Things to do in Hawaii

In My Humble Opinion
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Ok, long story short, I’m going on vacation this week. Original plan was to fly to Los Angeles to visit my brother. Today, we made the decision, on 50% serendipity and 50% of ‘why not?’, that we’re going to go to Hawaii. After all, it’s in the neighborhood, right?

Anyway, since this is a very last-minute plan, I have almost no idea what’s there to see and do. Heck, at this point I’m not quite sure exactly where in Hawaii we’re going (my brother’s handling the flight and accomidations, I’m basically just along for the ride). I’m assuming either Honolulu or Oahu.

So assuming we end up in one of those locations, what should we see? The only thing I can think of for certain is Pearl Harbor and the USS Arirzona, assuming, of course, that we’re on the right island.

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I lived in Hawaii from 1975 to 1999, all but 3 years on Maui.
I would recomend a helecopter ride, they are expensice, Blue Hawaii is supposed to be the best.
*Please * take this into consideration: This is just about the best time of year to see Humpback Whales off of Maui. They are there from November to about April, but right around now they are the most active. Go to Maui, even for just a day and take a snorkel cruse to Molokini. Do anything to put you close to them. Don’t pass this up.

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I wasn’t too thrilled with the whales (I went this time of year, went on a boat ride and saw the tail of one small whale just once. That was it.)

Snorkeling was fantastic though, don’t miss it.

4

Depends on what you like to do. If you’re active, there are great hikes, even on Oahu. If you like activity and people, go to Waikiki. THere are fantastic beaches everywhere.

I second the Arizona memorial.

Where are you staying? If it’s not a full-service hotel (and maybe even if it is) get a Costco card, and bring it with. Prices are crazy in Hawai’i, and you can save a bunch of money at Costco. Suggestions: Cheap cooler and mixers for rum drinks, snacks, snorkelling gear, Kona coffee.

Sure, you can be like all the other tourists and buy all of this at the ABC store (real difficult to find, those), but you’ll pay triple.

5

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

As I understand it, we’re staying at his ex-girlfriend’s parents’ spare condo, wherever that may be. They had initially planned to take this vacation together, but then she broke up with him about a month or so ago. We decided the week would be a good one for me to visit, since he already had the time off of work and doesn’t have any school commitments yet. Yesterday, they talked for the first time since the breakup, and she offered to let him (and me) stay at the condo if we chose. He already has the flight for himself, and managed to get me a roundtrip ticket on the same flights for $300, not bad for a last-minute deal. So away we go.

Still don’t know exactly where this condo is located, will post again when I receive that information.

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I just wanted to add that I went to Maui two weeks ago. Went whale-watching one day, then out to Molokini for snorkeling the next. Saw about 15 whale instances each time.

They are really active this year. We saw pectoral slapping (?), flukes, and side-jumping (whatever that’s called). And lots of turtles!

I could actually take or leave the snorkeling I went to at Molokini. It was better at a shallow beach on Maui proper (Malu’aka Beach? I really don’t remember the name, as I wasn’t the one planning or driving, but this seems to be the place). Swarms of fish everywhere, and I even saw a zebra-striped Moray eel! And another turtle!

If you’re on Oahu, though, and have transportation, you might want to check out the Pali Lookout. The North Shore is good for watching surfers and big waves (but stay a sensible distance from the shore–no walking on the beach). And for kitsch, you can’t beat the swapmeet in Aloha Stadium.

Hope it stops raining for you. :wink:

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florken grabben CTRL+W!!!

Anyway …

heh-heh. The City and County of Honolulu and Oahu are coextensive.

Anyway my two suggestiong both don’t work till after the 29th if you’ll be here that long. Chinatown starts their New Year’s celebration on that day.

I was looking for local theater. Looks the HTFY starts “Eddie Would Go” on the 31st. The Hawaii Theatre has a local ballet troup doing some mainland thing and that’s followed by Carol Channing. Neither sound very local, or as fun as “Eddie Would Go.”

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Since it sounds like you’re going to be on Oahu…

Iolani Palace
Queen Emma’s Summer Palace
Maritime Museum (make sure you get the earphone thingies - much more information than just the placards on the displays)
Bishop Museum (it’s nice but…dusty. Interesting for a haole)
Punchbowl Cemetery (if you’re lucky you’ll run into a WWII Pacific Theater veteran)
That shave ice place up in Haleiwa (go for the azuki beans. No clue what they are, but they’re fun)
The flea market at Aloha Stadium (even if you’re not a shopper there’s some nifty stuff there as well as macadamia nuts for cheap)
Take a drive up to the north side of Kaena Point (where the road ends) around sunset for a picnic
Eat at Zippy’s

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I lived on Oahu from Nov '94 to Dec '00. Graduated from UH Manoa. Left for graduate school and haven’t been back (unfortunately), so any specifics I mention may have changed. Some of this stuff only counts if you consider “going to the beach” or “shopping” to be an activity. Also, I’d pick up a Honolulu Weekly (they’re free) to see what events are happening while you’re in town.

