Waikiki and Oahu, Hawaii

Hawaii, the place of tropical dreams and the location of many shows (TV shows LOST, Magnum PI) and the movies Jurassic Park, Windtalkers, Tears of the Sun, Godzilla, George of the Jungle, Mighty Joe Young, Peal Harbor, 50 First Dates, Snakes on a Plane and You Me and Dupree.  Hawaii is the only US state that was once a kingdom ruled by its own native royalty.

Hawaii is also a dream destination that is considered by many an once-in-a-lifetime vacation.  There are so many things to do and see that it can easily become overwhelming.  I was in Oahu for about twelve days and had enough free time to get a good feel for the island and Waikiki.  Let me help make your dream trip to Oahu easier.

 First Things you must do

Get your free copy of “Oahu This Week” which is choked full of valuable coupons

Get your free copy of the Trolley guide http://www.hawaiiwebdesign.com/oahu_waikikitrolley.htm

Get your free copy of Oahu Nature Tours brochure

http://www.oahunaturetours.com/

Traffic and parking are atrocious in Oahu so you can save yourself some headaches by taking the trolley.  Most of these items are available at your accommodations or at the rental car agency.

Consider Seeing These

Natalie Ai Kamauu is an amazing native Hawaiian singer that will give a true piece of the islands in her music.  I fell in love with her voice so much I bought one of her CDs. http://natalieaikamauu.com/

If you get a chance to see the Keiki Hula (girls hula) groups, they are the BEST.

The Byodo-In Temple http://gohawaii.about.com/od/oahusights/ss/byodo_in_temple.htm

Byodo-In Temple

is a peaceful and beautiful sight.  Set among the lush greenery of the

Valley of the Temples Memorial Park this scale replica of a temple in Japan will be a memory you will cherish.  I didn’t want to leave and the photos I took are some of my most cherished souvenirs of my time in Hawaii.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pali lookout is just what it says – a lookout with a fantastic view.

International market 

This open-air market consists of 130 carts, shops and artisan stands plus free Hawaiian entertainment five nights a week including Hula shows.  An added bonus to the market is the up close look at massive Banyun trees that form a canopy overhead.

http://www.internationalmarketplacewaikiki.com/ 

 

Pearl Harbor, more than just the memorial

Windward side beaches – Feel like a drive to visit some of the most beautiful beaches anywhere?  Just drive along the eastern (Windward) shoreline.

 Chinaman’s hat – a tiny island that resembles a china man’s beat up hat in Kaneohe Bay

Chinaman's Hat

 

 

China Town  - downtown

 

 

 

 

Art District – downtown

Waikiki Aquarium  http://www.waquarium.org/

Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden – 45-680 Luluku Road (Windward side of Island) Lush four hundred acres with picnic and camping grounds.

Iolani Palace (was the royal residence) is downtown http://www.iolanipalace.org/

Sea Life Park – http://www.sealifeparkhawaii.com/

What you can skip.

Polynesian Center: the cheapest to get in is $43.00/person and it goes up from there for “options”.  I did it and although a beautiful setting I didn’t find it worth the money – and then there was $5 for parking too!

Any Laua – they are really pricey for less than average food.  You can see dancers at the International Market.

North Shore – unless it is January when the waves are big or there is a surfing competition it is just surf shops

RumFire restaurant- way over priced and horrible service

Hiking Tours 

Oahu Nature Tours http://www.oahunaturetours.com/

Accommodations:

Please note that most every hotel is going to charge you for parking if you are staying in Waikiki itself.  If you are going somewhere along Kalakaua, consider walking as an option.

Military can stay at the Hale Koa Resort 2055 Kalia, which is a fantastic deal right on the Waikiki beach and within walking distance of everything in Waikiki.  http://www.halekoa.com/

 

Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach is in the center of the action.  2335 Kalakaua Avenue  http://www.outrigger.com/hotels-resorts/hawaiian-islands/oahu-waikiki/outrigger-waikiki-on-the-beach   Right across from the International Market and all the high end Waikiki shopping.  It has the Shorebird and Duke’s restaurants and the Hula Grill.  It is also right on the Beach.

