Hawaii information about Hawaii vacations blog

If you visit Hawaii, you should spend at least a little time on a boat. If you really want an adventure, try a sail boat. There is nothing like cruising silently through the whitecaps, only the sound of the sea and the wind in your sails… The views of the islands are spectacular from the boat… And there’s the occasional stop for snorkeling… Maybe sail out to Molokini, do a little scuba diving…

Of course, sailing is an adventure for which you’ll want to be prepared. Salt spray, cool air, possible foul weather…all call for sailing gear like foul weather gear for your protection and safety. And, of course, so you can look cool! Our new friends at Whitecaps Foul Weather Gear have a huge selection of foul weather gear, rain gear, sailing gear and sailing accessories.

Check out their full line of sailing gloves. Sailing footwear like sailing shoes and warm, dry socks are very important when you’re out on the ocean. You’ll need to choose from a big selection of sailing bags, sunglasses and other sailing accessories, and maybe even a hand-held portable GPS system. Make sure your kids are safe and comfortable with junior sizes of foul weather gear for kids. They also have a large selection of women’s foul weather gear.

Heck, even if you’re not going to do much sailing, this gear (especially the really cool sailing jackets) is just plain stylish and functional for any outdoor activity loving person on vacation in the many varied climates of the Hawaiian Islands. From freezing temps at sunrise on Mount Haleakala, to a Kona storm while you’re sailing the rough water between islands, Hawaii’s weather can get quite foul, and Whitecaps Foul Weather Gear is the perfect place to stock up on the sailing apparel and accessories you need.

The Holo–holo O’ Wahine, or Women’s Walkabout run by Cherie of the Hale Hookipa Inn, has been changed to May 12 - 18, 2009. You can read more about this year’s walkabout in this post at Cherie’s Blog, Hookipa Aikane on Maui Hawaii.

I spent a lot of time on this blog helping friends from Hawaii market their Hawaii-based businesses. These hard times are spreading everywhere, and I’ve had a big drop in requests from friends in Hawaii for my internet marketing skills. So, as a free service to all my friends struggling to get more traffic to their Hawaiian web sites, I’ve started a blog to help them get the most from their sites: Internet Marketing and Organic SEO from Bald Mt. Press.

All you Haoles can use this help too!

This is not, of course, new material. Tons of search engine optimization experts have written billions of words about how you can get more business from the internet. I have tried, though, to make it a little more interesting for the non-technical people who might need a little help. I know how hard it is to live in Hawaii. When we lived there for a year, I had three jobs. It’s expensive, exhausting, and difficult to have paradise in your back yard. That’s how I got started in internet marketing: helping people who were too busy running their business to market themselves on line.

For those who still want to hire someone else to handle your internet marketing, I hope I’ve provided a resource that will make it easy to better understand the strategy I use. One strategy I’ll mention here: Hawaii Stuff. That’s my site about Hawaii that gets over 4500 unique visits per month. That’s a lot of eyeballs (mostly there for the eye candy like Hawaii pictures), and they are an intricate part of my marketing strategy. Some of those visitors will follow links to my client’s sites, but all of the search engine spiders will. That site works as link-bait and link-juice, and helps my Hawaii clients in a way that few internet marketers can.

This kind of specific content has helped other clients as well. My organic gardening web site helps organic farming author Mort Mather, these organic Kona coffee farmers, and a Maui bed and breakfast with organic food growing on the grounds. And my small business site helps all my clients.

So, remember me when you’re trying to squeeze every last dime you can out of your marketing budget. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.

Hawaii Beach Weddings are so spectacular, so romantic, and so memorable, that it’s hard not to want to be married on a beach in Hawaii. In these tough economic times, I’ve read that many people are cutting back on their wedding extravaganzas in order to save money, and not build up so much debt. One great way to save money on your wedding is to have it in the same place you’re having your honeymoon!

I read about a couple that, in order to cut down on expenses (and the carbon foot print of a large wedding with people flying in from all over the place), had a very romantic and environmentally sensitive wedding, followed by a series of parties across the country, where they traveled to see the people they loved, who then only had to drive within their own region to visit the happy newlyweds. If I had it to do over again, I think a private, quiet, romantic wedding on a beach in Hawaii would be the way to go. Then a nice honeymoon in the Hawaiian Islands, followed by a victory tour of sorts to strategically located spots around the country, where we could have small parties celebrating the event! This is a great way to have an eco-wedding, using a lot less total jet fuel, and a lot more fun for the happy couple!

Oahu Weddings are particularly sweet, as the beaches are extremely beautiful, the services available are varied and convenient, the choice of lodging is huge, and the cost of the package can be easily designed to meet your budget. Waikiki Weddings in Honolulu and North Shore Oahu weddings are the two most popular Oahu wedding packages provided by this full service Waikiki Hawaii Wedding planner.

