Hawaii advice

sarahOClove

Hi ladies!

My fiance I are going to Hawaii for our honeymoon this October 4 nights in Oahu Waikiki followed by 8 nights in Maui. I would appreciate any advice on things we must do!

I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze in everything I want to see in Oahu I would love to go to the North Shore, see Pearl Harbor Diamond Head but is it realistic in that short of a trip? We have a rental car for each island.

We plan on Maui being more of the "honeymoon" island aka more relaxation beach time! This is my dream vacation I can't wait!

sarahOClove

I should also mention that I bought Oahu: Revealed & Maui: Revealed. They are very helpful!

jemmini6

If you really wanted to, you could probably squeeze Pearl Harbor, Diamondhead, and the North Shore into one day, so you should have no trouble doing those in 4 days.  We were there for the same amount of days and we fit a lot into our schedule.

One of the days, we went to Pearl Harbor first thing in the morning (get there early, the time slots for the Arizona Memorial fill up fast).  We also checked out the North Shore, had lunch at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, and then went to the Polynesian Cultural Center (we had buy one get one free coupons, if we didn't, I'm not too sure that would've been worth it.  Cool to see, but expensive).

The next day, we went diving in the morning, and then hung out on the beach and went shopping on Waikiki in the afternoon.

Another day, we went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay in the morning, and then hiked Diamonhead in the afternoon.

So you can see, it's easy to fit quite a bit into just a few days.  I'd recommend taking some time to slow down and relax too (island time and all that jazz), but it's possible to see a lot too.

Summer2011Bride

If you look a few posts down, in the thread called "Oahu, Hawaii" I wrote a really long description of the activities we did there and loved, so I might check that out.

If you are only there four days, you obviously won't be able to fit in what we did with 9. But as for your question: I think North Shore, Pearl Harbor, and Diamond Head are both totally doable in that time frame. Pearl Harbor will take a few hours. I would recommend getting therre right at 7 or 730 (whichever time they open) because most likely, you'll still have to wait awhile for the Arizona. There are other things to do while you wait. We went first thing in the morning and were back to our hotel in Waikiki by lunch time.

You could do Diamond Head that same afternoon or on a different day (the whole hike took us about 1.5 hours with photo stops). Either way Diamond Head is no more than half a day.

I'd set aside a full day for North Shore (my favorite part of the island/trip!) I'd recommend driving through Hale'iwa, stopping at Ted's, grabbing lunch at a shrimp truck and checking out Sunset Beach among others. Like I said I wrote more details in my other post.

Have a wonderful time! We absolutely loved it. I have never been to Maui but we are looking into it for a future trip.

daria24

I spent a week on Maui. We stayed in Kaanapali and rented snorkel equipment for the week from a stand there (it was $15 for the day, and only $25 for the week). We went snorkeling at the Black Rock a few times, and at some of the South Shore beaches.

We drove the Road to Hana-we left Kaanapali at 6:30am and had the whole road to ourseles, it was great. We drove around the south end on the "unpaved" road in our rental sedan-it was totally fine, only about 5 miles were actually unpaved. I would definitely leave very very early so you aren't constantly following cars/fighting opposing traffic on the one lane bridges. We made a lot of the stops recommended in the Reveal book-definitely worth it to take some of the short hikes.

We went to Haleaka for sunset, instead of sunrise. It was my favorite thing we did on the island. We got there at about 3pm and hiked the Sliding Sands trails and had the entire crater to ourselves, it was awesome. Sunset was very nice, not too crowded, and 54 degrees instead of 31 at sunrise.

We took surfing lessons with Goofy Foot-H had a great time, I did not. I was the only person out of 50+ people that couldn't stand up and I was pretty miserable. 

Have fun!

fallbride1109

I have what we did in Maui in my married bio under Honeymoon.  My favorite thing (besides our couples massage) was the Road to Hana, but we took a guided tour, we didn't drive it ourselves.

sarahOClove

Thank you all so much for the advice! I'm glad to see we can fit a lot into our schedule. I'm thinking one day we will just relax at the beach/hotel and maybe check out some shops. The second day, maybe go to Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head... Then maybe North Shore on day three : I can't wait!

meganb1977

Definitely check out the swap meet at the football stadium for souvenirs while you're on Oahu.  And you might want to do Diamondhead early if the weather is warm!