Torn about this book. Delved through the Maui chapters in anticipation of a trip.

I appreciate the basic details about the trails (length, difficulty, and how to find the trailheads), I felt the descriptions mechanical and ultimately googled the trails to learn more about what I'd see. Photos are limited to maps and the book does little to visually sell the reader on a given trail.

Great hiking guide for beginners and advanced hikers alike. Very useful for us in prepping for our recent trip to Kauai. Planning on more hiking in Maui soon and will definitely bring this book along

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of information, including what to bring with you on your hikes. Now that I have a few hikes I'd like to try I just need to save up for a plane ticket to Hawaii!

The best travel guide for adventurous tourists. This guide includes thirteen hikes for each island without compromising the safety, the local vibes and culture. Sublime!

The Hiker’s Guide to the Hawaiian Islands
by Stuart M. Ball

This book is the perfect guide for hiking on the different islands of Hawaii. If your a beginner or has experience under your belt this guide will give all the information you need to conquer a trail.

The book is sectioned off first by Islands. Within each island you will find a list of trials for hiking and sightseeing. Follow the directions to the trail, and you won’t get lost. At the trial, you’ll find in the book, the name of it. Included is the length of the hike, the elevation and the danger rate. As you hike that trail the book will tell you a bit about the trail it’s self. Using this guide, it makes reference to landmarks, points of interest, possible vegetation and wildlife you may come across.

If you plan on doing some hiking, please keep in mind that guides are a great help for those who are not familiar with the area. And this one is perfect to use for exploring the different islands of Hawaii.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#Netgalley

This one was interesting to me personally, The Hiker's Guide to Hawaiian Islands was a good overview of the hiking available to us on Hawaii. We will be visiting in Oahu soon and I marked a few hikes for us to do. I would recommend this one to any library customers who would want to hike in Hawaii. It would especially be helpful for those visiting more than one island.

This updated book details the best trails to hike in the Hawaiian Islands. 13 different trails each on Oahu, Maui, The Big Island and Kailua. Outlining the important information for backpackers, both for tourists and locals.

For each trip Stuart Ball details the level of difficulty, where the trailhead begins and how long it will take. Plus lots more information! Easy read.

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to visit the Hawaiian islands, even if they don't intend to follow all the hikes. I loved browsing through the book and reading about all the wonderful sights and sounds, and would really love to visit one day. For anyone wanting to follow the trails it is a serious and invaluable resource, both in terms of safety and making sure you don't miss anything. Thank You

Nowadays with the Internet on hand I don’t have much use for these travel books, but I found this one to be an interesting one to browse through. It has a certain familiarity to it that I found to enjoyable to read, and all the necessary bits of information are there- from the dangers of the hikes, to reminders, to how long they are to what awesome things you can see while hiking those paths and trails. The only thing I wished were there were pictures of the edible berries and fruits they kept mentioning in the book, I’d have liked a physical picture rather than going off on just my interpretation of a description! All in all, a great guide.

Not So Much Wide As Deep

There are lots of hikes books that are intended to provide a wide survey of all of the hikes and walks in an area, and they are great for providing a little bit of everything, especially to tourists and visitors or to walkers of widely varying skill and interest levels. This book struck me as being a bit different. It seemed more to be focused on a few exceptional hikes, with more detail, background and description than usual.

As noted in the introduction, we get 13 hikes for each of the four major islands. These hikes include a few pleasant walks, but mostly include more rigorous hikes, and even the occasional overnight backpack. As a consequence this felt like it was intended more for residents and longer term visitors than casual tourists. But I guess than underestimates the stamina or interests of some tourists.

In any event, and regardless of your trip plans, the actual hikes and trail descriptions are handy and interesting. Each hike has all of the required basics - how to get there, trailhead description, length, elevation gain, and the like. There are small scale topo maps to help you get oriented. But in addition, there are congenial narratives with more than the usual descriptions. This makes the book especially browseable, and so it seems like it would be especially helpful to someone beginning to narrow down which hikes to look into further.

Nowadays, of course, there is all sorts of useful hike information on the internet, with some hike sites being really detailed. This book, though, felt like it offered a nice balance that would help a hiker begin the process of exploring his or her options. In that regard alone it scored as a nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)