I wanted to title this post “What to do in O’ahu, Hawaii”, but after reading countless blogs and asking people what they did/recommend – I realize that everyone travels and done things for what worked for them/their family. Even for us, we didn’t fully follow our original itinerary (I’ll still talk about both original and actual itinerary). I will break down what we did do, where we ate at, and hopefully – you can find this helpful to plan your own trip!
I know I write/talk a lot, especially when I’m passionate about travel details. If you would like to continue reading this long travel post, then please do! If not – I totally understand and that is why I created a basic list all the way down at the bottom of this post of actual recommended places you should see/try. Enjoy 🙂
I’ve been to Hawaii numerous of times already, each time to a different island (including O’ahu). This was P’s first time going to Hawaii, and base on my experience – I think O’ahu is the best island to visit for a first timer. I can’t think of any other island that lets you experience the tropical life + have many other extracurricular activities (both adult and family friendly)!
We did consider island hopping, but that would require more time off and money (flights between each island was roughly $150 each way) and P asked if I thought was it worth it – and honestly, I didn’t think so. Most importantly, I wanted this to feel like a true vacation and island hopping requires more energy than I wanted to spend on this vacation.
BUT if you do have your scuba diving license, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND night time manta ray scuba diving at the Big Island, in Kailua Kona. You won’t get to experience that anywhere better than there. Probably one of the best experience in my life.
Crazy to say, but we consider this as our first vacation together. Yes, we have traveled to other places before but there’s usually a purpose (attending a wedding, visiting family, etc.) Because it’s our first vacation together, and since we’ve both been slammed with either work or home renovation… I wanted this trip to feel like a true vacation. What does that even mean?
When I usually travel, I never expect to visit that place again… so I would try to make a very tight itinerary to maximize that visit. If you ever traveled with me (especially to another country), you already know how I am. Since I’ve been to O’ahu before and done most of the touristy things the first time – I knew exactly what was worth doing again and what other things I wanted to see/do. I created a very simple itinerary. Each day, I had one “main” thing I wanted to do, and the rest of the day is “free” with suggest things we could do.
One thing I highly recommend you to do in Hawaii: rent a car! I realized how limited you are if you don’t have a car to visit around the island. Yes, you can Uber or take public transportation, but you’ll be spending more time and money figuring that out. The first time I visited, I was under 26 years old so I couldn’t even rent a car. Most people stay within Waikiki when they don’t have a car, but truthfully – the best things to see/do are outside of Waikiki!
Where we stayed and the car we rented:
Highlight: AirBnb condo on Waikiki + Convertible car through Turo
We rented an AirBnB condo in Waikiki. What is Waikiki? and why is it so popular? Waikiki is basically a strip of lots of restaurants/stores next to the beach. During the day, it’s bustling with people shopping and hanging out at the beach. During the night, well – there’s definitely a night life out there. The music and partying doesn’t stop until around 2am. And how do we know? We stayed at an AirBnB that had paper thin walls/windows. Unless asked, I won’t be linking that exact AirBnB, because I don’t recommend it. Even though we rented a car, I wanted to still stay in Waikiki because that’s where most of the restaurants are at and the convenience to do things without driving.
What I do recommend is renting a car through Turo. I like to describe Turo as “it’s like AirBnB but for cars”. You are renting/borrowing a car from the actual owner and not a car rental agency. I literally have nothing bad to say about it. This was our first time using it, and won’t be our last. I might start doing this from now on instead of renting cars because…
1. The price! I compared it with all the other car rental places and I was saving ~50%!!
2. No lines! I’m sure we all have dealt with long lines at car rental places. It’s either the car is not available, or their credit card machine is down. And it doesn’t help that most agencies sold their cars during the pandemic, which are causing a lot of issues now. This always remind me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry tells the agency: “See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding.”
3. More selection for preferences on Turo. I know I wanted to rent a convertible and there were plenty of options on there.
4. I thought it was super cool that most car owners had options to rent snorkeling gear or beach gears such as chairs, kids playing set, etc. We ended up renting the snorkeling gear, because I knew we were going to Hanauma Bay. Renting the snorkeling sets was $10/person, and I thought it was also nice because we can bring the snorkeling sets to other beaches too! If you were to rent it at HB, then you would have to return it back at the end of the day.
Since places are opening up again, it’s getting busier! I highly recommend booking your stay and car rental as soon as possible. Don’t wait until last minute!
