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heading to hawaii from july 31 to aug 11th for my sisters' wedding. staying right by waikiki beach. anyone have recommendations/tips and just random stuff they wanna suggest?

is it worth going to the other islands? and if so anyone(s) in particular?

thanks in advance.

Go take a hike up to diamondhead...the view of the island from the top is amazing...

waikiki is so commercialized...go shopping...go to the mall ala mona ...

and just go to as many beaches as you can haha...be sure to go surfing ...

OH YEAH, hanauma bay...go snorkeling there...swim with the turtles and rainbow fish...the fishes are as big as your thighs...hanauma bay is CRAZY nice

you have to ride an outrigger. the speed of those things will have u amazed...
it was the most fun that i had in hawaii... u can go shopping anywhere in the world, but riding an outrigger is only in hawaii, and seriously awesome. once you catch a wave.... just try it. you won't be disappointed. you have my word

are you driving around or are you gonna take the bus?

i recall there was a bus that goes around the island (literally) for like 2 bucks a person (its about 2x2 hour rides if you dont get off).. it takes you to turtle bay and back.. downside is that you'll also see the very american side of hawaii

but agree w/ poster above.. hanauma bay was fucking nice.. just gotta go there early (like 8am) because that place gets packed fast (we showed up at 10 to see a full beach) and you have to pay to get in so we just snapped a few pictures outside

PS. lots and lots of jap people

If you're just cruising around, remember to bring some drinks with you, because stuff right outside your hotel will be like $4 waters and stuff.

Hanauma Bay WAS crazy nice. It IS still very nice but no where near what it WAS twenty years ago. I remember the density of fish swimming around was so high that I could not see my brother's leg under water even he was standing 2 meters away. Now I estimate the amount of fish inside is no even 10% of what it was. It was a scene of a life time 20 years ago. Still remember there was a shark, about a meter long, swim right beside me. Scare the shit out of me (I was 13 yrs old back then and saw the movie JAW before the trip)

I suspect the amount of fish live inside the bay drop after the government resitrcted visitors to feed the fish. I was very disappointed when I visited it two years ago.

^If you were to go to Hanauma Bay, you better be there before the sun rises. Tour groups and early birds will be there bright and early and you'll never get in if you dont go early


ROAD SIDE SHRIMP. $11/plate sooooo good.

+1 for bringing your own water and stuff ... they jack the prices up high.

waikiki beach, enjoy the view hahah
lots of places to walk around, I guess... we were only walking around the area for a few hours ... just because we had to kill some time between getting off our cruise and our flight. It will be VERY hot there, at least it was for us, so definately remember to keep hydrated :p

As for other places to go ... definately hit up some volcanos!

check out the ABC stores
theres like 2 on each block =D

11 days at oahu??

its a great place, but with that kind of time i would also consider checking out maui

Its okay...for food...you have mcdonalds...selling 1$ mc chickens and bigmacs

freaken dollar menu! =D

ABC is like a 711 that sells everything... theres an ABC store at like every freaking corner...

oh and if ur into JDM chicks... try not to walk arnd with a boner... it's like literally filled with JDM chicks everywhere... like...the beach where they're wearing just bikinis... seriously... JDM heaven!!

definately waikiki beach you'll walk around and see a lot of jdm girls ...

and you'll also see japanese girls walk around in pairs in different uniforms

Take a drive from waikiki to the dole plantation and from there to turtle bay beach resort (same place where "forgetting sarah marshall" was filmed) the driving view is absolutely spectacular. I've never seen anywhere else like it in my life

Oh yeah just remembered about the pineapples.....BEST pineapples you'll EVER eat...
no chemicals or anything...so pure...so juicy...you'll never want to eat pineapples back home from the supermakret ever again ...

your mcdicks meal comes with pineapples too haah $$

lots of people say the polynesian cultural centre is a must-go if you go to hawaii. Lots of people like it, personally i found it boring

actually that center is not bad... it a good place to watse some time there...

x2.. definite waste of time unless you want to sit around and watch cultural shows

lots of ideas, thanks for the suggestions.

gotta do some quick research

If you're going to hike up Diamond Head, I'd suggest you do it early in the morning, otherwise you're gonna roast in the sun. Here's a preview of what you'll get to see up top :)

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/3474/img2718br4.jpg

Hanauma Bay is nice, but like everyone else is saying, get there early because it fills up fast. If you want to get there super early, (i.e. 7am I think is when they open?) the rental shop at the base isn't open till 8. (in case you want to rent there). You can also pick up snorkelling gear at the surf rental shops on Waikiki too. (it's a little bit cheaper than at Hanauma Bay)

Hmm... just came back from Hawaii last week actually. Hanauma Bay wasn't as good as a few years ago. There's few fish unless you go further out. Hmm.. Grab the brochures in your hotel there's tons of awesome deals and activities in them. Go on a tour of the island.

