Questions re upcoming trip to Oahu and Maui - please help!
 

We will be spending seven nights in Oahu staying at Hilton Hawaiian Village (frequent traveler award points) and seven in Maui at Valley Isle Resort. We are trying to stick to budget but will spend to do or see something really worth it. These are my varied questions (and I am sure I will be back with more)

1. What guidebook (s) do you recommend for restaurants, activities, sightseeing. I will get Maui Revealed but would also like one with food recommendations as well as something for Oahu

2. Should we rent a car for the entire week in Oahu? We are in early 50's and have never been to Hawaii before. I know we will go to Pearl Harbor but have no definite plans other than that. Does anyone know if there is parking charge at Hilton Hawaiian Village?

3. Is the Lahaina Luau on Maui worth it? Do people get dressed up for it?

4. I have been told that horseback riding is an unforgettable experience. Neither of us has ridden more than the occasional state park one hour trip. Which outfit would you recommend on Maui? Should we do a ride on a ranch or is it really worth it to go into volcano?

5. Where would you recommend a snorkeling trip and which operator?

6. Since we will be in Maui for a week, should we consider a day trip to another island.

7. Have read some about the big flea market on Oahu at the Aloha Stadium. Any comments about that?

8. What about scenic drives and places to stop enroute. Neither of us really wants to spend time in a shopping mall or in Honolulu with traffic, congestion etc

9. Is the Cultural Center on Oahu a worthwhile experience?

10. And finally, would really appreciate any suggestions for inexpensive restaurants both on Oahu and Maui. We will be eating breakfast and lunch in condo in Maui most days but if there are exceptional breakfast places near HHV or in Maui would love to hear about them. Also any places to eat on Oahu that will not break the bank

Sorry this is so long - really appreciate any advice!

Pam

I can't respond to all of your questions, but here are a few of my thoughts:
1. Oahu has an extensive bus system and taxis are abundant. The downsides are taxis can be expensive and the bus isn't the fastest way to get to your destination. However you may want to consider renting a car for only a few days if you plan on venturing further than Pearl Harbor or doing much away from Waikiki. I'm pretty sure HHV charges for parking - almost all Waikiki hotels do.

2. If you go for a day trip from Maui, consider Molokai. There's not much to see on Lanai and the Big Island is too big to see in a day, unless you limit yourself to one particular site, like Volcanos National Park. Kauai is a possiblity too. But I think you can keep busy on Maui for 7 days if you want to!

3. Oahu's flea market. It's just that - a flea market. If you need cheap souvenirs, you can find them here. Lots of touristy stuff. But bring sunscreen and/or umbrella, even wear a wide brimmed hat, as there's little shade except under the vendor's tents. If you go to Pearl Harbor this is just up the road. There's no reason not to go!

4. The Polynesian Cultural Center is very touristy, although entertaining. I lived in Hawaii and always took visiting family there. It's an all day affair. The food is not that great, but the evening show is very good. Bring mosquito repellent, though. The mosquitos come out for the evening show too.

Hope this helps a little!

I liked the Old Lahaina Luau very much and felt that it was most definitely worth it. Dress is casual. - I noticed that most ladies wore sun dresses and men wore slacks with aloha shirts...

I would consider renting a car at least for a few days on Oahu. Check out prices- by the time you pay for a trip to Pearl Harbor and a taxi to and from your hotel it might not be that much more. The best parts of Oahu are nowhere near Waikiki!

Take a day and drive the Eastern side of the island and go to Lanikai beach- beautiful, clear Caribbean looking water. Explore the North Shore and the town of Haleiwa. If you go up the center of the island head East along the North Shore and you'll come to a little beach on the side of the road. I never found it in any guidebook- but we stopped and noticed there were signs on the beach saying not to feed the turtles. We looked around and there were turtles everywhere!! Part of the joy of Hawaii, at least for us, was just driving around and finding our own gems.

Another suggestion if you like sailing and being out on the water is a sunset sail. Many hotels along Waikiki have boats that go out for an hour or two. It was great to just get out on the water and to see the island from a different vantage point.

On Maui there are TONS of snorkel spots that are off of various beaches around the island. Read through Maui Revealed. My husband and I just spent a day going to various southern Maui sites and snorkeling- saw many turtles and fish.

We did a Luau in Wailea and it was a waste of time and money. I've heard mixed reviews of Old Lahaina Luau, some love it, some don't. I would do this one if you decide to do a luau though- I wish we had spent the extra 20 dollars to go to a high quality luau.

As for restaurants, we enjoyed Cheeseburger in Paradise on Oahu, Dukes at the Outrigger on the Beach, the Shorebird at Outrigger Reef where you grill your meat. Also, enjoy a cocktail at the Halekulani Hotel at Sunset. Hula Grill was good on Maui- they have a restaurant and a bar area with less expensive food.

You will love Hawaii! Much of it is expensive, but you can find plenty to do that is cheap or free and makes up for the times you splurge a bit.

