Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Hawaii life - Carol interviewed by James Hammond of the Winging It Travel Podcast
Have you ever wondered what it's really like to live in paradise? Wonder no more as Carol takes us behind the postcard-perfect beaches of Hawaii to reveal the authentic island experience that changed her life forever.
Carol's journey began as a college exchange student at the University of Hawaii, where her perspective on travel—and life—underwent a profound transformation. Far from the Brady Bunch or Gilligan's Island vision she expected, Carol discovered a Hawaii of high-rises, diverse communities, and an infectious "aloha spirit" that slowed everything down. "People would say, 'Oh, you must be from the mainland because you walk so fast,'" she recalls with a laugh.
The episode delves into the practical realities of Hawaiian living—from the creative housing solutions needed in one of America's most expensive markets to the respectful navigation of local customs and spaces. Carol offers fascinating insights into the distinct personalities of each island: bustling Oahu with its tourist-heavy Waikiki, honeymoon-perfect Maui with its whale watching opportunities, and the Big Island with its remarkable climate diversity and more affordable real estate options. Her insider tips are invaluable—like experiencing Diamond Head at sunset during a full moon or finding the perfect boogie boarding spot at Little Beach in Maui.
Perhaps most compelling is Carol's reflection on how her Hawaii experience launched a lifetime of global adventures. Inspired by Australian travelers she met who would "travel for one or two years at a time," she developed a pattern of working in restaurants, saving money, and taking month-long international trips every six to nine months. Her parting wisdom resonates deeply: "If you want to grow as a human being, you've got to travel." Whether it makes you more grateful for home or opens your eyes to new possibilities, Carol's Hawaii story reminds us that sometimes paradise isn't just a destination—it's the beginning of a journey.
Follow and rate us in your podcast app to support the show, and connect with us on Instagram @where_next_podcast for more travel inspiration!
Please download, like, subscribe, share a review, and follow us on your favorite podcasts app and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wherenextpodcast/
View all listening options: https://wherenextpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
If you can, please support the show or you can buy us a coffee.
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure. Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. Hello, this is Carol, and since we have just celebrated our fourth anniversary, we've been having a little fun and sharing some episodes that are more about us. Last month, you heard Kristen talking about Yosemite, and this month we are doing a partial replay of an interview I did a while back on the Wingin' it Travel Podcast. In that chat I got to talk about my time living in Hawaii and how my passion for travel began.
Speaker 2:Enjoy, when are you currently based?
Speaker 1:I am in Boulder, Colorado.
Speaker 2:Okay, you have lived in Colorado for how long?
Speaker 1:17 years.
Speaker 2:So we're going to get some nice information about that state, and in California it was 14 years right 14 years in California. Yes, we're going to discuss both of those later on, but first of all I just want to touch very quickly on early travels. When you grew up in the States, was there any particular trip or maybe just a bit of wanderlust? You learned, maybe at university or whatever that got the travel stuff going inside of you, that you want to explore the States, and maybe internationally as well?
Speaker 1:Yes, my family did not travel very much. We were campers and toured around. We did make a trip to Colorado when I was a child, like eight years old, but we never really traveled much. And then I went to Florida for a high school trip to Orlando Disney World. So I don't really call that traveling, it's going to a park, an amusement park, right. But we did go to Epcot Center so I got a little exposure there. But really my Wunderlist started after I went on an exchange program when I was in college to the University of Hawaii for one year and that was amazing. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the best place in the world. I got to go, I got to come back. So I went. It was just a one-year exchange. I finished up in Minnesota and then I de-lined to Hawaii as fast as I could and, working there, I met people from all over the world and I met a lot of Australians that would like travel for one or two years at a time. I was like what, what, what is?
Speaker 1:this thing and I didn't know that was possible. How do you figure that out? And so that's really when it all started. I met a lot of flight attendants and I would start taking little trips around the US and the West Coast from living in Hawaii. And then I went to New Zealand from Hawaii and then I'm just like I got to go see. My list just got longer and longer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and those Australians that you met, I mean, what a country to start, because they have such a good economy, right, and you can earn so much money there. They were the first people that I met traveling like oh, these guys seem to be going for like six, 12 months. Why is it that easy?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, it's so interesting.
