Experiencing Hawaii

Andrew Grottkau, McMurtry 2019

As I stood in the Los Angeles airport terminal waiting to board my flight to Hawaii, I should have been excited. I was about to embark on what I expected to be the trip of a lifetime: a two-week journey split between Maui and the Big Island.

But as I looked out over the mob of people lined up to board the plane, I felt only worry. My goal when I planned this trip with my girlfriend, Jenn, was to experience Hawaii in an atypical way. We wanted to avoid the resorts, the upscale sea bars, the tourist traps and, perhaps most importantly, the tourists themselves.

In that airport crowd, I saw exactly what I was hoping not to see: the honeymooners wearing shirts that read ‘Just Maui-ed’ on the back, the older couple carrying designer luggage and already in line for first class, and the family wearing matching neon t-shirts with ‘Miller Family Vacation 2019’ emblazoned on the back. What if I was heading for two weeks surrounded by these people?

The mob of people waiting to board the flight from LAX to Maui

Tourists are unavoidable in Hawaii. About 217,000 jobs in the state depended on tourism as of early 2019, according to an article from Travel Pulse. Tourists spent $17.82 billion in Hawaii in 2018, which set an all-time record.

My fear, then, was justifiable. Jenn and I were, of course, tourists ourselves. But we had planned the trip carefully, making sure we would only camp and stay in Airbnbs instead of getting stuck in hotels in the towns designed for tourists. There would be no avoiding the mobs of visitors who flocked to the islands to relax in luxury. At least, that’s what I believed for the duration of the six-hour flight to Maui’s Kahului International Airport. But over the next two weeks, I would discover that it is not only possible, but easy to enjoy and preserve Hawaii’s natural beauty despite the large tourism industry.

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