Things to do in Honolulu
 

Hello,
I am going to Honolulu with my family for about 10 days. I am wondering if you can suggest places/activities that we definitely don't want to miss there. Also, what would be a good place for snorkeling? My kids are seven and five years old and they can't swim. Thanks everyone.

Besides the regular snorkel places, I had the best just down from the hotel by the breakwater wall. Use to head there most mornings before swim crowds. All the fish were in eating off the wall. Amazing. There was good snorkling in water I could stand in, at least in that area. Most of the best in the other bays like Hanauma bay, were over my head deep.
Loved the Waikiki Aquarium. We must have visited there a half dozen times. One of the best things about Honolulu is just wandering around downtown. Visiting all the places and haggling in the market square. We also rented a car and just bummed around the north shore. That was fun. The bus service is good in Honolulu, if one knew where they were going. :lol:.
Of course the Diamond Head climb is a must. Pearl Harbour memorial is good if you can go when not overcrowded like it was when we tried. We still had a good time seeing the other stuff there besides the actual memorial.

Guess its all preference but I would go back there before some of the other places.

Hey Doug a good friend of mine mentioned the snorkeling at a breakwater near his hotel, he said it was amazing, wonder if it was the same place?

Thanks Doug. I will definitely check those out. I need it to be shallow so my kids can enjoy it too. They had a lot of fun snorkeling in Mexico so they want to try it again. We will be renting a car as well since I am too lazy to take the bus :biggrin:

When I go, I ALWAYS go to hanauma bay.. it by far the best area to go snorkeling. .. every time I've been, I have had turtles swim beside me...

We stayed down near the end or at least then, of hotel row at the Queen Kapulani. Closest to Diamond Head. It was the wall in front of there. Easy walk to the aquarium also. :smile:

Yes good there also but to deep for what he wants for his kids. We snorkelled in 20ft plus of water there. It is good in shallow also but not like out in the deeper part. Or so I found.

Last time we went we got the Go Oahu cards from Costco. The Island tour was really good and so was the Luau. The Polynesian Cultural Center is great and the kids loved the catamaran ride. The previously mentioned places are all good and there is also a pretty good zoo at the south end of Waikiki. We never bothered to rent a car as all the tours have a tour bus come pick you up and drop you off right at your hotel entrance. Our tour guides were all native Hawaiians who could tell you about the history of all the places and were very entertaining. Oh, and if you go to McDonalds and they still have tarot root pie, it's pretty awful.

hanauma bay for snorkling...

dole plantation is nice. they always include that in island tours.
pearl harbor wasn my cup of tea, but others i know paid for access to the other ships/ exhibits and really liked it.

lotsa good food. paddle boarding always fun, not sure where u staying but u can rent a paddle board or two beach front nxt to pacific beach hotel i believe.

luau's (sp) are nice, dont go to the one in the sheraton though (big mistake on my part)

personally i go to the abc store and buy a floaty bed and drift away lol

speaking of which, there is a supermarket 1 block off the strip, if you close go there to get your stuff. otherwise abc stores which are located on every corner are good

after being there over 40 times, hanauma bay is the best place on the island for snorkeling. it is a protected marine park so they do close it down once and a while, you can feed the fish peas also.

other places that are a must see are the Polynesian cultural center, the dole plantation for the tour and the best pineapple ice cream you will ever have.

there is the Arizona memorial at pearl harbour. if you have a car while your there a drive around the island is pretty col lots of different things along the way.

oh stay away from the island tours and rent a car and go to the places on your own. much better and gives you more time. 10 days is a lot of time, you can see everything and still spend most of your time on the beach

Steve

One of my favourites was the pill box hike on the Kailua side. Takes u up to the old bunkers on top of a ridge over looking the Mokulua islands and Bellows air force base, its beautiful and down below is a beautiful beach for the kids to snorkel and swim as warm and shallow with lots of fish

:Banane53: LOL,Oh and of course there's always Hula lessons!

For souvenirs - Aloha stadium has a swap meet all the way around it, on weekends !

I just watched but if it would have been in the evening when we had multi hundred dollar bar bills, I may have. :lol:

I've heard about the Go Oahu cards. I'll find more information about them. Thanks.

I think that would be really fun. Thanks.

Oh, I love icecream :lol: I will definitely go there. Thanks Steve.

If you don't make it to the plantation the ice cream is called "Dole Whip" and can be found in various places in Waikiki and Honolulu. This is my wife's favorite ice cream ever!

The luau at the Polynesian centre was awesome. Enjoyed myself there and looking around the whole place. Go early

keep the wife away from ala mona =P

but there is a really good food court in the Japanese dept store there.

O, and being reefers.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJ8EKxlaJQ

Oh wow. I want one. Group buy anyone? :twised:

Steve

Thank you everyone for their posts. The trip was wonderful. I pretty much tried all the suggestions posted. Pearl Harbour was definitely an experience I won't forget for a long long time. Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay was a bit disappointing because it has rained a couple days before so the water was mucky that we couldn't see much. The Polynesian Culture Centre was fun. I wish we had more time to spend there. The catamaran was boring though, I won't try that again. And yes, I did get to see the 30,000 dollars peppermint angelfish. I still want one :biggrin:

Peppermint Angels are cheap these days - you can score one for about $18,000. ;)

I have heard it has changed since I was there last, I do miss my twice a year trips to Hawaii since I retired. maybe I'll get there again wen I retire for good :mrgreen: