Oahu Summer 2021

January 2020 was when we booked a 3-week trip to Europe in May 2020, but of course that was canceled.

In June 2021, as restrictions started to lift we started to think about booking a vacation. We debated between Hawaii and Costa Rica, but decided on Hawaii since we wouldn’t have to a take a test to get home. We booked a last minute trip to Oahu for the end of July.

This trip was 8 nights, and some of the main things we wanted to do included the following:

• Luau
• Polynesian Cultural Center
• Tour around the island
• Pearl Harbor
• Iolani Palace
• Dole Plantation

When booking a hotel, we debated between a budget hotel and a beachfront hotel. The budget hotel we were contemplating was the Holiday Inn Express Waikiki since it included breakfast. But we decided to book a beachfront hotel, and we chose Sheraton Waikiki. The pricing for a beachfront room was $3,122.95 for 8 nights. For reference, our trip for 8 nights in total was around $6,200 for the two of us, not including airfare. Our airfare was covered using travel points and the Southwest Companion pass. Our flights were 61,941 points for one person, but thanks to the companion pass we can add another person for free.

Here was our itinerary:

Recommendations

• If you plan to go to the Aloha stadium flea market, make sure to go there first thing in the morning. You can reserve Pearl Harbor for an afternoon time.
• If you aren’t able to go to the swap meet early in the morning, then just check out Ross, Duke’s lane marketplace, and the other surrounding souvenir shops (We found great deals at a souvenir shop across from Tommy Bahamas)
  • We went to the swap meet around 11am or so, and it was too hot and humid.  Plus there weren’t many drink vendors, so we had difficulty finding a cool drink.  We eventually found the shaved ice, and some Thai iced tea that helped cool us down.  
  • For comparison in prices, the dresses ranged from $20 – $30 depending on the style.  We saw the same dresses at places in Waikiki for $40 – $60.  But I did find a store across from Tommy Bahama that had prices around $30, and $13 kids dresses.  
• Make reservations in advance for the following restaurant’s: Duke’s (lunch or dinner) reservation on OpenTable, Tonkatsu Ginza Barin reservation on Yelp, Roy’s Waikiki reservation on OpenTable
• We enjoyed our tour with Hi5 Hawaii, it’s a private tour and is fully customized to what your group wants to do
• Must do a Luau – We did Chief’s Luau and went to the Polynesian Cultural Center the following day. We enjoyed both experiences, I will detail that more below. But out of the 4 of us, 2 of us preferred Chief’s, and 2 of us preferred PCC.
• Schedule surfing lessons in advance
• Water shoes are a MUST
  • Since we had packed flip flops, walking sandals, and tennis shoes, we didn’t think we would really need water shoes.  After we experienced the water then we did want to hang out in the ocean, but the rocks were sharp and we had to go to Walmart to purchase water shoes.

Day 1 – July 23rd, 2021

We finished up our packing throughout the morning, and took our Byron and the luggage to my parents house around 10:00am. We headed to FAT and checked in our luggage, each couple brought a large suitcase and carry-on suitcase. The security lines were very long, and my parents barely made it with only 15 minutes to spare before boarding. We flew from Fresno to Vegas, had a 5 hour layover and our flight was delayed. We ate dinner at the PGA golf tour restaurant in the LAS airport. We obtained out wristbands for entrance into Hawaii before our flight, after showing our barcodes from Safe Travels on our phones. We uploaded photos of our vaccine records before the trip and they verified our actual cards to the uploads before giving us our wristbands. We arrived in Hawaii at 11pm Hawaii time, 2am PST.

Day 2 – July 24th, 2021

We started our morning with a breakfast reservation at Hula Grill, which is located directly above Duke’s Waikiki. The food was not amazing, but it was a nice place. After breakfast, we walked around the area but most shops weren’t open this early. We did get nice photos with the Banyan trees at the International Market Place.

After that we hung out at our hotel, and went to the infinity pool in the afternoon.

We continued to explore in the afternoon, and found the nearby food court, up the escalator near island vintage shaved ice. We had a “Shaka Boom” from Kokoro Cafe, which was a nice snack for the warm weather.

In the evening we headed to Tonkatsu Ginza Barin for our dinner reservation. Here was my Yelp review for our visit:

I had the Bairin Special Pork Tenderloin Katsu-Don and my husband had the specialty Kurobata. They only serve 10 of the specialty kurobata everyday, and we were still able to order one with our 5:30pm dinner reservation. We also ordered the beer that comes discounted with the specialty kurobata for $1.30 (discounted beer for the first drink only). Both of our orders were delicious! I loved the egg on my pork tenderloin katsu, and my husband enjoyed his dish. We loved the sesame dressing for the slaw. The servers were very nice. Make sure to make a reservation! This place only has a few tables, and when we arrived they had a sign that said they were doing reservations only and there wasn’t an option to walk in.  I also recommend checking out the video  on YouTube that Yellow Productions made on eating here.