Now, let’s get started with the actual itinerary. P and I have a shared Google Sheets where we share our travel plans with each other. If you’re not familiar with Google Sheets, it’s pretty much like Excel… but better. On the sheets, I created 6 columns.
Overall Itinerary | Day by Day Itinerary | Trail Options | Beach Options | Eatery Options | Cuisine Type |
Quick tip: I like to add in our itinerary a list of options. I pick a few locations from different areas of the island (north, east, south, and west). Even if we don’t get to all the places, I – at least, have an idea of what else we can do/where to eat at.
A great blog that gives you an idea of where to hike!
Here is the Overall Itinerary (Column 1):
Hawaii (Wednesday, April 6 – Monday, April 11): |
Day 1 (Wednesday) : Arrive at Honolulu – Explore Waikiki area/beach, International Market Place |
Day 2 (Thursday): Hanauma Bay + Kailua Beach + East Side of the island |
Day 3 (Friday): Dole Plantation + Waimea bay beach + North side of the island |
Day 4 (Saturday): Diamond Head hike + farmers market + Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden |
Day 5 (Sunday): Pink Pillbox Trail + Mermaid Coves + West Side of the Island |
Day 6 (Monday): Leave back to CA |
Day 1:
- Arrive at HNL and pick up car from Turo
- When booking on Turo, either the car is already at the terminal parking (rare), or you can select “pick up/drop off at airport” which costs more if you do select that. It was about $50 for us. Most of the cars would be either at the owner’s location or a public parking spot which you’ll then have to Uber to get there. Because I selected the airport option, the owner usually have to park their car at the terminal parking or pick us up. A day before the trip, the owner gave us details that the car would be parked at the terminal parking. Once they parked there, they will send us a text on the exact location. It looks like Turo created a program where renters or owners can unlock the car from their phone. Our flight landed about an hour early, so I messaged the owners if the car was here already. She was so sweet and told me that her husband was getting gas first then dropping off the car. To save us waiting time, she actually picked us up from the airport and took us to the gas station he was at. She must’ve lived really close by because she arrived shortly after we exited the airport. This was all courtesy and no extra charge for this service.
- Lunch: Itchy Butt
I wasn’t mind blown about Itchy Butt. It wasn’t the best nor the worst. If you have to go out of your way to get here, then I don’t recommend it. But if you’re hungry and craving for some decent Korean chicken wings, then this would be the place. It was fairly priced and you get your money’s worth.
- I didn’t include Ala Moana Beach Park on today’s itinerary. But since Itchy Butt was only a pick-up location, we decided to visit the closest beach (which is the Ala Moana Beach Park) and eat there. It was actually very pleasant. I’m glad we saw this beach before Waikiki beach because honestly, Waikiki beach is so overrated. Large crowd and the water isn’t even that clear (or at least you can’t tell because of the thousands of people at the beach). Going to Ala Moana Beach Park was a good introduction to P of how beautiful and clear the water is here in Hawaii! FYI: You’ll notice and come across many restaurants/shacks where it’s pick-up only.
- Since we still had some more time to kill, we went to Walmart to pick up the essentials for the week! I recommend doing this right away before settling into your hotel/AirBnB. We picked up a few liters of water bottles to last us the 5 days, sunscreen, and a beach towel. I did bring our backpacking/camping towel since it’s lightweight and thin to put in our carry on, but we thought it was good to purchase a cheap beach towel anyways. Totally worth the $3.19 we spent on it!
- Check-in at the AirBnB. Perfect location and had a parking spot for us.
- Explore Waikiki area/beach. Definitely check out the International Market Place. Instead of a tree house, it’s a tree mall. And I have no idea why they named it Market, when it’s clearly more of a shopping center/mall. There’s this HUGE, enchanted Banyan tree growing right in the middle of the market.
Dinner: Doraku Sushi
I remember coming and loving this place the first time I came to O’ahu. I knew I wanted to come back here again. What we ordered and recommend every single item: Hamachi Carpaccio, Sashimi Deluxe, God of Fire roll (P loved this so much that he wanted to order another roll, but I insisted that we try another roll), Deluxe Rainbow, and the Ozeki (NIGORI) Sake.
