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About Hawaii

General Information About Hawaii

Hawai'i is the newest of the 50 United States (August 21, 1959), and is the only one that is made up entirely of islands. It occupies most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia.

The state includes nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which consists of hundreds of islands spread over 2,400 kilometres. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lāna’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui, and Hawai’i. The last is by far the largest and is often called "The Big Island" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole.

Language

Hawaii has two official state languages: English and Hawaiian, with the majority of residents speaking English.

Hawaii Creole English (locally referred to as 'Pidgin') is the native dialect of many born-and-raised residents and is a second dialect for many other residents.

Important Dates

The following are a list of holidays observed in Hawaii:

Flight Times

Honolulu International Airport on Oahu is Hawaii's major airport, serving as the entry point for most of Hawaii's visitors. All major domestic carriers and many international carriers serve Oahu.

There are also direct flights from the U.S. mainland to Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii's Big Island, but for the most part, you may need to connect through Oahu to get to the neighbour islands including Lanai and Molokai.

Honolulu is a major Pacific air hub and an intermediate stop on many flights between the US mainland and Asia, Australia and the South Pacific. Passengers on any of these routes can often make a free Honolulu stopover.

Time Differences

Hawaii is 10 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT -10). There is no daylight saving in Hawaii.

Shopping

There are plenty of banks, ATMs, and money change offices in all cities. ATMs are scarcer on the North Shore of Oahu and other rural areas.

Note that because Hawaii is an island and transporting goods to Hawaii is more difficult, the prices for most goods (with the exception of Macadamia nuts and pineapples) are more expensive.

Flag

The field of the flag is composed of eight horizontal stripes symbolizing the eight major islands (Hawai'i, O'ahu, Kaua'i, Kaho'olawe, Lāna'i, Maui, Moloka'i and Ni'ihau). A ninth stripe was once included representing the island of Nihoa. The color of the stripes, from the top down, follows the sequence: white, red, blue, white, red, blue, white, red. The colors were standardized in 1843, although other combinations have been seen and are occasionally still used.

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