From intimate Hawaii beach weddings, to an affordable Hawaii Wedding package created specifically for your budget in these trying economic times, think outside the mainland. Think Hawaii!

My friends from the Hale Kilo I’a (house where you watch fish) on the north shore of Kauai have been renovating their Hawaii beach house rental. They have added new pictures of the place, which is absolutely gorgeous, with a big yard, a terrific beach, and a master suite with its own kitchen! The house is decorated with the art of former resident and academy award winning art director Tambi Larsen. Check out the site, and don’t miss the art, which is amazing.

My friend Cherie, who runs the Hale Hookipa Inn Maui Bed and Breakfast (and just started a new blog, Hookipa Aikane), is offering a snow-bird special discount on Maui B&B lodging! If you book a stay at her historic Hawaiian B&B before this Christmas, you’ll get an 8% discount! This is a great deal on what is already one of the most affordable places to stay on Maui!

So, book a flight to Hawaii now! Cherie notes in her post that Alaska Airlines has added new flights direct to Maui. And here’s a great, inexpensive Hawaii car rental agency.

Ten years ago, when we were living on Maui, I got an email from Dr. Robert Faust who was running an organic coffee farm on the big island of Hawaii, just south of Kona, near the Hawaiian refuge town of Honaunau. He needed help with his various web sites, and he wanted help selling his delicious organic Kona coffee. It was perfect timing, as those were lean years, and living in Hawaii is very expensive (we only lasted a year). They were lean years for Dr. Faust as well, so we let him pay us in organic Kona coffee.

It was a sad day a few years ago when we heard that Dr. Faust had sold his sustainable Hawaiian coffee farm and moved to Oregon, where he still runs his organic fertilizer business.

It was a happy day last month, then, when I got an email from Mike Tucker, who purchased the organic coffee farm, and spent the last couple of years restoring the farm into a sustainable and productive Hawaiian coffee farm, now known as Kona Comfort Coffee. After hearing his story, I told him he should blog about it, and, whadya know, he had kept a journal of the entire experience of rejuvenating the farm. After a few weeks of work, we’re happy to announce a riveting Organic Kona Coffee Farming in Hawaii Blog that tells the story creating an organic Hawaiian agriculture business literally from the ground up. The blog has great pictures of the sustainable Hawaiian coffee farm, and other great pictures of Hawaii’s Big Island!

Of course, the really great news is that the organic gourmet coffee beans from Hawaii are better than ever! This organic Kona coffee is so good that I don’t even put my usual half teaspoon of Hawaiian sugar in it! The chocolate undertones and complete lack of bitterness make it irresistible! Each order of gourmet coffee beans is fresh roasted when you order it, or you can order organic green coffee beans if you’re a home roaster.

Of course, the timing is once again wonderful, as I recently began getting higher search engine ranks for my clients on a full time basis. And, you can purchase organic Kona coffee just in time for the Holidays, and you can even get your organic Kona coffee beans gift wrapped in very cool Hawaiian style!

Cherie Attix, a good friend of mine and one of my first internet marketing clients, has a new blog that I’m really looking forward to. Ho’okipa Aikane, or “home sharing friend” will be Cherie’s blog for news and community views about Maui, where she owns and operates the Hale Hookipa Bed and Breakfast.

Here’s how Cherie describes herself and why she’s blogging:

I am a long time resident of Hawaii, I moved here as a teenager who loved the ocean and warm weather.

After raising my family, I found myself on my own on the island of Maui. In 1994, I purchased an old run down Portuguese family home in Upcountry Maui. This gem was built in 1924, and I cried when I first saw it. I wondered what happened to the original family….? It was a beautiful craftsman style home in some MAJOR disrepair, but the bones were good. In my usual optimistic approach, I figured, why not? I can do this.

It’s been an amazing journey…with a laughable budget, I have managed to restore and give new life to my home. It is now Hale Ho’okipa Inn.

I hope to share stories, and life in upcountry Maui and Hawaii Nei with anyone who wants to peek in.

A hui ho…until later!!

This is an e-mail from my SEO client Pamela, who has a Hawaii beach accommodation on the north shore of Kauai:

Monk seals are among the world’s most endangered seals. According to Aloha-Hawaii.com, “In recorded history there have only been four seals born on the main Hawaiian islands. Two of those births occurred in 1991 on the North shores of Oahu and Kauai.” My parents saw one of these mother seals and her pup on the beach in front of their house and helped keep interested people at a safe distance.

Hawaiian Sea Turtles are a threatened species. They have been viewed this month in the reef waters in front of our house.

Humpback whales are easily seen from the upstairs lanai of the house.

