During our first trip in Hawaii in 2019 we found that Oahu was the least interesting of the 4 main islands. During our second visit in 2024 we changed our mind about this island. Yes this is the busiest island and Waikiki is a big mall. But if you search a little bit you can also find great hikes and have an amazing time. In this post we also cover the Honolulu marathon that we did in 2024.

Activities:

Practical information:

• Where to stay? We stayed both time in Waikiki. The good point is that you are at a walking distance of the beach, the malls, restaurants, and there are bus. Negative point is that parking and housing is expensive. 
• Car renting in Waikiki: It’s difficult to find free parking in Waikiki. During our first trip we rented the car day by day. During our second trip in 2024 we did 2x days without a car and 2 days with a car. Parking the car overnight in Waikiki costed $20 to $30. Advantage of keeping the car overnight is that you can start early and you don’t need to be back before a certain time in Waikiki.
• How to go form Point A to point B? In Honolulu you do have bus available. Otherwise you can use Uber or car rental. I think it’s good to mix all options in Oahu. During our last stay we found that Lift was a lot less expensive than Uber to go from the airport to Waikiki.

Waikiki and around

Waikiki

Waikiki is kind of a big outside mall with tall buildings, a lot of shops and nice beaches with surfers. On our side we like:

• The amazing view that you have from the water when swimming or surfing with the beach the buildings, and Diamond head.
• Walking along the beach
• The choice of restaurants, bars, and the surf shops (Quicksilver, Billabong,….) which are often a good stop to buy an Hawaii shirt as a souvenir.
• The activities around which are accessible from Waikiki (Honolulu city center, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, Manoa Fall,…)

The Beach

Big touristic beach are usually not what we like but we have to admit that Waikiki beach is very enjoyable. There is nothing to see in snorkeling but the water is nice, the view is amazing and you can surf or paddle. From north to south the beach starts at the Hilton Lagoon, and you can walk south up to the Kapiolani beach (The Halekulani or Sheraton Boardwalk may be closed and we had to navigate inside the hotels to find our way on this portion).

Few activities ideas:

• Start your day with the sunrise from the west point of Kahanamoku beach
• Walk along the beach
• Swim or surf or paddle board. (lot’s of surf shop are available for board rental and lessons)
• Watch the sunset on the beach or with a cocktail at one of the resort beach front restaurants.
• Visit the Waikiki Aquarium (Small Aquarium but interesting stop to be able to name all the sea life that you may see during your trip)
• Visit the shop to buy some souvenirs.

If you want to do snorkeling the Kaimana beach south of Waikiki seems to be a possibility but we have never tried.

Restaurants and bars

Food and drinks in Waikiki are usually pricey or low quality these are some of the places we tried and liked:

• Maui Brewing Company: a small entrance on the Kalakaua avenue with stairs that lead to a large tap room. The ratings online are not very good but we went multiple time and always had good food and beers. If you are 2, you may just ask to be seated at the bar to avoid some waiting time.
• Stix Asia: A Japanese food court. The entrance is also on the Kalakaua avenue, you have to use the escalator or the stairs to go down. The food court as different small Japanese restaurants. We tried the ramen at Baikohken Ramen and it was very good.
• Barefoot Beach café: This café is south of Waikiki, they serve good poke bowl and fish and ship.
• Hideout: This is a Bare & lounge with a rooftop. The rooftop doesn’t offer any great view but this is a cool place to enjoy a cocktails.

Around Waikiki

Hikes & Walk

Diamond Head

Diamond Head, is the iconic crater that you can see from Waikiki beach. Be aware that in 2024 entrance tickets had to be purchased in advance online. To go there we took a bus that dropped us at the exterior of the crater and we walked through a tunnel to access the center of the crater. We did it early in the morning in 2019 and we already had a lot of people with us. The hike is on a paved path. There is some elevation but it’s achievable by everybody. We arrived quickly at the top for a few pics. The view was great and despite all the people I really recommend this hike. There is a possibility for a quick loop at the top, but you mostly go back by the same road and have to go through all the people that are walking up.  

