Holiday to Hawaii

dickydonkin

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

from my experiences of going to Oahu last year -- it just didn't "do it" for us.
I'd suggest that she spends a lot of time working out why she would like to go and what she would like to do when she gets there.
Its a long old journey to get there and its going to cost her mucho £££'s.

I appreciate that my opinion differs from others :beer:

Oahu is fine for a couple of days if you have not been to the islands before, but on my previous visits, I have gone to the other islands which are far better in my opinion.

Kauai is my favourite, and for my last visit, instead of hotels, I used condos which worked out a lot less expensive.

I paid £1050 business class return from Dublin on my last trip with BA and AA, but I don’t think I will ever see that price again.

It is a long trip and as others have suggested, it is best to break up the trip if you can, but is well worth the jet lag.....but each to their own.

Blue264

I've been to Oahu twice, first as a stopover en route to Fiji, and the second time the route was Vegas - LA - Oahu - Vegas - UK with 7 nights on Oahu.

As has been said in this thread, Honolulu is not what you would expect, so I wouldn;t bother too much about that. The beach front at Waikiki has iconic views of Diamond Head, but you only have to go one block back and it's all concrete and designer boutiques. The place is pretty much designed to cater for the plane loads of Japanese tourists who spend a small fortune whilst they're there. Even so, it is a good base.

Best tips, consider Outrigger hotels. They're a Honolulu based chain, with hotels across the South Pacific.

Use the local bus service as island tours cost a fortune and just take you from one shopping area to the next, and again, tend to be designed for tourists wanting to spend, spend, spend.

You can find all the info you need on local buses here, and they're really cheap. http://www.thebus.org/cs/Timetablepickup.asp

Get to know the Ala Moana shopping centre. It's across the bridge on the north side of Waikiki, and you can eat relatively cheaply in their food hall. I like it because you can each choose what type of food you want, but still dine together. https://www.alamoanacenter.com/en.html Also, one of the main bus stations is outside, so you can easily hop on a bus to Pearl Harbour from here.

The Byodo-In Temple is well worth a visit. http://www.byodo-in.com/ and allow half a day at least to explore Waimea Valley https://www.waimeavalley.net/

My favourite place on Oahu is Haleiwa, on the north coast of the island. It's got a 50's surf shack vibe, and as it's 2hrs bus ride from Oahu, I'd say it's worth at least 1 night of your trip. In fact, I'd use it as your base to visit Waimea. http://haleiwatown.com/

So, I'd do 2/3 nights in Waikiki for Pearl Harbour and Byodo-In Temple, 2/3 night in Haleiwa for Waimea Valley, the Polynesian Cultural Centre and Banzai Pipeline to watch the surfers, then move to another island.

nickcc

Our hotel was on the front overlooking Waikiki beach. Every morning the sea would be full of surfers and surf boats waiting for the big wave, fantastic sight. We visited Pearl Harbour as part of our tour and found the sight of the oil bubbles still escaping from the sunken ships extremely moving. We had room service a couple of times as my Wife wasn't well and found the meals extremely good but very expensive, have to admit going to the local burger joint a few times and bringing our meal back to the hotel.

NoodleDoodleMan

Is it a case of Hawaii for a holiday stay, or would a cruise visit around the main islands be suitable ?

http://www.scotlandscruisecentre.co.uk/cruise-stay/california-hawaii-mexican-riviera/los-angeles-hawaii/

For example, there are other cruise options.