Planning a Trip

Arriving

By Plane -- No matter where you're coming from, you'll have to make a connection in Honolulu (on Oahu) or Kahului (on Maui), where you can catch a plane for the 25-minute flight to Lanai's airport. You'll touch down in Puuwai Basin, once the world's largest pineapple plantation; it's about 10 minutes by car to Lanai City and 25 minutes to Manele Bay.

Commuter airline offering service to Lanai are: go! Airlines (tel. 888/435-9462; www.iflygo.com) and Island Air (tel. 800/323-3345 from the mainland, 800/652-6541 interisland, or 808/565-6744; www.islandair.com), with daily flights from Honolulu. Note: Island Air has left me stranded midroute twice. George's Aviation (tel. 866/834-2120, 808/834-2120 from Honolulu, or 808/893-2120 from Maui; www.georgesaviation.com) will provide charter flights from any island to Molokai.

By Boat -- A round-trip on Expeditions Maui-Lanai Passenger Ferry (tel. 800/695-2624 or 808/661-3756; www.go-lanai.com) takes you between Maui and Lanai for $30 for adults and $20 for children, each way. The ferry runs five times a day, 365 days a year, between Maui (Lahaina) and Lanai's Manele Bay harbor. The 9-mile channel crossing takes 45 minutes to an hour, depending on sea conditions. Reservations are strongly recommended; call or book on the website. Baggage is limited to two checked bags and one carry-on.

Visitor Information

Lanai Visitors Bureau, PO Box 631436, Lanai City, HI 96763; or 431 Seventh St., Ste. A, Lanai City (tel. 800/947-4774 or 808/565-7600; fax 808/565-9316; www.visitlanai.net), and the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau (tel. 800/GO-HAWAII [464-2924] or 808/923-1811; www.gohawaii.com) provide brochures, maps, and island guides.

The Island in Brief

Inhabited Lanai is divided into three parts -- Lanai City, Koele, and Manele -- and two distinct climate zones: hot and dry and cool and misty.

Lanai City (pop. 3,200) sits at the heart of the island at 1,645 feet above sea level. It's the only place on the island where you'll find services. Built in 1924, this plantation village is a tidy grid of quaint tin-roofed cottages in bright pastels, with tropical gardens of banana, lilikoi, and papaya. Many of the residents are Filipino immigrants who once worked the pineapple fields. Their clapboard homes, now worth $500,000 or more (for a 1,000-sq.-ft. home, built in 1935, on a tiny 5,000-sq.-ft. lot), are excellent examples of historic preservation; the whole town looks like it's been kept under a bell jar.

Around Dole Park, a charming village square lined with towering Norfolk and Cook Island pines, plantation buildings house general stores selling basic necessities, a post office (where people stop to chat), two banks, three restaurants, an art gallery, an art center, a whimsical shop, and a coffee shop that outshines any Starbucks. A victim of "progress" was the local one-room police station with a jail that consisted of three blue-and-white wooden outhouse-size cells with padlocks. It's now a block from the square with "modern facilities," including regulation-size jail cells.

In the nearby cool upland district of Koele is the Lodge at Koele (now managed by the Four Seasons Resort), standing alone on a knoll overlooking pastures and the sea at the edge of a pine forest, like a grand European manor.

The other bastion of indulgence, the Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay, is on the sunny southwestern tip of the island at Manele. You'll get more of what you expect from Hawaii here -- beaches, swaying palms, mai tais, and the like.

Getting Around

With so few paved roads here, you'll need a four-wheel-drive vehicle if you plan to explore the island's remote shores, its interior, or the summit of Mount Lanaihale. Even if you have only a day on Lanai, rent one and see the island. Both standard cars and four-wheel-drive vehicles are available at the Dollar Rent A Car desk at Lanai City Service/Lanai Plantation Store, 1036 Lanai Ave. (tel. 800/533-7808 or 800/800-3665). Expect to pay about $139 to $169 a day for a four-wheel-drive jeep.

Warning: Gas is expensive on Lanai, and those four-wheel-drive vehicles get terrible mileage. Because everything in Lanai City is within walking distance, it makes sense to rent a jeep only for the days you want to explore the island.

Though it's fun to rent a car, it is possible to stay here and get to the beach without one. Both Four Seasons Resorts operate shuttles to Hulopoe Beach. When you want to return, you just catch the hourly shuttle (it may run on the half-hour from Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay) back to Lanai City. The shuttle picks up at Hotel Lanai as well and will take guests to town, the airport, and the golf courses. There is a one-time charge of $45 per person (for unlimited rides) for Four Seasons guests and $35 per person for Hotel Lanai guests.

If you're staying elsewhere, you can walk to everything in Lanai City. Or you can most likely get a ride back up to Lanai City with a local resident from the airport. Whether or not you rent a car, sooner or later you'll find yourself at Lanai City Service/Lanai Plantation Store. This all-in-one grocery store, gas station, rental-car agency, and souvenir shop serves as the island's Grand Central Terminal -- you can pick up information, directions, maps, and all the local gossip here.

Daylight Saving Time  -- Since 1966, most of the United States has observed daylight saving time from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In 2007, these dates changed, and now daylight saving time lasts from 2am on the second Sunday in March to 2am on the first Sunday in November. Note: Hawaii does not observe daylight saving time. So when daylight saving time is in effect in most of the U.S., Hawaii is 3 hours behind the West Coast and 6 hours behind the East Coast. When the U.S. reverts to standard time in November, Hawaii is 2 hours behind the West Coast and 5 hours behind the East Coast.