Honolulu Vacation Dos and Don’ts
Several years ago, we took our first trip to Hawaii, spending five nights in Maui and three nights in Honolulu. The Maui portion was almost perfect and remains one of our favorite vacations to date. The Honolulu portion, on the other hand, could have used some tweaks. I’d like to share a few things we did right and a few things we could have improved on in this list of dos and don’ts for your Honolulu vacation.
Honolulu Vacation Dos
1. Do Go Surfing in Waikiki
My family has been surfing in a few places now, including Oahu, Maui, and Costa Rica. Of those, our favorite spot to surf by far is Waikiki Beach.
In Waikiki, the water is teeming with people on longboards, and yet there’s plenty of room for everyone, thanks to the expansive shoreline and the long-breaking waves. The waves are great for beginners because you can comfortably sit on your board, catch a gentle wave, and ride it in for more than a minute. My children spent hours surfing in Waikiki Beach and have talked about it with reverence ever since. If you’re ever going to try surfing in your life, Waikiki Beach is the place to do it.
2. Do Visit Iolani Palace
One of the things I enjoyed about visiting Hawaii was exploring its rich history and culture. Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the United States, is an opulent historic landmark and a great place to learn about Hawaii’s past. Before my visit to the palace, I knew almost nothing about how Hawaii became a U.S. state.
I found it both interesting and sad to see the spot of the imprisonment of Queen Liliuokalani after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in the 1890s. In addition to seeing the room where Liliuokalani stayed for eight months, you can see the quilt she worked on to pass the time and a collection of her royal dresses. You can also tour various rooms of the palace, including the throne room, grand hall, and state dining room. As you leave, be sure to stop by the 18-foot bronze statue of King Kamehameha I in front of the Hawaii State Supreme Court across the street.
3. Do Plan Ahead to See the USS Arizona Memorial
I didn’t do a lot of planning for Honolulu, but one thing I knew I needed to take care of months in advance was securing our spots to see the USS Arizona Memorial. As with many sought-after activities in the national parks system, you not only need to obtain tickets for the tour, but you also have to be on top of booking your tickets as soon as the reservation window opens. For the USS Arizona Memorial, that window is 60 days ahead. Tickets are free, subject to a one dollar online service charge.
If you do miss your chance for advance tickets, you can still snag one of the 500 online tickets that go on sale the day prior to the tour or one of the 1,300 walk-up tickets available at the ticket window starting at 7:00 a.m. the day of the tour. During peak summer season and the Christmas holidays, walk-up tickets usually sell out, so plan to arrive early.
If you can’t get a tour ticket at all, you can still visit the rest of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and Historic Sites, including the memorial exhibit galleries, the Battleship Missouri, the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum, and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. In fact, there’s so much do, you can spend an entire day just seeing the other sights.
Honolulu Vacation Don’ts
1. Don’t Take the Bus to Pearl Harbor
We didn’t get a rental car for our Honolulu vacation, but I’d read that we could take the local bus to Pearl Harbor. It seemed like a practical and inexpensive idea, but it turned out to be a bad decision. A bus is a bus, and it stops frequently, so a trip that should have taken a half an hour took almost an hour and a half. It was frustrating because there’s so much to see at Pearl Harbor that our time could have been better spent. On the way back to the hotel, we took an Uber and had a nice chat with our driver, who was an active military member stationed in Honolulu with her family. In hindsight, we would have been wiser to just Uber there in the first place.
2. Don’t Walk to Diamond Head
I’m embarrassed to even mention this, but surely I’m not the only person who’s ever tried it. Because we were staying in a hotel on the east end of Kalakaua Avenue (the main street of Waikiki) and it was a lovely Honolulu morning, I thought we should walk the 1.9 miles from the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort & Spa to Diamond Head State Monument. According to Google maps, it would take us just over a half an hour.
It started fine as we strolled along pretty Park Avenue. But as we made our way north through the neighborhood next to Diamond Head, the day got a little hotter, the road got a little steeper, and the kids got a little whinier. We couldn’t soothe the whining by telling them to hold on until we got there because the goal of walking was to reach a place where we’d only do more walking.
When we finally did get to the park, there was even more walking than I’d imagined. It was another seven-tenths of a mile—uphill—to get to the start of the crater hike. And the hike itself was another 1.6 miles round trip, with 175 total stairs to climb.
Ultimately, everyone survived, though they were a bit sweatier and grumpier than I would have liked. We had a chance to see the impressive views of Honolulu, snap some pictures, and drink some cool pineapple smoothies from the concession stands. Thank goodness, again, for Uber because on the way out, we popped into a waiting car and were whisked back to our hotel in less than 10 minutes.
So, if you were even considering a walk to Diamond Head from the Waikiki strip, don’t do it. If you’re driving a rental car, you’ll need to arrive at Diamond Head early because the parking is limited to 100 vehicles. Better yet, take Uber or Lyft both ways.
3. Don’t Spend Your Whole Visit in Honolulu
As a corollary, this tip could be called Do Rent a Car in Honolulu, which would have eliminated multiple issues (see Don’ts #1 and #2). We only spent three days and nights in Honolulu, and I figured we’d have enough to do while we were there—which we did. But I still feel like I missed out on what else the island of Oahu had to offer. If I could go back in time, I’d take at least one of those days to rent a car and explore some destinations outside the city.
The following activities are at the top of my list for excursions I’d consider from Honolulu:
- The North Shore and Waimea Bay Beach Park, where you can snorkel and cliff jump in summer and see 30-foot waves in winter
- The Kualoa Ranch Private Nature Reserve, where you can take jeep and ATV tours, horseback ride, and see filming locations for Jurassic Park, and
- Byodo-In Temple, where you can stroll the grounds and gardens of a Buddhist temple
So, learn from the things I did right and the things I did wrong on my Honolulu vacation. I hope these tips will save you time and help you have a great experience on Oahu!
