My husband and I, married 6 years, no kids yet?
Took our first Hawaiin adventure! We spent 16 nights in Paradise, stayed on 3 Islands, Oahu, Kauai, and Maui, with a day trip to the Big Island,
What an incredibly romantic and exciting trip we had!!!

Day 1 ? fly first class from NY JFK to Honolulu (connection in LA) first class was a savior for this long day of flying!
Arrive in Honolul at 6pm, greeted by our driver from Royal Pacific Limo, with a Lei
Check in at Hilton Hawaiin Village, in the Ali?I Tower, we had an ocean view room, with views of Diamond Head as well. Room was very nice, and clean. Typical hotel room, nice though. The Ali?I Tower leaves much to be desired in my opinion..they charge like $15 or something for breakfast, continental breakfast at that, continental breakfast is usually included in the extra price you are paying for concierge. Not here, we knew this though, so we didn?t care, we had breakfast elsewhere.
Our first night, ew were exhausted from the long day of travel, and by the time we checked in and freshened up, it was after 8pm. We went to Tropics café and had a few appetizers and Mai Tai?s good food, great view for our first night in Paradise.

Day 2 - get up at 5 am, breakfast at Tapa Café at the Hilton, buffet was excellent and freash, as we were the first one?s there?lol. Pick up rental car at discvery bay (Alamo) convertible, drive to Pearl Harbor..now, I was one of those folks asking questions about Pearl Harbor, I wasn?t enthused about going, I was doing this for my husband, but I must say that it was incredibly touching, a very moving experience. Watching the film and going on the Arizona memorial was an experience I will never forget, and very glad I went! We got there at 8am, our tickets were for the 9:15 am show. Not bad of a wait at all.
We left Pearl Harbor at about 10:30 am, and headed for Central Oahu, stopped at the Dole Plantation, very cute. And, central Oahu is beautiful.. a far cry from Waikik, I really felt like I was in the Hawaii I expected now. We then drove to the North Shore, and then all the way around the winward side back to Wakiki. We stopped to look at a couple of beaches on the North Shore? Beautiful! The water was so blue and rough, which made it look awesome crashing off the lava rock. We loved watching the surfers, so cool! We were surprised as we kept driving that we couldn?t find a restaurant for lunch. It was starting to go on late afternoon, and I was starving as we hadn?t eaten since 5:30 am, so we drove back to Wakiki , dropped off the car at Alamo and walked back to the Hilton. We just had some fruit to hold me over as it was close to dinner time already.
Dinner was at House without a Key at the Halekulani. What a great restaurant! We had a table outside and what a spot to see our first Hawaiin sunset!!! Wow!!!! We had sushi appetizers, Mahi Mahi for dinner and Mac nut pie for dessert! Tropical itch was the drink I had (2 of them J and dh tried some Hawaiin Beer (Kona Ale) which he liked a lot, and drank often through out the rest of the trip.
House without a key was a great restaurant, and thank you for recommending it here on these boards!!!

Day 3 ? wake up at 4 am?.. breakfast at a local diner on the corner, I think it was something like the Wailema?. Something like that, anyway great breakfast for very cheap. We were picked up by Polynesian Tours at 5:30 am, and off to the airport to fly to the Big Island for our day tour, mostly focused on the Volcano National Park.
We arrived at the Big Island and were greeted by Matthew, our tour guide, he was so nice and so knowledgeable, I loved hearing about the Hawaiin culture. Or first stop was at a beautiful park in Hilo, omg, it was breathtaking, I cant remember the name though (duh) then we stopped at Rainbow Falls, we loved it. This was our first waterfall experience in Hawaii, we were quite excited
Drove on to the Volcanos National Park, had lunch at the buffet restaurant there, okay?not great, but we didn?t care, we weren?t there for the food. We were seeing things that day that we could never imagine!
We walked on the lava flow, it was amazing. It made me have a whole new respect for land, and the power of it. There was no lava flowing that day, I was a bit bummed as originally that was the only reason I wanted to book the day tour, but once on the Big Island and on the Volcano, I didn?t care, it was all so amazing.
Another spot on the volcano had sulfur coming up out of the ground, it was amazing (again)
Lef the volcano, stopped at an Orchid green house, beautiful, bought some knick knack things there, bath gel..etc.. got some great close up pics of gorgeous flowers. Then we went to the Mauna Loa Mac adamia nut factory, we had a ball there trying the samples, so yummy! Of course my husband wanted to buy everything there.. we bought a few different mac nuts, choc covered, toffee and choc covered.. yummy!!!!
Flew back to Honolulu, not as tired as we expected to be, I guess we were so pumped from the exciting day we had? we were really loving Hawaii by this point. It keeps getting better every minute!
We had a late dinner at Village Steak and Seafood at the Hilton, very good food, nice décor (we actually ate inside.. not normal for Hawaii!)

