Hawaii (Maui / Big Island)

Hawaii is not a value golf destination. The flight is long. The green fees, once you arrive, are higher than the mainland average by a comfortable margin. The rental car, essential on both islands, will cost more than you expect during peak season. None of this has slowed the steady procession of golfers who make the trip and come back convinced it was worth every logistical inconvenience. You are visiting a place where courses are built on volcanic ridgelines that drop toward the Pacific, where lava fields run alongside fairways, and where the trade winds keep coastal temperatures between 80 and 88 degrees year-round.

The golf is distributed across two islands, each with a distinct character. Maui concentrates its best courses in two clusters: Kapalua on the northwest tip, where the PGA Tour plays The Sentry each January, and Wailea in the south, where two Robert Trent Jones Jr. courses occupy a slope of Haleakala with unobstructed ocean views. The Big Island anchors its golf along the Kohala Coast on the dry, sun-drenched western shore, where courses route through ancient lava fields and the ocean is never more than a few holes away. The two islands are connected by a 35-to-45-minute inter-island flight, which makes a two-island trip logistically straightforward if not exactly simple.