We just got back from 3 nights on Oahu and 7 on Maui. I have no desire to return to Oahu although we did love the JW Marriott Ihilani (gorgeous hotel on wonderful lagoons) and enjoyed shopping in Waikiki and thought the drive over Pali and along eastern and northern shores were beautiful. Personally I think Hawaii is to expensive to just spend all your time lounging by a pool or hanging out in a crowded city but I could be in a minority there... We thoroughly enjoyed Maui esp our last 2 nights in Hana. We took a snorkel tour with Maui Magic and thought it was great - their boat is new (not same one reviewed in Maui Revealed). The crew, food, snorkel site along Kaniao coast were great. the only downside was that there was a young gal pushing snuba so my DH tried it and thought he really got ripped off. HE paid an extra $49 for maybe 15 minutes of actually underwater time. Major disappointment there. We saw the spinner dolphins, limited whale action and great turtles! the snorkeling was also awesome.
We did horseback tour with Pony Express in Haleakala. I am not sure I would do that again. It was neat to see crater and I definitely would not have wanted to hike up that far, but the weather is very unpredictable, it got very cloudy and windy and there was even some thunder on our return at which point our guide warned us to hold on tight to our horses - I was so scared! The whole trip was about 5 hours. I was so sore by the time we got back! The lunch break was good - the food was yummy. Our guide Jesse was very nice and interesting. He does rodeo and was obviously very comfortable with the horses - a real Paniolo! I just don't think it was the best for me and my prior horseback experience was pretty limited too.
If I were to return to Haleakala I would only hike a small distance and then high tail it off mountain if weather turned nasty.
We attended Feast at Lele and definitely thought it worth it - although I didn't enjoy all food. My DH ate everything and we both thought setting and entertainment were top notch.
Good luck planning!

I can offer a few responses-
1. Driving and Discovering Oahu is a good guidebook with fantastic pictures.
2. Yes, I recommend renting a car. Most of the time we spent on Oahu was outside of the Waikiki Beach area. We enjoyed driving to the North Shore and also to many sites around the island. We considered a short term rental but decided it was worth keeping it for our entire stay, especially since we would need transportation to and from the airport. I believe parking at HHV is around $10 a day. It is posted on their website, I believe.
4. One of my most memorable things on Maui was hiking down the Sliding Sands trail at Haleakala. If you decide to do a horseback trip, you should consider selecting this one instead of riding around the ranch. It is a 4 hour trip, however, so it depends upon how long you want to spend there. We decided against the horseback trip because of the duration. It took us about an hour to hike down about half the way you would go on the horseback trip.

5. I woudn't recommend paying for a Molokini trip. They are expensive, and we saw more varied fish walking in from the shore. I recommend Honoloa Bay (it's free and it was full of fish!).

6. We spent a week in Maui and it wasn't enough, so that is a tough one. Depends what you are interested in doing...

10. Maui REvealed has excellent recommendations for restaurants. All their advice was right on.

dreamathers- where is this turtle beach located. I would love to be able to view the turtles on the No. Shore. What beaches is this site near?

Thanks!

Miscrapper,

>>>We just got back from 3 nights on Oahu and 7 on Maui. I have no desire to return to Oahu although we did love the JW Marriott Ihilani (gorgeous hotel on wonderful lagoons) and enjoyed shopping in Waikiki and thought the drive over Pali and along eastern and northern shores were beautiful. Personally I think Hawaii is to expensive to just spend all your time lounging by a pool or hanging out in a crowded city but I could be in a minority there<<

If that's all you did on Oahu, you missed 80% of it. Honolulu/Waikiki is not Oahu. Besides Pali Hwy, did you drive to the Windward Side, to the North Shore? Did you horseback riding? Hiking? Go to all the different botanical gardens? The almost deserted beaches of the north shore and windward side?

It's one of my pet peeve that people got to Oahu and say, "I'd never want to go back, it's only hotels and beaches" You must get out of Waikiki to see the true Oahu!

One of my pet peeves is people who suggest that Waikiki and Honolulu are not part of the "true Oahu".

lyb - we did spend most of our time on Oahu outside Honolulu. In the part of my message that I quoted I specifically stated we drove eastern and northern shores! Even so I thought Maui was much nicer. If we want to go to a big city we can drive 3 hours to Chicago and shop, eat, sightsee. We went to Hawaii for the natural beauty which I thought was much more apparent in Maui even compared to outer Oahu. The traffic in HNL is terrible and I am a pretty good navigator but I had a hard time reading the maps - for one thing none of them list the one way streets in Waikiki area. We spent less than half of our time hanging on beaches or by pool - that was my point! Also we were disappointed because there were reports in newspaper about sewage having been spilled in Kailua area and Lanikai beaches so we didn't even bother to go near those beaches. Supposedly the day before we got there they said it was safe to go back in the water but after reading that, we had no interest. We have enough problems with that issue here in our home state - don't need to deal with it on vacation. Major YUCK!
We didn't have time for horseback riding on Oahu and only botanical garden we visited was Waimea Valley which was not so great - we saw much better waterfalls on way to Hana without paying admission to a park!

Thank you all so much for your helpful advice. Instead of horseback trip, maybe we will do some hiking.

I am so looking forward to this trip. Would appreciate any other advice/tips anyone could share

Pam

I actually thought Waikiki was a lot of fun! :-)

Travelmom13- we never were able to find a name for the 'turtle beach' we found on the North Shore. We checked and tried to compare it to the beaches in our guidebooks but were never able to find it listed anywhere. But it was further West (toward Haleiwa) than any other beach that was listed. Best I can tell you is that if you head East from Haleiwa, there is a little strip of beach on the left hand side- it's hard to remember but I'm recall that it was the first one we saw, that's why we stopped. We parked on the side of the road and walked across the street, there are several trees blocking most of the sandy area. Sorry I can't help you any further! I don't know if turtles are seasonal- we were there last August, but there were tons of them. I'm assuming it is a common occurrence because of the signs.

but that is what is so wonderful about Oahu...the diversity! I recently spent 10 days there and enjoyed a few days in Honolulu/Waikiki and the rest of my trip spent in the "country". It was awesome!

I think the stretch of beach where the turles can be found is called Laniakea. It's located between Papailoa and Chun's Reef. Heading east from Haleiwa it is just passed the horse farm on the mauka side of the road. It's the first area you come upon with parking and ocean view after the farm. Green sea turtles are often spotted here as they eat the algae growing on the rocks.

aloha!!!!