Manoa Fall:

Manoa Fall is a short hike (2.7km – 186m elevation) in the forest which can be accessed by bus. We did it in 2024 starting the hike at about 9:30 am. We went by car and there was still few spot available on the paid parking. The beginning of the hike is great with tall trees and a container as a bridge, then it goes in the forest to arrive at the waterfall. If you don’t have time for more or if you don’t want long hike this short one is a great option to see some of the Hawaiian forest beauty.

Honolulu city center + Chinatown:

From Waikiki you can visit Honolulu city center by walking. Two spots were interesting for us: the King Kamehameha Statue. (yes, we watched the Hawaii 5-0 tv show and had to stop by Mc Garett operation center), and Chinatown. In Chinatown we tried to follow a walk itinerary from the Lonely Planet. This was an interesting discovery and we stopped to buy good Chinese products. We also end up eating some bargain and delicious duck at the Maunakea Marketplace.

Pearl Harbor memorial

We visited the Pearl Harbor memorial in 2019 during our first trip. At the time it was possible to go there from Waikiki with two bus and we could buy last minute ticket early in the morning (reservation system has certainly changed). The visit we did included mainly a film and the visit of the memorial. We found the memorial and the film very interesting as it tries to show a balanced view of the conflict. This visit was not something that we initially planned but we recommend it

Honolulu Marathon

During our 2024 trip the date of our arrival in Oahu matched the date of the Honolulu marathon, we took it as an opportunity to participate to this event. These are some of the key points:

• If you don’t like warm and humid weather, don’t expect a great time. It was my second Marathon and I was well prepared, but training in the cold and running with Hawaiian weather was very difficult. I felt super tired very early in the race.
• This is a very welcoming event with a great vibe in the cities. Many restaurants are offering discount to runners you feel that everyone is happy to be here and to welcome guest.
• The race start in Honolulu center for a 10km loop at night, then it goes around Diamond head and to Hawaii Kai. From Hawaii Kai it goes back to the park south of Waikiki. There is nothing super beautiful about this route, I did enjoy the sunrise over Koko head while running from Diamond head to Hawaii Kai.
• The 10km and the Marathon starts with the same route and at the same time. Ariana did the 10km so we started together and she paced me for the first 10km of the marathon. This was great to share a part of the race.
• All runners / walkers are welcome, as I was finishing the marathon people were at the 13km doing the marathon walking. I remember seeing firefighter with all their heavy gear and a couple walking with their weeding dresses.

As a summary, this is not the best marathon if you want to do a good time but this is a great event.

Beer in Honolulu

As usual during our trips we tried some additional local breweries, including two in Honolulu:

• Howzit Brewing: was a good stop with some good beers and a food truck that we didn’t tried but which looked good!.
• Aloha Beer Company: looks nice from the outside, but the beers were very disapoiting and we do not recommand this place.

South & East

Kuli’ou’ou Ridge Trail

This is a moderate / difficult hike (7.1km – 508m elevation) which goes up to one of the ridge close by Hawaii Kai. We did it in 2024 late in the afternoon and really enjoyed the final part. There is street car parking in the neighborhood around the hike starts.

We started at about 3:30pm and did our best to go fast on the initial part. Outside of some bird this first part is not super enjoyable, and the many water bottles on the route are not helping. The trails start to be more interesting getting closer to the ridge. The first part is in the forest and the last part is in the middle of the ferns. This last part in the middle of the ferns is incredibly beautiful and I would recommend doing at least one hike with this type of finish. At the top of the hike we could see the other side of the Island which was nice but not as beautiful as the ridge itself from our point of view. We didn’t stay too much and went back to the car relatively quickly to finish before sunset. In total it took us a little bit less than 2h30min.

Recomendation:

• Final part is often windy, and rainy. Try to go on a day / time where the summit will be without too many clouds.
• Other ridge in this area offer similar experience, as example Wiliwilinui Ridge trail, Hawai iloa ridge trail, Ka’au Crater tail, we have not tried them but they could be good options.

Lanikai Pillbox trail

This is a short (1.4km – 120m) but technical hike on the south east of the Island. It goes up to a pilbox with a nice view. We did it during the afternoon and we found that it was an ok trail which was a little bit overrated. Doing it for sunrise maybe offers a more memorable exprience. To do it we parked a Lanikai park and walked to the start of the hike.

