boat.
3. Surfing: In 2020 I was furloughed due to covid from April-June. I was starting to make plans to attend a surf school at the Delaware beaches in July and just drive the 2.5 hours each way because that’s how little I had going on. Sadly, I got called back to work and never learned how to surf. 5 years later, this was the first thing I wanted to book. We surfed Popiu Beach in Kauai and due to weather it got moved to be the morning before we went mountain tubing so that was a perfect day in Kauai. My husband had gone surfing once before in California and warned me how hard it is. I knew I would be good at paddling because again, swimmer but I impressed myself that I was actually able to stand up! The instructors helped push us into the waves, just like my dad did to teach us which waves to take boogie boarding in Stone Harbor. I only wiped out once and since I have a fear of falling whenever I do fall, I fall hard. This time I cut my knee on a coral reef but it made for a fun story.
2. Manta Ray Snorkeling: This was my first time snorkeling in the dark which seems counterintuitive, but the visibility was awesome! We were instructed to hold onto a backboard like a lifeguard uses at a pool and keep our bodies out flat on the surface. We had pool noodles under our legs so the manta ray’s wouldn’t see us. They came right up to us due to the light on our board yielding plankton for the manta’s to eat. It was a super cool concept and we got lucky since we were on the last tour of the day, we got about 12 manta rays feeding off our board. They say there are usually 4. Manta’s respond well to chaos so we had to make a lot of noise to attract them. This felt made up but it did actually work! Looking into their mouths and seeing the totality of their ribs was an otherworldly experience.
1.Volcano Eruption: Natural phenomena cannot be planned for, which is part of the reason that seeing a volcano erupt with my own eyes was the most incredible experience of our honeymoon. The way we found out about the volcano erupting was almost as insane as watching it. We were pulling out from our secluded treehouse and about a 100 year old man pulled up next to say “it's erupting.” Then he drove off. We went to multiple points in Volcano’s National Park to watch and continued along different trails to get as close as it was safe to get. The volcano has erupted about 30 times between Christmas and September 2025 so we really lucked out. Seeing this was not even something we considered when working through our itinerary! Since we were on the Big Island first, we got to tell everyone we met in Kauai and Maui that we just saw the eruption which, yes, in fact, did make us the coolest travelers!
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