If you want to visit Hawaii to see wildlife like seals, whales, and turtles, this is the perfect Kauai vacation rental to do it from!

After five years writing for newspapers in Rogue River and Ashland, Oregon; I finally made it back to Hawaii with my 15 year-old Hilo-born son, specifically to Volcano on the Big Island, about a mile from the entrance to Volcano National Park. I was sure I’d kiss the grown at Hilo Airport, but vanity won out.

During Hawaii’s winter (October through April) we’ll get frost on some nights up here at Volcano (4,000 feet), but year round the daytime temps average around 65 to 75 °F. Driving down the mountain in just a matter of a few minutes the temperature and humidity climb, flowering plants and trees appear in neat yards surrounding tin-roofed houses, and the air is instantly soft and sweet. It’s like stepping off the escalator at Hilo Airport into the outdoor lobby – just a nice, relaxing and welcoming sensation.

Hilo was my first home in Hawaii. After a Kauai vacation in 1987, my former husband and I put our house up for sale, I graduated a term early so I’d have my teaching certificate, and we moved with our 6-year-old son (now grown) and our pet bird to “affordable Hawaii,” the windward side of the Big Island, sight unseen, no contacts.

The plan: Stay in an affordable hotel for the first night and then begin apartment hunting and job hunting. So trusty Hidden Hawaii guide book in hand (pre-Internet days and non-touristy Hilo hotels always had rooms), we drove to our first choice, a local’s favorite and located in a residential neighborhood called the Dolphin Bay Hotel

The problem: We didn’t know about the Merry Monarch Hula Festival, which happened to be in full swing. This grandmother of all hula competitions attracts hula halau’s (schools/troupes) and spectators from all around the Big Island, and the islands of Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, as well as from the mainland to the small city of Hilo (pop, 45,000).

As it usually does in Hilo at night (the wettest city in the United States), it began to rain. This hotel and every other one in Hilo was booked, dancers were sleeping on the floors. While the kind owner called hotels in Kona, we stood in the rain outside the car while our son tried to calm the now screeching cockatiel in the backseat.

A man drinking beer and working on his pickup (in that order I think) in front of a big plantation home down the street quickly sized up the situation and told us to come stay the night. I’d heard a lot about “aloha” (who hasn’t), but I was hesitant. He came back a minute later, saying his wife had stew on the stove and wanted us to come in for dinner.

So we joined he and his wife and their two sons for a delicious dinner, watched some of Merry Monarch on television, and spent the night in their tidy guest rooms. We fell asleep to the pitter patter of rain on the banana leaves outside the window and woke up feeling more refreshed than we could remember.

Downstairs we found a note on the polished koa table next to a vase of antheriums telling us they’d gone off to school and work (his wife turned out to be the vice principle at a local school). The note said to please help ourselves to breakfast from the cupboards and the refrigerator. And we were strangers. I still haven’t rightly passed on this aloha, but I’m working on it.

While Hilo’s my first love, Volcano has its own charms. Pele for one. Many of the island’s artists live here – something about the creative energy that flows beneath as lava moves towards the sea where it’s forming a new island. Mark Twain reportedly loved it here and stayed at Volcano House Hotel. In Roughing It, he used his sharp wit to point out the injustices done to the Hawaiians.

Hawaiian honeycreepers flit from tree to tree outside my windows. Turkeys cruise through our front yard daily (as our cats look on wide-eyed from a safe distance). Fern flanked trails meandering under majestic koas and fragrant eucalyptus provide wonderful hikes. The sun sets over Mauna Loa, and in the morning we can drive about 1/2 hour down to Punalu`u Black Sand Beach and check out the sea turtles or watch the sun rise over the ocean (if I could get up that early!). Or we can drive about 30 miles to Hilo, down Kalanianiole about five miles, and snorkel on the coral reef at my favorite Windward side beach park, Richardson Ocean Park.

And the volcano vog? While this smog-like volcanic substance does sometimes find its way down the mountain into Hilo, other than the vog in the Park near the lava flow and sulfur vents, it mainly just settles (until afternoon trades blow it out to sea) right where the bulk of the island’s tourists do - - Kailua-Kona.

In my 10 years living in Hawaii (Big Island, and for a bit on Oahu and Kauai), for the most part on a single mom’s shoestring budget, I’ve discovered many amazing places and fun activities that tread lightly on pocketbooks and Hawaii’s fragile eco systems (usually these two go together).

I’ve also learned a lot about the culture from my time teaching here, mostly at a treatment center for teens where I brought in kupuna (elders) volunteers to share their knowledge and where I had the opportunity to tag along on outings. But I’ve probably just written the longest blog introduction in history, so I’ll start sharing these tips next week, along with pictures.

Cindy