Kualoa Ranch

Kualoa Ranch is a private Ranch on the east of the Island which is used for a lot movies and offers mulitple different activities and visit options (Bikes, ATV, bus, wedding, Kayak,…). We choosed the Jurassic park bus tour.

Our tickets where booked few weeks in advance online and we checked in at the requested time. We waited a bit and were loaded in some kind of open bus. The tour started by exploring the valey of the Ka’a’awa Stream which offers mulitple scenic views. Some of the main stops included: A tipical Hawaiin historical village, mulitple stops ralative to the Jurassic park / world movies (hills, bunkers, jeeps,….), and the view of some other sites related to other movies like king kong where we didn’t stop. On a second part the tour took us in the Moli’i Pond area (just above the Kamehameha Hwy) were additional Jurassic park / world sites and views are present. As example the Moli’i Pond view was the one used for the Jorassic World Mosasaurus tank.

The visit of the ranch is expensive but the experience is great. If you are a moovie fan this is a very interesting experience.

If you are looking for a good coffee around the Ranch we recomend Creature Coffeeshop. Small shop but great coffees!

Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay is likely the best snorkeling spot in Oahu. Access and open days are limited to protect the echosystem and you should check before to go (Hanauma Bay website). We went their in 2019, to access the park we had to watch a video about the area and how to limit our impact on it. We then accessed the beach which is in the middle of an old crater. The snorkeling was good, but the water was shallow and we were very close to the corrals (maybe we were a low tide). To access the best snorkeling spot, we followed the snorkeling group that were going just after the reef in the middle. It’s accessible through the middle channel with more current and deeper water (We asked the beach patrol before to go, as this is the area they ask you to avoid in the video).

Ho’omaluhia Garden and South East Road

The Road from Hanauma Bay to Wainanalo Beach is very scenic, you can do many stops to admire the ocean, and the small beaches nested in the rock formations. If you do this road trip you can continue north to Lanikai Pillbox trail. You can then head north weast to Ho’omaluhia botanical garden. The entrance to this garden contain one of the most scenic view of the hawaiin montains.

You can continou the road along the east coast to Kulaoa Ranch and further up to the north shore with some great views and beaches. If you continue on this road and are looking for food we recomend Da Bald Guy with a flight of beer at Kahuku Beer Garden. It’s certainly the best Food / beer experience we had in Oahu.

North Shore

Surfing competition

If you are in Oahu in December or winter you will poentially be able to see some prosurfing competition on the north shore. This is a great experience but not the easiest one to catch as surfing competition are highly dependent of the swell condition and timing is difficult to forecast.

In 2019 we assisited to a day of Hawaiian pro surf competition, it was on one of the Haleiwa beach, the conditions were not perfect and the wave were small but it was still very interesting to see. There was a lot of people on the beach and some good food truck for lunch.

In 2024 we were in Oahu at the time of the Vans pipe master competition, it is supposed to be a very impressive one on Pipeline beach which has huge waves. Finding information about this competition was very difficult, we basically had to open the social media and see if they were streaming live or not. On the second day we arrived just after they stopped the session, we were still able to see some great surfing but were a little bit disapointed that we couldn’t see the real competition.

North Shore visit:

If you are in Oahu outside of the surfing competition you can still visit the north shore. Banzai Pipeline beach is impressive for the waves. For some snorkeling you can visit Shark’s cove were some natural pools offer calm water. If you are more into rock jumping you can try Waimea Bay Beach.

Additional ideas

Adding here some activity ideas which look great but that we didn’t have the time to try:

• South East:
  • Makapu’u Lighthouse trail
  • Koko Head trail
  • Poke pick-up at Tamura’s fine wine & liquors and watch sunset at Chinese wall.
• East:
  • Old Palo Road and Likeke fall trail
  • Byodo-in temple
  • Crounching Lion trail
• North Shore
  • Ehukai Pillbox trail
  • Waimea Bay Beach

Map

You can use the Map below to see the full itinerary!