I did Oahu and Big Island with in laws a few years ago. Maybe I did it wrong, but Oahu wasn’t really for me (outside of one awesome day hanging out in Waimea Bay). Big Island was awesome. I would have liked to have paired it with a different island for the more beachy/chill part of the trip.
We flew from NYC to Honolulu and then immediately got on a 15 minute flight to big island. Very easy.
In Oahu we stayed at a four seasons in Ko Olina. It was beautiful but just a little too suburban family vacation for my personal taste.
In Big Island, we shared a rented house I think was pretty reasonable.
Rented a 4WD truck through Turo and drove to the top of Mauna Kea at sunset. That was awesome. Thought I was going to run out of gas going down that mountain in first gear.
Did a cliff jump into the ocean at the southern most point on the island. Terrific
Then used the truck to get to Waipi’o Black Sand Beach, which was also fun.
Walked around the volcano national park, which was just ok. Then did a helicopter tour that went over the volcano, and that was much cooler from a visual perspective. There were some more challenging hikes on my list I just didn’t have time to do.
Did the night manta ray thing with the fam. It was pretty cool.
Lot’s of good ceviche/poke etc at stands along the side of the road.