It’s easy to leave your cares aside when you vacation in Hawaii. Not only are your cares far away when you’re in Hawaii, but you are also literally far away from home. Hawaii is the most isolated population center of the earth. How isolated? Here’s how far Hawaii is from their nearest major population centers:
- 2,390 miles from California
- 3,850 miles from Japan
- 4,900 miles from China
- 5,280 miles from the Philippines
Credits:
– Satellite image is public domain courtesy of NASA. Note the unusual angle of this photo. We typically see photos showing the North on the top and South on the bottom, however this satellite image reverses that typical view.
– Mileage
Sheila Beal
5 comments
4,200 miles from Chicago. 🙂
I really love the isolation of the islands with the rest of the world when visiting on vacation. I’ve even told co-workers to send me a note in a bottle if they need to contact me when I’m there.
I put together a web page a few years ago that lets you calculate the miles from your own town in the US and your favorite spot on Maui. Really puts not only the distance to the islands in perspective, but also the differences between a west coast flight on the mainland and an east coast journey.
The Philippines number is a little surprising though, as I had always assumed the islands were (magically) smack dab right in the middle of the Pacific and not that much closer to the US than the other locations listed.
@ Kris I’m slightly jealous of the folks from the West Coast who are only a 5 hour flight away. That’s not fair! 🙂
Cool pic! Love this series.
@ Janet – I agree, that photo is very cool. Many thanks for the kind feedback on this series. It’s been a bit more work for me to research and write, but I’ve learned quite a bit.
@ Sheila – I hear you on the West Coast thing. We were at a luau two years ago and met a family from San Diego. They said they usually just hop on the red eye and that’s it, like it’s a drive to grandma’s house or something.