Very expensive. But you might like the climate etc. State is broken up into a chain of islands, most on the small side for someone used to living on a major continent. And these are far enough apart from one another that "hopping" between them is primarily undertaken using jets and ships.

And much of the natural scenery is very beautiful. Only major urban area is Honolulu and vicinity, with some of same sprawl and blight as might be seen in any other such place - including the obscenity of an airport runway built on top of a coral reef (probably you will be landing on it when you first arrive).

Otherwise mostly farms, roads and small communities on the flats with rugged mountains behind.

There is enough racial tension that Rolling Stone once ran an entire article about it. Hawaiian name for foreigner - haole - began to be used specifically in reference to Caucasians some time ago.

They're all represented there by headstones now, but until a few years ago my father's side of the family had a continuous presence in Hawaii dating back well into the 19th century. I have been there many times.

Sunset Publishing splits the state into two climate zones, a lowland one and a highland one - the main difference between them being temperatures. Within the state there are high mountains (including a snow capped peak, the tallest mountain in the world if you measure from the bottom of the ocean) and very dry deserts, as well as some of the wettest places on earth.

"Very Expensive"

Ha ha ha. How true!

The rest of the information is also true.