 

The Royal Hawaiian Resort for Luxury and romantic accommodations you won’t forget 2259 Kalakaua Ave  http://www.royal-hawaiian.com/  The ultimate for your honeymoon.  It opened its doors in February 1927 on a pristine expanse of Waikiki Beach and ushered in a new standard of exotic luxury. The hotel quickly became a magnet for Hollywood’s elite and distinguished guests from around the globe – the essence of indulgent escape.  The hotel reopened in January 2009 after an extensive remodeling to maintain its elegant and exotic charm.  

For bargains in hotels, start looking a block or two away from the beach.  Still close enough to the activity hub, but you can save yourself some cash.  You can just go lay on the beach without staying in a beach front hotel.

 

Restaurants:  Moderate Priced and Deals

Hula Grill Waikiki  2335 Kalakaua Ave  In the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach Great Breakfast

 

Wailana Coffee House  Corner Ala Moana Blvd. & Ena Rd, across the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  24 hour diner.  Award-winning locally owned establishment that’s been there for years. Cheap eats (most items under $10) and broad menu selection. Great portions & service. They also have a cozy little side bar with Karaoke.

 

Doubletree on Ala Moana near Kalakaua on Ala Moana- has a truly good restaurant (somewhat an undiscovered gem) with moderate prices and standard wine offerings. 

ShoreBird Restaurant and Beach Bar

Dining on Waikiki Beach with exceptional views of Diamond Head and amazing beach views at sunset. All-you-can-eat salad bar. Grill your own hand-carved steaks and fresh fish!  Full bar and casual attire.   Live entertainment 5 – 9 pm  .

 Oceanarium Restarant in the Pacific Beach Hotel 2490 Kalakaua Ave.  www.pacificbeachhotel.com/ocean.cfm 

The restaurant is off the lobby of the Pacific Beach Hotel features an enormous three story

Oceanarium Restaraunt

aquarium with about 500 fish including 3 string rays, and a wide buffet selection.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several kinds of beef offered as well as prime rib and fish. I’m not a sushi fan, but if you are, there is plenty to choose from. Also includes a potato bar, crab legs, pasta station, desserts and prime rib and salad bar. 

The aquarium holds 280,000 gallons and stands three stories high, making it about 30 feet deep, is 52 feet long, 32 feet wide, and sits right inside the middle of the hotel.  There are over 60 different species of marine life represented, all from the Indo-Pacific and most of them native to Hawaiian waters. The fish are hand fed by a scuba diver several times a day.

 

Duke’s Restarant (in the Outrigger) 2335 Kalakaua Ave

Duke’s has a Breakfast and lunch buffet, but Dinner is when Duke’s shines.  http://www.dukeswaikiki.com/   amazing beach views.

 

Top Restaurants for a Special Night out:

Hy’s Steak House   http://www.hyshawaii.com/   2440 Kuhio Ave.

In the Waikiki Park Heights Hotel near the beach at Waikiki.  Prime Beef steak is their specialty (including Beef Wellington) and award winning wine list featured in “Wine Spectator”. The interior resembles an old English mansion with the ambience of a private gentleman’s club – lots of leather and even good Scotch.  Also serves fish, chicken, veal, pasta

 

Top of Waikiki  Waikiki Business Plaza 2270 Kalakaua Avenue, 18th Floor  Dinner Nightly, 5 – 9:30 pm  Revolving restaurant with 360 views of Waikiki and elegant dinning.   http://www.topofwaikiki.com/  

 

Sergio’s Italian Restaurant  2005 Kalia Road 
Located in the Hilton Hawaiian Village 2nd Floor of the Rainbow Bazaar  http://www.sergioswaikiki.com/

I loved their extensive wine list with manager’s selections and Tuscan treasures, and about 15 selections by the glass.  I would have loved to go for a second visit, it was just that good.

 Buy food in Waikiki

The only large food store in Waikiki is the Food Pantry on Kuhio Avenue. The place is about as big as a modest Safeway and is open 24/7.  Just follow Ena drive west (away from Hilton Hawaiian Village) and take a left at Kuhio Ave.  It is on the right side half a block down.  It is a short walk from the corner of Kalia/Ena and Ala Moana.

