If you haven't, already, talk to my wife. We went on a trip two years ago to Oahu (2 nights) and Kauai (5 nights?). We did plenty of on the go stuff and plenty of on the beach/in the water stuff. It was a great balance, and I think about going back at least once a week, if not more.
In Oahu, we did pearl harbor, an island bus tour, walked Waikiki beach, and did some window shopping/out to dinner. In Kauai we did a Napali coast snorkel sail, an atv/mud-buggy trek, to an off the beaten path waterfall/swimming hole, a helicopter tour(not the one that recently crashed), a luau, lots of driving around(rented a mustang convertible) enjoying the beautiful scenery/finding snorkeling spots, time playing in the surf, and eating lots of good food! Best vacation ever, and can't wait to go back!
We have talked about taking the kids next time, but not so sure we want to do that to "paradise"
I'll definitely do that! I think we're pretty all-in on Curacao for this year, but I am FOR SURE going to look at Hawaii in the future! That sounds AMAZING in both islands - and relaxing but not relaxing, if that makes sense? Like, the individual activities (like renting the Mustang) are doing something, but not being go-go-go.
It is amazing! Each of our days were like that - I used my app to figure out where things were geographically near(ish) that didn't have a certain date/time affixed to them. I tried to group things in a similar part of the city near whatever activity we had going that day (for example - the Forum/Colosseum is right across the road from Nero's Domus Aurea, so we grouped those together on the day we had reservations to Domus Aurea). Here's the map of that day I posted (we were on the blue line):
And here's where it is on the map of Rome if you zoom out - we went everywhere that is a bubble:
My mom was a trooper - she has been several times for work (pretty well each year for the past seven years or so), but isn't super-adventurous or a huge planner on her own, although she likes to have new experiences. So, in her five previous trips, she'd really only gone to the Vatican and Colosseum - she used our crazy itinerary to get ideas for future groups, and she used that one two Mays ago for this past year for her students. She weeded out the stuff she didn't care much about or that she couldn't really make educational, so it ultimately worked out for her!
