Aloha Oahu (Part 2)

Yesterday my post centered around some of the beaches around the island.

As beautiful and relaxing as those places are, the island offers a lot beyond soaking in the sun. This is a list of some of my favorite places and activities around the island. A lot of the things on this list are affordable and won’t break your travel budget. When you call your travel agent *ahem* they’ll be able to price these things out for you.

 

Hike up Diamond Head:

• Diamond Head is a 500,000 year old dormant volcano. The hike is about 0.7 miles, which is considered to be a moderate climb. The end of the climb gives awesome views of Waikiki Beach and the Pacific Ocean. There is an extra 99 steps for those who want to keep going to see a World War II Bunker. The climb is a serious must for any adventurer on the island.

Adventure Tours:

• In case climbing to the top of the volcano isn’t enough, there are tons of other adventure tours. My favorite is kayaking to one of the coastal islands where you can see sea turtles, sharks, sea lions, and exotic birds. 

The Polynesian Cultural Center:

• This is a full day affair and is a wonderful place to get a feel of the Polynesian Culture. Brigham Young Hawaii runs it (the campus is right next door) and has put a lot of time and money into making it as accurate a portrayal of the culture as it can be. The kids that work at the Center are students of the college and are from the many Polynesian Islands (Fiji, Tonga, Palau, Tahiti, New Zealand). They also have a dinner show that is truly spectacular and well worth every cent. The dinner show is the kind of thing you saw when the Brady Bunch visited Hawaii.

Pearl Harbor and The Arizona Memorial and USS Misourri:

• Spend a few hours at the Pearl Harbor Museum and watch a video on the attack of Pearl Harbor. Then, you’ll take a Navy Launch over to the Arizona Memorial. This is a solemn visit and very moving. Awkward story: when my mother (who was like the mother in The Help) came to visit me while I lived in Hawaii, we visited here along with a group of about 30 Japanese tourists. My job became to remind her to stop staring at them every 20 seconds.
• The USS Missouri, as I’m sure everyone knows, is where Japan made its unconditional surrender at the end of World War II. There’s a nice plaque of where MacArthur signed the treaty. It’s also a cool place to put on your aviators and shout “I shall return!”

Whale Watching:

• From December to March you can take a whale watching cruise or even just sit on the beach with a Mai Tai and watch the Humpback whales in the water. They come to warmer waters to give birth to their young.

This is just a small list of some of the more popular things to do. There are also dinner cruises, luaus, golf courses, and trails. This island thrives off tourism and thus offers a wide variety for either the whole family, friends, and newlyweds.

When you call for a price, I usually give roundtrip air, transfers with a flower lei greeting and Waikiki hotel with many excursions. But believe me when I say we can plan for whatever you’d like to do while in Oahu. Weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries, winter get aways, spending of the retirement fund, whatever. 

-Bea