Latest / Hawaii Travel Podcast | Maui, Oahu, Kauai & Big Island Vacation Tips & Guide / The Souvenir That Costs You $5,000, The 2% You Didn't Order on Your Maui Dinner Bill, and What's the Best Helicopter Tour on the Big Island?
Transcript
- 0:02Jennifer Davis: Welcome to the Hawaii Travel Podcast.
- 0:04Jennifer Davis: I'm Jennifer Davis.
- 0:05Dan Schulz: And I'm Dan Schultz, and this is the podcast where in every episode you're gonna get seven different little-known travel tips about Hawaii's main islands.
- 0:15Jennifer Davis: Take today's episode, for example.
- 0:17Jennifer Davis: You could drive two hours up the side of a volcano for sunset, then get turned back a few hundred feet from the top.
- 0:25Jennifer Davis: or find out that your dinner bill on Maui has a charge on it that you've never even heard of
- 0:30Dan Schulz: Plus, you're gonna get five more answers to problems that would have been just as annoying to run into without warning while you're already in Hawaii.
- 0:37Jennifer Davis: And by that time, it's too late
- 0:41The Coco wireless radio singers: Before you go....
- 0:44The Coco wireless radio singers: There's things to know...
- 0:47The Coco wireless radio singers: tune into the coconut wireless radio...
- 0:53Dan Schulz: Here's what we're gonna do.
- 0:54Dan Schulz: We're gonna be going from tip to tip to tip, all of them about solving problems you're not even thinking about yet while you're planning your Hawaii vacation.
- 1:03Dan Schulz: In between each of these things, you're gonna hear this sound.
- 1:07Dan Schulz: That's the magic coconut.
- 1:08Dan Schulz: When you hear that sound, that means you should pay extra close attention because we're moving on to the next tip.
- 1:14Dan Schulz: We have seven tips today, like we said.
- 1:16Dan Schulz: This is episode one-oh-three...
- 1:18Dan Schulz: Are you ready?
- 1:19Dan Schulz: Good
- 1:20Jennifer Davis: Two hours up the mountain and some drivers never see the top.
- 1:26Jennifer Davis: If you're planning to catch a sunset from the top of Mauna Kea, don't assume your rental car will get you there.
- 1:32Jennifer Davis: The paved road only goes as far as the visitor information station at 9,200 feet.
- 1:39Jennifer Davis: Past that, it's eight more miles of steep, unpaved switchbacks, and rangers are stationed there checking vehicles.
- 1:47Jennifer Davis: No four-wheel drive with low range, no summit.
- 1:50Jennifer Davis: Here's the part that catches people off guard: even if your rental happens to be an SUV, most rental contracts specifically ban driving that summit road, no matter what's under the hood.
- 2:02Jennifer Davis: Call your rental company directly and ask in these words: Is Mauna Kea Summit driving allowed?"
- 2:09Jennifer Davis: Get the answer before you book.
- 2:11Jennifer Davis: If the answer is no, book a guided summit tour instead.
- 2:14Jennifer Davis: Expect to pay 240 to 315 per person.
- 2:18Jennifer Davis: Either way, plan to leave the summit by 30 minutes after sunset because that's when rangers close it for the night Skip this check and you'll drive 45 minutes to two hours up Saddle Road, sit through altitude acclimation at
- 2:32Jennifer Davis: the visitor center, and still get turned around at 9,200 feet
- 2:37Dan Schulz: the 2% you didn't order on your Maui dinner bill.
- 2:43Dan Schulz: If you're eating out in Maui, read your bill before you tap your credit card to pay.
- 2:50Dan Schulz: Some restaurants have started adding a kitchen appreciation fee, which is usually 2 to 3% of your total, as a separate line at the bottom of the check.
- 2:59Dan Schulz: It's not printed anywhere on the menu, and it's not a scam.
- 3:02Dan Schulz: It's a real fee, and it's usually meant to support back-of-house kitchen staff, but almost nobody expects to see it.
- 3:09Dan Schulz: It's part of a growing trend of restaurants nationwide, and the label changes from place to place.
- 3:15Dan Schulz: Sometimes it's called kitchen appreciation, sometimes it's called hospitality fee, service fee, things like that.
- 3:23Dan Schulz: Before you tip 20% on top of your total, scan the bottom of the check for one of these lines.
