My wife love’s Honolulu, specifically Waikiki and the large park near the beach that is the gateway to Diamond Head. Whenever we visit, we generally get a vacation rental in the area and a guest membership to the fabulous Outrigger Canoe Club. Well it’s been about 6 months since our last vacation to the city and my wife is begging me to go see a concert at the Blaisdell Center, So I was looking at some travel sites to see if I could get some new ideas for our trip to the “Gathering Place” and I came across a site called Uptake.
What really drew me to the site was all the ratings they pulled in from outside sources which allowed me to identify the best of what the city has to offer. As an example, say you were looking for Honolulu Hotels. The first hotel you’ll see on this page is Halekulani. For this hotel there are 337 reviews from 11 different sources including Yahoo! Travel, Expedia, Fordors, etc. These ratings really give you an idea if this is a good hotel or not. The hotel averages a 4.5 from the 337 reviews, so I’d say not bad. This is a mute point for me because my wife won’t stay in a hotel. As I mentioned earlier, she prefers a vacation home closer to Diamond Head on the outskirts of Honolulu. This can be expensive if you it’s just you and your wife, but we’re traveling with 2 other families to enjoy the concert, so renting a large beachfront vacation home actually saves us money (compared to multiple hotel rooms).
Here are some links I thought would be useful for people traveling to Oahu:
- Honolulu Cheap Hotels – if you’re on a budget.
- Honolulu Motels
- Honolulu Airport Hotels – this is convenient if you’re just stopping over on Oahu for one night before flying to an outer island.
- Honolulu Restaurants – for those of you who love to eat! Part of going to the big city for me is enjoying the cuisine. If you haven’t been to Dukes, it’s right on the beach in Waikiki with a great atmosphere. Great for drinks to late at night sitting out on their lanai next to the pool. Mai Tai’s is another good bar for this.
- Honolulu Resorts
- Honolulu Bars – for those of you who like to party!
- Honolulu Romatic Hotels
- Honolulu Romantic Getaways – my wife actually found this page.
- Honolulu Kid Friendly Hotels – if you have little ones make sure they have a great vacation too!
- Honolulu Pools – I know the beach is right there, but sipping Lava Flows at a pool is pretty fun…
Other things you might try while you’re in Waikiki:
- Shopping – my wife says.
- Learning to surf or paddle board – my favorite. They have great beginner waves.
- Bishop Museum – take in a little culture.