The Hawaiʻi Companions
$97$148
App-based with live maps. Always current.
Planning a Hawaiʻi trip shouldn't feel like a part-time job.
I plan them for a living. Ten years on the islands, full-time travel advisor, and most weeks, I talk families out of at least three things they were sure they had to do.
The Hawaiʻi Companions are the exact framework I use with private planning clients. Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, and the Big Island. Same research, same opinions, same order of operations. Previously, they only existed for people who hired me.
Four complete guides. Each one stands on its own. Where to stay and who each resort is right for. Beaches worth it and beaches to skip. Activities and luaus I'd send my own family to. What to book ahead, and how far ahead. A real budget framework and a packing list for each island.
If you're island hopping, this is the set you want. Every island asks something different. The Big Island is bigger than people think. Kauaʻi wants reservations months out. Oʻahu is a real decision about which side you stay on. Maui takes more driving than the map suggests. Four guides means you plan each leg with the right information, instead of assuming Hawaiʻi is one place.
It doesn't stop when you land. Pull any guide up in the free Trip Plans app and every place in it is mapped. Standing in the rental car line wondering where to eat, tap directions and go. Kids melting down at a beach that turned out to be too rough, the next one over is right there. No searching, no second-guessing, no you being the only person who knows where anything is.
That's the part I care about most. Somebody else holds the plan for once, and you get to be on the trip instead of running it.
Three ways to use them: Live guides in the app, public links on any browser, or PDFs you can download and mark up. All three come with your purchase. Updated regularly.
What they aren't: A list of everything in Hawaiʻi. They're a list of what I'd actually do, in the order I'd do it, with the reasons why.
Four guides is $97. Buying them separately is $148.
If you get partway through and decide you'd rather hand the whole thing off, I plan trips, too. What you spend here gets credited toward it.