Honolulu

Diamond Head summit at sunrise - start before 6am

Honolulu manages to be a proper city - traffic, office buildings, a functioning downtown - and also a place where the light turns gold at 5pm and everyone stops what they are doing to watch the ocean.

Waikiki is exactly what it is and entirely worth it. Diamond Head crater at dawn is the opposite: empty, hard, and with a view that makes the climb immediate.