- 3:28Dan Schulz: If it's already there, ask your server whether it's separate from the tips or whether it's meant to replace part of your gratuity.
- 3:34Dan Schulz: Skip this and you're gonna end up tipping twice for the same thing, once through the fee and once through your card.
- 3:41Dan Schulz: On a trip where every single dollar counts, this is gonna help you stretch that money a little further than you planned.
- 3:47Dan Schulz: And ultimately, this is to make sure that the servers who are doing really hard work get paid their fair amount.
- 3:53Jennifer Davis: Blue skies at the trailhead doesn't mean the stream stays safe.
- 3:58Jennifer Davis: If you're hiking to a waterfall on Oahu, Manawili, Ka'au or...,,Lulumahu Check the sky over the mountains, not just the sky above you.
- 4:09Jennifer Davis: Oahu's valleys are steep and narrow, So rain falling miles upstream can turn a shin-deep stream crossing into a dangerous flash flood in minutes, even while the trailhead stays sunny and dry.
- 4:22Jennifer Davis: Statewide, flash floods have killed 19 people over the last 23 years, and popular hikes like these cross the same stream multiple times, so a flood can trap you between rising water on both sides.
- 4:35Jennifer Davis: Before you start, check the National Weather Service Hawaii page for any flash flood watch or warning.
- 4:42Jennifer Davis: Once you're on a trail, watch each stream crossing for three signs: the water turning muddy or brown, a rumbling sound of rocks rolling underwater, or the water level visibly rising against a rock while you watch.
- 4:56Jennifer Davis: Any one of these means don't cross.
- 4:58Jennifer Davis: Get to higher ground and wait it out.
- 5:02Jennifer Davis: Skip this and the crossing that looked ankle-deep on your way in can feel waist-deep and moving fast by the time you're headed back.
- 5:10Dan Schulz: That fruit you bought on your last day probably isn't flying home with you.
- 5:18Dan Schulz: If you're headed home from Hawaii with fresh fruit in your suitcase, don't count on it making the flight because Every bag leaving the islands for the mainland, Alaska, or Guam, checked and carry on both, goes through a USDA
- 5:32Dan Schulz: agricultural inspection before you board the plane, and untreated produce doesn't pass.
- 5:38Dan Schulz: That papaya or mango you grabbed from the roadside stand on your last day looks like a perfect souvenir, but it will get pulled and tossed at the inspection counter.
- 5:47Dan Schulz: No exceptions.
- 5:49Dan Schulz: Pineapple is the one people usually get right because most gift shops sell it already boxed and treated specifically for travel.
- 5:58Dan Schulz: If you want to bring home fresh fruit, buy it from a shop that sells it prepackaged for exactly this purpose, not from a farm stand on the side of the road.
- 6:08Dan Schulz: Eat the rest before you get to the airport, and if you're carrying anything agricultural at all that you're unsure of, flowers, leis, seeds, plant, or if you're like us, a bag of poi, declare it at the inspection center
- 6:21Dan Schulz: instead of hoping it slides through.
- 6:24Dan Schulz: Declaring is free and fast, and it's the only way to know before you're standing at the gate without that souvenir you paid for
- 6:31Jennifer Davis: The one road on Kauai that can turn a 15-minute drive into an hour.
- 6:38Jennifer Davis: If you think a small island like Kauai can't have real traffic you haven't met the Kapa'a crawl.
- 6:45Jennifer Davis: There's basically one road connecting the whole east side, Kuhio Highway, and it funnels straight through the town of Kapa'a, where several stoplights sit within a few hundred feet of each other.
- 6:57Jennifer Davis: Locals call the resulting backup the Kapa'a crawl, and it isn't rare.
- 7:04Jennifer Davis: it regularly adds an hour to a drive that should take 15 minutes, especially in the morning and late afternoon.
- 7:11Jennifer Davis: There's a bypass road that runs behind the town, and it can save you 30 minutes, but it still funnels back into the same highway, so it helps, but it doesn't fix everything.
- 7:21Jennifer Davis: If your day involves anything with a hard start time, a reserved hike, a boat tour, a dinner reservation, or a sunset you actually wanna see, and your route touches Kapa'a, build at least 30 to 60 minutes in for
- 7:35Jennifer Davis: a buffer.
- 7:36Jennifer Davis: And check for the bypass turnoff before you commit to the main road.
