I've always wanted to go to Hawaii since watching Magnum P.I. as a kid. It always looked like such a beautiful place, like some far away paradise which it is (or was).
But now all I hear is how crowded, busy and expensive it is now, like the whole island chain is one big overdeveloped tourist trap, and how the longtime residents are getting priced out of their own neighborhoods. Shame I'll probably never see it but that may be for the best.
Stay in the places where tourists stay, and visit the places tourists visit, and that will be the case. Everywhere, not just Hawaii.
Go outside of those places, or the big city centers like Honolulu, and it's possible to have a different experience, time spent at the must-see tourist attractions notwithstanding.
Everyone has their own ways to travel. To some, staying at a hotel resort, ensures a comfy and consistent environment, but also makes it kind of a real-life amusement park experience, when outside their boundaries.
Some like to rent a place, and stay, and live with the locals, and shop/eat in the places they do.
If you've never been, and seeing the places shown on Magnum brings joy, do so, certainly, if only once to have that experience.
But that's a just an (idealized) slice of what Hawaii, or other places, are, and there is a lot more to see and do by venturing beyond Honolulu, to the other parts of Oahu, or to the other islands, whose concentrated population centers would be considered small cities, or towns elsewhere, without the hustle and bustle.
Hawaii has never been cheap, and taxing visitors to fund efforts that the locals don't, or can't afford to pay for is a common practice everywhere.
Vegas' hotel tax is higher than what Hawaii will charge now, and you don't see that in the news.
(Not airfare, just for the privilege of landing at London-Heathrow)
