Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report Oahu Trip Report

Day 1 - arrive. Alamo - awful service and awful car (tire pressure monitor on, passenger air bag not on), not too clean, all scratched up). Uneventful drive to hotel (Marriott Ko Olina timeshare resort) and easy check-in. Nice to find out parking is free if you’re a Marriott timeshare owner. Afternoon at the pool. Ran into acquaintances from home. Lunch at pool - expensive, ok, decided it would be better to buy food and make sandwiches. Dinner at Hapa Grill in Kapolei (which is a town made up of subdivisions and every chain store you’ve ever heard of - a big yuck!) .. Good stir fry. Why is everyone fat here - because everything is fried and every meal contains multiple carbs. (Oh, and I did 3 miles on the treadmill in the very spiffy fitness center that looks out on the pool area)

Thoughts on the hotel - lovely grounds and pools. Nice units, excellent shower. Excellent staff - friendly and attentive (but not too). My DH didn't love the furniture, thought it should be a little more tropical, but I thought it was fine and comfortable. We stayed here on a "free" exchange (we had an efficiency unit expiring, and they gave us a full 1-bedroom). I love having a living room and kitchen, and the balcony (which the efficiencies have, too) is nice. We overlooked the pool area. There are some units that overlook the parking lot or the trash compactor). All in all, very nice, but as I say below (I'm editing this after we got home), we'd prefer to be closer to "activity" (like Whaler's Village in Kaanapali). The beach area at Ko Olina has 1 hotel (JW Marriott), 1 private condo development (Beach Villas) and the Marriott timeshare (Beach Club). Disney is now building a hotel and timeshare resort. There were plans for a Grand Ko Olina hotel, a town center like Whaler's Village. They need to get those done to make this a "go-to" area. There's actually still room for 2 hotels and the town center. Still, I'd go here again, if we could exchange our Palm Desert timeshare for it.

Day 2 - breakfast in unit. Drove to and spent hours exploring Haleiwa town. Shave ice at Aoki’s (line at Matsumoto too long). Fabulous (with nothing to compare it to) -- we had a small lychee, root bear and mango, and it was easily enough for two. Diet notwithstanding, I will have more of these this week! Edit: I never did have more….waaah!)). Lunch at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck- a must miss for us - shrimp were overcooked and rubbery. I’d give it 1* (or really none….I wouldn’t recommend it at all). I’m usually a terrible fish/seafood cook, and mine are better by far! Thought about going to Waimea, but traffic was bad, so we went back to the hotel instead. Thoughts - once past Kapolei and Waipahu, and on the H1/H2 toward Haleiwa, the island gets interesting (except the little part on Rte. 80 -- what a pitiful little town). Around here (west of Kapolei), it’s downright ugly until you get inside the resort. This is a little too far “out of the way” for us. If it’s ever completely developed the way Kaanapali is, and the way this was supposed to be, we’d like it better. The resort itself is very nice, but there is nothing going on, and not a good choice of restaurants either (just the hotel restaurants, which are very pricey and never worth the price IMHO, or drive into town)

Day 3 - breakfast on our deck, from where I am now writing this report. We’re just hanging today!

Day 4 - Got up today and decided it was a good day to climb Diamond Head. The climb is not long, but is somewhat more strenuous than I expected. It was a good workout though. The views are nice. I’m glad I did it once, but it’s not necessarily a must-do. After the climb, we parked at the zoo end of Waikiki, walked toward the other end on the street side, and back on the beach side. Had lunch in what must be the new part of the Royal Hawaiian (lunch was okay, nothing to write home about, but much appreciated after the climb), then sat on the beach for awhile. Pretty good surf today, so there were a lot of people in the water (and on the beach, this being Waikiki, of course…..what’s Waikiki without a crowd?). Watched for awhile and then came back to our hotel to shower and rest. By the way, what’s with all the Hawaii gun club people handing out brochures in Waikiki? Oops, almost forgot, on the way back, I was looking up Leonard’s and then there it was, right in front of us!! We had an original, a cinnamon sugar and the “flavor of the month”,mango custard, and they were all fabulous. I’m on Weight Watchers, so I want to go off my diet wisely, and this was definitely worth straying for! Since the food on this part of the island pretty much sucks, we ate dinner at the beach bar at the hotel. Not bad. Oh, forgot to mention, a fair amount of vog in the air today (enough that my eyes were burning). It’s expected to dissipate by late tomorrow. I had read about it here, but only with respect to the Big Island -- I had no idea it occurred elsewhere in the islands.

Day 5 - Today, we did a 4-hour adventure kayak tour with Kailua Sailboards. I’ve always wanted to try kayaking but could never convince anyone to go with me before! The trip was great! Our guide was Sheila, and she was very nice and also very informative. Our group consisted of Sheila, 3 “couples” in double kayaks and one single in a single kayak. We kayaked to an island (seabird sanctuary), hiked a little bit, had lunch, kayaked to a beach (Lanikai, I think), snorkeled, then kayaked back to Kailua. The beaches in Kailua are sensational - soft soft sand, very unspoiled, and not crowded (there is no tourist development in Kailua, it’s all residential). Wonderful day. Drove to and from Kailua via the H3, which is a gorgeous gorgeous road, to Haleiwa, where we had a mid-day meal at Haleiwa Eats (Thai). We enjoyed it very much. For just a little more than a plate at the shrimp truck (which we thought bordered on awful), you can get a main course (large) and a bowl of sticky rice. Yummm.

Day 6 - we did nothing today. Well, we sat at the beach for awhile instead of the pool. Stayed out all day, had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Kapolei, a branch of a small Honolulu chain called Assagio’s. Not bad (not great, but better than most of the food around here). I splurged on my favorite dessert (hot zabaglione).

Day 7 - I hit the gym at 9 a.m. I was at the gym in the afternoon the other day, and commented that it was so empty….well, that’s because everyone comes in the morning! Did my 5K on the treadmill, then back to the condo to conduct some business (we’ve been dealing all week with a medical issue for our daughter and with housing issues for the fall for our son). Then hit the pool again, and stayed there all day. In fact, still there.

Day 8 (Last day) another do-nothing day. Pool, pool and more pool. Lunch at the….pool. Dinner at a little Japanese place I found on Yelp, called Kunio. I shouldn’t criticize Japanese food -- I don’t eat it often enough -- but this was very good (rolled sushi, flat sushi, miso butterfish for me, tempura and teriyaki for my DH). The Yelp reviews were all positive, although some thought it overpriced. We did not, and thought the portions were huge. We would return (can’t say that for most Hawaii restaurants. I’ve never eaten a truly memorable meal in Hawaii).

That’s it. The flight home left on time, was the smoothest flight I’ve ever been on in my life, and landed 20 minutes early. Now I just have to make sure United didn’t debit me any upgrade miles, since we didn’t get upgraded on either leg (thought we’d give it a shot for 15,000 miles each, but no dice).

P.S. Before we left Hawaii, I did my laundry and folded my clothes and packed them in the order I put them away at home. I hate unpacking even more than I hate doing laundry. What a breeze doing it this way!