Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Newspapers
Unfortunately, there are no local parenting or family-ori-
ented newspapers or magazines in Hawaii. If you need your daily fix of
what is going on in the world, the
Honolulu Advertiser
and the
Honolulu
Star Bulletin
are circulated statewide. Other weekly newspapers on Oahu
include the
Honolulu Weekly
and
Pacific Business News.
Neighbor-island
newspapers are published daily on Maui
(Maui News),
Kauai (
Garden
Island
and
Kauai Times
), and the Big Island (
West Hawaii Today
and
Hawaii Tribune Herald
). Molokai has two weeklies.
Smoking
It's against the law to smoke in public buildings, including air-
ports, grocery stores, retail shops, movie theaters, banks, and all govern-
ment buildings and facilities. There is no smoking in restaurants and,
depending on the island, only in stand-alone bars. Hotels have nonsmok-
ing rooms available, and car rental agencies have smoke-free cars. Most
bed-and-breakfasts prohibit smoking indoors.
Taxes
Hawaii's sales tax is 4%. The hotel-occupancy tax is 7.25%, and
hoteliers are allowed by the state to tack on an additional 0.1666% excise
tax. Thus, expect taxes of about 11.42% to be added to your hotel bill.
Time Zone
Hawaii is 2 hours behind Pacific Standard Time and 5 hours
behind Eastern Standard Time. In other words, when it's noon in Hawaii,
it's 2pm in California and 5pm in New York during standard time on the
mainland. There's no daylight saving time here, so when daylight saving
time is in effect on the mainland, Hawaii is 3 hours behind the West Coast
and 6 hours behind the East Coast; in summer, when it's noon in Hawaii,
it's 3pm in California and 6pm in New York.
Hawaii is east of the International Date Line, putting it in the same day
as the U.S. mainland and Canada, and a day behind Australia, New
Zealand, and Asia.