Quick tip: I know it’s hard to plan out the time and date to eat, but if you do have a good idea of that – I highly suggest you to make reservations asap. We were lucky that we were still on CA time so we ended up having dinner earlier. But just shortly after us, the place filled up quick and no longer was taking walk-ins for the rest of the night. Another night, I wanted to have dinner at Dukes Waikiki… and that didn’t happen at all. They were booked a few months out already and if you plan to walk in – expect a 3 hours wait.
- After dinner, we wanted to relax/wind down… but still continue our drinking. We picked up a bottle of Sake from Mitsuwa Marketplace (Japanese market) and enjoyed that back at our AirBnB.
Day 2:
- Coffee/Breakfast
I originally wanted to check out Island Vintage Coffee for breakfast. It’s one of the very few limited places that opens at 6am. And we didn’t even get to try it at all during this trip, because the line was literally out the door everyday starting at like 5am. I am at the part of my life where I don’t like to waste hours waiting for food, especially coffee.
The only other places that were opened nearby for coffee/breakfast early were Starbucks and Hideout at the LayLow. We ended up going to Hideout (a trendy spot) for coffee and a breakfast sandwich (P got their classic black coffee and I got their Chai Latte). Highly recommend their Chai lattes (hot or ice) and Morning Glory muffins.
- Snacks/potential lunch for Hanauma Bay
So I knew we were going to Hanauma Bay and we will most likely be there for a good amount of time. Probably even past lunch time. So, I wanted to pick up some snacks to bring there. My friend, Tiffany, recommend Musubi Cafe Iyasume that sells a variety of spam masubis.
They open at 7am, Haunama Bay reservation is at 8, and it’s currently 6:45. That’s perfect. The thing is, I was the 8th person in line. And for some reason, I still thought it shouldn’t take long. It should be a quick ordering system since they only have masubis and it’s probably all made early this morning already. WRONG.
All the people in front of me order like 40+ masubis. I.. I don’t know. I… don’t have anything to say. It took already about 30 minutes to get to the register. And not only that, she said the wait time would be 30 minutes even for 2 masubis. I just said no thanks, and left.
Thank you ABC stores – you guys have been our best friends on this trip! I picked up spam masubis from there instead, and I’m no connoisseur… but spam masubi is just spam masubi. It tastes the same everywhere! And let me tell ya, the one at the ABC stores are delicious!
- Hanauma Bay
I feel like this topic alone needs a dedicated blog post. First of all, Hanauma Bay is the one place that I would always recommend for anyone who’s visiting O’ahu. To summarize what is HB – an area where it’s popular to snorkel. They have all sorts of sea animals and coral reefs. You can rent your snorkel there, but as mentioned – we rented ours through Turo. I’ve been to HB before, and I thought I knew everything that I would need to know about it. Fortunately, I decided to look into it and realize that they use an online reservation system now! I also got lucky that the dates are only available two days in advanced, because it was a Monday night when I found out. I wanted to go on Thursday, so the date to come back on the website was Tuesday at 7am HST! FYI: Tickets are $25/person which you pay online through the reservation system. Parking is $3/car and you pay that with cash in person.
The morning of the online booking, I did not realize it was going to be just as bad as booking a campsite at Yosemite. For anyone who is familiar with that, you know it’s bad. I refreshed the page and saw every slot is still opened. PERFECT. I clicked the time I wanted (7:30 am) for two people. Put in my credit card, and ready to check out.. and DENIED. Slots for this time is all filled. I panicked. Refreshed and got back onto the main page. Tried again for the 7am slots. DENIED AGAIN.
Refreshed and about 90% of the day already filled. I didn’t see any time slots that have two availabilities. I decided to risk it and book one at a time. I got the 9:30am one! I went back to the main page – not a single availability left. Refreshed again and one spot opened at 12:30pm. *Fingers crossed* It went through! I now have two tickets, same day… but different time. Funny thing is, I checked my email for the confirmation tickets and I got one for 8am and one for 12:30pm. Luckily, for us, 8am is the perfect time and there wasn’t any trouble with us going in together at 8am.
It was a lovely day there. If I hadn’t gotten any reservations, I would’ve really thought the online system is foolish. But now that I was there – I was really appreciating how less crowded it was than the last time I was there. I do have to say though, Hanauma Bay isn’t the same. I remember the first time I was there, which was 10 years ago, the coral reefs were colorful and tons of fish. This time, even swimming out really far – we saw plenty of fish, but not the same abundant amount as it was before. And the coral reefs weren’t colorful at all. I was telling P that this breaks my heart and I can’t imagine how this place would be like in another 10 years.
