Like most people, we were itching for a real vacation. We can’t really travel much internationally, so we’ve been watching out for domestic airfare deals. One day we see roundtrip, nonstop flights to Honolulu for $198 (normally $800+ with stops) and jumped on it! Since we love visiting new countries we’ve never actually been to Hawaii — we figure if we’re going that far, we might as well check off a new country. We traded a timeshare for the first six nights and used points for the last two nights, so we had flights and hotels for 9 days in Hawaii for less than $800 total! There were quite a few hurdles to get through leading up to the trip, getting covid tests, creating online accounts, uploading documents, etc, but it was well worth it.
We arrived on a Thursday evening, met my in-laws at the hotel in Waikiki Beach, and ate dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (that I’ve had in Chicago and Anaheim), Roy’s, which happened to be across the street from the hotel. When I called to make the reservation, they asked if we were celebrating anything special. I mentioned that my birthday was coming up on the trip but not on this day. They said they would help me celebrate anyway! I got a birthday hat (which Edie quickly stole) and a fancy dessert with candle. What a nice welcome to Hawaii! We crashed almost immediately after dinner (it’s a 5 hour time difference).
We had pre-booked a couple of activities in advance, the first one being a luau. The luau was located on the North Shore, which is about an hour away, so we decided to make it a full day trip on that side of the island. We started with a hearty breakfast at Café Haleiwa surrounded by wild chickens. We then spent a fair amount of time walking along the coast at HaleÊ»iwa AliÊ»i Beach Park, watching surfers, seeing turtles swimming and shuffling along the beach. Our next stop was a short drive away and we stopped at a local macadamia nut farm and got a roadside pineapple drink along the way. The destination was Shark’s Cove, a rocky coastal area that has tidal pools famous for snorkeling. We didn’t have any snorkel gear, so we just waded in the water and walked around a bit. The luau ticket came with free entry into Waimea Valley (they share facilities), so we headed there next but the signage made it seem like we were too early, so instead we went to visit the Dole Plantation a little ways inland. They have a very popular gift shop with long lines, a train with long lines, and the world’s largest maze with no line… so we got tickets to the maze, and spent a good 45 minutes going through the maze and finding the different checkpoints. Afterward, we went back to the valley, assumed we were at the correct luau-visitor time, but were promptly told they were closed and asked to leave. We took power naps in the car for 20 minutes and then went back for the Toa Luau. It was extremely well done and the kids absolutely loved it! There were different demonstration stations for various native activities, a great dinner, stage show, and cooking lessons. The grandparents and kids were pretty wiped out near the end so we ended up sneaking out a little bit early for the long drive back to Waikiki Beach.
We started the next morning at the famous Leonard’s Bakery, which specializes in a type of donut called a malasada. There was a long line but it was delicious! Next, we were off to Pearl Harbor, where we had morning tickets. There’s usually a movie theater at the beginning of the tour but with covid it was outdoors on a continuous loop so we were able to watch it without waiting and then wander the grounds before our start time. When we lined up, it was a quick boat ride to the USS Arizona Memorial which is very well done. You can see the extent of the damage and feel the lives lost. There’s even still oil bubbling up from the wreckage to this day. Once back on land, Edie and I toured the nearby USS Bowfin submarine while the rest of the family strolled some more. After Pearl Harbor, we drove to Diamond Head State Monument. We parked and walked around the inside of the crater a little bit but decided against the main hike to the summit. We stopped at a lookout on the way back down and also at Diamond Head Lighthouse around the side of the mountain. After a quick stop back at the hotel we had a late lunch at Yard House and then decided to spend some time at WaikÄ«kÄ« Beach. The hotel is near the end of the beach, so we started there with plans to walk along a boardwalk to the main tourist area. The boardwalk was closed because of high tide / high waves so we were limited to the tiny stretch of beach at the end, which ended up being perfect. It was like we had our own little secret beach away from the crowds! In the evening we walked down the main street, Kalakaua Ave, doing some people watching and light shopping. We went our separate ways after that and then we got a little hungry so we picked up some Hawaiian pizza from a nearby restaurant and ate in the hotel before heading to bed.
The next day was my birthday! My in-laws took the girls for the morning and Jaime took me out to a special breakfast at Hula Grill from the same restaurant group as, and literally on top of, my favorite restaurant Duke’s (which I’ve had several times in La Jolla). For the afternoon, we took a boat ride out to a reef and went snorkeling with turtles. It was such an amazing experience! We saw at least a dozen turtles and they swam up very close to us so we had to keep moving to give them space. For dinner, we had to do Duke’s itself. I tried calling several weeks earlier but they didn’t answer. When I tried again the week before the trip, they said they were booked up for over a month. The manager gave me a tip to show up about 2 hours before our desired time and put our name in, so that’s what we did. I went by myself at around 4pm and was given a 4:15 minute wait time, eek! Luckily they text you when ready so we went back to the hotel, relaxed a bit, wandered the main drag some more, bought some cookies from Honolulu Cookie Co., posed for pictures with a parrot, and then went back to Duke’s. After waiting a few more minutes in person, we got the text after “only” 3:15 hours. Dinner was fantastic and the atmosphere there was well worth the wait! We ended the evening with their famous Hula Pie.
