Why "Less is More" for a Perfect Hawaiian Honeymoon

Each of the main Hawaiian islands has its own personality, sights and activities.

There are dozens of reasons to visit Hawaii on your honeymoon, and that's precisely the problem. Less is more when it comes to planning a blissful retreat in paradise. Here's one strategy.

The islands of Hawaii are set like pearls in the blue gown of the Pacific. Picture majestic mountains, some so high that they're crowned in snow. Imagine soft seas that sing the blues in 100 hues. You can almost feel the caress of the trade winds and smell their flowery perfume.

Toss in a climate that's bridal-June from one end of the year to the other, and add a cultural attitude based on love, which is the spirit of aloha. You've got Hawaii.

Each of the main Hawaiian islands has its own personality, sights and activities; and thanks to great honeymoon packages, it doesn't take a lot of hula moolah to see them. Some romance packages include rental car, champagne, massages and orchids on the pillow. Hotels often have a director of romance on staff.

The tender trap to avoid is trying to cram too many islands into one honeymoon. Who wants to spend sunny beach days packing and unpacking and hanging around airports? For the optimum mix of romance and fun, consider limiting your itinerary to a first-timer's twosome: passionate Oahu, with the night life of Waikiki and Honolulu, and laid-back Maui.

Want a beach with fewer footprints in the sand? Easy as coconut pie. Hop in a rental car and head for Kahala, Kailua or Lanikai Beach. If it's winter, the fabled beaches of the North Shore - Waimea, Sunset, Banzai Pipeline - will be pumping with waves higher than a house. The legendary monster surf has spawned a culture based on waves and bikinis. Drop in on the scene at Haleiwa, an old sugar plantation town gone over to the granola crowd. The funky main street is lined with hip boutiques, art galleries, coffee shops and surfer depots selling everything from custom boards to bikinis. A good lunch spot is Aloha Joe's right on the boat harbor. For dinner, hold hands on Jameson's lanai and watch the sinking sun ignite the sea in flaming gold.

In Waikiki, the most romantic setting can be savored at the wonderful old Moana. The hotel looks like a big white wedding cake sitting on the sand. Every evening, Hawaiian musicians gather beneath the spreading banyan and sing the sun down. Best dinners on the beach: Duke's Canoe Club, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Surf Room and the bargain Shore Bird.

For a one-time major splurge, go for the superb cuisine and seductive ambience of La Mer at the Halekulani. Enjoy the same view, same hotel and same excellence in cuisine at the less pricey Orchids.

Waikiki's most dazzling dinner shows are "Magic of Polynesia," featuring magician John Hirokawa, and "Tihatis Odyssey." Both have laser lights, special effects, great costumes, fire dancers and hula. "Yes!" in the Polynesian Palace features music, mime and jugglers.

All of Oahu is a magic mix of pulse-pounding action and moon-drenched romance.

Mellow Maui
Getting married? Get Maui'ed. Maui is so big and so distinctly divided with a broad plain between its halves that visitors here practically get two islands for the price of one. The mountains of West Maui are old, deeply chiseled and streaming with waterfalls. Some parts are still unexplored. The coastline is wild, the winter surf glorious. On its tamer flank, basking in the sun, is Lahaina, once the whaling capital of the Yankee Pacific fleet. Almost the entire town has been designated as a National Historic Preservation District. The grog houses and ship chandlers have morphed into seaside restaurants and shops. A refurbished sugar cane train connects Lahaina to the resort of Kaanapali, where Hawaiian kings and queens held court. In the evening, along the perfect smile of a beach, the tiki torches are lit and luau drums echo along the shore calling everyone to feasting and dancing.

Maui nights are made for love. Just down the coast, Kapalua Resort is tucked into a pineapple plantation surrounded by mountain and forest. It's an idyllic place to begin your new life together. Even the air is an aphrodisiac, laden with salt and flowers, heady with the scent of fern and forest.

The eastern end of Maui is dominated by Haleakala, the House of the Sun, a volcano so massive its summit caldera could swallow a city, skyscrapers and all. You can drive to the top of the mountain and gaze in awe as the sun seems to rise from within the vast crater and light up the cinder cones and hills in shades of umber, amber, gold and jade. Horseback tours explore the eerie lunarlike landscape. Or you can take the long way home on a downhill bicycle tour. Cruise through forests of redwood and cough-drop-smelling eucalyptus, ranch land, flower farms, down to the pineapple fields and end at the beach. There's even a winery, complete with tour and tasting room, on the volcano's fertile slopes.

Two fine Maui resorts, Wailea and Makena, are tucked between the mountain and the sea. Wailea has several hotels and holiday condos tucked into its manicured realm. Makena has only the Prince, and then Maui goes wild, becomes a vast expanse of brush, hills, lava coast and spectacular beach. Bargain holiday condos can be found next door to Wailea in Kihei, lined up along a series of fine gold-sand beaches.

Way on the remote side of the island, at the end of a winding road and across 54 bridges, is little Hana, a Hawaiian community of small homes, huge gardens, a ranch, one resort hotel and a few small places to hide away in blissful seclusion.

The beaches of Maui are most unusual. There are approximately 80 of them and they come in sands of white, gold, black, salt and pepper, green olivine and even ruby, thanks to ancient volcanic activity.

Maui is the kind of island where there's more to do than could be squeezed into the most ambitious honeymoon. Guided hikes go to mountain waterfalls, rain forest and nature preserves that are home to birds found no place else on Earth. Horseback trails meander along lava cliffs, across ranch lands and into deep valleys. Sign on for wind-surfing or scuba lessons, kayak trips and helicopter flight-seeing.

From Lahaina, it's easy to book picnic day-sails to other islands, to Molokai or Lanai with whale watching along the way, and snorkeling and diving in remote bays and secret spots. Often dolphins come and race with the boat, leaping and grinning.

Or you can get in the Maui mood: kick back, enjoy each other and enjoy love.

The Maui-Oahu combo makes for a good balance. One island is urban and exciting, the other mellow and blissed out on beauty.

Most people who visit Hawaii return. As you stand on the shore, draped in tropical flowers, promise yourselves another Hawaiian island for your first anniversary.