Kauai’s Nā Pali Coast can only be seen from a helicopter, catamaran, a rather gruelling hike, or go rogue and take a table at the Princeville Makai Golf Course. Grab an order of coconut shrimp at the snack bar and wander to hole 7, where you’ll have a clifftop view of the Na Pali coast before sunset. The 35-kilometre roundtrip hike zigzags through five lush valleys and along narrow footpaths that scale steep sea cliffs. It’s not a beginner’s endeavour but the deep valleys, waterfalls, and sea caves are worth the island hop and any necessary training.

Maui is famous for its farmers’ markets and roadside snack stalls selling anything from hulihuli chicken (local rotisserie chicken) to ripe papayas, giant avocados, pineapples and seaweed-wrapped musubi (spam on rice). Stop at Hana Farms on the Hana Highway for fresh-squeezed juices, and on Hawaii the bustling Hilo Farmers Market and the Alii Garden Marketplace in Kona showcase the fruits, often literally, of the fertile volcanic soil. Shave ice, one of Hawaii’s most delicious food staples. Try Matsumoto in Haleiwa for the most old-school experience, or Wing Shave Ice and Ice Cream in Honolulu for something a little more unusual. Stop at the stalls, eat the snacks.

Art collector and tobacco heiress Doris Duke’s famed Shangri La house is the home she filled entirely from her own collections. Known for amassing antiquities and art as if it were a profession, Duke had a flawless attention to detail. Her house, now open to the public, is home to an epic collection of Islamic Art just a few miles outside of Waikiki. The oasis holds roughly 3,500 pieces of furniture, tile, and ceramics from her travels all over the Middle East, India and north Africa.

Hire a vintage car on Maui and drive the road to Hana, stopping at galleries and epicurean specialty shops along the way. The road from Kahului to Hana is 105 kilometres long, technically only an hour or so door to door, but with its turquoise surf, waterfalls, bamboo forests, and local surf spots along the way, the trip can happily take the day.

If food is high on your adventure list, book in early and drop in to Iron Chef Masuharu Morimoto’s restaurant on Maui. The trendy restaurant does well-known Japanese classics with an Hawaiian edge. Think: wagyu beef carpaccio with yuzu and ginger, tuna pizza with anchovy aioli and jalapenos, and rock shrimp tempura with wasabi aioli. There are Morimoto restaurants all over the United States (and even Mumbai), but the Maui restaurant retains a certain relaxed beach house vibe with uninterrupted 180 degree beach views.

Hawaii has always been known for its volcanoes and lava landscapes, but right now the big island is literally bursting with the stuff. In recent years the island saw the lava exceed record limits, and at the recently formed Kamokuna more than one million gallons of lava flows into the ocean every hour. At the Jaggar Museum’s observation deck you can get up close with the molton rock, and there’s also a hiking option from Kalapana or the end of Chain of Craters Road in the national park. Native Hawaiians consider lava, especially molton lava, as the physical embodiment of the volcano goddess, so it’s more respectful, as well as common sense, to be cautious with it.