Is Hawaii a good vacation place for autistic ds?

[Nik's Mom]

Hi,
Yesterday I posted a thread on the community board about going to Hawaii. People gave many good suggestions and were very helpful. But I realize that I should have posted here due to my ds's special needs. He is autistic and of course, travel is a challenge. Here's my question. We were all planning on doing a dcl cruise next August for our 10th wedding anniversary. But with it being hurricaine season, I'm having second thoughts. I'm trying to come up with alternative vacations for next August. I thought of Hawaii, maybe Oahu because I know there is a nice aquarium and zoo. These are top priority for ds. I also thought of staying at the Hilton Hawaiian village because I know that there are a lot of ammenities offered. The hotel is very important, since ds will want to spend plenty of time there. So, have any of you been to Hawaii with your autistic or similarly disabled child? I know others have suggested Maui, but I'm not sure if this is a good location for our ds. He will not be happy just sitting on a beach. Like I said, he loves aquariums and zoos. Or do you have other ideas for a vacation somewhere else? Your suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Sherri

 

[welovedis]

Well, I can say first-hand that the Hilton Hawaiian Village is great and my DS really enjoyed it. He has AS and the places he liked the best are as follows:
Honolulu Zoo
Bishop Museum
Waikiki Aquarium
Penquin, turtle & koi feeding (at the village)
The pools at the village (he liked the super pool best, then Keiki's pool, the tower pool was not much to his liking--we stayed in a Ali'i tower room that trip)
He had a terrific time and joined in with a few of the children's activities too. He was 6 (i think if i remember correctly) at the time.

HTH!

 

[Nik's Mom]

Yes, those are the things that I know my ds would absolutely love. I know that Maui is so beautiful, but I just don't see that my ds would be happy there. As we know, autistic children don't always appreciate things that we do. He would be happy with an aquarium and zoo, rather than relaxing on the beach. That's why I'm leaning toward Oahu. DH and I would have some relaxing beach time, while my kids would have some fun activities. If anyone has visited Maui or another island, let me know what you think. If anyone has a better vacation destination (non-wdw), I'm open to suggestions.

 

[welovedis]

Also wanted to mention that the Bisho Museum has a great "hands on" section that might interest your guy (not sure if he's got tactile issues thought) but it was neat. There is also a terrific planterium there:
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/planetarium/planetarium.html

HTH!

We visited Maui, but only for 2 days and we definitely relaxed/enjoyed the Hilton atmosphere better than the Westin Maui, JMHO!

 

[Bird-Mom]

Since you were already thinking about a cruise, how about an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle with a few days added on in Seattle? We have a great zoo and aquarium as well as the Space Needle, Children's Museum, Experience Music Project, Pike Place Market, beautiful parks and great hotels and restaurants. Your flights would be much shorter too. You can get a Citypass which includes admission to 4 or 5 of the big sightseeing places. You could also rent a car and drive to Mt. St. Helens which has a number of visitor centers around the mountain. That is about 2 hours drive from downtown. Or you could drive to Olympic National Park which involves a nice ferry ride; this is also about 2 hours drive.

I haven't been to Hawaii, but I was a travel agent for 6 years pre-children, and I wouldn't go to Maui if you want more activities. You could always split your stay and spend a couple of nights there or take a day tour, but I think your ds would be much happier on Oahu.

If you wanted to do a more city type sightseeing vacation, Boston is also great.

 

[Brightsy]

I was living in HI on Oahu when my DS then 26months old was diagnosed w/ ASD. We lived there for a good several months after that. He loved HI! We all did. We drove around the Island several times. You can board the public busses and take a "Circle Island" tour for very cheap. Plus you can get off the bus at various places for sightseeing and then just wait for another bus. A not too bad way to spend a day if your DS can handle it.
My kids especially loved just going to the beach to watch the water and walk along the shore. The Blowhole was a favorite place (both my boys, but esp, younger DS loves to watch water).
At the DFS Galleria in Waikiki is a large aquarium type thing you can walk through.
The Dole Pineapple Plantation was another favorite place to go. The have a LARGE Hedge maze, a train ride (costs money unfortunatley) and a big koi pond. Of course there's also yummy FRESH pineapple and Dole Whips! (mmmmmm)
Don't bother w/ the USS Arizona... it's not very good for kids w/ attention problems and such. it's a somber place and rambunctious kids or unhapp kids can be disturbing. That said there are still MANY wonderful things to do on Oahu! I miss it..*heavy sigh*
Oh, there's a mono-rail at the PearlRidge Mall in Aiia (sp). It's .50$ one way for riders over 5. My kids adored riding it!