- 7:40Jennifer Davis: Skip this and, well, just leave a little early turns into missing the thing you actually planned your day around
- 7:48Dan Schulz: The souvenir that comes with a $5,000 price tag.
- 7:53Dan Schulz: If you're tempted to pocket a piece of lava rock or a jar of black sand as a souvenir, put it back.
- 7:59Dan Schulz: This is not just old Pele's curse superstition, this is actual law.
- 8:05Dan Schulz: Hawaii state law bans removing rock, sand, or coral from any state park or shoreline.
- 8:11Dan Schulz: And inside places like Hawaii Volcanoes National Park or Haleakala National Park, Federal law makes it a real offense, fines up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail.
- 8:23Dan Schulz: The land itself is sacred to native Hawaiians.
- 8:25Dan Schulz: Pele, the volcano deity, is considered to still inhabit these islands, and removing pieces of her is treated as a genuine violation, not a quirky local myth.
- 8:35Dan Schulz: Every year, the National Park Service receives thousands of pounds of lava rock mailed back from visitors who regretted taking it, often with apology letters included.
- 8:44Dan Schulz: Skip the souvenir entirely.
- 8:46Dan Schulz: Take a photo instead, or buy a piece of volcanic jewelry from a licensed local artist who sources it legally.
- 8:53Dan Schulz: you grab a rock off a trail on a whim, you're not just risking a fine, but you're taking something that isn't yours to take from land that means something far deeper to the people who call it home
- 9:06Jennifer Davis: Half of what you've read about Hawaii's erupting volcano is already out of date.
- 9:14Jennifer Davis: If you're planning your Big Island trip around seeing the volcano erupt, know that Kīlauea doesn't erupt on a schedule you can plan a vacation around.
- 9:23Jennifer Davis: It's been erupting in episodes since December 2024.
- 9:27Jennifer Davis: Each episode lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
- 9:32Jennifer Davis: Then the volcano pauses for days, sometimes up to three weeks before starting again.
- 9:38Jennifer Davis: A lot of travel blogs still describe it as either constantly flowing lava or the eruption ended, and neither one is accurate on any given day you might be reading it.
- 9:49Jennifer Davis: The fix is simple.
- 9:51Jennifer Davis: Check the US Geological Service Kīlauea status page the morning of your visit, not weeks in advance when you're building your itinerary.
- 9:59Jennifer Davis: Even during a pause, the center often still glows at night from vents inside Halemaʻumaʻu, visible from overlooks along the crater rim trail.
- 10:09Jennifer Davis: So a quiet day doesn't mean an empty trip.
- 10:11Jennifer Davis: Don't skip the park because an old blog posted that the eruption is over, and don't build your whole schedule around catching active fountaining.
- 10:20Jennifer Davis: Check the morning of status.
- 10:22Jennifer Davis: Go for the overlooks either way and let the glow be a bonus if it's actively erupting
- 10:28Dan Schulz: All right, you coconuts, a couple quick things before you go.
- 10:31Dan Schulz: we would really love to hear your opinion on who you think has the best helicopter tours on the Big Island.
- 10:38Dan Schulz: You can answer it on our Facebook page.
- 10:40Dan Schulz: All you gotta do is search for Hawaii Travel Podcast, find the post, and tell us.
- 10:46Dan Schulz: We read every single answer, and we answer back.
- 10:50Dan Schulz: And as always, we just packed a ton of information in this short episode, so we wanna make it simple for you.
- 10:57Dan Schulz: If you want all seven of these tips in one place, the easiest thing you can do right now, 24 hours a day, even if you do it at the middle of the night, send an email to aloha@hawaiitravelpodcast.com.
- 11:12Dan Schulz: And then in the subject line, all you have to do is type episode 103.
- 11:17Dan Schulz: That's it.
- 11:17Dan Schulz: Then that cheat sheet is gonna be mailed back to you instantly.
- 11:22Dan Schulz: By the way, that email address works for absolutely anything else you wanna say to us, and we definitely wanna hear from you
- 11:29Jennifer Davis: tell us where you're going.
- 11:31Jennifer Davis: Not just the island, the actual thing.
- 11:33Jennifer Davis: Tell us the hike, the beach, the rental car you booked, or the luau that you're planning to attend.
- 11:38Jennifer Davis: we'll find the one way people mess it up, and we'll tell you how not to
- 11:42Dan Schulz: Good luck with your planning and thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you in the next one