Nonetheless, we had a WONDERFUL time. HB was P’s top favorite activity of the trip. He said he’s never really done something like that before and it was really cool to be that close up to the fish.
Quick Tip: Buy a waterproof phone case pouch! We purchased this one from Amazon, and we highly recommend it. I did a lot of research on this, and every blog I came across had this on their top 3 spots!
- Lunch: The Sunrise Shack
There are a few locations. If you only stay in Waikiki area – don’t worry, there is one there as well! The one we went to is more east of the island. If you check their website, they don’t have this location on their list yet, because it just opened. We both got the Acai Bowls which had (Blend: Açaí, blueberries, coconut oil, honey, and salt. Toppings: Gluten free granola, bananas, coconut flakes, pitaya sauce, and honey). YUMMY! I didn’t know this was P’s first time having an acai bowl which made it more of an unique experience. Now thinking about it, I don’t really know many local acai bowl places. I do know that my sister loves the Jamba Juice one so if you haven’t tried it yet, and want to know how it tastes – try the one at Jamba Juice!
- Kailua Beach
One of the more secluded/non touristy beach we went to. Even from far away, the water looked light blue and beautiful. We were probably 2 out of the 20 people there. I’m not sure was it a hotter day in general, or because this beach is on the east side of the island – the sun was extra hot! Make sure you apply your sunscreen more than usual (we shortly discover we got sunburned). Only downside about this beach is that it’s literally filled with plastic. I’m not talking about plastic bottles or big plastic items that you can visually see, but if you look closely on the beach/sand, you’ll see that majority of the particles are actually plastic. It’s very heartbreaking. This wasn’t my favorite beach we visited, but keep reading and you’ll find out which one is my favorite!
- Dinner: Hideout and the Laylow
After the beach, We headed back to the AirBnB to freshen up and walk around Waikiki. We were looking for a dinner spot with nice cocktails and I recall that our friend, Nick, recommended Duke’s Waikiki. I did call an hour before our expected dinner time to see if they take same day reservation, and they don’t. As a matter of fact – they were booked 3 months out already. The hostess did let me know that they accept walk-ins. We got there, and there was a 3 hours wait for a table. No thanks.
Tiffany had on the list of recommendation for drinks/dinner was Hideout at the Laylow. That was the same spot we got our coffee/breakfast at and we were more than happy to go back there! Thankfully they were not busy. Everywhere we walked around had a line wrapped around. Now, don’t be discouraged that this place isn’t any good because there’s no long line… it was amazing! There was a 15 minute wait, which wasn’t bad at all.
I forgot to take pictures of our drinks, but check out their Yelp page; their drinks are well made and have a charming touch to them. P got the Mai Tai. They didn’t have any “special” drinks on their menu with Gin, so I got a classic that I always love – Gimlet. For dinner, we both shared the Kalua Pork eggrolls as an appetizer. It comes with a guava sauce on the side, and it’s soo soo good. P got their Mo’ Bettah burger which has wagyu beef bacon jam, aged white cheddar, roasted garlic aioli, arugula, truffle, and fried onions. WOW. The bread they use isn’t what we are familiar with. It was almost like a Hawaiian roll, but in a burger bun form. I got the rice bowl with the half fried chicken, which came with Thai red coconut curry, root vegetables, and herb salad. I’ll have to say that you can skip on this. The fried chicken barely had any meat on there, and was very hard to chew. The kalbi beef, kalua pork, and chirashi bowl looked good though!
Day 3:
- UFC Gym & Sand Island Beach
I originally had Diamond Head Hike for today, but P recalled that one of his old trainer has moved to O’ahu and wanted to have a 1:1 private session with him. I know P misses his Muay Thai Training ever since the pandemic happened, and I was happy that he was able to do this. I dropped P off at the UFC gym for an hour, and I went to look for a close beach nearby. I found this beach called Sand Island Beach, and oh my – I basically had the whole beach to myself. In the distance were a few local kids playing ball in the water. If you have kids and worry about them being in the water, this is the place to be for less-worry! The water here was so calm. I actually ended up taking a nap on the beach and the hour went by so fast!
