Oahu Fall 2009 - 1st visit! City/beach suggestions?
 

Been reading many helpful Hawaii posts, thanks everybody!

Our budget is about $250 a night. I would so appreciate any suggestions of cities or areas of Oahu we should look into or hotels you like.

We're planning our first trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 15th anniversary! We can take about 2 weeks in Oct or Nov 2009. We'd like to see some friends who live in Kailua on Oahu so we thought we might stay on Oahu the whole vacation.

This is the ultimate Hawaii wish list of a first-timer city girl - hopefully it will make some sense! =)

- See some beautiful beaches
- Soak in some natural beauty and see some rainforesty stuff!
- I'm no hiker, but we both love to walk. More natural beauty!
- Stay somewhere a little off the beaten path and get a local feel for Hawaii
- Be able to walk to the beach from hotel/rental
- Being from Southern California, we'd love a break from the crowds. I'm assuming that means staying in Honolulu or Waikiki is out ...
- Quieter, laid back hotel. Kids are fine though - happy noise is different than car horns.
- A driving trip or two (saved Dusty's driving tour suggestions - thanks!)
- 2/3 relaxing with our new friend Natural Beauty and 1/3 luau, historic/cultural stuff, and city sights
- Don't need a hotel with restaurant or continental breakfast, although those would be a plus.
- Our kids are great to travel with so this is only our second trip without them. I'd really love to go somewhere that I probably wouldn't go if I had the kids with me. Somewhere with a lot of artwork or breakable stuff or lots of placards to read would do the trick!
- To anyone who is familiar with California, my favorite coastal city is Big Sur and my husband's is probably Santa Barbara.

Thanks for reading! =)

You won't run out of things to do on Oahu.

But, with two weeks, you have time for up to 3 islands.

So you should spend some time on one or two other islands. One week on Oahu is plenty for most people.

The only hotels outside of Waikiki are fairly expensive & may be out of your budget. Turtle Bay Resort, JW Marriott & Kahala Hotel & Resort are about it for hotels & resorts outside of Waikiki.

There are many condos & beach houses not in Waikiki on www.vrbo.com Most require at least 5 nights. You can find a lot of good deals for all islands.

Kailua/Lanikai area is nice. North Shore area is nice. Those would be my choices outside of Waikiki.

Lots of info including sites with free brochures. Get the brochures & then decide what islands you want to see.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...trip-to-hi.cfm

My sister lives in Honolulu and she raved about Fodor's new Hawaii book. This is not a plug for Fodor's!

I would recommend the Arizona Memorial, the Bishop Museum, and Iolani Palace if you like history.

I'd definately take a trip to the North Shore to see the beautiful surfing beaches like Sunset, Pipeline, Waimea Bay.

A lot of people pu-pu Waikii but I love it. Check out China town too.

But really no matter what you do - remember you'll be in Paradise so it's all good. :)

With 3 weeks I would also recommend taking in at least one other island. They are all so different. We used vrbo to rent a house for our family's trip next Sept. They have many choices with a variety of locations and price ranges. I would highly recommend staying in Kailua or Lanikai. You can easily drive to other places ,including Waikiki, from there. Kailua beach is wonderful!

Agree about Kailua and Lanikai -- gorgeous beaches!!

Thanks for the helpful comments. You got us thinking about seeing a second island now.

We're looking into vrbo.com rentals for Kailua. And maybe a package deal for a couple of nights in Waikiki to see the Pearl Harbor memorial and some of the city sights.

Bought the Fodor's Hawaii and Oahu Revealed books last night. =)

You can get from Kailua to Pearl Harbor very easily, so dont need hotel in Waikiki. Add to your list the swap meet at the Stadium on Wednesday and Saturday - just fun souvenirs. If you are adventuresome try shark diving if it is the right season. Or swimming with dolphins at Sea Life Park. Hanauma Bay is great for snorkeling. You may want to consider bed and breakfast accommodation in Kailua or Lanikai.

Hawaii tourism has dropped by 22% this year... there are lots of discounts and hotel bargains to fill those thousands of empty rooms... some careful shopping could put you into super deluxe accomodations that were way beyond our budgets... now is the time to see the islands if you can afford it!!!