Speaker 2:I think growing up they have that culture. Someone was telling me when I was living there that you know, the big thing when they grow up is they get told to go out. You know they're very much encouraged to go to Europe or America or whatever, or Asia, just to do that travel year, if you like, or two. They call it a walkabout or something oh yeah, yeah, they walk, so they're kind of encouraged to do that from a very young age, which is quite interesting, because I definitely wasn't same.
Speaker 1:I wonder why that is different right, I, I was like the wild child in my name and I didn't even go anywhere, that that much or that far, and I definitely did not go without working. How I managed it? I did take a lot of trips when I was working in restaurants in Hawaii and I would save a bunch of money. Then I take like a month off, do a trip, come back, work a bunch. So I went on a probably a month-long trip every like six to nine months and that worked out pretty well yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Okay, and as you mentioned, hawaii, that's the start there, so you lived there and obviously studied there. Did you also stay there beyond your college years?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, so I did the one year in college and then, when I graduated from college, I moved back there for two more years.
Speaker 2:How easy is it to get started in Hawaii? Because I think people from maybe Europe probably just think it's like a holiday destination for US people on the mainland. Where are you going to go? That's not international. While going to Hawaii, what was it like to settle there? Because I'm just thinking top of mind. I could be wrong, that industry there would just be travel right, or the military.
Speaker 1:Yes, I mean it was very shocking when I first went to Hawaii seeing Waikiki. It was like a massive downtown city, all these skyrises and like that's Waikiki. I thought Waikiki was like the Brady Bunch when they lost the idol, or it was like Gilligan's Island is what I envisioned, you know, like there's real buildings in Hawaii. I was like shocked. But yeah, and it's got. Industry. Military is really big there. There's four different military bases, I think, just on Oahu right, and then there's sugar and pineapple farming and, you know, mainly tourism. That is definitely the number one industry. But they have like a huge government. My friend still lives there and she does like public relations work. She's got a real job. Ok, a real job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I mean now people, a lot of more mainlanders that they call them there live there because of the remote working. The big thing is it is crazy, crazy expensive, right. But I remember people telling me, like okay, look at Hawaii, it's so expensive. I'm like I don't know. Like you just figure it out. It's like you just get more roommates. You know, it never really crossed my mind. I've never been very picky about oh, I want my own one-bedroom apartment. Like there's no way I can afford my own one-bedroom.
Speaker 1:We had four people in a two-bedroom and sometimes there was five of us. Some would sleep on the couch on the lanai or something, and we were working at restaurants. We didn't care, like we were gone all day long and I'd lived with a couple flight attendants for a while and they're only there 25% of the time. So you just you just figure it out. But we did interview a gal that lived on Oahu in one of our episodes and she said she had a really hard time. She lived there with her family and the tough part was trying to get someone to rent to you. Like no one would want to rent, like definitely before you get there. You can't plan ahead of time.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Because there's, I think, so many people have that flake, or a lot of people come to Hawaii, they rent and then they bail.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so then you're sitting there with a place vacant so you almost need like a sponsor basically what she said to kind of like say, vouch for you, or you got to know someone that you can live with them and then you can maybe help take over their lease. Um, and I kind of. When I moved back, I had a friend that was living there already, that was going to finishing up school, so I stayed with her for a while and then I just found a roommate in an existing apartment. So again, I wasn't on the lease, I was just renting a room. And then my friend that was a flight attendant and we got our own apartment with two other flight attendants. So I don't remember it being like, oh no, I'm not eligible at all, it's just more. You just can't be that picky.
Speaker 2:Right, got it. And what's the feel like there in terms of compared to the mainland US? Does it feel different and what's the feel like there in terms of compared?
