We went back to Honolulu again for spring break ! It's the closest warmest place we can travel to from here. We can barely handle 6 hrs in the air last time so we knew not to go pass that. It doesn't surprise me if Hawaii will be our usual spot every spring break. Our kids love to swim in the ocean and while California is just down the coast, the sea water isn't warm enough to jump into in March.
Since this is our 2nd times with the kids here, it's a lot easier to get around as we know all the kids friendly places. Baby Peanut, being a year older now, is behaving better in restaurant settings. Our lunch and dinner options improved greatly. However, I must say again, I find Honolulu to be quite expensive. The prices are a little higher than here in Vancouver, that and the added 37% conversion rate (bank rate) makes everything all the more expensive. But as hubby would say, when on vacation, you can't stress over prices ! Harder for me than him.
International Market Place and Royal Hawaiian Center is still our favorite place to rest while working out our plan for the day. There's an open area at each place for the kids to run around and let out their steam. There's also an additional small play area up at the roof top of International Market. If you need coffee or snacks, Kona Coffee is just right there. The bakery is excellent and coffee are pretty good. The night market here is still a great place for evening treats. The fresh donuts and fresh pressed cane juice are delicious.
As for food, most restaurants on Waikiki strip are pretty decent (I think the competitiveness of the area generated that), but Marukume Udon still is our favorite ! The kids eat everything there ! it's fast and convenient and tasty (expect long line up during rush hour). While the udon price is quite affordable, $7/8 a bowl, it's very easy to go overboard with the tempuras :-) Our meal usually cost between $50-60 USD.
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| Open green spaces for kids. The city really knows how to make every shopping center kids friendly ! |
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| There are lots of ice cream and shaved ice shops down Waikiki strip, however Nana Ice Cream won our votes ! |
Our girls love the beach so every day we're there ! After all we are here for the beach and sand ! We do try though, to switch up the location every day or every other day to get different views and feels. In my opinions, all the nice beaches are out East or up North of Honolulu - which you'll need a car to get there. We did go to Kailua beach once on the bus (last year), 2 transfers from downtown Waikiki, and it was a long ride ! I think it was about 1 hr 15 min on bus and 20 min walk from the bus stop to the beach. It's nice to get a feel outside of the busy tourist area and a glimpse into local residents. I chatted with a lady on the bus the whole time and she gave me a quick 411 on the island. People live humble life here. I also discovered that there are many Vietnamese living here. Which doesn't surprise me because we like warm climate. Anyways, back to the bus !!! The bus here on Oahu are not stroller friendly at all. You can take the stroller on but it has to be folded flat. I remember the last time we went, when we arrived at the beach, kids were cranky and we were tired (not a good combo). We recovered fast as the beach was so nice ! but for sure we will never do that again !
Some friends asked me what we do on the beach everyday with our 3 kids. My short answer is that, you don't need to plan to do anything ! Just show up, put a towel down, and relax ! Ideas will come :-) For the kids that is. Our kids came up with many creative ways to spend their time ! Our girls made cakes, dug a pool, built castles, covered each other with sand, searched for fishes/shells/corals, swam, jumped over waves, played "mermaids", and many more I can't remember. As for Peanut, since he's younger, he tagged along with the girls for some of the activities but came up with a few of his own. He was searching for dinosaurs' bones aka white coral ! There are a lot of white corals on the shore so we gave him a fish net to hold all his findings. He also dug for treasures (we hid his toys in the sand for him to dig up) and went fishing with his fish net.
There are organized activities available too if you don't know where to start. Maybe talk to your hotel concierge or workers and see what they suggest. There are literally a booth at practically every corner offering Luau, diving, boating, surfing, day trip (Pearl Harbour, Diamond Head, etc etc), beer trip, etc etc. I just feel many of them are tourist trap. I am sure there are good ones, you just need to do a bit of research. We avoided all of them partly because we are not interested (can do on our own) and partly because we feel they aren't offering authentic experience. If you want authentic Luau with good food, I read that local churches give the best Luau and at reasonable price. We are not into pre-planned show and dinner etc etc so we passed.
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Duke's Lagoon. Shallow lagoon for kids at the Hilton Village. Our kids prefer the other side of the lagoon,
facing out into ocean, as they love the waves ! I couldn't agree more. |
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| Lanikai beach ! Small beach with lots of sea life. Snorkels/goggles is a must. |
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| Kailua beach ! Powdery sand that goes for miles. |
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| Playing at the beach ! I fell in love with this guava drink. Cheaper to buy in 6 pk at Walmart. |
If you are like us, don’t like planned events, then rent a car or take the bus ! whatever float your boat and your wallet :-) and just go and explore the island on your own. I usually use google as a guide ! Do a “what to do” search on the area, read forums, blogs and redit/quora comments/suggestions. Often a local would share some great tips. Personally, I would skip Dole Plantation unless I am looking for something to do with the kids. There are lots of free show in Waikiki (check local and hotel schedule) and apparently many are same performers from the more commercialized events so no need to pay for it. Hilton has free fireworks on Friday. Night market is every Tuesday and Thursday.
Have a spare day to kill ? Check out Ala Moana Shopping Center. It's a huge mall with a mix of stores and a playground !!! In addition to the expansive food court, they also have Shirokiya Japan Village Walk food court ! There are many Japanese food stalls here and here is where you can buy $1 beer !!! There are daily performances in the main center court. If you need the basics and don't want to pay extras, Walmart is just around the bend from this mall. We usually stop by here to grab snacks for kids and guava drink for cheap (the purple can). We also bough booster seats to use in our rental car ! Cost for rental was $35 per day for 1 booster seat. We bought 2 for $45 and only have to pay once :-)
For accommodation, we didn't stay at a hotel this time. We rented a condo from Ali'i Beach Rental. The condo gave us more space, has a kitchen (which we used twice to make breakfast !), has a pool, and was very close to the beach. It was right behind the Hyatt hotel on the main strip. Hubby missed the daily room service but for the space and location, it was worth it. It's similar to airbnb without all the additional service cost. I highly recommend this company if you are going to Oahu. We liked everything about the condo (3 beds, washroom with separate door to 2 showers/bathtub, and space to spread out), and our customer rep. was really friendly and easy to reach. When we found out our flight was delayed, I called our rep. and she arranged to let us stay for another day for free. That's great service right there !!!
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Our bright & airy condo rental ! Full kitchen, 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom (separate room for shower/bath and toilet),
3 beds, living room and dining area, and large wide door that opens to a big balcony (overlooking the pool) |
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| Visiting downtown and Chinatown of Honolulu |
Until next time Waikiki ! Thank you for the wonderful memories !