- Lunch: Flyin’ Ahi
128 reviews with 5 stars… well deserved! This was one of our favorite spots we had food at. This was a food truck in a business area. We ordered two items, which was way too much food even though this was our first meal of the day. They don’t skimp out on the portions! We ordered the Kalbi Fries, and wow – I could not stop talking about it all day. I kept thinking to myself “How did they make the fries remain so crunchy even with all the toppings on it?!” We also ordered the Ahi Katsu plate and that was tasty too! Highly recommend checking this spot out. The only issue is that because it’s a food truck in the middle of a business area, there weren’t really a nice spot to sit and enjoy the meal – we decided to just eat in the car.
- Pineapple Dole Plantation
Dole Plantation is a very popular tourist spot in Oahu. Although it’s not in Waikiki, because it’s so popular, there are shuttles from Waikiki. I don’t think it’s a must place to visit, but if you do have kids – I do think it’s a great place for the little ones as there are many family-friendly activities there! I have copied a description of what they have/provide there.
“Dole Plantation provides enjoyable activities for the entire family, including the Pineapple Express Train Tour, the Plantation Garden Tour, and the Pineapple Garden Maze. Also popular are informational displays and presentations, as well as our plantation country store offering a wide variety of Dole Plantation gifts, local favorites, foods and refreshments including the world-famous DoleWhip®. And, before you leave you can purchase fresh pineapple to take home.”
We strictly came here to just try the DoleWhip! DoleWhip got really popular once it entered to Disney, and although there are other places in Hawaii that you can get it from, I really wanted to try it from the original location – Dole Plantation! If you have yet to try it, you must! It’s a soft serve ice cream made out of pineapples. I got the soft-serve with cone and P got it in a bowl with pineapple toppings. So refreshing and good!
- Waimea Bay Beach
THIS IS MY FAVORITE BEACH IN O’AHU! Hands down, in all caps! I can’t believe we didn’t take a single photo here! All the photos you’re seeing are found online – but it’s just as marvelous as it is in person! If I have to say one highlight of this trip – it would be this beach/day. Few days before the trip, I did a quick search on where I can cliff dive in O’ahu and this beach came up first. This was also recommend by Nick. Waimea Bay Beach is in North Shore, which I honestly think it’s at least worth renting a car for a day to drive up North. It feels completely different there – there are more luscious green landscapes, local vendors, and less skyscrapers/touristy feeling.
The beach itself has horrible parking. There is a SMALL lot that is completely filled. If you see a street/curb parking close by, then I suggest you to park there instead of going into the lot. We probably wasted 15 minutes driving around in circles behind cars all fighting for spots. We did end up driving back out and found a perfect street spot. Other than the parking, everything else about this beach is AMAZING.
Do you love wave pools? Then you would love this beach! Instead of a wave pool, it’s a wave beach. SO MUCH FUN!! I’ve never seen or been to a wave beach before.. didn’t even know it existed! Again, it can be dangerous because the waves are huge and they don’t slow down into the beach/sand. The waves crashes into a wall of sand and that’s why you’re able to have a “wave beach”. P was worried about me (I’m not the best swimmer), so he gave me a talk of when we should run out and how far out to be to enjoy the actual waves. I think we stayed in the water for ~2-3 hours! It started raining the last 30 minutes, and it was very pleasant. Something about being in the open water, where you’re not freezing, and enjoying the waves + rain. Only way I can explain this feeling is “I felt like a kid again.”
That’s not the only thing this beach has to offer! There’s a huge rock/cliff that you can dive off of! It’s probably about a 25 feet jump, and if you know me – you know I love jumping into the water! Unfortunately (and fortunately), we decided not to do it. After watching the locals do it, we quickly realized that they have to time to waves just right to jump and we weren’t confident to do that. As I mentioned, the waves are strong and it can slam you back into the rocks. But I very much loved watching the others jump off without feeling any FOMO.
- Drive from North to South via the Coast
I originally had plans to eat at Fumi’s Shrimp Truck for dinner since it’s located in North Shore. If you’re not familiar, O’ahu is also very famous for their shrimp truck. I believe the most popular one is Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. Tiffany recommend Fumi’s > Giovanni’s. I’ve also was reading some of the reviews saying that Giovanni’s isn’t the same as it was before and that Fumi’s is now the best on the island. But we weren’t hungry, so we decided to skip out on the shrimp truck and head back to Waikiki via the east coast line. Sad to say, but I can’t vouch for those statements. If you recommend one or the other – leave a comment down below to let others know!
