I am posting this strictly as an informational article for those of you that are contemplating travel to either place. It is totaly my own personal opinion based on my travels to both islands. I would like to see more island comparisons on the board from people that have recently traveled to other islands. We have been to Aruba 12 times, this was our 2nd trip to Maui.

Beaches: The beaches on Aruba are much nicer than the beaches on Maui. The sand is softer and whiter and there are less rocks and coral in the water and at the edge.

Ocean: The ocean temps are about the same. Aruba might be a couple of degrees warmer. Both are very clear with great visibility unless stired up. I give the edge to Aruba though because we had red flag warnings 4 days of our 7 on Maui. This means high surf and dangerous currents. I have only had 2 or 3 days of rough seas on Aruba in all my trips.

Snorkeling: Toss up here. There are great places to snorkel at both islands.

Scenery: Maui wins this one. While I do like desert scenes, they dont compare to what can be seen on Maui. You can drive up to the top of a volcano and look down into the caldron(dormant last eruption 1799) and see 6 or 7 different colors of ash, drive around the island and see waterfalls, pools, lush foliage and blooming flowers everywhere. There are also areas similar to Aruba where very littls grows in the volcanic rock. They even have a tree called a rainbow tree. The bark is smooth and colored with orange, red, blue, green and yellow pastel shades.

Weather: Tossup. Maui may be a little cooler but the trade winds dont always blow so it does get a little hot sometimes. we had 7 days of sun this trip. Same for Aruba last trip and most others.

Golf: Maui has 3 courses at Wailea, 2 at Makena, 2 at Kaanapali, 2 at Kapalua and 6 or 7 other couses that are open to the public. The 3 I played were 3 of the best courses I have ever played. Aruba has 1 18 hole course and 1 9 hole course(9 more holes to be added).

Groceries: Groceries on Maui are 60% higher than what I pay here for the most part. Aruba is only slightly higher than here.

Airfare: AA tickets to Maui are about twice the dollar cost of a ticket to Aruba(from Tulsa). Frequent flyer tickets are only 5000 miles more.

Travel Time: We leave Tulsa at 9 am and arrive in Aruba at 10 pm. Airtime however is only about 6 hours. 45 min to DFW, 2 1/2 hours to MIA and 2 hours 40 min to AUA. Lots of terminal time. Left Tulsa at 9:30 got to Maui at 3:30. 45 min to DFW, 8 hours to OGG(maui). 5 hour time difference.

Restaurants: Tossup here as well. Plenty of great restaurnts on both Islands, fresh fish and prime beef. Maui and the big island of Hawaii have large heards of cattle. Aruba gets beef from the U. S. and Argentina. Also fast food if you want it. You can get Spam on Maui, I'm not sure if you can on Aruba.

Lodging: I found that for the most part nice hotels and condos are more exspensive on Maui than Aruba.

Let me know if you have any questions.

what a great thread to start, bob. now let's hope some people take you up on it and do compare other islands.

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vote now!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/N...uba/index.html

Thanks so much for doing that. We have been talking about Hawaii for years, but from Boston the trip is sooooo long. We have a big birthday coming up and the talk has started again.
There's no other island I've been to in the Caribbean that beats Aruba, but we always wondered what we were missing if you compared it to Hawaii.
From Boston Aruba is under 5 hours-Hawaii is double that! Still not sure it's worth it since travelling is so very hard these days.

I can only tell you what I know about. Maui and Kauii are the only 2 of the Hawaian Islands I have stayed on for more than 3 days and I have never been to the big island of Hawaii. I can say that we enjoyed our trips there and there is plenty to see and do. I dont know what you like to do on vacation. If you just want to lay on the beach and relax then keep going to Aruba. If you like to see new and interesting places then go at least once but stay for at least a week. If you can afford first class airline tickets, AA has seats that recline all the way so you can sleep. pm me if you want more detailed info on Maui.

I basically agree with the thoughts on Hawaii on Maui already stated... It really depends on your overall idea of 'vacation.' We went to Hawaii on a 10 day cruise this past march, and it was EXCELLENT. By far, one of the most beautiful and diverse places I have ever been to... with each island being a little different than the other. Maui (along with Kauai), was my favorite.

if you like to relax.. and maybe just spend 1 day or so driving around, or heading into town - then Aruba is more for you. If you love to keep busy, and see new places, etc - than Hawaii or Maui would probably be better. Our cruise was NOT a relaxing ordeal - but we also made time to relax on about 4 different beaches for a while... I'm glad that we saw it via cruise. As now we know which Island we would go back to. And yes, we would definetly go back!

However, i must say - though hawaii was one of the most beautiful places we have been - we constantly were comparing it to aruba, and at the end of the day... we missed aruba!! There's just something about that place!!

But - you really should see new places once in a while, and experience different things. So although we love aruba, i also have the desire to have new experiences!

I can't believe you never had that much rain in Maui. Everytime we go to Hawaii, it rains about 10 times a day for only 2 minutes each. Enough to get your beach towels soaked. I've been to Kaui 10 times, Maui once, Honollula once, Grand Cayman 6 times, Cancun twice, Puna Cana once, Bahamas twice, Bonaire once, Floriday keys 3 times and Aruba 15 times. My vote for everything is 100 % ARUBA!!!!!! Kent

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January 23 2009, 16th trip to Aruba

Not a drop in 7 days nor the 5 days we were there before. We did not go to the Hana side this trip though. It may have rained over there. They get about 400 inches of rain a year on that side of the island. When we were last on Kaui it rained 3 of the 5 days we were there for a little while.

What we are looking for here isnt votes for or against any island, we are looking for information about how Aruba and those islands are alike or different. I think everyone on this board would be a fan of Aruba or they wouldnt be here.