On our way home in 2 weeks we fly from Kauai to Honolulu at 9:30 am and don't have to fly home until 6 pm.

Can anyone recommend an 8 hour itinerary for Honolulu?

You could try visiting the Pearl Harbor Arizona memorial or try driving around the island.

You may be able to change your interisland flight for a nominal fee, we were able to...I think it was $15 pp.
If you can change, you can spend more time on that wonderful island of Kauai...and even go by the Tip Top Cafe for some mighty fine pancakes!!
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Depends on what you like to do. Like John D says, the Pearl Harbor thing is right there (sort of) so you could do that or visit the USS Missouri. Afterward you can squeeze in shopping at Ala Moana, check out Chinatown, or try touring Iolani Palace and/or Bishop Museum. Try eating at some of the places mentioned on this board, in between attractions.

I wouldn't go around the island, though--that would take too long and it's risky depending on traffic.

We had a 12 hour layover in HNL, I made it that long by leaving Kauai earlier (~9am) than originally planned. The inter-island flights are pretty open and they will (usually) let you fly standby for anytime if you call them the day before or arrange it during your check-in. As noted, you could also plan to fly out later and avoid the long layover at HNL.

Two things to consider are: you will have all your luggage with you, and is it worth it to rent a car for that amount of time? Considering we had 12 hours, I rented an SUV and we drove up and along the North Shore (didn't make it to Turtle Cove), and back down to Diamond Head/Waikiki Beach. We had plenty of time to stop at numerous places and beaches, and still got back to the airport with time to spare and sit around (this was on a Monday). The cost of the car rental was a rip.

The 6 hours you have (remember airport check-in time) is plenty to take a bus/car down to Waikiki and visit the beach and shop -- provided you don't have a LOT of luggage, and you would probably feel a bit silly carrying obvious luggage around town.

Do you mean that our luggage doesn't get checked through from Kauai to our final destination?

You probably can check your baggage right through to your mainland stop. This also means you won't have to check in separately for your mainland flight and can get to the airport maybe an hour before your second flight.

Since you are arriving early you could rent a car and head to Pearl Harbor/Arizona Memorial. Afterwards a drive to the North Shore would be nice, with a stop for lunch (loads of places to chose from) and for shave ice.

Rush hour traffic INTO town from the North Shore (towards the airport, HNL) will be minimal (terrible in the other direction) so you shouldn't have a hard time getting back to the airport for your flight. If you head instead towards Diamond Head/Waikiki for the day be sure to allow extra time to get to the airport since you will encounter rush hour traffic through town (allow at least an extra hour).

Sorry, but I tend not to think about checking luggage through, so if you haven't any carry-on's I guess you would have 0 to worry about >< . They've taught me NEVER to check luggage through when a change of carriers is involved, but on this upcoming trip we'll be flying direct.

BTW -- there are NOT many places to eat on the North Shore around Waimea and Sunset (and nothing really good that we had or could see). In that area, the best thing is to go over to a small town that's over to the left when traveling North toward Waimea (I don't remember the name, but it's billed as another one of those "historic" towns, and is well past the Dole plantation). Nice town with a yacht harbor and restaurants.

hey, ho
22 days to ~gt;

You must be thinking of Haleiwa which has nice places to eat. There is also a place right across from sunset beach. Downstairs is burgers, upstairs is fancy.... the name slips me now. And a Brazilian place I have been meaning to check out near the chinaman statue.

DB must be recalling Haleiwa town-many nice places to dine-Think I might try Haleiwa Joe's on the terrace by the Marina. Have a gander at this link for more ideas:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...5/TR233563.DTL

Yes, Haleiwa sounds right.

islandmom,

I think you maybe referring to the Paradise (something) at which we did eat (it's Brazilian based, but our waitress was from Belarus -- nu ladna), and we took a photo of our daughter next to the statue. The place is essentially a fiberglass shed with a sharp gravel floor (wear shoes) and picnic tables, and the kitchen is an old lunch truck that no longer runs (so they gerry-rigged this "tent" around it). The chicken and salad were good, but it was all kind of dry and over-priced (we chalked it up to location). THEN we drove to over to Haleiwa, and wished we hadn't just eaten.

Some memory is returning,

Paradise X isn't all fiberglass, it's mainly a corrugated tin quonset with some fiberglass sheets sealing some of the holes (probably experienced some bad winters). They were doing a pretty good business, customers coming and going (some surfers), but not much else around either.

That Haleiwa Joe's isn't good. I would pick Pizza Bob's.

I would suggest taking the Arizona Missouri trip. I is a very personal and emotional trip. I would not miss it.

I would head over to Ionlani Palace for a tour, see about tickets before you go. I think you have to pick up there but just find out precedure before you go. If you are there on a Friday you can listen to the Royal Hawaiian Band at lunch. If not head to China town eat lunch and then get the finest inexpensive leis on any islands. Still have time? Pick up some souveniers at the Ala Moana, much more to buy than Kauai.

I would not want to be out in sun and on lines at the Arizona on a last day. I also think it is a waste to skip on Hawaiian history when you have the chance stopping off on Oahu like that. I also would not skip over the North Shore after you long party with nature on Kauai. No offense here I love Kauai and the North Shore of Oahu just think I would want something different at the end of two weeks.

Having said that though I do think any traveling on this last day is so fruitless. If you are on an interisland flight chances are you can just hop on a later flight. Last days are always stressful when I am going, why not just spend some extra time on the beach on Kauai?

I think the rules on interisland standby has changed. We arrived early at the airport and couldn't get on an earlier flight unless we paid a change fee. The HA agent said they had just changed the rules that week (this was in April) and she agreed it didn't make any sense since the earlier flight was only going out half full. So we just ended up waiting an extra hour.