The shortest way is to take the route that’s center of the island, but I really wanted to drive along the coast and enjoy the view. It was raining, so we didn’t get to put the top down.
Regardless, it was such a pleasant drive back. We stopped by a few beaches along the way. One of our favorite one we stopped at was this one.
Sorry – I don’t know which beach is this exactly.
- Dinner: Ezogiku Ramen
For some reason, we were still not hungry and it was getting late. Maybe it was the large portions at Flyin’ Ahi? I did want to have a small meal though and was badly craving for a hot bowl of soup. If you have the time/patience for a long line, I would highly recommend checking out Marugame Udon especially if you haven’t been there. It’s really good. There are a few locations in California and we’ve been to the one near us a few times (I’ve also been to the Waikiki one before), so I didn’t want to wait in the long line. Instead, we discover a random hole in the wall restaurant that was selling ramen. I think we paid $15 for a bowl of ramen that came with a side of fried rice, 4 pieces of gyoza, and a drink! P and I both shared this. It wasn’t the best ramen we had, but it sure did satisfy my craving for a hot bowl of soup.
Day 4:
- Diamond Head Hike
I am positive if you ask anyone what is their O’ahu recommendations, they would definitely have Diamond Head Hike on that list. And yes, it is included on my list as well! The entrance fee is $5 (which is Credit Card only!) They open at 6am and you can get really good parking (for $10) at the base of the hike if you’re there early enough. We ended up getting there around 7:15 and the parking lot was already filled. Instead of looping around and waiting for the parking lot to open again, we drove back down and was able to find parking at a small parking lot on Diamond Head Road.
Highlighted in pink are parking spots I recommend that are free! If you’re okay with a longer walk (it’s only adds another 20 minutes to your hike), then I highly recommend you to do that instead… especially if you’re going on a Saturday because there’s the KCC Farmers Market very close by!
The hike, in total including the 20 minutes extra walk, took us a little over an hour. To us, the hike was fairly easy. Everyone is different so take breaks as needed! I think the most challenging part for me was actually going through the short narrow tunnel/cave (which I did not expect). Maybe because I am slightly still paranoid about the pandemic and I felt as if I was breathing in everyone else’s air or maybe I was feeling claustrophobic… but overall, it wasn’t a big deal and not a bad trek at all.
I must warn you that this is a POPULAR hike. You will be surrounded by people all the way up and all the way down. The view above is spectacular though… You are surrounded by beautiful views 360 degrees! Highly recommend going and remember to bring water + wear sunscreen! I posted an Instagram reel from one of the views above.
- KCC Farmers Market (Saturday Only)
Nothing beats a refreshing drink + good food after a hike! This super close by farmer’s market was perfect and unplanned for us. As I mentioned above somewhere, I originally had Diamond Head Hike on Friday, and I’m so glad we ended up going on a Saturday.
Things we got: Refreshing local grown Ice Tea from the KIHENE stand. Pineapple-Lychee Juice from Hawaiian Crown (comes with a Mason Jar and you get 50 cents back when you return the mason jar). We suggest to tip the cashier the $0.50, because he truly appreciated that. Takoyaki from Grace Foods. All of these items were tasty. There were plenty of other vendors we wanted to try, but we got full real quickly from the Takoyaki.
- Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden
- Lunch: Kbaybros Fish & Ice
We LOVE this garden. P and I are both very much into nature and since P is the garden guy – I knew I had to add this on our itinerary and that he would love it. Even though I was the one who did the research and added to our itinerary, I was still jaw-dropped by this place. It exceeded our expectation! It is MASSIVE, peaceful, beautiful, luscious, and all the wonderful things. It felt like a National Park, but garden themed. Best part – no admission fee! But we would’ve gladly paid! Highly recommend.
There are different “sections” you can drive/walk to and each section has different species of trees! There’s a huge lake in the back of each section, where you can go “catch and release” fishing (certain days/times though) with bamboo poles with barbless hooks. There are A LOT of fish that swim up close to you. Kids would love this place! This space also seem to be popular for locals to have family gatherings. Make sure to look 360 degrees because it’s truly breath-taking all around. This was the perfect spot to drive around with our top-down.
If I had known that this was a picnic-friendly area, I would’ve made sure to grab food and enjoyed it here instead. Unfortunately, we had to end our excursion at the botanical garden early because we were hungry!