 Seasonal Events:

 

Spam Jam Waikiki: End of April each year – Kalakaua Avenue will be closed in front of Outrigger Waikiki Hotel and the Royal Hawaiian ShoppingCenter. This is also a special event that benefits the Hawaii Food Bank, the largest non-profit in Hawaii that feeds the needy.  To me the highlight was the local entertainment.  I had a great time without ever touching any spam, so don’t let that turn you off.

 

 

Aloha Festival:  September, – generally spans a week. The Aloha Festival features hula dancers, local cuisine, local music, leis, all types of vendors, etc. The Waikiki Ho’olaule’a includes several stages, plenty of music, and food and crafts booths.

 

Princess Kaiulani Keiki Hula Festival:  October, the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani hosts a week of girls hula groups.  Sure to be a treat.

Souvenir Shopping

ABC store for T-shirts (and pick up some Hawaiian Noni juice –native juice from a plant that boosts the immune system!)

International Market

Hilton Hawaiian village (Kiosk near the ABC store has great souvenir necklaces)

DFS Galleria – close to the International Market

Stroll along Beach Walk in Waikiki for the Sidewalk vendors

Aloha Stadium Swap Meet in Honolulu www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net

Hilo Hattie 700 Nimitz Hwy

Shows to see

Cirque Hawaii 325 Seaside Avenue Honolulu http://www.cirquehawaii.com/

 

Stars in Concert Hawaii – Vegas class impersonators  http://www.buyoahutours.com/tours/oah_blue_hawaii_deluxe_dinner_show.html

 

Comedy Polynesia (Sheraton Prencess Kaiulaini)  http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=53278643

 

Danny Couch (Don Ho style)  Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Hotel

http://www.dannycouchfanaddicts.com/dannycouch_princesskaiulani.htm

 

Other Activities

Atlantis Submarines, Glass bottom boats, Helicopter tours, Dolphin excursions, Whale watching excursions (in season), any of the Nature Tours, Diamond Head, Diving and snorkeling, Learn to surf, Parasailing (check in “Oahu This Week” for coupons), Golf, Jetski, Skydive, Dinner sunset cruises, Dole Pineapple Farm.

 

I truly enjoyed my time in Oahu and hope that I have been able to give some tips to make your adventure to Hawaii a memorable one.  Just enjoy every bit of this paradise and don’t be afraid to drive.  There is traffic, but give yourself plenty of time and study the map.  It is pretty simple to get around in truth and well worth it to.  I drove the entire island by myself and am so glad I did.

 Mahalo (Thank you)

Aloha (hello/goodbye)

Cabo San Lucas, Baja

When you think of vacations to Mexico you think of amazing beaches, party boats, and incredible deals on everything from sombreros to jewelry.  Well…not in Cabo.  Cabo is at the very tip of the Baja peninsula where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean.  I feel I must warn you, this is not a tropical paradise, this is the desert next to the ocean so you get alot of cactus views and some palm trees.

From the instant the plane touches the ground you get an idea of how it will be.  I spent an hour to get through the airport, then there was the total chaos of the timeshare people blatanly lying, claiming they are from your hotel or timeshare and will take you there when in reality they are timeshare and activity sales people.  Get outside the airport to get your transportation – you have been warned!

I was staying in a very nice timeshare that a friend offered me.  Since we had a kitchen, we went to the local Costco (oh yes, they have one!) and found most everything to be more expensive than in the States…an omen for sure.  And that wasn’t the only thing more expensive.  Most places to stay are outside of town, so you have to take taxis for everything, and that is a per person charge in most cases and rather pricey.  None of them are any cheaper than the other either.

The main attraction is the Marina which is a gauntlet of agressive timeshare salespeople and activities

The Marina

 sales people.  Then there are the multitudes of hawkers selling wares from silver jewelry (no bargains to be found) to chicklets.  Hmmmm, not my idea of a good time.  We actually paid the chicklet-selling lady to walk with us and tell everyone we weren’t interested so we could get some peace! We did find the Tequila Museum in the Marina a pleasant respite.  There is the Shopping Mall next to the Marina.  Just think of glitzy items with expensive prices or cheesy souvenirs and you have the right idea.

