After our honeymoon trip to Hawaii in 2000, we couldn't wait to go back. The decision was made on one frigid snowy walk in February 2001, when we remembered where we were just one year earlier. So we started making plans for a second trip to Hawaii.
We knew we wanted to return to Kona Village again, but we also wanted to visit another island. After much research, we chose Kauai over Maui as our second island. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the airlines reduced their flight schedules and we found that we couldn't fly from Omaha to Kona in just one day. So we added a day in Honolulu on the front end.
We found Wizard Publications guidebooks to be extremely beneficial in planning our trips. They have books on Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island. These books have rarely led us wrong, and have highlighted sights that frequent visitors know nothing about. Don't visit Hawai'i without these books!