Dolphins are represented everywhere in Hawaii. You’ll see them in murals, paintings and sculptures. They’re on the holding ends of swizzle sticks in bars, forming the bases of lamps in hotel rooms and decorating the walls of lobbies and cocktail lounges.
It’s more than likely that you’ll see real live dolphins on your Hawaii vacation. If you’re on a local cruise or aboard a private boat, you may see a pod of dolphins join you — riding on the bow waves or the stern wake. While that behavior probably is adapted from the practice of riding ocean swells, the wakes of large whales or a mother dolphin’s "slip stream," it seems for all the world that the friendly mammals are socializing with you. Seemingly carefree, they appear out of nowhere to put on a show for you. When they do, you may feel an almost irresistible urge to get in the water and play with them.
But swimming with dolphins in the wild is illegal. Humans and vessels have to maintain a distance of at least 50 yards. (It’s not illegal for dolphins to approach you, but it is against the law to approach, chase, surround, touch or swim with them.)
Some tour boat operators have developed acceptable self-regulating guidelines and offer small group tours with guides who are trained marine mammal naturalists. There are rules, generally including the following:
• Let the dolphins approach you and stay relaxed. Swim quietly alongside them
and when they swim away, don’t follow them.
• Don’t try to feed them. That would be harmful to their health as well as their
social behavior. They’ll find all the food they need on their own.
• Don’t try to get them to play with a toy. They can find their own toys in the
ocean.
Another way to get to know dolphins is to participate in the Dolphin Quest interactive program at the Kahala Hotel and Resort on Oahu or the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island. The program provides a variety of fun and educational encounters with dolphins. At the Kahala, the staff works with a small pod of dolphins training them to, among other things, interact with people. One staffer there says the dolphins are like Golden Retrievers because they love meeting new people. At Hilton Waikoloa Village, the dolphins reside in a protected area of the resort’s four-acre, saltwater lagoon.
Sea Life Park, on the east shore of Oahu, offers interactive dolphin experiences, too. The park’s Dolphin Adventures is a deep-water experience that allows you to swim with and among dolphins, and you’ll get a personal lesson from Sea Life Park trainers with a chance to view dolphins underwater and up close.
Such adventures are enormously popular, and expensive. At Sea Life Park, you can get a kiss on the cheek from a dolphin, a dorsal fin ride and a foot push (That’s when you get thrust across the water from the bottom of your feet from a dolphin’s bottle nose.)
Sound like fun? It costs almost $200 per person and will go up to $215 after the first of the year. (There are less expensive encounters, starting at about $100 for adults and $70 for kids.)
Plan well. At all the venues, the encounters are booked months ahead.
If you want to work a dolphin encounter into your vacation, Hawaii-Aloha.com can package one for you that accommodates all your other plans, and we’ll find you the best rates available. Pick and agent from our Web site at hawaii-aloha.com, or call 1-800-843-8771.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
November 10th, 2008
Hawaii’s hotels are combining the need to cut back on their energy costs with the worldwide drive for companies to be “green.”
People who are planning Hawaii vacations now are beginning to ask about island hotels that practice energy conservation and whether a hotel has earned the U.S. Energy Star Rating. Guests filling out comment cards are asking questions such as why there were no recycling bins in their rooms.
For the record, the following hotels and resorts are considered green hotels by the state:
- Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa
- Grand Wailea Resort
- Hale Koa Hotel
- Hawaii Prince Hotel
- Hilton Hawaiian Village
- Hilton Waikoloa Village
- Kahala Hotel & Resort
- Mauna Lani Resort
- Sheraton Kauai
- Sheraton Waikiki
- Waikiki Beach Marriott
The Hyatt Regency Waikiiki has a recycling program for cardboard, paper, bottles, and food waste, with a goal of becoming a full recycling facility by 2009. It’s estimated that Hyatt saved about $16,540 in landfill tonnage fees by recycling last year.
Several neighbor island hotels, including the Mauna Lani Resort, have invested in solar photovoltaic panels, but some of the problems in the way of that practice becoming widespread include finding enough roof space on buildings that were built tall, but thin; obtaining loans for the initial investment; and uncertainty about solar’s future regulation in the state.
Aqua Hotels & Resorts, which owns 12 boutique hotels, is also starting recycling programs at its properties.
The Hawaii State Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) is offering a green business standards checklist, and certifies and recognizes hotels as Hawaii Green Businesses.
So if you like the idea of greening even while you’re on vacation, the opportunities for your sharing in Hawaii’s visitor industry compliance are increasing. As you plan your Hawaii visit, pick an agent from the Hawaii-Aloha Web site (hawaii-aloha.com) or call 1-800-843-8771. We’ll plan it all for you, get you the best rates available, and make sure that the accommodations you enjoy will be environment friendly.
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I started traveling back in the sixties. Money (especially in the form of company expense accounts) was loose and easily tossed around. We partied in our rooms, much in the same manner that rock groups do today. The trash and rubble piled up, but we didn’t care. We’d drop generous tips for the housekeeping people and leave the hotels with clear consciences. I hosted one raucous party at the Regency hotel in Hollywood that included several prominent actors and actresses, dozens of “starlets” and horny young aspiring hunks. It remains the biggest mess I’ve ever made under any circumstances. It cost my client $1,500 in housekeeping tips.
In the seventies, money got tighter. The partying subsided. Businesspeople became more businesslike. That’s when I first started visiting Hawaii, and when I subsequently moved here. The hotel rooms were immaculate and the service was amazing. Every guest was a star. Hawaii was becoming the destination of choice among America’s vacationers. There were no stories of hotel suites being trashed.
In the eighties, the era of mega resorts emerged. A marketing-advertising guy, I promoted the openings of three of Hawaii’s finest. I was involved in the opening of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, the Hyatt Regency Maui and the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa (now the Hilton Waikaloa Village). All three of those resorts featured a “back of the house” that consisted of a kind of inner city – trams, shuttles, accommodations for staff, bustling changes of assignments, conference rooms – with its own infrastructure never seen by guests. There were enormous caged areas reserved for trash disposal, and the trash was taken on a daily basis to landfills that were already being overloaded. Nobody cared much. It was trash.
In the nineties, Hawaii’s promotional efforts were directed to people who would seek high-end accommodations and spend lots of money while they were here. We wanted big spenders. We wanted people who would seek luxury. We built new shopping and hotel venues that would attract high rollers.
Some hoteliers, the Aqua and Ohana chains in particular, carved out a significant portion of the market for families and for people who were looking not for “luxury” but for comfort and service. Suddenly, greenness had become a factor.
Now, even the high-end resorts are discovering the value of accommodating you, the “average” vacationer who wants only to be treated as someone special … and who is tuned into the environmental concerns that plague the world.
The result is going to be lower rates and more incentives for you to patronize those who recognize your concern.
Jim Winpenny
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November 3rd, 2008
