Plan your Hawaiian vacation with these Hawaii guidebooks (updated 2023)

Learn everything you need to know about Hawaii here!

It’s time to plan your vacation to Hawaii!

These new Hawaii guidebooks from Fodors will help you plan your Hawaii trip and travel to the islands of Oahu and Kauai! Over the past several years, I contributed to two Fodor’s Travel Hawaii guides for the islands of Oahu and Kauai.

Published recently, the latest Fodor’s Hawaii travel guidebooks are: Fodor’s Oahu: with Honolulu, Waikiki and the North Shore and Fodor’s Kauai 2023. These guidebooks will help you plan your Hawaii dream vacation. They are new, updated, and highlight so many fantastic island activities on Hawaii! Of course, I was very excited to see them published after working on them for so many months. I contributed to a few chapters, along with other talented writers. They feature the best beaches, hotels, shops, and more. They also include several incredible restaurants and food businesses that happened to open earlier this year! (And most are thankfully doing well!) The guidebooks also offer practical travel advice and important things to know along the way.

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Hawaii travel in 2023

I’ve traveled to Hawaii many times over the years, most recently in the fall of 2022. Just like the rest of the United States, Hawaii carefully monitors covid and most hotels make sure their cleanliness policy exceeds expectations but the state does not currently have any restrictions in place.

Waikiki hotels featured in the guidebooks

While in Oahu, Hawaii, I spent my time visiting nearly every hotel in Waikiki and staying in four different hotels during my visit. I updated every hotel that is listed in the Oahu book. If you’re seeking a place to stay in Waikiki, check out my blog post on this topic with details about many hotels that I have personally stayed in! The headline for this post is: The Best Hotels in Waikiki and where to stay on Oahu.

On my recent trips to Hawaii and Waikiki, I spent a few days at the luxurious beachfront Halekulani resort and the newer Halepuna Waikiki by Halekulani across the street. As the name suggests, the Halepuna is a sister property to the Halekulani, which is situated just steps away, it’s home to the Halekulani Bakery and an awesome pool deck overlooking the ocean. I took the photo below of the beautiful view from the lanai of my room at the Halekulani hotel. I also stayed at the Alohilani resort (across the street from Kuhio beach and the famous Duke statue, The Prince Hotel Waikiki and Hilton Hawaiian Village on my recent visits to Hawaii.

All of the hotel listings in the Fodor’s guidebooks contain brief summaries that include a description and a few of the property’s pros and cons.

View of the Halekulani hotel's swimming pool and Waikiki Beach — View of Waikiki Beach and the Halekulani hotel’s swimming pool (Photo by Marla Cimini)

In addition to my time spent in Hawaii this year (and several previous trips in recent years), I made sure my contributions to the books were accurate and as up-to-date as possible. I keep in touch with many Hawaii-based friends who were kind enough to keep me posted about news related to tourism – after I had flown back home.

During the writing and updating process, I visited Hawaii several times and made sure to stay in contact with my wonderful Hawaii friends and business associates to double (and triple-check) what was happening on the islands before officially submitting my sections of the chapters. There was a lot of activity going on behind the scenes. For example, during this time, some hotels, such as the Sheraton Waikiki and the Halekulani, took the opportunity to close their properties and undergo renovations — so check out those hotels’ amazing renovations and transformations!