"We're looking into vrbo.com rentals for Kailua. And maybe a package deal for a couple of nights in Waikiki to see the Pearl Harbor memorial and some of the city sights."

Pearl Harbor is about 30 minutes from Waikiki. Pearl Harbor is about 35 minutes from Kailua. So not enough difference to warrant getting a room in Waikiki for that.

But you might want to spend one night in a Waikiki hotel for the nightlife & just touring Waikiki.

I think you would really like the Pali lookout on Oahu. Should have info about that in your Fodors book.
Beaches
Waimea Bay is a beautiful beach on the north shore. There is also a hiking trail here that leads to a waterfall. Have not done the hike but you should also see that in the Fodors book.
Kailua Beach is beautiful. Great place to spend the day and have a barbeque.

PCC does a great Luau with entertainment. Dancers from different islands that our teens just loved. I loved the Hula dancing. The grounds at the PCC are beautiful.

In Late Nov. the town of Kailua will have holiday decorations up which was always such a treat for me. (Been there twice during Thanksgiving.)

My husband and I took 2 teen girls to Oahu for 12 nights. We were never bored! With 3 weeks I think try see another island. Big Island it would be for me to see HVNP.

We have rented with this family at 3 of their different rentals in Kailua. Maybe they have one available for your stay.
website: www.kailuabeach.net
e-mail: [email protected]

Good luck and have fun!

With the time you have, take a couple of days to go to the big island. It is so different from the others and so interesting. Volcanos NP alone is worth the trip, but chain of craters road, the botanical gardens, waterfalls, fewer crowds, etc., at least do a day trip.

Thanks so much everybody. We're reading the books we got and trying to figure out where to stay. I want to post a possible itinerary when we have one.

How do you all find your accomodations? Do you try to find package deals? condos? use vrbo.com? or do you just keep calling hotels until you find something that fits your budget?

We bring our kids to see family in the mid west or to camp at the beach here in CA every year for vacation, so we are novices when it comes to finding hotels/rentals.

I always research hotels on-line. Then I ask here. If you have specific desires / needs - you can ask here. Many of us have been there many times and can steer you in the right direction.

For Hawaii, I used a travel agent because I wasn't willing to spend the time on line. I told her what I wanted to spend, where I wanted to go and she found good air, hotel, car packages that fit my budget. It was well worth the small cost and probably saved money as well as time.

We have used VRBO a number of times on the mainland, but not in Hawaii. We have never been disappointed with them. If you are looking at hotels, I suggest checking Trip Advisor for any hotel you are interested in. I have found them to be useful, too. The reviews usually tell you what to expect. If there are "not so good" reviews you might want to take into account what that person found that was not so good. Sometimes it is only how the pool didn't suit them, they didn't like the continental breakfast, etc. We will be going to Oahu in September and are looking forward to visiting there again. Our son lives there and we have been many times.

The North Shore beaches are a must-see on Oahu!! Many are easy to reach by car, and unlike in Waikiki you won't have other sunbathers encroaching on your personal space.

Waimea Bay is a great beach, famous for its huge waves in the winter, but it's beautiful even when the seas are flat. There's a big rock on one side where some people were cliff jumping into the waves when I was there (though I think that might be illegal). Across the road from the beach parking lot is the Waimea Valley Audobon Center, which has a cafe and a wide variety of plants. You can walk up an easy trail/paved path (with peacocks wandering around!) to a waterfall that you can swim in. There are even lifeguards, but the water is COLD.

If you're a fan of the show Lost, another good beach on the North Shore is Mokule'ia Beach, a little west of Waialua. A lot of the show, including the opening plane crash scenes were filmed here, and though it's rocky so isn't the best for swimming. And if you like surfing, check out Pipeline and Sunset beach.

A beautiful beach to see while there is Lanakai Beach. It's on the east side of the island. The water is more Carribean like - warmer, greener, clearer. It's where they shoot the swimsuit issues of Sports Illustrated. We've been to Oahu in June and in October. October was cloudier and rainier, but we still enjoyed Oahu a lot. There is lots to do there. Movie tour, motorized hangglider, Waimea Falls, Punch Bowl, Pearl Harbor, just to name a few. We stayed at the JW Marriott and loved the resort and the area.