Hawai’i, the 50th established state of the United States of America. The only state that is also an island. A state I haven’t had the opportunity to travel to. Until now. I typically create airfare flight watches through Hopper or SkyScanner to find the best prices of airfare tickets. About two months from when we were planning on traveling, I booked our tickets for the beautiful Oahu, Hawi’i. Now, it was time to plan the activities we wanted to try and do while we were in the area. Planning activities in advance can definitely enhance the overall experience. If you’re planning a trip to the beautiful island and looking for recommendations and ideas on what to include in your trip itinerary, read on!
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Travel Day
Flew into Honolulu, got in about 9:30 pm. Ordered a Lyft from the airport to the condo. We were staying in Waikiki near the beach, with a view of the beach from our condo stay. We opted for an AirBnB over a hotel because we were able to have a full kitchen to be able to cook up some food or have some snacks if we were wanting some without having to try and find a restaurant. Provided convenience for us and saved us a little bit of money during our stay. We were in the area for a total of 5 nights.
Once we were all checked in and got our things settled into the space, we walked across the street to Tropics Waikiki Tacos and Tequila. I’m not sure if I was simply incredibly hungry from the nearly 6 hour flight from Seattle to Honolulu or if the food was just that amazing but I ordered a pizza and it was the most delicious pizza I had had in a very long time. The crust was cooked all the way through, the toppings were baked well into the cheese. It was large enough for left overs, which was great to be able to have a snack for later if I felt hungry. The environment of the restaurant was more of a bar you would find near a college campus. There was loud music inside, pool tables, dart boards, and a large bar available for those just wanting a drink. At this point in the travels, I was incredibly overstimulated so, thankfully, we were able to sit outside in their outdoor patio section.
Day 1: Diamond Head, Lyon Arboretum, Hula, Fireworks
We hadn’t yet bought food to be able to make breakfast in the condo so we walked across the street to Da Hi Brew where we grabbed coffee and breakfast sandwiches for the day. Next, we took a Lyft from there to Diamond Head State Monument. It should be noted that since we are not Hawai’i residents, we were required to make reservations for this hike. We chose the 8 am slot but were a little bit late so we ended up getting there closer to 8:15. There is a 30 minute window from when the reservation is made to when they will allow you into the park, so we still had plenty of time even with arriving late. If hiking Diamond head is something you are interested in, I would definitely recommend arriving earlier rather than later. The trail is exposed about 90% of the time. The first half mile or so is shaded with some tree coverage but it’s definitely a dry area to be in. Also, it is an incredibly popular trail. Remember to take lots of breaks and enjoy the views. The trail is a bit narrow but everyone we came across was very mindful of the trail and made sure to get quickly across the spots where two way travel really wasn’t available. After hiking up a few sets of stairs and up through a tunnel, we enjoyed the first of many viewing spots. It took just over an hour to hike up and back, with lots of water breaks and stops for taking pictures.
Our next stop was to take a Lyft from Diamond Head to Lyon Arboretum. This was another location where they recommend having made a reservation ahead of time but still allowed walk ins for $5 per person. There weren’t many people in the area so we got to take our time exploring the different vegetation and learning about the gardens. It was nice to be able to walk around the gardens and get away from the crowds we had just experienced with Diamond Head. About 20 minutes into our exploring, it started raining on us. It didn’t last long but we were definitely grateful to have brought our rain jackets.
Note: bring bug spray!! I got bit by half a dozen mosquitos and we were there less than an hour.
Now, it’s time for lunch. We took a Lyft from Lyon to some food trucks we found within walking distance of our condo. The food truck lot offered a variety of foods from Thai, to Poke, to rice bowls, and tacos. There were about 8 different food trucks in total when we were there.
At this point, we are absolutely exhausted. we had just done two different hikes and we were in desperate need of a nap. Which is exactly what we decided to do next. We took a nap for a few hours, until it was time for dinner.
We travelled to China Town and had a delicious dinner at Skull and Crown. The staff were welcoming and friendly. The environment was piratecore and even simulated stormy weather with thunder and lightening. The food and drinks, they are well known for their Mai Tai’s, were both delicious. We even got some desert, a wonderfully light chocolate mousse with toasted marshmallow fluff topped with cinnamon (S’mores pie).
I am very thankful we went out to this restaurant because our server told us about some fireworks taking place at 8 pm that we hadn’t heard about. Unknowingly, our condo was situated near to the beach they were setting off the fireworks so we just traveled back to our condo after dinner. Not only the fireworks, but our condo hosts Hula performances every Friday night so we caught the tail end of the performance before heading up to our room to watch the fireworks from our balcony. An amazing day to an incredibly event-filled and adventurous day.
