Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Hawaii First Timer

My husband and I took a week long trip to Oahu as an extension of a first anniversary celebration. Our anniversary is in June and we did drive down to the Outer Banks for a long weekend, but we just had our first baby in February so we wanted to wait a little bit before taking a longer trip without her.

Day 1 (Sept. 4) - Boarded flight at Logan Airport (Boston) in the early morning. Landed in Denver three and a half hours later, had a layover that was about an hour, and then hopped a 7 hour flight to Honolulu. It was 3:15pm Hawaii time when we landed. We checked into our hotel (Hilton Hawaiian Village) on the far end of Waikiki - They upgraded our mountainview room to an oceanview for free without even asking, so I was happy! We had a rental car until Monday morning, but we tired from the trip so we just roamed around the grounds of the hotel and watched the Friday night fireworks show from our balcony.

Day 2 (Sept. 5) - Got some breakfast at the Wailana Coffee House (recommendation from someone here!) across the street. Hubs had Irish Breakfast and some coffee while I had coconut pancakes and some guava nectar - Everything was great and very affordable. I had printed out some driving directions from a user here and we decided to start with the Mini Circle Island Tour. First stop: Diamond Head. Got there almost right as it opened, made the climb, and then headed back to the car. Back on the highway we stopped at a marked Scenic Lookout. Next stop: Hanauma Bay. We weren't planning on snorkeling but it was so hot that we decided to do it and we had a great time around the reefs. Then we hit another scenic lookout before stopping at Halona Blowhole which overlooks Sandy Beach. Next stop was the Makapu'u Trail that overlooks Rabbit Island and the Makapu'u Lighthouse - Got some great pictures but I thought I was going to collapse from the climb after doing Diamond Head that morning. Saw Koko Crater on the way. We were pooped after that, so we skipped the Waimanalo Bay and Bellows Beach area, continuing right to the Nuuanu Pali Lookout. We went to bed early (by Hawaii time) that night.

Day 3 (Sept. 6) - Had breakfast at IHOP, nothing spectacular but cheap eats nonetheless. Decided to do the Circle Island Tour this time with the first stop being Kailua and Lanikai beaches which we chose to skip. We continued through to Kaneohe and our first stop was the Haiku Gardens, followed by the Byodo In Temple which we loved! Took the Kamehameha highway along the coast and stopped at: Macadamia Nut Farm Outlet, Chinaman's Hat, Kualoa Ranch (we did not do a tour because the next one wasn't for two hours), and Laie Point. We also decided to skip the Polynesian Cultural Center, Makaekahana State Recreation Area, and the shrimp trucks in Kahuku (PACKED and Hubs wasn't hungry). We did stop at Sunset Beach and Ehukai Beach (no waves which I expected). We took a left at Pupukea Beach (Shark's Cove) and took the trail to Heiau for the nice view of Waimea Bay. Continued on the highway and passed the Bay looking for Laniakea Beach (Turtle Beach). We thought we had found it so we got out and went for a nice swim (no turtles), but when we got back on the road we realized we had stopped a little early. I never would have noticed the turtles on the beach if it weren't for all the tourists standing around what looked to be a rock with the cameras clicking. We pulled over and I got some great shots of some basking turtles. Took Highway 99 back to Honolulu and passed the Dole Plantation (we didn't stop) and all the pineapple fields. Had lunch on the hotel grounds at the Tropics Bar and Grill. Hubs had Furikake & Beer Battered Fish n Chips and I had Italian Sausage & Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza.

Day 4 (Sept. 7) - We rented bicycles and rode up to the Punchbowl Memorial. It was rough and took us almost four hours because I was being a slow Sally and walked a lot of the way (Oops!). Had lunch at Onolicious Dog at the hotel when we got back. Hubs had a Kahuna Dog and I had a Hula Dog both with their So Ono Relish (mango and pineapple relish) and they were SO good! We just roamed around Waikiki the rest of the day.

Day 5-7 (Sept. 8-Sept. 10) - We mostly relaxed around the hotel grounds and Waikiki during these days. We ate breakfast from the ABC stores to save some money and one night we ate at Senor Frogs. We were going to fly to Kauai but figured we would save more cash by just lying on the beach and relaxing. I also started school (online) on Tuesday so I was doing some homework on vacation, too.

Day 8 (Sept. 11) - We were leaving that night so we decided to rent a car for the day and check out of the hotel at 8am. We drove back up to the Banzai Pipeline and saw some nice waves, lots of surfers were out. Stopped at Pupukea Beach and went snorkeling for a bit. Took a short trip up to Sunset Beach to go to Ted's Bakery for some garlic shrimp, an Ahi burger, and three slices of Haupia pie (the Chocolate Macadamia was my favorite). Then we drove back to Laniakea Beach and saw two sea turtles, one which was Brutus who is the oldest turtle and the first turtle they documented basking on the beach. We then drove into Haleiwa to look around and we ended up stopping at Matsumoto's for some Shave Ice and the owner was actually being interviewed by a reporter so the camera crew was out front. They took video of Hubs and I slurping our ice and asked us how we liked it. We drove out to the Dole Plantation just to look around because it was closing down and then headed to the airport a little early. I did some last minute shopping at the terminal and we waited around for our 10pm flight back home.

You can see pictures on my Facebook, there are three sets because I took so many
1) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=57b1c5a80d
2) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=46ce40379c
3) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...5&l=d4734641b6