Any update on this thread?

I and family just bought a last minute deal $231(including taxes) for August 25-Sept1 last night.

-Any advices on saving money aside from buying our own bottle water, bus tickets, car rentals, etcetera?
-Just wondering if where is a good restaurant to eat at OAHU? The restaurant that I am looking will show us the real tastes of Hawaii.
-Aside from Honolulu is there any other good town or city to stay at Oahu? We dont really intend to stay in HNL since it is a city. We prefer to enjoy the nature and the beach.
-Any more ideas would be really great.
-Where is a good place to stay? We prefer a 2 bedroom suite-condo style rather than a hotel.

Thanks

Thank you

yea i went to kihei on maui, lovely place!

These are the things that I have written in our itenerary:

Things to do/see - Location from Oahu island

*Pearl Harbour- Southwest
*Dole Plantation- Midcentre
*Parasail-Downtown
http://www.xtremeparasail.com
*Hanauma Bay - South East


So what else I can do in the island of Oahu aside from surfing? Does anyone recommend any nice quiet beach? When I mean quiet, I am talking about few, small waves although this might be impossible.

What is there to do in the downtown? Any good shopping mall or outlets?

when we went up to dole plantation we started late in the day. so if you're there earlier after you leave just start driving towards the north shore, basically continue through dole plantation. all of it is nice beaches that were way calmer then waikiki. basically just drive until you find a beach you like. wave size is just probably gonna depend on the day/weather. we saw a few inn type places on the north shore but i have no idea where to direct you.

giovannis' shrimp truck is just past dole. i went to another one because gio was closed and it was great. typical asian run business. there's a few of them out there so it's easy to find and hits the spot if you've been out and about all day.

there's an outlet mall with a saks 5th ave & barney. just ask anyone, it's west from waikiki, maybe 20mins away. ala moana centre is your standard mall but it's pretty big and open air close to waikiki. has lots of nice stuff, nieman marcus etc. the main strip has all your standard downtown stores. couch, diesel, a/r, gucci etc etc. there's a nordstrom rack and other stuff, near the docks and ward centre/movie theaters.

dunno where the water thing came from. abc and every other convience store had 1.5Ls' of water for $0.99. rented a car at alamo for a day. was $40 total, not bad. some dude we met had rented an escalade for a week for $200.

the aquarium was pretty cool, just near the end of waikiki beach if you like that sorta thing. i do. Oceanarium restaurant at pacific beach hotel on waikiki has a 3 story aquarium in the restaurant. i thought this was nice, like 5 massive manta rays and all sorts of finding nemo action. i have no idea what the food is like. we went in when the upstairs was closed after lunch and just took pictures and clowned around. the lower restaurant is always open i think.

diamond head park is really nice. the hike is EASY but it's hot as hell. the view is really really worth it. 360 degree view of everything. recommend going early so it isn't super hot, proper shoes, water, camera/videocamera.

hanauma bay was breathtaking. we went on a sunday so maybe that's why it wasn't busy. snorkeling was so much fun. but i got super paranoid when i was directly over rock/coral. i shouldn't have read the "dangerous creatures of H-bay" sign last.

if you guys are really into nature there seemed to be a ton of nature based type tours that were going off everywhere. our hotel had an expedia person there during office hours so they can direct you to stuff too. there was a tour guide at the top of diamond head asking if anyone wanted nature tours. stuff about rainforest and all sorts of aminals.

some of the wedding party went to a chartered fishing boat from 4pm -9pm that ends with a bbq on the boat. they said it was pretty good. maybe a luau, but we never went. cirque hawaii was cool for $50. i had never been, but apparently don't expect vegas level shows.

have a shuttle from the airport to the hotel. it was $40 for a taxi from the hotel. taxing is pretty crappy compared to the bus service, but we got drunk and lazy. when we did use the bus for h-bay, shopping it was pretty decent.

feel free to ask any other stuff. i'll fill in what i can.