Speaker 1:to the mainland US. Does it feel different? Oh, yes, it's so. It's totally the aloha spirit. Everything moves really slow. People would say, oh, you must be from the mainland because you walk so fast. And you know, everyone just wears masks, flip-flops. They just call them slippers, um, is that really the name? Slippers any more? Slippers, um. And of course there's um, you know, kind of the hawaiian lingo that you know, but you don't. Really it's kind of disrespectful to like to try to talk gosh. I can't remember what the language is called um, but there's like a slang, you know. Hey, bra, you know, and like you like plate lunch, you know, and it's kind of this interesting local language. Right, it's English, obviously, yeah, you know. So you just want to be, you know, respectful and you know you don't call people natives. They're locals, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And there's certain surf spots, you know, for the locals and it's really the certain parts of the island that are very touristy and they love the tourists, they respect the tourists and everyone just wants to have fun and open arms, and I would say that the bulk of it and. But there's certain areas of the island that are kind of like really for locals. Only just don't go there, you know. Oh, okay, just get out of our face. You know, especially some of the surf places, especially if it's like harsh search because you have to know what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Some of it's like shore break and it's really strong, and so you can't go out there and just goof around because you're going to get hurt, and so that's really more that people get mad, that people are just careless and do stupid things.
Speaker 2:Got it Okay, and Oahu is the main island where people settle down right.
Speaker 1:That is the. I believe it's the capital, but it's the biggest city. That's where Honolulu is, yeah and so. But there's a lot of people that live on Maui. Yeah, there's a lot of. Most people probably live in Oahu. That's where the biggest, most city activities going on. And then Kauai they call that the flower island. I believe that's like the third no, that's probably the fourth most popular. There's some like famous volleyball player that lives there and just some famous people end up moving to Kauai and Maui. There's just such amazing islands. And then the big island they call it it's really the island of Hawaii, which is confusing if you don't live there. To say the island of Hawaii, aren't they all Hawaiian islands? But they don't want to really call it the big island anymore. It's the island of Hawaii, but that's the one with the two volcanoes on it and it's the largest island and that's. If I would move back, I would well it'd either be Maui, because my husband really wants to go to Maui, but the big island.
Speaker 1:You can get much better value. I was just looking $600,000 to get a single-family home and, coming from Colorado, that's cheap For a single-family home. That's less expensive than here. I mean, you don't have houses that small here, but you're at this gorgeous house with like like a tree house. It had an outdoor shower, high ceilings, brand new kitchen, like indoor outdoor living space. Everything was spanking. It was only one bedroom, so that's a downfall, but it was not too far from the beach.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll just retire now because the big island, I found was a bit more rustic. Yes, because Maui's got the classic like honeymoon beaches. Oahu's got some great beaches the other side. I went to Lanakai beach in Oahu. That was amazing, like the opposite of Waikiki, yes, and I was like, okay, so those two islands are fairly doable for like that idyllic island life. But the big island, like you said, it's got Mauna Kea on it, the big mountains got observatories at the top and you got black sand black sand beaches as well. I thought, oh, this is a bit more rustic.
Speaker 1:So I kind of felt like more local there yeah, and you have all the climate so you don't have to be hot. You can. You can be by the water, yeah, and be hot and surf and do all the water sports. Or you can go up to the country. I mean it even snows in the winter there, oh wow. You can live upland and just be on a ranch or a Kona coffee farm and be super rustic. Wow, there is one part where the lava still flows and some neighborhoods just got wiped out a few years ago, so some land is really cheap right now.
Speaker 2:You can get $20,000. You can buy a lot next to lava.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but you just put to pull your car on there or something to slip out of your van.
Speaker 2:I don't mean when I went there, the the postcards would order google would be the lava flowing into the sea, but when I was there it was dried out. But I guess, if it's still flowing. I guess it goes in like cycles, right, it's still like. Now it might be flowing into the sea, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I went there when I was going to school and a trip to the Volcano National Park and we got really close to the volcano and we got to see like the lava. It was like I can't imagine that we were that close, but we were. So I, but we were, because I remember just kind of looking over like there's could someone have fallen in? That's scary. And I remember the bottom of our shoes burned because it was so hot. It was crazy. I mean, it was supervised. So maybe I'm just not remembering it, it probably was safer than that, but I remember at night we would see the lava go into the water. Yes, yeah, in the daytime it just all looked like a bunch of steam.
Speaker 2:You couldn't really see anything amazing thing to see, I'd imagine. Uh, quite unique as well. Uh, just to finish on hawaii. So oahu, I've got. Uh, I'll tell you what I did and you can maybe add to it I done diamond head. That's a classic trail up to a viewpoint, uh, that people seem to do. I went to lanakai beach obviously waikiki beach and that was and I went to see Pearl Harbor as well.
Speaker 1:So that's pretty much what I've done in Oahu. Yeah, so save.
