Ideal Oahu 5 day trip plan?
Hi All,
Me and my wife are going to be in Oahu for 5 days Fri – Tue in Mid May. We are going to stay near Waikiki beach. I have been reading a lot about what things we can do and what tours I can take.
1) Should I take tours or rent a car ? Personally I don’t like to drive on vacation but if it saves me lot of money I may consider it?
2) Which are must to do places as this is our 1st oahu tour – Pearl harbour, Snorkeling, Polynesian center, Paradise cove, etc.
3) Are there any preferences with regards to which day we need to do anything example snorkeling on Monday might be better than on weekend or Paradise cove might be better on weekend than on weekday?
4) There are several tour operating companies. Is there any economical priced good tours you can recommend?
Thanks in advance for your help,
Oahu Beach
May 1st, 2010 at 11:00 am
Kansieo.com
Oh my you are so lucky! Oahu is beautiful. My boyfriend and I have been twice, and these are a few of our favorite things to do.
1.) There really is no need to rent a car for the whole time. Not only is everything walkable or accessible by public transportation, you will have to pay for parking at your hotel. I would recommend renting a car for one day and driving over to see the North Shore. It is quaint and beautiful, and you can stop at pretty beaches and get lunch at Turtle Bay resort.
2.) I would definitely do Pearl Harbor, it is interesting even if you aren’t a history buff. We did parasailing which is really neat and fun, but pretty adventurous. Another thing that is nice is taking the Pink Line trolley to the Ala Moana mall one afternoon. We left our hotel at about 4, shopped around, got dinner and saw a movie. It made for a great afternoon.
3.) We haven’t done an of these activities, but I am sure they are a lot of fun. All of the hotels have brochures and should have a conceierge who can hep with specifics.
Have a great time!
May 2nd, 2010 at 7:41 pm
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1) the streets here are crazy. whoever planned them was an idiot and the people who drive on them are crazy too =D. we do have a pretty good bus system that can get you where you want to go. parking in waikiki/at hotels is also pretty expensive.
2)pearl harbour is a pretty powerful experience, and you probably want to go to that. you could also try taking surf lessons from someone along waikiki (that’s probably the easiest place to learn). hanauma bay is really fun because you can see so many different fish there, but they do close early (i think at 4 pm or something) and there are some regulations/rules you should probably look up beforehand. the polynesian cultural center is far away from where you are and pretty boring. if it were me, i wouldn’t bother going there.
3) not that i know of…
4) i dont’ usually do those. waikiki always has stuff going on and the beach is great, so i don’t really take time out of that to ever go on a tour.
May 6th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Kansieo.com
i wouldnt take a tour, explore it yourselves. hiking diamandhead is nice and easy. going to the north shore to see the waves. hanauma bay is the best place go to snorkling. if you guys wanna go shopping, theres ala moana shopping center, very big, lots of stores. anyways, hope that helps. Enjoy your stay!
May 7th, 2010 at 3:39 am
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Me and my wife went a few years ago; you will have an amazing time!!!!!!!!!
Try if at all possible to go to Pearl Harbor , it is very worth it, a very powerful experience.
You have to make sure you see a sunset on waikiki beach , it is
awesome, I have never been anywhere else that would compare !
We didn’t rent a car , but got around really easy by bus . Check with your hotel about free shuttle too.
Also Enjoy a cup of Kona coffee YUM !! I love it so much I splurge
on ordering it from Hawaii .
Have a great time !! There’s also the market to walk around and look
at all the hawaiian merchandise , it is very close to Waikiki
May 9th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
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I agree with “Missia and Brain” on this post, Just remember to save time to relax and enjoy yourselfsw those early morning calls for tours can get to you [ I don't know your age] aloha
May 10th, 2010 at 3:02 am
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I wish we were going back to Hawaii soon
My husband and I went in Feb. which I guess is one of the “off” season months. We went to Pearl Harbor on a Sunday and it took about 2 horus I guess to get to go on the boat to go out to the memorial. We went on a rainy dreary day and the water was not very clear and could not really see the USS Arizona. But it was clear and beautiful at Waikiki and at Pearl Harbor it was dreary. We went to the PCC on a Tuesday I think it was..again it wasn’t too crowded at all. But I would not pay the extra money for a tour guide I think that we would have enjoyed the place much better if we could have explored it on our own.
I did not do any tours really. I went to the website to see what there was out there to do. We rented a car and that way we could come and go as we pleased. One tip if you stay near Waikiki there are alot of one way streets and in my opinion it is very confusing if you rent a car bring your garmin or tomtom along. Wished that we had ours the night our flight landed we spent like 2 hours driving in the the dark around Waikiki trying to find our hotel.
Also, remember to plan some time to relax on the beach. I had this whole itinerary of things we were going to do and see while on Oahu; and we didn’t do half of the things I wanted to do…all well that gives us an excuse to go back!
Enjoy paradise!