[ligersandtions]

Hi all! I posted in the Hawaii forum but I don't think it gets quite as much traffic....and it's probably good to get opinions from others who have traveled there as well.

My hubby and I just got certified recently and would like to take a trip to dive in Hawaii (partly because diving in Hawaii is supposed to be great, and also partly because we won't have to worry about a language barrier like we would for many of the other locations we will eventually travel to...). Apparently Maui is one of the best islands for diving. However, being that it's pretty touristy, it's probably fairly spendy plus may not really be our style (we're not into clubs, buying cheap crap that street vendors are selling [do they do that in Hawaii, or is that just a non-US thing?], or over-priced, sub-par food).

The majority of the trip will be devoted to diving, with a combination of boat dives through one of the local dive ops, and shore dives. In addition, we would like to do some amount of hiking/sightseeing and check out some of the photography-worthy (while still hopefully not super-crowded/touristy) locales.

If anyone has any first-hand knowledge as to where the best place to go is (island, area of said island), when the best time of the year to visit would be, fairly inexpensive lodging, or reputable local dive ops....or anything else you think is worthy for consideration....any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Nicole