Speaker 2:Pearl Harbor. Anything else to add for that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, the snorkeling is just amazing and you can snorkel in so many different places and there's one place that's really, really popular. I already forgot the name. It's on the east side of the and it's like in a cove on the east side of the and it's like in a cove and, but it's overly populated and I think I probably wouldn't recommend it. Go to like a North Shore to go snorkeling. There's just so many different snorkeling locations there. But the Diamond Head also that has gotten really popular. That's where I actually lived, on the base of Diamond Head.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Perfect place to live, and so my jog would be around the outside of diamond head. And that is like a little secret, because you can walk all the way around diamond head and at one point I mean you're not as high up as diamond head but you're on the road like right below the point and the view is out of this world. You can see there's windsurfers all down there and the absolute most magical time is, if you can, full moon night yeah full moon rises and the sun is setting.
Speaker 1:at the same time, wow, it's twilight and there's um windsurfers, I think. I think that sport has changed quite a bit now. There's all those like wind sailors that people do. I can't believe this. And then there's another beach just up the road, a little bit near the shopping center, called Ala Moana Beach Park, and that is slightly more local, but still a lot of tourists go there and it's like a religious experience every night at sunset. I just absolutely love it. The Manoa Falls that's where the college is. There's a nice hike up there. It gets pretty crowded, though I hear Everything's gotten so much busier because my friend still lives there.
Speaker 2:as I said, yeah, I was going to ask about is it ever not busy there? Because if Americans love going there and then you've got to add on the international tourists, it must be crazy busy all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know how you can stop it, or at yeah, well, the rainy season is like January and February and so it's not going to be as popular then and it's still usually warm. But I remember once when I was working and it had rained for two weeks straight, we'd maybe got like two hours of no rain. I'm like these poor people like this was their life dream to come to Hawaii and it rains like every day. So if it's a once in a lifetime experience, don't go during the rainy season. I highly recommend not to go. And do they really have a shoulder season? I don't know Like. We went there just not too long ago for spring break and it wasn't that crowded yet. And there's whale watching in Maui, which was amazing and that's like January, february, march. So you know, if you want to take a chance, go in february so you could see the whales, and we still saw a lot of whales in march. That was really amazing.
Speaker 2:But that's only really in maui, it's not everywhere yeah, I found maui actually more expensive out of all three when I went as a tourist. I'm not sure as local if that's the case, but the hostel is on top of the hill because maui is is flat in the middle, right you fly. Sure it's local if that's the case, but the hostel is on top of the hill because Maori is flat in the middle, right you fly in. It's amazing to fly in. It's like you fly in between the two sort of mounds or mountains either side. But yeah, the hostels are normally at the top of those.
Speaker 1:Oh, they are Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because they're also cheaper land up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what's kind of neat though, because of Google and Maps now it tells you how busy everything is. So just try to go to this certain you know events or tours or you know tourist attraction at the non-busy times. Yeah, google wasn't that good when I went, so it's got much better. A little treasure in.
Speaker 1:Maui. There's a naked beach, okay, and they have the signs clothing must be worn. So of course you know it's a naked beach because, like, why else would they put that sign there? But it's like McKenna Beach. So McKenna Beach, is this really big beach? But, then you walk to. It's called Little Beach. Okay, boogieboarding was amazing. It was like how it was positioned. There is always a perfect mellow wave, because I'm just like a mediocre boogie boarder.
Speaker 1:I don't like big waves, but they were like strong enough but not scary, and you were never that far offshore, you didn't have to paddle that, it was pure heaven. If you like boogie boarding.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a good tip. Okay, that's cool. If you had to give a few sentences as to why someone should go and travel, whether that's within the States or internationally, what would you say to that person?
Speaker 1:It's going to just open your eyes and it's going to help you be more grateful. Either it's going to be more grateful that you live in an amazing place because you see what other cultures are like, or it's going to help you understand people and be more empathetic, and it's going to open your eyes that there's so much more out there. Yeah, just if you want to grow as a human being, you got to travel, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Thanks, carol, for coming on to the podcast. It's been a great episode, I've learned a lot and thanks for being such a fun and energetic and lots of information to share there. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. All right, Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app, and, if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us. If you're on Instagram, let's connect. We're at where next podcast. Thanks again.