If you’re going to be on Maui, I recommend doing a Haleakala bike ride. You take a van to the top of Haleakala before sunrise (it’s cold!), watch the sun come up over the clouds, then ride a bike all the way down the mountain, taking off layers of clothing as you go. Takes about 5 hours total, with a stop along the way for lunch. I figured it was gonna be cheesy and dumb, but came away really glad I did it.

On Oahu, which I’m assuming is where you’ll be, try to get up to Haleiwa. It’s winter, which means big waves! Just don’t get too close to the surf; every winter there are some tourists that get slammed. Of course, if there are big waves, it may not be worth fighting traffic…

If you’re into it, go to club Rock-za. It’s a strip club near the Hard Rock Cafe, across the Ala Wai canal just outside of Waikiki. Plenty of titty-bars on Oahu, that’s just the one I recall the name of.

On the more mundane side, stroll up Kapahulu avenue, visiting Ono’s or Garlic Ahi restaurants. There’s also this Aloha shirt place (I forget the name) that I used to love to browse in; they have all kinds of odd stuff from racks of zippos to cartoon memoribilia to all sorts of clothing. Stop by the zoo and/or Kapiolani park while you’re in the area.

Go to the beach at the Mandarin Hotel out in Kahala. You can park at the public beach next to it (sorry, I forget the name) and just walk over to the left. (This was my favorite beach away from the tourists.) They used to have dolphin shows twice a day; don’t know if they do that anymore. Great windsurfing spot also, as is Diamond Head beach.

Go to Hanauma Bay and pet the fish.

For a cheap, good dinner, stop by Auntie Pasta’s. For some of the best, cheap sushi you can get, stop by Haile’s across from Ward Center. The Dixie Grill was generally a decent eatery also. Ooo - there’s two restaurants my wife and I used to go to all the time for their rice pudding. One was called Scooze’s, the other one was at the other end of the shopping center. Across from the Border’s books and next to the Barnes & Noble, if you want to pick up some reading material.

Hike Diamond Head. They instituted a charge not too long ago, but I think it’s cheap, on the order of a couple bucks. If Manoa valley isn’t too rainy, hike to Manoa falls. Drive up and around Tantalus (it forms a loop from the Punahou area to the Makiki Heights area. There’s a park somewhere along there; drive up the hill, park, and walk out to the scenic viewpoint.

If you’re there on a Sunday, have brunch at the Pacific Reef hotel. $20 when I was there, all you can eat, with a two story fish tank in the middle of the restaurant. Hopefully you get to see them feed the fish.

Go to Duke’s for dinner. I really liked their bread and salad bar, and some grilled ahi with firecracker seasoning was awesome. Go to Dave’s Hawaiian Ice Cream for dessert and try the lychee sherbert.

Most of all, enjoy kicking back. ::gives shaka::

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I (with my family) spent three days in Hawaii a few years ago, and this is how we spent our time:

Day 1 - Big Island - Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Don’t pass up the opportunity to see these natural wonders.
Day 2 - Big Island, Hilo area. Rainbow Falls, Kaumana Caves (lava tubes), Lyman Museum, Lava Trees State Park, and the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut plantation.
Day 3 - Honolulu. Bishop Museum, USS Arisona Memorial, Hula show on Waikiki beach, Aquarium.

Also, if you like language oddities, you can make a point of driving through Aiea or Kaaawa when you’re on Oahu. Or if you like geographical distinction, then make your way to Ka Lae on the Big Island. (We did all of those as well.)

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Waikiki is a beach neighbourhood in Honolulu, which is a city on the island of Oahu.

If you’re there on the weekend, go the flea market at Aloha Stadium. Rent bikes and go around the city (or heck, spend the day and go around the whole island).

Go to Lanikai beach, rent a kayak, and go paddling with the sea turtles out to the Moks. They’re tricky to land on (the waves come rushing around from both sides and collide at a small beach) but fun to splash around in.

If you’re going to buy Kona coffee, make certain you buy 100% Kona, and not the (very common) 10% blend.

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I’m trying to think what we did on Oahu last time we were there (that hasn’t been mentioned already). Let’s see…

There was a historical plantation village thing set up in Waipahu (can’t remember what it’s called or anything).

I believe a standard tourist thing is that Kodak hula show.

Also at Peral Harbor is the U.S.S. Missouri.

I’m drawing a big blank today. I have no idea what we did with the rest of our time (besides a couple things people have already mentioned). Well, I remembered a few, anyway.

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When I went snorkeling at Molokini during whale season, I could hear the whales singing underwater. There’s really no substitute for that. It’s a trip worth making, I think.