Day 3 – July 25th, 2021

We started our morning by meeting in the front of our hotel at 7:10am. We were going to try and switch out breakfast plans to açaí bowls, but the place was closed, so we stuck with our original plan of eating at Kono’s. We walked to Kono’s Northshore and ordered our breakfast burritos. While waiting, I got pooped on by a pidgeon on my left thumb, but thankfully I was able to easily get cleaned with wipes. My parents’ burrito took a while but the burritos were good (but not amazing). I texted Kurt, our driver, that we would be a little late and wanted to change our pickup time to 8:15am. We got back to our hotel, went to go use the restroom, and came back down and met with Kurt. Kurt drove us to the Pearl Harbor memorial and dropped us off around 9am. We paid $6 to have our bag stored in a locker. Then we went to check out the gift shop, and then went to the museum. At 9:35am we were able to get in line for our 9:45am reservation. We made our reservation in advance, the month prior, on Recreation.gov for $1 each. They weren’t showing the film due to covid, so we went straight onto the boat. Once we arrived to the memorial for the USS Arizona, we walked around and saw what was left below of the ship. There was also a wall of the names of the lives that were lost, and the survivors who were now buried there now.

We were there for about 15 minutes, and then took a boat back. We got Brandon a shirt, and Dad Sue a hat at the gift shop. Then we took a 15 minute walk to the Aloha stadium swap meet. It was in the mid 80s and humid, but not bad yet. We paid for our entrance to the swap meet and turned left to check out the vendors. We got many souvenirs, including a matching dress and Hawaiian shirt for our luau. After spending some time shopping we started looking for a cool drink or shaved ice. We walked for a while and couldn’t find anything, and eventually turned back. We ended up getting some Thai iced tea, water, and spring rolls and felt better after that. My mom decided to stay seated at the table since the heat was getting to her. My dad was at a shop getting a ukulele. Joseph and I kept walking, and found the shaved ice that we had missed. We shared one and continued shopping. We got to one stand where they had shirts that were 7 for $20 and we ended up buying many souvenirs there. Then we met with Kurt at 1:10pm. He drove us back and took us through Chinatown and showed us some places to eat. We got back to the hotel and rested a bit, and then went to the food court at the Royal Hawaiian Center for lunch. We shared a loco moco burger and it was good. Then we walked over to Henry’s place and got ice cream. Joseph and I got the pineapple coconut ice cream, and my mom got the pineapple coconut sorbet. We determined that the sorbet had a fruitier taste, but both were very good. Then we went back to rest at the hotel. We met again around 6pm to go checkout ABC store #38 which is the largest one in the area. My mom and I got earrings, and I also got a bracelet. Then we headed over to Longs Drugs to check out their souvenirs. After, we went to RumFire in the hotel for drinks. I ordered a lava flow, and my mom and Joseph got a pina colada, and my dad got a longboard. We also ordered edamame and fried chicken with chips as snacks, they were good. We enjoyed sitting in a cabana by the ocean. 

Day 4 – July 26th, 2021

We started our morning early at Island Vintage Coffee, here was my yelp review:

We got in line at 6:25am and there was only a few people in front of us. I believe they started opening at 6am, even though the official hours say 6:30. By 6:30 there was a good amount of people arriving to get in line, so I’m glad we got there 5 minutes early. We ordered the island latte hot, the original acai bowl, and the haupia Moana bowl. We were able to get tables (there’s only about 10 or so small tables here), and waited about 15-20 mins or so to get our bowls.  They were both delicious, I loved the cream in the haupia Moana bowl. I loved the coffee, it was a little too sweet for my husband. We finished before 7, and there was already a significant line. I definitely recommend getting here before 6:30am.

We spent time after breakfast hanging out at our hotel, and then my mom and I did some shopping. We went to Duke’s for lunch, and checked in for our reservation. We asked for a table with a view, and they said it would take extra time, but we decided to wait. Thankfully we waited less than 5 minutes and were seated with a semi-view (mostly of the pool, but still nice). Joseph got the nachos with Kalua pork and I got the burger. We had to try the desert, which was a hula pie. We loved the food at Duke’s.

In the evening was our luau at Chief’s Luau. This luau is at a water park, which is located approximately 40 minutes from our area in Waikiki. Our pickup time was 4:20pm at the Ross by our hotel. I believe we arrived around 5:30pm to Wet N Wild Hawaii. When we arrived, there was a huge line, and I was worried about how long it would take to get in. Thankfully, since we had arranged transportation with Chief’s luau, they let us go through the line and directly in. After we arrived we got our tickets and table number, took a photo with some of the performers, picked up our welcome drink, and we were directed to our seats. We paid extra for the “Royal Experience”, and we were very glad we did because we had great seats. I would definitely recommend paying the extra money for this just for the view.

