Aloha fellow Hawaii fans. We had the pleasure of returning to Oahu to get hitched at the end of June and then off to the Big Island for a first time visit for honeymoon. Sorry for the late report but hopefully some of this will be useful for some fodorites future trip planning. Not my usual storytelling format, just a quickie TR with some cheers & jeers.

Oahu (6/24-7/1)

Dining:
Group Dinner: Outrigger Shorebird – we love this place for a small family dinner, but service was definitely lacking and very uncoordinated for large parties (25guests). As usual the grill your own style food was good and nice views though. As long as it's just the family or a few in your party, a definite worthwhile dinner or breakfast stop.

Tiki's Bar & Grill (Lanai): Always a fun stop for sunset dinner or pupus. Decent prices, LOVE the kalua pork nachos, live music.

L&L (fast food): The food is just okay, big portions and cheap.

Marriott Ko'Olina Beach Villas: Breakfast Buffet – a typical price of about $12 but worthwhile. Good selection, the staff was warm and friendly and of course a gorgeous view of the beach & lagoon nearby.

Activities/Beaches:
Lanikai Beach: Always a favorite. Beautiful white sand, calm turquoise waters…great swimming for all ages. A 'bit' of snorkeling.

Snorkeling at Ko'Olina: We snorkeled in lagoons 3 & 4. They were both good snorkeling but lagoon 3 by far had more fish and better variety. Would snorkel here again.

Kualoa Ranch Movie Tour: This was a fun distraction but have experienced better tours on Oahu (namely the Alii Mac Nut Farm tour). It's mostly an interesting ride on an old school bus through pretty landscape. There are some beautiful views and interesting stories about movies and history of the area. The narrator points out specific sites where various movies were filmed. Having driven past the Kualoa Mountain range so many times, it was kind of neat to be in the middle of that beautiful valley.

Magic of Polynesia Show: The grandparents took the kiddies (ages 8 & 13) to this show and they all loved it, especially the kids. From their description, it was a mix of glitz, Hawaiian entertainment, and high tech magic. It was pricey, but there are coupons available in the entertainment book.

Wedding Site: Okay, just thought I'd throw this in here for the occasional poster looking for wedding info on Oahu. We got married at the gorgeous Lanikuhonua estate in Ko'Olina. This is right next to the JW Marriott and has a beautiful oceanfront setting, secluded beaches and lush palm covered lawns. This is a location only venue, meaning you must book catering, coordinators, rentals yourself but the site is amazing and well worth it.


Accommodations:
Punaluu Beach House: We stayed at a friends beachfront home in Punaluu. This is a great little area if you enjoy access to many parts of the island. The North Shore (Turtle Bay is 15mins away), Waikiki (45mins), Kailua & Lanikai (35mins) are all within a 45 minute drive. Be careful when choosing a rental in the area, but we love it here. Our property was literally on the beach, you walked out the door, stepped past the seawall and you're in the water. There are several properties on this swimable beach (Hale Aha Beach), including beach cottages and condo rentals (Pats at Punaluu). There is a little neighborhood store you could walk too and the town of Laie and the Polynesian Cultural Center is only about 10 minutes away.

Marriott Ko'Olina Beach Club: We stayed here on the wedding night. Beautiful grounds, friendly staff, immaculate and new rooms. We loved it. We stayed in a 1bdr. Suite and got a discount through our AAA club. The room was very spacious with a good size dining room/living area and a kitchen with washer/dryer. The bath was large with a big shower in the main bath area and a large tub in the separate vanity/dressing area. With all the great amenities, the beach & snorkeling lagoons, 2 pool areas and at least 2 hot tubs…we'd love to stay here again. If you reserve early, the little cabanas are only $15 for the whole day and were worth it. At this time, there is a basic grill outdoor restaurant on site, but that was all and no room service, so for more dining options you'd have to go down the way to the JW Marriott Ihilani.

Well, that sums up our Oahu portion of the trip. Will follow up with the BI portion in a while.

Thanks for the report and congratulations!

I have Marriott points and would like to know if you'd recommend a weeks' stay at either the Ihilani or the Ko'Olina?

thanks for the congrats highflyer.

If I had points for a stay at either I'd jump on it Personally, I would prefer the Marriott Beach Club over the Ihilani only because it is newer, including it's rooms & decor. Also the pools are larger and it seemed the lagoons 3 & 4 were less crowded. I believe they have a shuttle that goes between the two resorts though.

Great advice, thanks! I definitely prefer newer and less crowded.

Now I just need the airfare!

And now for...the Big Island (7/1-7/7)

Dining:

Volcano Village: Kilauea Lodge Restaurant – As recommended on here, this was a great choice to start off the Honeymoon and the best meal of our trip. The food was great, DH had Seafood Mauna Kea (see their website for menus) and I chose Duck L'Orange. Both meals were delicious, but the duck was the hands down winner of the two. We couldn't get enough of it! Dinner for 2 with drinks and a split dessert was almost $100. Be sure to make reservations.

Volcano Village: Kiawe Kitchen – This one of the only places left open after we got back from viewing the lava flow at night but we were pleasantly surprised. We had had pepperoni pizza and cesar salad, both tasty.

Kohala: Coast Grille at Hapuna Prince Resort – Another good choice. Dinner was good and fair portions, but pricey ($100 for 2 dinners, salad and a drink each), but there we had a beautiful view overlooking Hapuna beach and the service was good.

