Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Trip Report

I so love Hawaii, depressing to come back! Here's a trip report for interested parties. I'll try to keep it brief!

Day 1
Arrived at Honolulu Airport 3:30pm (Hawaii time). Surprised our kids with a limo ride from airport to Hilton Hawaiian Village (HHV). Used Royal Pacific Limo Service(used a coupon from Entertainment book and got 50% price, just call them), was pleased! Settled into our room and then headed down to Super Pool for Hawaiian show and fireworks. That was great! The property is beautiful. We stayed in a 1-bedroom condo in Kalia Tower, VERY NICE! Checked out HHV's beach and after fireworks, headed for bed! TIRED! I have to agree with other earlier posts, HHV has best beach along Waikiki.

Day 2
Hung out around property and Dad took kids (2 kids ages 10 & 12) to beach. Mom went grocery shopping & had sticker shock! Milk was $9/gallon!! All other grocery items were at least twice price as back home. Yes, it's more expensive because I was in Waikiki. The locals shop at Costco where the prices are more reasonable. Joined family on beach for a short while and took in superpool too. Very nice pool. Took it easy as still had jet lag. Headed in late afternoon from beach and decided to eat at the Shorebird. It was ok, not too impressed. Walked down the beach to Kapali (spelling?) beach to watch a movie on the beach. I believe they call it Sunset on the Beach. Anyway, it was neat to watch a 30ft screen (for free!) showing "Master & Commander". It was crowded and started to sprinkle, so we cut out for HHV early. Seemed like forever before we got back to HHV! Walked the busy streets, and it was definitely a happening place, especially if your young! Me, I'm a wimp and was tired, ready for my bed & pillow!

Day3
Headed EARLY to catch a plane to Big Island. Planned a day trip (return same day). Spent entire day in Volcano Nat'l Park (VNP). Flew into Hilo Airport, only took about 30 minutes to get to VNP. Took the car trip around the crater on Crater Rim road and then headed down Chain of Craters road to hike out to the lava flow. Now I can say it was a unique and neat experience, but nothing could have prepared me for the intense heat! I'm use to HOT & HUMID Texas weather, but shoe melting heat from hot lava flowing beneath you, was unbelievable. I was shocked at how long the hike out there was and we're talking walking over unlevel ground, not a nice pleasant hike thru a rainforest. I was even more shocked at how much hotter it got as we got close to actual lava flowing. I felt sorry for the unprepared tourists that hiked out in sandals or was carrying little kids! We did see actual red hot lava flowing when we looked thru the cracks on the surface. We were so exhausted after that trip (took about 2hrs roundtrip) that we chose to eat, visit the city of Hilo, and take in a few of the waterfalls around Hilo. Then, we caught our plane back to Oahu. TIRED!!

Day4
Got up fairly early (as my body never really adjusted to Hawaii time) and used a shuttle service ($6/person roundtrip) to Hanahamu Bay. We loved Hanahamu Bay! Great snorkeling once you got away from the crowds stirring up all the sand. THANK GOD FOR DRY SNORKELS! I did get one mouthful of sea water (my fault not the snorkel's), NASTY STUFF! Got there about 9am and left at 2:30pm. Relaxed a bit before cleaning up for dinner. Ate at Kobe's (just like Bennihana's), enjoyed our dinner. BE SURE TO PICK UP A Oahu This Week, it has tons of coupons. That's where we got our shuttle service info from. Walked around HHV grounds for a little bit, then lights out!

Day 5
Headed out early for Pearl Harbor. Got there about 7:15am. Used a shuttle service ($6/person roundtrip). The driver was rude (only rude person we ran into on our trip). The company's name is Blue Line, I DON't recommend them. There's too many to choose from to use someone who's rude! ALready a big line when we arrived. Worked out great, we were in group #2, basically no wait! As soon as we got back from visiting the Arizona Memorial, headed to USS Bowfin Sub to buy a combo ticket for BOTH Bowfin & USS Missouri Battleship. Paid extra for the Explorer Guided Tour on the battleship. IT WAS SO WORTH IT! Our tour guide (Kevin) was SUPERB! Had a blast, was actually the highlight of our trip. The 90 minute tour turned into 2hrs. We're crazy I know, but we spent a total of 5hrs on the battleship, my kids loved it! I would HIGHLY recommend the Explorer Tour and our guide! The Missouri is maintained by a Non-Profit organization and they couldn't have made you feel more welcomed! Here's a piece of trivia: This organization maintains the ship, but the Navy still owns her and charges them $16,000/month rent to park her there! We were running short on time, so did a quick tour of Bowfin. But, the good news is, it doesn't take long to tour the sub. Got back to HHV around 6pm, crashed! Didn't even go out to eat!