Day 5 – 7 – July 27th, 2021 through July 29th, 2021

I did not take detailed notes for these days, so the notes below are based off memories with help from reviewing the itinerary and photos.

We started our morning with breakfast at Eggs n’ Things, and then met up at Ross for pickup for the Polynesian Cultural Center. The Polynesian Cultural Center had various islands to visit with activities at each one along with some shows. We started off with taking the boat ride to the end, and then made our way back through each island. At the end of the day we went to a buffet, and then went to a show after that. The Polynesian Cultural center show, and Chief’s Luau had very different vibes from each other. PCC was more of a big performance, Chief’s Luau felt more intimate. Of our group of four, two of us preferred Chief’s Luau and the other two preferred PCC. I personally preferred Chief’s Luau.

On one of the evenings, there was a tsunami alert which was very concerning while staying in a hotel right on the water. But thankfully the alert ended up being called off.

The following day we did Iolani Palace which was cool to see, I enjoyed seeing the dresses there. We also learned a lot about the history there, which was sad.

After the Palace, we walked over to Walmart. We purchased multiple souvenirs here, including some food items such as a jar of jam. We waited a while for Kurt, and after he picked us up he took us to Rainbow Drive-in for Hawaiian food.

The following day was our Hi5 Hawaii tour. Here was my tripadvisor review:

We had our tour on Thursday, July 29th 2021 with Kevin and Eric. Our tour started off with a lei greeting from Kevin. We told him about all of the things that we wanted to see which included the dole plantation, North shore, snorkeling, photos near kualoa ranch, and the Byodo-in temple. Kevin was able to quickly come up with the perfect itinerary for our day. We started off with a visit to Tantalus Lookout. We got some amazing photos from these beautiful views of Waikiki. Next we went to the Byodo-in temple. Kevin came with us and gave us our Malasadas here, they were yummy. Keep in mind that it is a $5 fee per person to enter here. Next was photos with the mountains near Kualoa ranch. These were taken at a park right by China man’s hat. Next we went to the Banzai pipeline and took some photos in the water. After that, we went to eat lunch at the north shore food trucks across from Shark’s cove. We ate at the Aji limo truck, I had the teriyaki chicken which was delicious. After lunch, we grabbed snorkels from the truck and walked across the street to Shark’s Cove. Water shoes are a must here, and they did have bathrooms and a small changing area. Snorkeling at Shark’s cove was the highlight of our day, we loved it. After that, we went on a quick visit to see the turtles, and we got to see some turtles in the water. But it was very warm, and we were glad we were only here for a short time. Lastly, we went to the Dole plantation. There was a long line in front, and we went to the back and shared a dole whip. We got back to our hotel around 5pm. Throughout the trip we loved chatting with Kevin who was very personable and easy to talk to, and who gave us information about the island throughout the whole trip. We booked with Hi5 after seeing them mentioned many times on the Hawaii Facebook groups that I joined in preparation for the trip. We are very glad that we decided to do a private tour instead of a bus tour. Thanks so much to Kevin and Eric for an amazing day!! We do recommend booking a trip with Hi5, and you will love Kevin if you get him as your guide!

Day 8 – July 30th, 2021

We woke up early, around 5:45am, since today was golf day.  My dad brought us up coffee around 6:20am.  Kurt arrived around 6:30am, and Joseph made it down by around 6:40am.  They headed over on the 40 minute drive to Ewa Golf Club.  I headed to my parents room (822) around 6:55am, and we checked in to our Southwest flight at 7:05am.  My mom and I just hung out for a bit in the room, while I listened to the Costume College lectures that started early that morning at 6am (9am PST).  Around 8:30am, we walked over to the Moana Surfrider to check out the lobby.  It had a beautiful banyan tree in its courtyard.  Then we walked over to an ABC store to look at face masks, but they didn’t have the best selection.  We headed over to Ross since that store opened early.  We looked around, but didn’t find anything new to buy.  We headed to Duke’s lane marketplace, which is multiple stands that sell various souvenirs and purchased a few souvenirs.

Here was a sunset view from our hotel room.

Day 9 – July 31st, 2021

Kurt picked us up around 4:30am to go to the airport, he also gifted us with chocolate covered macadamia nuts.  When we arrived we had to go through the agriculture inspection, and decided to check in all of our bags.  We were able to get through security pretty fast, and lined up at Starbucks.  We had originally planned to leave our hotel at 5am, but I’m glad we ended up doing 4:30 instead since there were still a good amount of people at the airport that early in the morning. 

Overall thoughts on Oahu–we went during a very crowded time, and it was hot at times as well. Some thoughts we had included our preference towards Playa del Carmen, which doesn’t have as many crowds, has all-inclusive options, and is much less expensive. This was a good trip, but we aren’t in a rush to go back to Oahu. We would like to try visiting the other islands.