YOU MUST TRY THE POKE IN HAWAII! There are probably hundreds of options to get them from, but we are so glad we found this local spot. We originally found another “poke” spot close by, but we weren’t intrigued by the menu (it sold more like sushi items and we both really wanted Poke). Then we found Kbaybros Fish & Ice… and oh man, I think this was my favorite food spot in the whole trip. We knew we found a jackpot when there were locals buying POUNDS of poke. Unfortunately, we were so hungry that I forgot to take my own photos. Pictures down below were found on Yelp, but we got the same items as down below. I got the Pau Hana which I believe are just a mixture of fresh fish. Also just googled it and Pau Hana = after work.. so maybe this is a famous Hawaiian name for a type of Poke? Please comment down below if you have any idea! P got the Spicy Combo Poke Bowl, and we both prefer mine more as it’s less saucy.
We both devoured our poke literally in a few minutes. Even just looking at this photo and typing this out is making my mouth water.
- Dinner: Maui Brewing Co. Waikiki
After getting back to the hotel and relaxing, we decided to head out to Maui Brewing Co. to have beer, food, and the UFC fight (they weren’t playing it there as it is a family-friendly spot, but we watched on our phone). To our surprised, there was a night farmer market with performances on Kalakaua Avenue. I tried looking up what this event is called – if it’s every Saturday night, once a month, or a special occasion, but I couldn’t find anything about this. We roamed the streets for a bit, then enjoyed the rest of the evening at Maui Brewing Co.
We had a great time there. I think we were there for a few hours! P ended up having 3 glasses of beer, and I had 2 cocktails. For dinner, we shared the nachos (don’t recommend) and the waimanalo beet hummus (my first time having beet hummus and it was okay – I like the classic hummus more!). Overall, the food was okay, but the drinks + service + atmosphere was superb! Oh, I forgot to mention that they had live music! I believe they have live music everyday, and the whole crowd really loved the island-acoustic hip hop music!
Day 5:
- Pink Pillbox Trail
Our last full day here 🙁 I originally had Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail planned, but there was a recent death on one of the Ridge Trails and it got me concerned. We decided it was best to be safe, especially with the rain that just happened two days ago. Luckily, I did some pre-planning and had other hikes on the list we can do. We decided to hike the Pink Pillbox Trail. I did some research and it says that it’s roughly 30 minutes to get to the top. When we arrived and looked up to where the Pink Pillbox was at – we questioned if that was really only going to take 30 minutes. We shrug our shoulders and started hiking!
Awesome hike! Not the easiest, but I’ll say it’s easy-moderate. Not so busy. When we got there, there were probably only 4 cars. When we left, maybe only 7 cars. Plenty of parking as you park on the side of the road. There isn’t an actual parking lot, so no bathrooms nearby. It’s pretty steep, so take your time! Best part is that you don’t have to feel obligated to reach to the top. The view is great even at halfway point. They had these unique trees with roots growing everywhere. The only downside of this trail is that it reeks of pee smell at the pillboxes on top. I imagine some homeless people use the pillboxes as shelter on stormy days. I personally think the hardest part is coming back down (it make sense why people are saying it’s 30 minutes up, and 30 minutes down).
- Mermaid Caves
One of the places I wanted to check out on the West Side of the Island were the Mermaid Caves. I’ve actually never heard of it nor did anyone recommend this. I came across this only because I was looking for “What to do on West Side of O’ahu Island?”. It almost feels like a secret spot, and after doing some research/looking at photos – I was intrigued and added to our list!
I know that you can only actually explore the caves if it’s low-tide. After our hike, P looked into what time is low-tide. It said 7am, and it was currently 10am. We thought we could still do it, but unfortunately – the tides were way too high and dangerous at that point. As a matter of fact, it was indeed scary as there were handful of memorials on top – We assume those were lives taken there. Please do extra research and be careful if you plan to go. It is potentially lethal. Nonetheless, it was very cool to see the caves’ entrances from on top. Since we didn’t go down, here is also found online that shows how cool and serene it would be to explore down below during a low tide.
- Nānākuli Beach Park
Mermaid Caves were right next to Nānākuli Beach, so we decided to spend our late morning there. The water here was beautiful and clear! Not a very crowded beach, but the campsite nearby was crowded. We were standing around 3 feet deep and I can still clearly see my feet. We saw a handful of people snorkeling and thought that maybe there were some cool fishes or corals further out. We grabbed our snorkeling set, and swam around with it. Sadly, we didn’t see anything exciting.
