Hawaii is the Most Overrated Place in the World 🇺🇸

The first of a three-week trip across the United States, Hawaii to New York, which Harry frames against the 2024 election and a country he describes as extremely divided. He calls Hawaii the least American state and spends the video trying to get away from the part of it tourists see.

What he finds is a gap. The nature is as good as anywhere he has filmed; Hawaii also has more homeless people than any other US state, and he spends the middle of the video in a self-organised camp of around 250 of them, a disproportionate share of whom are native Hawaiian. The two things sit a few miles apart on the same coast and he puts them next to each other deliberately.

The title is clickbait and he says so at the end: his actual complaint is value for money against the Philippines or Indonesia, not the place.

Key moments

• [00:00] The plan — three weeks, Hawaii to New York, during Trump against Biden.
• [01:37] Entering the US here rather than the mainland, and the friendliest immigration officer he says he has ever had.
• [02:11] An American coffee that is 28% sugar, and driving on the right on no sleep.
• [03:52] Hotels run $400–600 a night plus a resort fee plus parking, so they take a two-star at $160 — plus a resort fee, plus parking, plus tax.
• [04:24] A hotel worker tells him 40% of Hawaii’s population is Filipino (from video – unverified), and that the wages are worth it but housing is the problem.
• [04:56] The plan: get out of Honolulu and drive round the island.
• [07:01] His first Hawaiian beach — beautiful, and with visible cracks in it.
• [09:10] How Hawaii became American: American and European businessmen, supported by the US government, overthrew the queen in 1893; annexation followed in 1898 after the Spanish-American War, and territory status in 1900.
• [10:14] A lifeguard who has already made three rescues that day.
• [13:16] A man living on a disability check whose line is that only heroes live in Hawaii, and everyone on the mainland is a zero.
• [14:47] Skyscrapers going up in the middle of the island, which he says would never get planning permission at home.
• [15:20] The Dole Plantation, visited because it’s on every list.
• [16:55] What he finds out while he’s there: James Dole was involved in the annexation, and native Hawaiians largely did not want it. He caveats himself immediately — an Englishman is in no position to lecture anyone about colonialism.
• [17:29] Waimea Bay, and a cliff jump.
• [19:12] A native Hawaiian on being priced out: rents are high enough that people who grew up here move to Las Vegas.
• [20:14] The same man on a village of homeless Hawaiians, which is how Harry hears about it.
• [20:48] Pearl Harbor — and a practical tip he says isn’t advertised: join the standby line and you get on the USS Arizona memorial for free.
• [21:24] The 1941 attack, and its significance in bringing the US into the war. He is careful to say he isn’t American but that he feels invested as a Brit.
• [22:33] Tents along the west coast, hundreds of them.
• [23:08] The camp: around 250 people, and 28% of Hawaii’s homeless are native Hawaiian.
• [23:42] The economics, from a resident: minimum wage $14.50, rising to $18 by 2026, with everything else rising faster and no cap on rent.
• [24:45] His question back to Harry’s audience: if a man from this camp applied to your company, would you actually hire him?
• [25:24] Asked what viewers can do, his answer is to be kind, because you never know whose story is worse than yours.
• [25:54] The camp is organised — individual plots, elected leaders, dogs on leashes, no visitors after 9pm. Harry compares it to Slab City.
• [26:30] The hardest part, per a resident: not having your own shower.
• [27:03] The juxtaposition stated plainly — some of the best nature in the world, and people living on the beach beneath it because they can’t afford a house.
• [27:38] Poke, and where it comes from: poke means cut-up raw fish, from Polynesian fishermen; Japanese and Filipino migration added the rice from the 1970s, and Western influence added the avocado.
• [29:42] A luau, warrior-themed, covering the traditions of six Polynesian islands rather than Hawaii alone.
• [31:16] Meat cooked above and below ground on hot rocks over four or five hours.
• [32:19] The Aloha Spirit, which he thinks the evening genuinely captured.
• [32:49] The admission: the title was harsh. His real objection is value for money — the same scenery costs a fraction of this in the Philippines or Indonesia.

Extracted pages

• Place: Hawaii
• Country: United States
• Person: Will
• Tips: Judge a place for yourself