Day 4 ? wake up early again (as we are still on NY time byt this point?..) went for a run, wow, I went all the way to Diamond head and back to the Hilton. Really saw all of the Waikiki beach strip this way, it was great.
I liked Waikiki, although it seems between a cross of NYC and Vegas, although way cleaner and way more beautiful!
This was our last day on Oahu and only full day there to relax, so we enjoyed the beach at the Hilton, it was great, way less crowded than the rest of Waikiki beach and a very wide stretch of sand. We had lunch at the Pizza place at the Hilton, it was great (coming from a NY?er!!) and our first Lappert?s ice-cream cone! Omg, we were hooked, Kauai Pie ice-cream is the best!!! We spent the rest of the day on the beach.
Dinner was at Duke?s canoe club, food was great, hula pie for dessert, oh my goodness, that was yummy! We each had our own, not a smart idea, they are huge, I ate way too much the sunset was gorgeous from Duke?s, however it was kind of hot that night to be eating outside, no trade winds. But , we survived just fine, we were in Hawaii afterall? drinks at Dukes were very good, and so was the service, I bought a Dukes tank top on the way out.
It was raining when we were walking back to the Hilton, so we kept stopping in all the stores.
We had a lot of fun, I forgot to say on the way to Dukes, there was a huge rainbow across the sky? wow, Hawaii is paradise.

Day 5- wake up at 6am, and go running again, it?s so nice to run along the beach and along the shops in Waikiki, much better scenery then the same ol park I run in every day at home?.
We had breakfast at the Kalia Tower café that morning, I had a spa frittata, it was in a wrap, very cool , and very good. Dh found his new love of Portuguese sausage?. Lol, had it a few times during this trip, and now at home wants to find it!

We then packed up and were picked up by Royal Pacific Limo to head to the airport to fly to Kauai.

our overall impression of Oahu was that the North shore was beautiful and central oahu, wakiki was also beautiful but busy (as if you didnt know that) we knew this so we liked it as this was what we expectred, and I can say I liked it more than i expected becasue it is often said that it is NYC on a beach...not exactly... I live in NYC, and there are no tropical flowers, palm trees, and gorgeous pacific ocean here!!! lol, Wakiki is beautiful,. I admit that some of the back roads farthur from teh ocean looked a little shoddy but whatever,to be expected.
we were very ready to get to Kauai though! and for good reason, we fell in love with Kauai, and never wanted to leave!!!

Part II of trip report to follow soon???.. stay tuned for Kauai and Maui !

now I know why every one's trip reports always have a bunch of ?? in them, it is because an apostrophe comes in as a ? when you type it up in word first...geez, that's silly!

lasjas, Do you mind saying what kind of rate you got at the Hilton? And, which tower would you reserve NEXT visit? Thanks, OSB.

Lasjas, what a wonderful, engaging trip report! Felt like I was running down the beach with you.......... It is truly an amazing, charming place! Glad you had such a great time!

Thanks ALOT! I just printed you trip report in my word file for when we go to Oahu next Sept.

You rock.

Steve
Maryland

wow Stever.. I am flattered, the rest of my trip report should be even better, since the trip kept getting better and better!

we paid $244 for the Ali'i Tower ocean view, that was a pretty good discount, but I would stay in the Rainbow Tower next time, in an ocean view room (direct ocean view) that would be so cool as the Rainbow Tower is right on the ocean, may be the oldest building, but who cares, the location and views are best!

Thanks for this report, lasjas..great one indeed. We are going to stay on Oahu for 5 days in May before heading to Kauai. How did you decide to use Polynesian tours for your trip to The Big Island? How expensive was it, etc? I really want to go to the Big Island one day and can't decide whether to do it on our own....or to do it with a tour from either Oahu or Kauai.
Glad to hear your report about House without a Key. I have wanted to dine there but, afraid it was more hype than anything.
Can't wait to read the rest of your report!

lasjas,
Thanks for the info,I will try to get a Rainbow direct OV! I too, am eagerly awaiting the rest of your report! OSB.

icee2 - the Big Island day tour was about $500 for the two of us, it didnt really cost any more than if we would have done it on our own.. the price includes 2 round trip airline tickets, and then you dont have to rent a car.

I am not much for one on tours, I hate having to go by someone else's schedule, but.... in this case, I think it was well worth it, and the best way to see alot of the island in a short time.
I felt that if we did it on our own, we would have wasted a lot of time figuring stuff out. and I would have had to research hours more before we went.
The day went quickly and was not boring for even a second!

Not only was House without a key great foods, great service and great view, but it was also not expensive at all, we couldnt beleive how low the bill was, I had 2 drinks, dh had 3 drinks, and we each had our own appetizer, entree and dessert and coffee, and the bill was only like $110 plus tip.

Do you have the name of the tour company you used on the Big Island? Also, if you do a "google" search on the internet for Portuguese sausage, you will find companies that take orders. I've done this several times with no problems.

Does anyone know what the beautiful park in Hilo is that lasjas is refering to? Is it the botanical gardens?

there was a bay at the park (possibly Hilo bay.. sorry I forgot the names!)
and there was a beautiful Japanese designed little gazebo... just to help someone else answer your question of what the name of the park is...
it was pretty close to Rainbow falls also...