Day 2: Bishop Museum
Today was a much calmer day compared to our first day in town. We travelled to Bishop Museum close to when they opened and explore the museum for about 2 hours. Even with this, we still felt like we didn’t spend enough time there and there was a whole building of the campus that was closed. It was amazing to view all the Polynesian history. This museum is the largest in Hawai’i and has the largest collection of Polynesian cultural artifacts that is recognized world wide.
We grabbed some basic breakfast items from an ABC store near our condo. With only purchasing half a dozen items (eggs, bagels, cream cheese, travel sized mouth wash and travel sized deoterant) it cost $37.79. The most expensive item was surprisingly, the bagels at $10.69. Now, back home, for the same brand of bagels, we would have paid $4.79.
The second half of our day was spent getting ready for a wedding we were attending at Kualoa Ranch.
Day 3: Jurassic Valley UTV Tour
One of my more favorite days of the trip. We woke up early and travelled from Waikiki back to Kualoa Ranch to check in for our reservations for the Jurassic Valley UTV experience. Even with the rain we had been experiencing in the area of the past couple of days, it was still incredibly dust on the tour. If you are interested in seeing locations where movies (Jurassic World, Jumanji) and TV shows (Hawaii 5-0) were filmed, I would highly encourage you to check out this experience. Our guides, Leah and Scott, were amazing. They were informative and hilarious. During the 2-hours, we took three major stops to get out of the UTV to look around and take pictures. There were four other parties with us during our tour. They do offer a private 3-hour experience if that is something you are more interested in.
Next, time for more food. We travelled to Over Easy for brunch. I ordered a breakfast sandwich on sourdough bread and it was absolutely delicious.
Time for the beach! I hadn’t been snorkeling before and I was visiting family in the area who had some tips on where to go and sites to see. It was recommend to head to North Shore to go snorkeling where the water is clearer than the East side of the island. Due to our low energy levels and some other factors, we were unable to go to North Shore but did end up going to Kahanamoku Beach, which was incredibly close to our condo.
Day 4: Final Day
Our last full day in Oahu. We started our day off by watching the sunrise on Rock Jetty then walked over to Goofy’s for some breakfast. I was feeling a bit exhausted from spending most of the day yesterday out in the sun so I ordered an Acai Smoothie from Goofy’s. I typically am incredibly picky about my smoothies but this one from Goofy’s was amazingly delicious on so many levels. It was refreshing, nutritious, and filling. Now if I could just find a way to replicate it at home…
We went back to our condo to start organizing and packing for our early morning flight the next day and relax since it was still pretty early and not a lot of shops were open in the area yet. We did some souvenir shopping and picked up some coffee beans from Kona Mountain Coffee and enjoyed dinner at Gen, a Korean BBQ restaurant. Finished off the day with enjoying some ice cream on the hotel’s pergola.
Overall Thoughts
I definitely had a good time and it was nice to relax and not think about my day job. The weather was amazing (we were coming from an are experiencing a lot of forest fires) and being able to breathe clean air was a nice reprieve. I’ll admit, I had more fun than I expected to. I don’t think I had one bad meal during the trip. Something I would do differently: buy something to be able to take pictures underwater and take the time to travel to North Beach. We were able to see a sea turtle on the last day of our trip during the sunrise we watched, but it would have been cool to be able to take some underwater photos.
Cost breakdown of the trip:
Airfare: $1,024.80 for two adult tickets
Condo: $1,297.58 for 5 nights
Pre-planned and reserved experiences:
Jurassic Valley UTV 2-hour tour: $704.16 for four adults
Bishop Museum: $57.90 for two adults
- Transportation
Lyft: $415
We debated on renting a car while we were in the area but there were a few factors that contributed to us deciding on doing Lyft the entire time.
Our condo would have charged $28/day to self park. That would have cost $140 in total.
Gas averaged about $4.50 from what I saw. Depending on the type of vehicle we would have been able to reserve, probably would have cost us anywhere from $80-120 (guesstimate) before returning the vehicle.
The reservation of an economy or compact vehicle would have been anywhere from $250-350.
Now, guesstimating these numbers, we could have spent anywhere from $344-$610 for our trip, not taking into account any possible taxes and fess. Being able to order Lyft’s was a known factor and we never experienced a time where we weren’t able to order a car.
Thanks for joining me on this adventure. Until next time, Adventure Awaits!
