[.ca] Lonely Planet Hawaii (ISBN 1741045770)

Perfect Vacation Planner:
On 5 trips to 4 of the islands, I've consistently found that this guidebook steers me in the right direction, and leads me to some out of the way places. The listing of B & B's & condos is extensive, if you are more interested in hotels, the Fromers guides have better listings. This book provides directions to some sights you would almost definitely miss otherwise. For example, on the drive to Hana there is a lovely swimming hole (with waterfall) about 30 meters from the road but with no signs leading to it. I would never have found this, and it was a higlight of the drive. Numerous other examples (this is one of the few books with details about Molokai), but the bottom line is that while most of the guidebooks list identical sights, this one goes into much more detail. If you are looking to lose the crowds and find some quiet places on your own, you need this book.

lonely planet way:
I purchased this book more so for my husband who is a bit more into exploring the towns and cities. We went to Hawaii on a cruise so our experience was based on days in port. In the words from my husband he said the book was great everything explained was right on the button from decsriptions to cost. We may never do another cruise again so that we can explore even more and not have time restrictions. It was the first time for a Lonely Planet book but not the last.

A thoroughly "user friendly" guide for travelers:
The collaborative effort of Glenda Bendure, Ned Friary, and Sara Benson, Hawaii: From Oahu To Niihau, All-Island Coverage is an superbly organized and thoroughly "user friendly" guide for travelers visiting the beautiful and memorable islands comprising the state of Hawaii. Packed from cover to cover with a wealth of solid information concerning lodgings, activities, tourist attractions, dining, and much, much more, Hawaii is enhanced with maps, phone numbers, world wide web sites, prices, details, as well as color and black-and-white photography. Hawaii is a magnificent useful, highly portable, and strongly recommended trip planning resource for business travelers and vacationers alike.

Great Beginner's Guide to Hawaii:
Lonely Planet has always been a trusted resource for traveling, and this HI version did not disappoint. I initially bought the guide hoping that it would give me enough information about the islands as a whole (to help decide which one to visit for my first trip to HI) and yet still contain enough details on each specific island to be an asset once the destination was decided. Once I reached Maui, the book was still thorough enough for that individual island to be a helpful resource on places to eat, visit, and snorkel. While this book fit my needs perfectly as both an overview of all the Hawaiian Islands and a guide to Maui itself, due to the format there isn't a huge amount of depth on some things, like hiking. For future trips I would be tempted to buy an accompanying island-specific guide (we borrowed one and the level of detail was greater). This book was helpful not only in planning my trip, but an excellent guide once I got there (maps were great). I will definitely use it on my next visit to the islands - Kaui is next on the list!

Four Stars:
Just enough and done up in Lonely Planets refreshing format. I always like the first section with all the necessary traveling details. Hawaii has so much to see and with Lonely Planet Hawaii I got a good idea of where I wanted to go the first, second and third weeks of my vacation. Nicely done LP!