Oahu, Hawaii

Ohau, nicknamed "The Gathering Place" is the third largest Hawaiian island comprising 597 square miles. Both Maui and the Island of Hawaii (Aka, The Big Island) are larger however Oahu is the most populous with over 1 million people which is approximately 70% of the population of the state of Hawaii. Oahu is home to Waikiki Beach, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, and its north shore is famous for its surf and surf culture. Oahu is situated northwest of the Big Island and Maui.

Some people opt to skip Oahu when they visit Hawaii for the first time due to things they’ve heard or read about the traffic and crowds. In our opinion this would be a mistake. Oahu has a lot of things to see and do. Waikiki is known for its shopping, beautiful sandy beach with rolling waves perfect for beginner surfers, wonderful food and an unforgettable view of Diamond Head in the distance. You have to try a mai tai at Duke’s restaurant while watching the surf along Waikiki beach at least once in your lifetime! There is traffic in Waikiki but if you skip the car rental and walk and use the transportation system it’s easy to get around. You can always rent a car for a day when exploring other areas of the island. It’s also easy to get to other islands. So, spend a few days in Oahu checking things out and then hop over to another island or two if you have the time.

As you can see in this static map, we visited a number of diverse locations, each of them are linked so that you can click on any that you would like to view.

1. Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki
2. USS Arizona Memorial
3. USS Missouri Memorial
4. Diamond Head State Park
5. Nuuanu Pali Lookout
6. Haleiwa
7. Polynesian Cultural Center
8. Byodo-in Temple, Kaneohe
9. Bishop Science Museum
10. Punchbowl Cemetery
11. Duke's Waikiki Restaurant

The following is a suggested itinerary based upon maximizing your time on Oahu and proximity to these individual destinations;

This was our escape to a tropical hideaway, located on the widest stretch of beach, their 22-acre paradise features the best pools and waterslides in Waikiki, as well as the only saltwater lagoon.

Because this hotel is so centrally located, it was a nice stroll down Waikiki Beach to various eateries, shops, pubs, etc. Being close to Ala Moana Boulevard also made it easy for us to drive to anywhere north or south via the H-1. By the way, anything you've heard about Honolulu traffic is probably true.

Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone on Oʻahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēʻahi. The Hawaiian name is most likely derived from lae (browridge, promontory) plus ʻahi (tuna) because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna's dorsal fin. Its English name was given by British sailors in the 19th century, who named it for the calcite crystals on the adjacent beach.

Our goal for this visit to Diamond Head was to hike up the trail to the top, where the views of Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean are just stunning. The trail from the parking lot to the summit is only .8 mile, but at the top it is very steep and requires you to push hard.

Reservations are required and can be obtained online here. The fee is partially for entrance and partially to park inside the parking lot. Reservations are for a specific date & time, so that the park does not become over crowded.

We drove here after completing our Diamond Head hike because it is only 8.4 miles south. There is quite a bit of parking here, however you are required to pay a small fee to use the parking lot. The bay area itself requires reservations, click here to learn more. We did not walk down the hill to the shoreline as my legs were still screaming from the Diamond Head hike.

Hanauma Bay is only 2.3 miles north of Sandy Beach which generally has some interesting surf - but a word of caution as the shore break there can be rugged and has caused a lot of injuries. Enjoy the locals body boarding there but be careful if you go into the water. The Halona Blowhole Lookout is just .5 mile before you reach Sandy Beach, and it too is well worth a look.

We visited the USS Arizona (BB-39) Memorial and then took the bus over to visit the USS Missouri (BB-63). The Missouri is one of the four Iowa class battleships that were built late in WW2 (BB-63 entered service on 11 June 1944). The Navy had originally ordered six ships based upon the Iowa class design (Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and New Jersey), four were completed and two were cancelled (Illinois and Kentucky) in order to build more aircraft carriers. This is a beautiful ship design, and there will never be anything quite like them ever again.

NOTE: The USS Arizona Memorial requires advance purchase day/time tickets/reservations - which can be found here. The USS Missouri tour does not require advance reservations, but it is a per person fee to board the ship. Tickets can be purchased online here.

If you look at a map of Oahu, the "North Shore" is pretty much where you would expect, it is the entire north end of the island. We wanted to traverse Haleiwa, Waimea Bay and then continue on around the north end and then south to Kaneohe so we could come back to Honolulu via the Pali Pass.

Getting there from the Hilton was straight forward; North on the H-1 to the H-2 and then exit onto route 99 to Haleiwa. We hung out awhile at the beach there, and then drove further north on route 83 (Kamehameha Highway) to Waimea Bay. Route 83 begins to swing south at Kawela Bay and we continued south to Tropical Farms Macadamia Nuts, where we stopped to purchase some nuts and enjoy their coffee. From there we continued south to route 61 that took us back to Honolulu via the Pali Pass.