Since we decided against island-hopping to see the active volcano on Big Island, we decided to spend some time in the Ko’olau mountain range, which is technically a dormant shield volcano, and then see what the northeast side of the island had to offer. The main stop in the mountains was the Pali Scenic Lookout. It’s quite a destination as far as lookouts go, there’s a large parking lot and multiple tiers of wide lookouts. Apparently the world record for gliding started here too. Next up, we went to the more famous of Oahu’s botanical gardens — Ho’omaluhia. It’s right along the edge of the mountains and very extensive. There are a dozen parking lots throughout, tons of hiking trails, and all for free! We did the most popular hike to a lake at the main visitor center, and then drove to the far end for an amazing lookout with panoramic views of the entire mountain range. After leaving, we headed into town to have lunch at Cinnamon’s, where we had to show negative covid results to even put our name on the wait list. The food was delicious and worth the wait. We made a quick photo op stop at Lanikai Beach and then took a scenic drive up the northeastern coast. We passed by Kualoa Ranch where they filmed Jurassic Park and other iconic movies, stopped to look at some old ruins, stocked up on macadamia nuts at another farm, and then turned back once we were in the area of the Crouching Lion hike (it looked insane and we toyed with stopping but couldn’t find the trailhead). Next up, we drove the in-laws to the airport as they had to return back to Memphis. The rest of us went for a treat at Waiola Shave Ice and then ended the day with pizza from Pieology.
The next morning, we decided to revisit a couple places on the North Shore and do it more justice this time. We started with breakfast at the awesomely named The Smoking Boar and the Coconuts. It was a fun roadside stop and we were the only ones there besides the occasional to-go coffee pickup. We bought some snorkel gear (no rentals during covid) and spent the morning snorkeling in Shark’s Cove. For lunch we stopped at an extremely popular food truck parking lot for some crepes and the locally-famous Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. We then went back to Waimea Valley (where we were kicked out of a few days prior) and did the full hike to the beautiful waterfall at the end. The girls and I even donned life vests and went swimming in the waterfall! The rocks were quite treacherous getting in and out but the swimming and going under the falls was incredible and the girls had a blast. Our original plan for this day was to be on the east coast so I had a dinner reservation there. We decided to keep it since restaurants were fairly difficult to get in, so after drying off from the waterfall, we drove across the entire island for dinner at Kona Brewing Co. It’s right on a lake and the ambience was a perfect way to end a long day of activities. We had ice cream nearby as well of course.
Continuing the trend, we wanted to spend some more time in other parts of the island, the northeast and east parts this time. We intended to start at the popular Hanauma Bay but it was impossible to get tickets. Instead we started driving up the eastern coast and stopping at the Halona Blowhole Lookout on the way to a great breakfast at Hawaiian Island Cafe. We then circled back to hike the Makapu’u Point Lighthouse Trail. It’s listed as an easy trail but it was pretty strenuous. I think the “easy” rating was more because the path was clean and paved. The views on the way up of Koko Crater and from the top where you can see most of the island keep you going though. Back on the northeastern coast, we spent the afternoon sunning, swimming, and snorkeling at the picturesque Kailua Beach. Afterward, we went back to Waikiki and checked into a new hotel on the other side of town. We had dinner at Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ (which we had and loved in New Orleans before) and ended the day with a very unique and delicious shaved ice from Frostcity.
A friend of Jaime’s had recommended surfing lessons for the girls when we first announced we were in Hawaii but we didn’t really give it serious thought until the first day we went swimming on our secret beach and saw kids going out to surf. I asked one of the dads what age kids start surfing there and he said his son was 6 and started at age 3! We confirmed with the girls that they wanted to try surfing and they were ecstatic at the idea. It took some serious searching to find a place that would take kids of our age on short notice, but we got lucky and scheduled time at longboarding champion Kai Sallas’ Pro Surf School for our last full day in Hawaii. It was so much fun! Highly, highly recommended. Surfing itself was easier than we expected. The hard part is catching waves but the instructors took care of that part by pushing us into the waves at the right time. The girls were totally fearless too! They were standing up completely on their very first wave. Kai and the other instructor said that most kids spend a good portion of their lessons just getting used to waves in the ocean, but not ours! Us adults ended up sore for days, so we’re very glad we didn’t do this earlier in the trip. After surfing, we went back to Duke’s for lunch where there was a minimal wait this time. We then drove up a mountain to the Tantalus Lookout where you get striking views of Honolulu/Waikiki/Diamond Head mountain. Back at the hotel, we geared up for an afternoon of swimming. We started at the nearby KÅ«hiÅ Beach which is behind a seawall so you don’t have to deal with waves and can go much further out. We were getting too hot there, so we switched to the shadier hotel pool for a bit before ending the night with pizza from a food truck called Moo Pizza.
On our last day, we didn’t want to get wet or too sweaty so we took it easy. We looked at our to-do list and realized we did a pretty good job knocking out all the ideas we had. There were only really two things left — breakfast at Kono’s and seeing whales. We had our last breakfast finishing off our restaurant list, and then booked a whale watching tour on the Prince Kuhio. Unfortunately we didn’t see any actual whales but a 2 hour boat ride was a nice way to end the trip. We had a little time to kill before our flight, so we drove down the southwestern coast a little since it was the only part of the island we hadn’t seen. It’s mostly resorts so not much to see or do there, but we’re glad we did it.
Overall, we weren’t sure what to expect in Hawaii but we had a great experience. We normally don’t spend so much time in one place but we had to with the flight deal and we wouldn’t have gotten to do some of our adventures with less time. There are a few hikes we’d still like to do, and we’d love to spend time on Maui and on the Big Island, so we’ll be back!