Hawaii 
Aloha State

Motto:  Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Attna/Ka Pono
( The Life of the Land is Perpepuated in Righteousness)

Hotels       Airlines    Rental Cars

Economy: service industries, tourism, military installations, sugar cane, pineapples, cattle, dairy products, food processing, petroleum refining, printing.

The islands of HAWAII , with their volcanoes , palm-fringed beaches , verdant valleys , glorious rainbows and awesome cliffs , hold some of the most spectacularly beautiful scenery on earth. However, despite their isolation, two thousand miles out in the Pacific, they belong very definitely to the United States. If you expect your South Seas idyll to be completely unspoiled, forget it; the fantasy of a dream holiday in Paradise remains firmly rooted in the creature comforts of home. With seven million tourists per year, including honeymooners from all over the world, frequent fliers cashing in their mileage, and almost two million Japanese, the islands can seem like a gigantic theme park.

Honolulu , by far the largest city of the fiftieth state, and with its resort annex of Waikiki also the main tourist center, is on Oahu . The biggest island, Hawaii itself, is known as the Big Island in a vain attempt to avoid confusion. Maui and Kauai also attract mass tourism, while smaller Molokai remains far quieter. All the islands share a similar topography and climate . Ocean winds from the northeast shed their rain on the windward coast, keeping it wet and green; the southwest, leeward (or "Kona") coasts can be almost barren, and so make ideal locations for big resorts. While temperatures remain consistent throughout the year at between 70°F and 85°F, rainfall is heaviest from December to March. That is nonetheless the most popular time to visit, enabling mid- to upper-range hotels to add a premium of at least $30 per night to their standard room rates. A visit to Hawaii doesn't have to cost a fortune, however; there are plenty of budget facilities if you know where to look. The one major expense you really can't avoid, except possibly on Oahu, is car rental - rates are very reasonable, but gas is pricey.

Waikiki Beach, Oahu
Learn to surf,  the world's most famous beach.

Pearl Harbor, Oahu
Relive December 7, 1941 - the "day that will live in infamy" - by visiting the sunken USS Arizona.

Kilauea Eruption, Big Island
The Big Island gets bigger day by day, thanks to the spectacular eruption of its youngest volcano, Kilauea.

Lahaina, Maui
This former whaling port ranks among the most characterful historic towns in Hawaii.

Lumahai Beach, Kauai
This superb, if dangerous, beach has featured in countless movies.

Kalalau Trail, Kauai
The magnificent Na Pali coastline of Kauai can be admired from one of the world's greatest hiking trails.

Roughly sixty percent of the million-plus modern Hawaiians were born here. Around one-third are Caucasian (many of them US military personnel), one-third Japanese and one-sixth Filipino, with 200,000 claiming at least some Hawaiian ancestry. The traditional reliance on agriculture seems to be in terminal decline, with sugar and pineapple plantations closing one after the other, and the need to import virtually all the basics of life has resulted in an extraordinarily high cost of living . In particular, the cost of housing is so high that many islanders find themselves either obliged to work at two jobs, or simply to sleep on the beaches.

Visitors in search of the ancient Hawaii will find that few vestiges remain. What is presented as "historic" usually postdates the missionary impact. Although the ruins of temples ( heiaus ) to the old gods still stand in some places - notably on the Big Island - and committed campaigners work to revive traditional philosophies, the "old towns" are pure nineteenth-century Americana, with false-front stores and raised wooden boardwalks. The two biggest festivals are the Big Island's week-long Merrie Monarch Festival , honoring King David Kalakaua (mid-April), and the statewide King Kamehameha events (around June 11). Authentic hula dancing is a powerful art form, but you're far more likely to encounter it bastardized in a luau . Primarily tourist money-spinners, these "traditional feasts" provide an opportunity to sample Hawaiian foods such as kalua pig, baked underground, and local fish such as ono, ahi, mahi mahi and lomi-lomi (raw salmon). Poi - a paste made from mashed taro root - remains a staple of the diet, much as it was when one of Captain Cook's men described it as "a disagreeable mess."

The Hawaiian language endures in place names and music. At first glance it looks unpronounceable - especially as it is written using a mere twelve letters (the five vowels, plus h, k, l, m, n, p and w ). Usually, each letter is enunciated individually - glottal stops indicate a pause for breath. Long words often break down into repeated sounds, such as " meha-meha " in "Kamehameha." Hawaii itself is more correctly written (and pronounced) Hawai'i , but for visual clarity we've omitted the glottal stops in this guide.