Day 6
Rented a car and headed out for Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) using the West/North side of the island route. Stopped off at Dole Pineapple Plantation and ran the Maze. That was fun! Embarrassed to say, both our kids beat us! We tried to use "adult strategy" thinking we could beat them, NOT! After finishing off our pineapple whipped ice cream cones, started back on our route to PCC. Stopped a few places along the way, beach and water just TOO tempting to pass up! Finally made it to PCC around 2:30pm, just in time for the canoe pagent. Decided to stay until closing and then for the night show. Walked to the McDonald's (right next door) and ate dinner. Had an hour or so prior to night show. Only in Hawaii can you eat at McDonald's and there's a beautiful waterfall inside the dining area! Night show was good, kids a little bored with it. They were more into the "temporary tattoos". So we headed back same route we came and made it to HHV around 11pm. CRASHED!

Day 7
Headed out early for Diamond Head. Decided to rent car another day to take in Windward side of island. Got to Diamond Head about 9am and head UP! HOT! HOT! HOT! I thought by living in Texas I was prepared for the heat! NOT! I had a reality check. Can't take heat or physical activities like I could when I was younger. Got to the top, view well worth it! The strange thing, is the hike up actually is harder the closer you get to the top! Once at the top, it was super crowded and some type of grass bugs were ALL OVER EVERYONE! I was shocked because of the wind you wouldn't think there would be bugs. They didn't bite, but they were VERY ANNOYING! I even used my bug repellant, didn't phase those suckers! On my way back down, all I could think of was how I felt sorry for those starting their trip up! It was hot at 9am, you can only imagine how hot it was going to be for them, it's now 11am. Headed out to the windward side of the island. Stopped at a beautiful beach (I forget the name) and let the kids hit the waves with their boogie boards. Headed out up the coast on the eastern side of the island. It's so pretty here. It has MY VOTE for the prettiest part of the island! Stopped for a shaved ice (with a scoop of ice cream on bottom) treat, and headed back to HHV. Cleaned up, rested a short time, and then walked right next door to Bennihana's. LOVED IT! My favorite dinner! Our chef was GREAT and the kids loved it. Had a blast! My son and I (the wimp) headed back to our room while daughter and hubby headed for Waikiki main street as this was our last night on the island. THey hit NikeTown (3 stories high) and my daughter was in HEAVEN! She loves Nike! They got in around 11pm and crashed!

Day8 (headed home, sad day!)
Got packed up in time for check out at 11am. Couldn't get a late check out time because it was not the HOTEL, and check out is earlier for the condos in Kalia Tower. Walked around HHV grounds, got all our pictures, headed out for NikeTown, Galleria, and downtown Waikiki to say our goodbyes! We were able to book the hospitality room (Diamond Head Tower 5th floor) for 20min/person, so we got the room for almost 1-1/2hrs. I was SHOCKED at the room. NOT a 5 star room by FAR! Hope that wasn't typical of their hotel rooms, I was NOT IMPRESSED! Headed back to airport via our limo (cut a deal for $30/from HHV to airport with Royal Pacific Limo) Got there around 7pm, check in went smooth, no problems. Flight back was 1-1/2hrs SHORTER than trip TO Oahu because of head winds. Our flight left at 9pm and we arrived in Houston at 10am. GREAT FLIGHT, enjoyed watching movies. Continental was great, no complaints! We checked in online prior to leaving on our trip and was given free headsets. That was a $20 savings because there's 4 in our family. So, be sure to take advantage of that deal! It's easy! It's a special Continental is doing right now, just go to their website.

So tired, crashed when we got home. Glad to see our dog Astro. We truly needed more time in Hawaii as we crammed too much in a short time and we didn't have any downtime to just relax on the beach. But, we really wanted to get everything in as not sure when we'll ever be back. Our kids loved it and so did we. I LOVE HAWAII!

What would I do different? I would go to other islands, not Oahu. TOO CROWDED! But, we knew that going into the trip plans. Just wanted to be able to take the kids to places we felt they'll always treasure. Next trip, will be to Maui & Big Island (Kona side) and we'll skip Oahu. But, in Oahu's defense, it's still PRETTY and once you get away from the "tourist" areas, not as crowded!

Thanks again to all my fodor buddies for helping make our trip a HUGE SUCCESS! I hope this trip report is useful to someone. I'll be happy to help anyone who has questions if I can, I'm no expert by any means but I DO LOVE HAWAII!

Okay, I'm going to leave you with a trivia question about the USS MISSOURI BATTLESHIP. "Who is the only one on the entire ship that has a freshwater flushing toliet? All others have saltwater." My kids loved the answer. If you want to know, post your guess!