Hawaii - what are the top things to see?

If you mean Hawaii, the big island...

1. Kilauea

2. Black sand beaches

3. Naniloa Hotel

4. Mauna Kea

If you meant the island chain, you should visit...

1. (Hawaii, Big Island)- Kilauea

2. (Maui)- Haleakala AND MUST VISIT---- MOLOKINI Island. It has beautiful snorkeling.

3. (Kauai)- Na Pali Coast and Waimea Canyon

4. (Oahu)- Waikiki Beach (if you are less tourist-y, you should visit the North Shore--- its more exotic, blue, friendly, and peaceful)

5. (Molokai)- just cruise around and visit beaches, hikes, waterfalls....

Depends on what you're interested in. There are lots of travel guidebooks for Hawaii at your library and on the Internet. The "Dummies" book is good for helping decide which of the islands is best for what you want to see and do. The "blue books" ["Revealed" series] are good, too, even though they're somewhat controversial.

I highly recommend the Big Island, though other members of my family like Maui a lot.

If you've only got one week, choose one island. It's expensive to island-hop and there's too much to see and do on any one island to do that unless you have at least 10 days.

I highly recommend you take a helicopter tour around one of the islands. I took one around Maui just after a rainstorm and saw hundreds of waterfalls, it was breathtaking. Also if you make it to Honolulu go see Pearl Harbor and also the active volcano.

http://www.gohawaii.com/ is a great place to start.