- Lunch: Monkeypod Kitchen
We suddenly got very hungry in the afternoon (we didn’t have breakfast). I looked on Yelp for closest restaurants and Monkeypod Kitchen came up. Little did we know that this is a popular restaurant across the islands. We highly recommend them for lunch/dinner. Amazing food and drinks! By far, this was our favorite spot for cocktails – it hit the spot for us. Must try their White Walker cocktail! We shared the Lobster Deviled Eggs and the Kalua Pork & Pineapple Pizza. Both delicious. We wanted to try out more things as everything on the menu sounded good, but we were way too full. Also, there was live music! That’s always a plus for us.
- Island Vintage Shave Ice
After lunch, we went to relax back at the Hotel. I went through the list of things that we must try, and realize we haven’t had the famous Hawaii’s shaved ice yet. I believe the most famous one is Waiola Shave Ice, which I’ve tried before and I wasn’t thinking “this is the best thing ever”. Matsumoto Shave Ice was recommend to us, and base on the photos – I think I would’ve liked this place a lot. Since it was in the North shore, it didn’t make sense to drive up there just for that. Instead, there was Island Vintage Shave Ice in Waikiki. Now this, this is the best thing ever. We waited in line for roughly 20 minutes (CC only). Once you place your order, the shave ice doesn’t take long to come out. I think the long wait is from people not knowing how to order via an electronic system. We got the Heavenly Lilikoi which consists of passion fruit, strawberry, frozen yogurt, popping boba, and mochi. We immediately regretted getting one to share, and not having our own individuals. It was so delicious and a different experience than I had with Waiola Shave Ice. We both loved the passion fruit flavor, so if you were to try this – get it with the passion fruit!
Dinner: Royal Hawaiian Center
I originally had Tiki’s Bar and Grill planned for dinner, but we were so tired and didn’t want to make any effort (especially me because I never got used to Hawaii’s time zone, so I’ve been waking up around 4am everyday). We both wanted to stay in, watch tv, and eat dinner. We went to Royal Hawaiian Center and grabbed something from their amazing food court. P got Raising Canes and I got Vietnamese food from Pho Factory. Couldn’t have asked for a better way to end a true vacation.
That concludes our trip to O’ahu, Hawaii!
It was an spectacular trip. We both really needed it, especially since it’s been busy with work and house renovation for both of us. I’m glad we got to go to Hawaii. It makes me happy to show P somewhere he hasn’t been to and to experience it together.
Thank you for reading my blog post! Hope this helps you with your trip. I know I wrote a lot, but I really enjoy giving all the details. I would love to look back on this blog 20+ years later and re-live the moment. I hope to make you feel like you’re facetiming your bestfriend and catching up from the trip.
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Here is the list of items *we* (and others) recommend for O’ahu, Hawaii:
Food Recommendations:
ABC Store’s spam masubis* | Doraku Sushi* | Duke’s Waikiki |
Farmer Markets* | Flyin’ Ahi* | Fumi’s Kahuku Shrimp |
Gaslamp | Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck* | Hideout at the Laylow* |
Island Vintage Coffee/Shave Ice* | Leonard’s Bakery | Marugame Udon* |
Matsumoto Shave Ice | Monkeypod Kitchen* | Pineapple Dole Whip* |
Poke (from any local shop)* | Rainbow Drive-In | Sunrise Shack* |
The Pig and The Lady | Tiki’s Grill & Bar* | Zippy’s |
Locations/Places recommendations:
Ala Moana Beach Park* | Aloha Swap and Meet* | ATV at Jurassic Park |
BattleShip Missour Memorial | Diamond Head Hike* | Dole Plantation* |
Hanauma Bay* | Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden* | International Market Place* |
Kaka’ako Farmers Market (Saturday) | Kaneohe Bay Kayak | KCC Farmers Market (Saturday)* |
Koko Crater Hike | Lanikai Pillbox Hike | Makapu’u Point Lighthouse Trail |
Mermaid Caves* | Pearl Harbor National Memorial | Pink Pill Box Hike* |
Royal Hawaiian Center* | Sunset beach | The Byodo-In Temple |
USS Arizona Memorial | Waikiki Strip* | Waimea Bay Beach/Valley* |
Wiliwilnui Trail | KCC Farmers Market (Saturday)* |
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