If you do go to Hanauma Bay, go early.

Here’s a link to the Honolulu Weekly.

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Thanks for the link. I just checked out the “Best of 2003” and got a laugh out of BuLa’ia:

Man, I miss hearing pidgin. For a glimpse into local culture, check out Pidgin to da Max.

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So much depends on which island you go to. Not knowing which island you’ll be going to, here are some suggestions from my experiences there:

Oahu:

  • Hanauma Bay. Killer snorkelling. But get there early (parking lot fills up fast). If you’re comfortable in the water, make your way past the “breaker” reef - much better visibility and better life on that side (water’s a bit rougher, though).
  • Hike up Diamond Head. A pretty touristy thing to do. But you do get nice views, and when the planes come by, it seems like you can reach out and touch them.
  • I think this is the time of year that the big waves hit the north shore. Worth seeing.

Maui:

  • Best place for whale watching as there are lots in the channel between Maui and Lanai. But you don’t need to take a “whale watching” (boat) trip to see them. Pretty much any boat trip out, you’ll see them (like if you go to Molokini or Lanai for a snorkelling trip).
  • I found the best snorkelling on Maui at a place called Olowalu - even better than Molokini (Molokini’s kind of been “snorkelled out”). Find a “Maui Dive Shop” (in any of the big cities), and get a snorkelling guide. Olowalu is right on the main road, south of Lahaina. Parking’s limited, and the beach is really narrow. Again, you need to swim past the reef’s closest to the beach. Some other good snorkelling (all in the guide): Kapalua, DT Fleming, Le Perouse Bay.
  • Drive to Hana (tip - leave early !). Very scenic. I picked up one of these self-guided tours (on a tape player) at this gas station along the way. And it was very informative.
  • Bike ride down Haleakala. They picked us up at O dark :30 to catch the sunrise, but this was awesome. Tip: if you go for the sunrise, you’ll need some warm clothes !
  • Probably the nicest beach I found on Maui is Makena beach, just past Waimea.

Kauai:

  • If you go here, I’d recommend a helicopter tour of the island. With Waimea Canyon and the Napali coast, it is very scenic. Probably the best way to see the Napali coast as well.
  • Waimea Canyon. The “grand canyon of Hawaii”. Very scenic. If you drive up to “the top”, you can look over into this canyon on the Napali Coast side. And you may recognize this canyon from “Jurassic Park”, and now the TV show “Lost”.
  • Good snorekelling at Poipu and up at Haena (near Hanalei).
  • Kauai is the wettest island. But here’s a tip: if it’s raining where you are, just drive to the other side of the island (maybe 40 min. depending on traffic). That is, it won’t be raining on the whole island.

But the most important tip for any island you visit: Lappert’s Kona Coffee ice cream. (even if you don’t like coffee ice cream, you’ll love this stuff !).

Hope this helps.

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When you find out which island you are going to be on, go to a bookstore and buy one of these books, whichever is appropriate for where you will be. I used Maui Revealed when I went there last January, and it was right on the money about everything. Including which place to buy the best banana bread on the road to Hana.

And when talking to other tourists there on the island, a large number of them were also using the book, and reported the same thing. Lots of good information about where to go and what to do. Next time I get to go to the islands, I will be using the newest edition of these books.

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I also highly recommend Andrew Doughty’s books, mentioned above by Lok. Good stuff, really useful tips for drives, hiking, eats… OK, everything. :slight_smile:

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The vacation so far:
Thursday: Arrived at noon, got to the condo about 1, spent basically the rest of the day wandering around and exploring the local area (the condo’s in Waikki, about 2 blocks from the Hard Rock Cafe, so pretty excellent location). Ate at Duke’s for lunch, very good.

Friday: rented a couple of mopeds, drove over to Pearl Harbor. Visited the Arizona Memorial (very somber, but definitely a must-visit) and the USS Missouri (awesome). Wanted to go on the USS Bowfin, but time was running short. Ate at Fisherman’s Wharf (not bad, not great). Rode to Diamond Head, turned around though because we were running out of time on the 'peds and we decided we’d need to spend a few hours there to really get the experience.

Saturday: Beach day. Went to Gray’s beach, and got myself a bit of a sunburn (note to self: reapply sunscreen every hour). Ate at a Steak and Lobster place. Getting ready to go out barhopping/clubbing. Speaking of which, anyone got tips for good bars/clubs?

Tomorrow we’re going to rent 'peds again, go to Diamond Head crater, and probably go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. (thanks for the tip on that one cormac262, Judith Prietht, and Digital Stimulus).

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Hanauma may be uber-crowded, and if that’s the case, since you’ll be near Diamond Head anyway, try going by the Sans Souci natatorium, near the Aquarium.

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When you’re there, ya gotta check out the toilet bowl! It’s the coolest thing.