As we were driving to Kaneohe on route 83, we found this temple deep in a lush valley along the 2,000-foot Koʻolau Range. This is the resting place for many of Hawaiʻi’s departed, Valley of the Temples’ hilly landscape is scattered with hundreds of freshly placed tropical flowers, like torch ginger and bird of paradise, to remember loved ones.

The main attraction in the Valley of the Temples is a Japanese temple called Byodo-in, which translates to the “Temple of Equality.” A scale replica of a temple in Uji Japan and made entirely without nails, Byodo-in was dedicated in 1968 as a centennial commemoration of the first Japanese immigrants in Hawaiʻi. Famed Kyoto Landscaper Kiichi Toemon Sano planned the Japanese garden complex that houses Byodo-in with extreme attention to detail, from the gravel’s ripple-like design to the small bridges over the fishpond.

The temple and its vicinity also served as a stand-in for South Korea in one episode of the ABC series "Lost" and as the Presidential Villa in an episode of "seaQuest DSV". The temple was also used in the 2001 movie "Pearl Harbor" as a replica of the Byodo-in Temple in Japan as well as several other movies. The first usage in a TV show was in 1969 in a season 2 episode of "Hawaii Five-O". And again in a 1981 episode of "Magnum P.I."

There is also a large Koi fish pond, which contains hundreds of various sized Koi. You can purchase fish food to feed them, and the Koi get very excited when visitors toss fish food into the pond!

Nuʻuanu Pali is a section of the windward cliff of the Koʻolau mountain located at the head of Nuʻuanu Valley on the island of Oʻahu. It has a panoramic view of the windward (northeast) coast of Oʻahu. The Pali Highway (Hawaii State Highway 61) connecting Kailua/Kāneʻohe with downtown Honolulu runs through the Nuʻuanu Pali Tunnels bored into the cliffside.

This is always a fun place to visit because of the views, but also because the winds are always strongly blowing! The trade winds blow through the valley between the high mountains on either side, forming a strong wind tunnel of sorts. Wind speeds of up to 74 mph have been recorded here, and it is nearly impossible to walk upright against winds like that! My wife was nearly blown down by the winds that day, after I went forward and we both groped our way to the lookout area - because together we could safely navigate the winds.

The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (informally known as Punchbowl Cemetery) is a national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. Since it is located in the same general direction of the Pali Lookout, we stopped here on the way up to Pali Pass. In addition, one of Celeste's uncles (James Serrenho) has his name inscribed on the memorial wall. Mr. Serrenho was aboard the USS Morrison (DD-560) during the invasion of Okinawa when the ship was sunk after repeated kamikaze attacks on May 4th 1945.

We were searching for some Chinese food and Celeste found this restaurant, and since it is highly rated, we decided to give it a try for lunch. WOW - we sampled several dishes from their dim sum menu and everything we had was excellent! We had to wait a few minutes, as this is a very popular restaurant in Honolulu - have patience because you will enjoy the food here!

The food here is very good, or should I say we found it to be good. Apparently a lot of Honolulu residents like it too, because there was a line of people who were waiting to have a meal. Their menu is varied and extensive and can be found here.

Our goal in visiting the Bishop Museum was to be able to view their extensive Polynesian artifacts, which is the world's largest collection. Now you might be saying to yourself "hmm, we don't like museums" but this one is unique and it has a huge amount of Polynesian "way of life" exhibits and I promise you that you will find a visit here to be educational and entertaining.

For those of you who might not be familiar with the "Polynesian Mystery", there has been a mystery for some time now about how over ten million square miles of the Pacific Ocean were discovered by voyagers sailing in large double-hulled canoes. Part of the mystery is "how did they navigate" across those huge distances? For example, it is 2,628.72 miles from Tahiti to Hawaii and there is ample evidence that there were numerous voyages between the two islands. Christina Thompson's book "Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesian" is a very good description of the Polynesian people, who and where they came from, and how they navigated around the Pacific Ocean. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Polynesian history.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is Hawaii's #1 visitor attraction, has 6 island villages representing the unique island cultures of Hawaii, Fiji, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Samoa, Tahiti, the Marquesas Islands and Tonga. Set on 42 acres along Oahu's North Shore, the Polynesian Cultural Center has a lagoon that hosts daily canoe tours.

An iconic establishment in Waikiki, Duke's Waikiki celebrates an atmosphere that encompasses surfing, the spirit of Hawaii, and live music on the beach. They make excellent mixed drinks, we had Mai-Tais and macadamia nut hummus and both were excellent. If you are interested, click here for their menus and drink list.

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