Sara

 

[Lives4Disney]

Hi, we went to Oahu this past March. I don't have autistic kids, but I have 3 kdis - one is a vision impaired daughter & that's why I was just checking this board.

We had a good time, but the one thing that you should REALLY check out is the crowd level in August. And maybe even the heat & humidity. In March it was extremely hot & humid. The crowds were HORRID when we were there. We stayed at the Royal Hawaiian (Pink Palace) right on Waikiki Beach and I do think that the HHV would be a much better place to stay for a family than the Royal Hawaiian. We dropped by when we were doing the Atlantis Submarine tour ( which my kids LOVED) and thought next time (if there is one) we would stay there at the Hilton. I chose the Royal Hawaiian instead because it looked elegant - which it is, is supposedly on the BEST part of Waikiki Beach, and is in the middle of the action and we could walk to restaurants and shops, etc. HHV is way down at the end of the beach kind of on it's own.

The crowds basically made a bust of our trip. We drove to the aquarium and there was NO parking to be had anywhere. I mean ANYWHERE. The beach was towel to towel, the restaurants were PACKED. The first night in Waikiki - we tried 5 restaurants with no luck & ordered room service. We found if we had the concierge make the ressies for us - she could get us a table, but it seemed like we had to run our vacation around dinner! (Like WDW in July)

My main advice is check into the crowds and if it is a busy season, stay away. I would also island hop on our next visit just to break things up a bit. I wasn't really impressed with Oahu. We did the Polynesian Village, drove around the island a lot, but overall it wasn't the Hawaii I thought it would be. Maui is probably where we should have gone.

Happy planning & good luck!

Lives4Disney

 

[Earstou]

My kids love Hawaii, and that is the first place they always ask to go. But Oahu would not be their first choice (or mine)!! My ds is AS,and ADHD and my dd is ADD.
We've taken them twice, and we did Oahu the first time, because we thought it was important to see Pearl Harbor. My son, six at the time, was very touched by the tour. But on our second trip we skipped Oahu altogether, and would do so again. It's more of a city environment, and the other islands are more laid back and peaceful, which works better for my AS child.
We have island hopped on all our trips, which is easy to do and was fairly inexpensive (don't know now with fuel the way it is!!!).
On Maui, we stayed at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel, http://www.kbhmaui.com/resort/main.html. This was built in the 70s and isn't luxurious, but staff is friendly and they have programs available that we enjoyed. Activities available:http://www.kbhmaui.com/culture/activities.html
They also have the Aloha Passport for kids, where if they attend activities and go to certain parts of the hotel, they receive gifts. My son got a nice hat, a small fanny pack, a lanyard, sunglasses and a water bottle, plus more I don't remember. He loved doing it! They list these historical sites to visit: http://www.kbhmaui.com/culture/sites.html. During two trips, we visited the national park, Iao Valley (beautiful!!), the whaling village of Lahaina, the whaling museum (down the beach from the hotel), Maui Ocean Center, and did the drive to Hana. We also rode the Sugar Cane Train and the Atlantis Submarine. Of course hung out at the hotel doing activities, swimming in the pool and at the beach! My dd and dh snorkeled at Black Rock, a top snorkeling spot just down the beach.
The other island we took them to was the Big Island, Hawaii. My son loves volcanoes, so this was a must. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, http://www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com/index_flash.asp, a beautiful deluxe hotel that sits along the ocean on 62 acres. Very expensive, but look for specials or packages! One guidebook compares this to Disneyland, with it's canal boats, ground level monorail, wildlife areas, pools and lagoon. We spent a LOT of time at the hotel, including a Dolphin Encounter (sign up as soon as possible). We also visitied Hawaii Volcanoes national park (do the junior ranger program if you can-my ds was very proud of his badge), Akaka Falls park, a black sand beach, and did a helicopter ride over the volcano (we saw lava!!!!) and a whale watch cruise. We also visited the city park in Hilo while waiting for our flight time. Also did the Kings Trail petroglyphs by the hotel, make sure to do it early morning before it gets too hot, that lava
really heats up!
We found so much to do, which is the reason we did two trips, we didn't get every thing done in one trip! We returned to BOTH of these hotels because we had so much fun at them.
We went during spring break the first trip and it was crowded because the islands were also on spring break, and they were visiting the other islands also! It was also the rainy season (or so we were told) and it rained the first half of our trip, but it was still beautiful, just not beach weather! Second trip was early June and it was perfect!