That leaves beaches or nightlife.  The timeshare I was at (Hacienda Encantada) had amazing crashing waves against the rocks. No beach.  But a fantastic inifinity pool.  There is Medano beach you can take a taxi to or Lovers beach you can take a boat to!

As for nightlife, yes there is Cabo Wabo and a few others for the young party person.  Not for me.

The Arch

So what is there really to do.  There is parasailing (which was much cheaper in Hawaii) but sport fishing is the big rage in Cabo.  Cabo is host to the world’s largest marlin fishing competition.  You might find scuba diving. There is golfing, I can’t tell you what the greens are like since I don’t play.  You can take a boat out to see the Arches rock structure and dinner or booze cruises.  But all of these will cost you considerably from all indications I got. 

On the up side, the employees at the timeshare I stayed in were very helpful and pleasant.  The times I ate out the food was very good.  There was a dessert shop in the Marina that was great – but again it was expensive just to satisfy a sweet tooth.  If you go between January and March you can go Whale watching, which I really would have loved – but I went in June.  And actually for June it wasn’t that hot because it is lower humidity being a desert.  But all this goes only so far when you are counting down the days until you go home and have something to do.

 I didn’t find one single bargain during my stay, which made me miss Puerto Vallarta where it was tropical and bargains await you.  I even found Hawaii to be more reasonable with more things to do.  If you are wanting to go, take my advice and stay at the Marina Fiesta Resort and Spa which is one of the few right down town and actually reasonably priced.  It will save you on taxi fairs!  Did I get a timeshare? NO. I did decide to look into timeshare/vacation ownership in the States – like Napa valley, more my style!

Coral Castle Ingenuity

A Castle built completely of massive hand-hewn coral slabs by a lone man without modern

Main Quarters

machinery seems incredible in itself.  Then you hear the rest of the story.  Coral Castle is 30 miles south of Miami in the tiny town of Homestead.

 

 

I visited this wonder and even after witnessing it first hand, you know there is more to the story than even what the guides tell you.  Could Edward Leedskalnin truly have dedicated 28 years of his life to building an eccentric yet grand home for the woman who jilted him the-day-before their wedding?  Some claim that is a romantic tale but not really true.  If it were true, it would make coral castle a bittersweet American Taj Mahal, because Agnes Scuffs never saw the resulting wonder.

 

Could this Latvian immigrant, reportedly with no more than a fourth grade education and who weighed about one hundred pounds on a bad day, single-handedly carve several hundred to several thousand pound slabs, transport them and position them exactly?  That is the story and nobody has discounted it.  But that is not all, the swinging gate weighs nine tons yet can be swung open by a “child using one finger” – yes nine tons by a child.  I saw it myself. Amazing at least, impossible some would say. 

 

These massive slabs of coral are so precisely measured, cut and placed that without any mortar no light shines through the seams.  Coral Castle weathered hurricane Andrew, a category 5, in 1992 without a single stone even shifting.

 

Does that remind you of another incredible construction feat?  Perhaps the Great Pyramids of Egypt?  The pyramids are examples of similar precision without modern tools.   Ed himself said that he had learned the techniques used in pyramid construction. Ed worked with a cloak-and-dagger zeal to keep anybody from witnessing how he moved the massive slabs of coral, maintaining the enigma. 

There exist two photos of Ed with a large tripod with chains and pulleys, but these are considered by some as unable to truly lift the weight involved now tall enough.  Either way, Ed was resourceful and even used scavenged junk yard parts for his tools and made his own version of a pressure cooker with them as well.

 

Main Grounds

Symbols abound on the grounds of the castle, some easily recognized and others not so.  There are the triple moon that is associated with goddess worship and the “carrot” symbol associated with the Egyptians. 

 

 

There is the fascinating sundial that is surprisingly accurate to within two minutes.  There are points that are aligned for equinoxes, like the stone telescope that towers 25 feet above the walls.  This structure aligns to the North Star on winter solstice.

 

Naturally people have found plenty of material to ignite many tales.  Everything from he used levitation to extra-terrestrial methods to build the castle.  Whether the truth is supernatural, extra-terrestrial or mundane engineering principles, visiting Coral Castle is a pleasant afternoon giving witness to the marvel of human ingenuity and determination.