Customer Reviews

Lonely Planet Hiking in Hawaii

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I picked up this book because of Lonely Planet's good name. For general reading it's okay for an overview but for solid trail advice and exact information that a hiker really needs, it misses the mark. I only visited one island and there weren't enough listings to make purchasing this book worthwhile.

A note to any prospective purchasers: Lonely Planet released several books on Hawaii, both about the state in general and also about some of the individual islands. This book only covers state and national parks, and known hiking trails on the five islands you can get to (thus excluding Lana'i, and the inaccessible Kaho'olawe and Niihau. Therefore, it's best used in conjunction with the other general books on the subject.

I found this book to be of value for the three islands I visited. There's a little bit of outdated information about climbing the Diamond Head volcano crater on Oahu. More useful to me were the extend portions about Waimea Canyon State Park on Kauai (absolutely gorgeous even if you're only driving up, as my wife and I did) and the material about Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. This latter section was especially helpful in terms of providing background information, as we had a poor commercial tour guide who frequently missed the points we were interested in.

I recommend this book even for the non-hiker (we limited ourselves mostly to the "easy" trails) because the level of detail about the two state parks mentioned above, surpasses both what I found in other books and even from some tour guides.

I found this book quite useful while hiking on the big island, where I did the majority of the recommended hikes (excluding the Mauna Kea, admittedly). I used it in the planning phase and, in conjunction with a topographic map, during the hikes. The descriptions of the hikes are accurate both in terms of the path to take, the scenery, plant and animal life to expect as well as in regard to the time the hikes will take. The warnings it contains, especially regarding the need to carry enough water are to be taken seriously! As a fit but not expert hiker, I ended up finishing the hikes in about the lower estimated duration given by lonely planet.

What made me, as a biologist, sad while hiking in Hawaii was the abundance of non-native (invading) species, which in many cases have a detrimental effect on the endemic Hawaiian species. There is not much in this book about this problem, which is quite striking to anyone interested in nature who hikes around the Hawaiian islands.

In addition to the sections about the hikes, I found the information on hostels and cheap dining places on the big island informative.

This book hits on just the tip of the iceburg. There are hundreds of trails on these islands and since I only visited two I wanted it to tell me more. So if you do buy it, use it for just an overview. It makes a good companion to the Frommers Hawaii book.

It begins with a long trail-less intro with info about Hawaii that can be found in other sources. This is followed by descriptions of a few trails on each island.

Only a few trails are covered, so unless you plan a specific trail, the book is not much help. If you use the book to choose a trail one "advantage" is that you will not have many to choose from (and the number choices in Hawaii is staggering).

Knowing a bit about the Oahu trails, not necessarily the best are covered and the ones included are not fully representive.

The bus directions are good addition, because not all the trails are loops making the logistics for tourists difficult. I would advise anyone relying on this information for to check the schedules which can be found on the internet (search for The Bus Hawaii).

Maybe I haven't looked up enough hikes, but it seems to assume you will be taking the bus to all the hikes, and says nothing about driving directions or where to park. For instance, on p. 79 for the Maunawili Demonstration Trail, it says how you should start walking from town. It says nothing about parking. Then from the end of the trail, it says how to take a bus back to town. Although it would be handy for those who ARE stuck with public transportation, I feel they should include enough info for drivers as well.