First, congratulations on your upcoming marriage! DH and I honeymooned in Hawaii in 2016 and had a similar itinerary as you, except we didn't have enough time to visit the Big Island unfortunately! So I'm jealous
My trip report with details and photos is linked in my signature.
- 3 nights Waikiki (no car)
- Definitely do Pearl Harbor
- Probably snorkel on Hanauma Bay
- Probably do Kualoa ranch on the drive from Waikiki to Aulani (which tour?)
- 3 nights Aulani
- Take one morning to tour the north shore
- Couples massage in Laniwai
- Character breakfast
- Hope to take the night time photography lesson
- 5 nights Kauai
- We'd love to take a helicopter tour over the Na Pali coast (which company?)
- 5 nights Maui
- Dive (or snorkel) in Molokini
- 5 nights Big Island
- We'd love to take a helicopter tour over the volcano (which company?)
- Hiking around the lava streams
- Night dive with manta's
We also spent 3 nights in Waikiki with no car. It worked out well for us, as many of the shops and restaurants we wanted to visit were in walking distance of our hotel (Waikiki Beach Marriott). We also avoided the traffic and parking hassles, as well as costs. We did a tour to Pearl Harbor through Discover Hawaii tours who I would recommend. They picked us up right at our hotel and facilitated getting our tickets to the Arizona memorial, so we didn't have to worry about that. We arrived around 7:15am and our tour time was 9:15am, so that gave us about 2 hours to browse the museum part of it. When our trip out to the Arizona was done, half of our group left to go to the Swap Meet but the other half stayed and did the Missouri. So, depending on exactly what you want to do there, they do have an "extended" tour of Pearl Harbor.
We did Kualoa Ranch from Aulani. I will warn that it's not at all on the way from Waikiki to Aulani, but it would kill time between check-out in Waikiki and check-in at Aulani. We did the VIP Movie Tour which was great! I would recommend it for movie buffs.
At Aulani, we also did the couples massage, North Shore, and character breakfast. I might recommend doing a massage in the morning and North Shore in the afternoon, and having a nice dinner somewhere up in Haleiwa. Then you can get the "off site" stuff done in one day and spend the rest of the time enjoying Aulani.
In Kailua, we did a helicopter tour with Island Helicopters. They were very easy to find at the airport. We did the Jurassic Falls tour which is the tour that lands at the site of the falls from Jurassic Park and lets you view them up close. In addition to the falls experience, the tour also takes you over Waimea Canyon and the Na Pali Coast. Really enjoyed this, but it was experience. Total experience was about 90 minutes. What we enjoyed more in Kauai was our sunset dinner cruise with Capt. Andy's Sailing Adventure. It was a 4 hour catamaran style boat tour around the Na Pali coast and the views were amazing. We also saw dolphins and the sunset was great. The food was one of the best meals of our trip. I will warn that you WILL get wet from sea spray and splashes, they make you leave your shoes locked up at the dock so you are barefoot, and its not a good tour for someone prone to sea sickness. But if none of those are a concern, it was awesome! One of my favorite things we did on our trip.
Luau
- I'm now considering Old Lahaina Luau on Kauai or Smith's on Kauai
We did the Feast at Lele luau in Maui, which is very close tot he Old Lahaina Luau. We chose Feast at Lele because you sit at your own private table, you have servers, and they include fire dancing. It's my understanding that Old Lahaina Luau is more traditional, so you sit at communal tables, go up to a buffet line, and they do not include fire dancing as that is part of another Polynesian culture. I don't think you can go wrong with either luau though - they both get great reviews. We chose to do the luau in Maui because the Maui luaus seemed to get the most consistently good reviews across the board.