Colorado

Our Trip was late August / early September 2018 and our Itinerary was Denver then The Rocky Mountain National Park.

Day	Place	Activity
1	Denver	flight Sight seeing
2	Denver	Sight seeing A7X concert
3	Grand Lake – Lake front condo	Via the Big pass from Denver coming from the south, slight detour to Georgetown on the way.
4	Grand Lake	Hiking
5	Grand Lake	Hiking
6	Grand Lake	Hiking
7	Boulder – Foot of the mountain Motel	Via scenic parkway 7 ->72. Leave in morning and have day in Boulder.
8	Fly Home	flight

Our first stop was Denver after our direct flight was cancelled and we had to get 2 flights we got there mid-afternoon. This is a good time to go as its the end of the season so less busy but before any of the bad weather sets in and they start closing the roads in the Rocky Mountain National Park..

We booked the Crawford Hotel which is perched above Denver Union Station's iconic Great Hall. The rooms were down a corridor upstairs so they were very quiet. The hotel was very nice and staff incredibly helpful and you are in the heart of Denver with a Whole foods close by for healthy snacks and drinks.

Denver had some relaxed restaurants with lots of craft beer type places.

Union Station with Crawford Hotel

Denver

Denver

We had booked a concert in Denver for Avenged Sevenfold but the singer got sick and it had to be cancelled so we ended up with an extra night in Denver that we were not sure what to do with. I wanted to do something "heavy metal / rock" related so we found this heavy metal tap room. The beers were very good and I felt at home with some creepy artwork.

During the day our highlight was a trip to the state capital building. We got on a tour which is free and I highly recommend. The view you get from the dome (the real dome not the "architectural fake" one on top) was great. It was a little hazy due to CA fires but you could still see the red rocks and across the plains.

View from Dome

State Capital

Mtn view from Dome

Next we went to  Rocky Mountain National Park via the big pass which is a scenic drive.

We stopped in the historic Georgetown for afternoon tea.

Georgetown

Georgetown

Afternoon Tea

After reading reviews I had decided to stay in Grand Lake as it was less touristy than Estes (after driving through it on the way back we made the right choice). I booked a Air BnB and it had a balcony overlooking the lake and a very short walk into town. It was perfect!

Balcony view of Grand Lake

The little town itself is very quaint with ice-cream shops and restaurants.

Grand Lake Main Street with delicious ice cream!

As we were now on the West side of the National Park where the trails are more challenging but they are absolutely stunning. There is also some great trails not in the park but around the Lake. Visit the information center n where you can get the latest maps and trail conditions. They recommended the trails we did and we really enjoyed them. Thunder storms can roll in in the afternoons so hiking in the mornings is recommended.

Green Mountain hike to meadow

Timber Lake was a challenging trail for us due to a landslip, the length and the altitude but its well worth the hike.

Timber Lake - 11,085', 4.8 miles each way

For our final full day in the park we did a fairly flat hike to Lulu city which ended by a very pretty River.

Lulu Hike

Lulu city hike

On our last day in the mountain we went over the Continental divide. It was fairly packed so I couldn't do a short hike on the Ute trail at the top as nowhere to park. On the east side there very easy accessible trails which were nice but not really for the avid hiker. I would recommend the west side for people who want more challenging hikes.

Continental Divide

Highest Point

We stopped in Boulder, it had a cute downtown area. We had a nice meal before flying home in the morning.

Boulder downtown

GO BACK RATING - 100%

Hawaii (almost)

Unfortunately COVID ruined my planned trip in May 2020 and I had to cancel *cry* and I'm still crying!!

Seems everyone is going Hawaii now and there are some good deals to be had.

There are 6 islands:
Kauai - volcano ridges and nature sights
Oahu - Honolulu is here and most flights land here, as well as Pearl Harbor and where Jurassic park was filmed at the north of the island, you can get tourist trips to this part.
Molokai - highest sea cliffs in the world.
Lanai - small honeymoon type of island.
Maui - luxury & honeymoon type resorts, but bigger island so more things to do. There was a ferry to Lanai (who knows what is still running after COVID?)
Island of Hawaii - known as Big Island, more lush has volcanos NP and other key sights such as black beach, green beach, Rainbow waterfalls and Manua Kea where you can do night star gazing.

I was told island hopping is a must and the flights were very easy to book on Hawaiian airlines. I think when I get to finally go would like to go to Kauai as well.

Big island notes - Manua Kea there were more tours going from the west of the island where most of the resorts are located. I did not want any more luxury resorts so I had booked a cute air bnb in town of volcano. There is much more natural landscape activities on the east side if that's what you want to do.




Here was our itinerary:

Honolulu Relax settle in & go to dinner

Honolulu Diamond head / surf tourist beach

Honolulu Jurassic / birthday celebration

Honolulu Pearl Harbor *tickets for boat ride take a lot of time to get

Maui Beach / resort afternoon

Maui Activity day

Maui Activity day

Maui Beach

Maui Activity day

Big Island Beach afternoon

Big Island Observatory - Night star gazing at Manua Kea (Tours that provide guide, food and transport)

Big Island Volcanoes NP

Big Island Volcanoes NP

Big Island Rainbow falls on east Hilo side with other sites like green and black beach