FOR NEARLY A CENTURY, the colourful Hawaiian Islands have represented everybody's dream vacation, offering more than just a relatively cool summer and a delightfully warm winter. Year-round tropical trade winds, a gentle climate, beautiful beaches, bright flowers, inviting music and dance, and a gracious population, all combine to welcome any malihini (newcomer) to these shores. The congenial attitude that pervades the atmosphere is what islanders call the Aloha Spirit.

The islands today represent a fascinating stew of cultures. It is not only the Polynesians, the first occupants of the islands, but a combination of groups including Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, and even Portuguese, all US citizens living under the American flag, its fiftieth star belonging to the Aloha State; in 1959, it was the last to be admitted to the union.

Six main islands, each with its individual characteristics, are available for exploration by malihinis. Frequent flights between them are offered by three local airlines, and many of the world's cruise lines call at several of them.

Honolulu, the capital, statistically includes the entire island of Oahu. Counting both urban and rural dwellers, the population numbers a little more than 800,000, or about four-fifths of the entire state, which adds up to just over a million.

Here is action-packed Waikiki, its famous beach backgrounded by the distinctive profile of the dormant volcano called Diamond Head. Over the past 50 years, Waikiki has become the epitome of the successful resort area. Its hotels, restaurants, and night clubs added to the timeless lure of sand and surf make a successful vacation for a wide variety of travellers.

Oahu is not all Waikiki. Three miles away, Downtown Honolulu has structures relating to the Hawaiian monarchy and the missionaries who brought western concepts to Hawaii. Iolani Palace is called the only royal palace in the United States. Then there's rural Oahu, paved with sugar cane and pineapple fields, and ringed with a group of attractive, seldom-used beaches. And don't miss visiting the memorial over the sunken battleship USS Arizona out at Pearl Harbor.

Maui exudes a surprising degree of sophistication, though at a pace of life somewhat slower than Oahu. There are well-manicured golf courses, along with a considerable area of wilder green and mountainous acreage that is seldom explored, except by hiking or riding horseback.

Isolated Kauai, known as the Garden Island, is in the opposite direction from Oahu, and is preferred by those who say they want a still more bucolic, countrified vacation in Hawaii. Kauai residents are fighting an image in the minds of many who believe it is still devastated by a 1992 hurricane.

The small, slipper-shaped island of Molokai, is seldom visited by travellers. Things to see on the island include the former leprosy colony of Kalaupapa, a beautiful area which will soon become a national park, and for those who make the long, 100-mile round-trip to the east end, the dramatic Halawa Valley. Now virtually deserted, Halawa was once the home of thousands of Hawaiians.

Even smaller than Molokai, privately owned Lanai is traditionally known as the Pineapple Island, because of its previous position as the largest single pineapple plantation in the world. However, the prickly fruit is now out of production there, and in the past few years Lanai has become the site of two of the most exclusive resorts in Hawaii, both of them part of the famous Rockresorts chain.

Throughout the state, the island of Hawaii is known simply as ‘the Big Island’, since it officially has the same name as the entire state. It adds up to more than 4,000 square miles, twice the size of the rest of the chain together, but with fewer than 150,000 souls scattered over the landscape.

Sometimes called the Orchid Island, due to its flower-growing activities, it should be better known as the Volcano Island, since it is here that an eruption has been going on almost continuously since January, 1983. The 2,000-degree lava often pours dramatically into the ocean at the edge of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Rangers try to help visitors get close views and still remain on safe, solid ground, but the most dramatic experience is still had by hovering in a helicopter over the flow.

The Big Island could also be known as the Cowboy Island, since much of its vast acreage is given over to cattle ranges. In fact, the largest privately owned ranch in the US is on the Big Island. And some could draw a case for calling it the Astronomy Island, since the summit of 13,800-foot Mauna Kea seems almost covered with some of the world's most prestigious telescopes. There scientists regularly announce new discoveries about our universe.

Ulhas Dastoor