Kohala: Pavillion at Manta Ray Pointe in Mauna Kea Resort – Food was good, but not worth the price, which seemed to be even more expensive than the Hapuna Prince.

Kohala: Oceanfront Luau at Mauna Kea – Typical luau food and show. We've had better food at other Luaus (such as Paradise Cove Luau on Oahu).

Kona: Pancho & Lefty's Cantina – Good mexican food & portions, fun atmosphere in the middle of Kona Village and decent prices.

Activities/Beaches:

Kilauea Volcano – we enjoyed exploring during our 2 night stay in Volcano village. Since we had accommodations in the village, we were able to explore Thurton's Lava Tube and Chain of Craters Road in the morning, going back to our cottage to relax afterward. Then we went back to view the lava flow at night that evening. It would have been a long hike to get a closer view of the flow, so just drove to the end of Chain of Craters road and took a 40 minute or so walk to the viewing area for a distant view of the steam as the lava entered the ocean and we also enjoyed the red glow of the lava flowing down the mountain/volcano side.

Note, it gets very crowded here and cars are parked for what seemed like at least a mile long, then there is still the ½ mile walk to the first viewing area.

Volcano Winery – just a little place to stop for wine tasting. Worthwhile to load up on some unique flavors of local wine for your overnight stay in Volcano Village.

Kohala – Luau at Mauna Kea – as mentioned above in the dining section, this was a decent way to spend an evening. Perhaps because we've been to several and are used to seeing the same thing, there was nothing that seemed to stand out in particular about the show or food.

Hapuna Beach – Okay, it's crazy but by the end of our 2 week stay we started to have our fill of the beach and spent most of our time at the Hapuna's pool instead. The beach was gorgeous though, such a long, wide stretch of golden sand and the blue/turquoise ocean was beautiful! We viewed one of the best sunsets during our trip here.

SeaQuest Hawaii Snorkel Tour – One word – Awesome! This was one of the best activity tours we've been on. We took the morning snorkel which included two stops, Honaunau Bay at Place of Refuge and then Captain Cooks Monument. Our captain (think his name was Randy?) was a great narrator and knew so much about the area and it's history. The snorkeling was unreal, especially at Captain Cooks Monument…we've snorkeled at all of the 4 major islands and this was by far the best. At Captain Cooks there was an abundant variety of fish, all so many beautiful colors just swimming inches away at times. The coral at both sites was also colorful and interesting. There were only 7 of us including the captain on the boat and though it was small, it was roomy enough to hold everyone's bags, gear and still have plenty of room to be comfortable during the fun ride. DH, who normally has problems with motion sickness took some Dramamine, so he was fine.

Accommodations:
Volcano Teapot Cottage – I'm so glad we found this wonderful b&b cottage. It was perfect for the 2 of us. The property was spotlessly cleaned with comfortable furnishings and there was a lush rainforest type of garden filled with trails leading throughout the property. Of course the highlight of this stay was the outdoor Jacuzzi/hot tub in a large gazebo. We enjoyed relaxing in it our first night while sipping our Volcano wine.

The kitchen was stocked with just about anything we needed to make breakfast each morning; Portuguese Sausage, pancakes, eggs, all sorts of coffee and juices. Also each morning the owners brought a plate of fresh fruit and pastries. We highly recommend this place for anyone looking for a private, quaint and relaxing stay.

Hapuna Prince Resort – We wanted to end our trip on a relaxing and semi-luxurious stay so we booked rooms here via priceline for under $200 per night. We only had a tiny peek-a-boo view of the ocean on the ground level, but the room was large, comfortable, very clean and had nice amenities including a mini-fridge.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the pool and Jacuzzi and even rented one of the large cabanas for a day. ($45 per day, includes an ice chest with bottled water and ice.) You must be there by 8am too book one of these. The poolside café had good sized, tasty hamburgers & fries.

We splurged one morning on room service for breakfast and it was delivered timely, hot and the food was good. Although at $50 was a one-time experience for us.

We enjoyed our time on the Big Island and it was pretty much as we expected it…uncrowded, with a variety of natural views. We would probably return here at sometime with the kids so they could experience the volcano, but overall, having now had the pleasure of visiting all 4 of the major Hawaiian Islands, Oahu still holds the first place in our heart. Followed closely by Kauai…which if we're lucky, we may be able to return to for an anniversary trip

Nice TR

GG, best wishes on the hitching and the honeymoon!!
Thanks for your trip report, and rave revies of the Teapot Cottage and BI snorkeling trip. Bookmarking for next BI trip.

I share your love of Oahu. Have never been to Ko Olina, so many thanks for info on that area as well.

congrats gg! Actually someone posted a question recently about the Punaluu area, you might want to answer them about that.

Lanikuhonoua is a magical place. Much more than most people know!

Thank you both. CaliNurse, The Teapot cottage was perfect to start off our stay, I found out about it on tripadvisor reviews, all of them positive.

MelissaHI, I did see that post and replied to it. I certainly agree about Lanikuhonua, the best sunsets on the island.

ggrtist --
a very meaningful TR as we are headed to HI in less than 4 weeks and we are staying at Marriott Ko'olina while in Oahu and at the Hapuna Prince while on BI!

Can't wait!
Debi