Natural beauty and peaceful settings abound in the main islands of Hawaii: Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and the Big Island. The untamed landscapes, warm waters and rainforests offer adventure travelers the perfect playground for hiking, diving, biking, kayaking and exploring.
Using the sky and stars as their guides, Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands were the first settlers to arrive on Hawaii's Big Island at around A.D. 600 to 700 Captain John Cook was the first European settler to arrive in 1778.
Near the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a string of islands and reefs about 10,830 feet long in size that form the Hawaiian archipelago. This island chain is the visible parts of various huge volcanoes.
Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and the Big Island offer outdoor enthusiasts caves and lava tubes, gardens, mountains, parks, valleys, beaches and volcanoes.
Hawaii became part of the United States in 1959. The capital is Honolulu, which is on Oahu, the island that intertwines an urban-type atmosphere within an awe-inspiring tropical paradise.
While Hawaii is comfortable year-round, summer occurs from April to November with average temperatures of 75 to 88 degrees F. Winter lasts from December to March with temperatures between 68 to 80 degrees F.
