Recommendations: Hawaii

[sauergeek]

Work is sending me and a coworker to Hawaii (for work, alas). However, I'll have two free days (6/24 and 6/30) as well as one free evening (6/23) to have a look around the place. I'm staying in Honolulu, and will be on Oahu the entire time I'm there. The hotel is one of the Honolulu International Airport hotels -- a Best Western, I think. There is a car available, but it's in my coworker's name, so I will likely not have ready access to it.

Questions for the assembled folk who know Hawaii:
* Does Honolulu have decent public transit? How about the rest of Oahu? If so, is there a website for trip planning?
* Do you have any tour books you particularly like?
* What do you recommend I do in my spare time?

I like trying out new food, new beer, and I suppose I should make at least one beach stop that involves fru-fru drinks with umbrellas in them. I also think I'd like to stop by Pearl Harbor and see the WW2 memorials there.

Thoughts?

Comments

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

Things I'd take you to if I was there:
- Arizona memorial, the one touristy thing that you can't miss
- Auntie Pasto's, the best italian food on the island. I've heard a rumor that they've franchised and have one in Waikiki now. Go to the original one, it's closer to the airport.
- Go up to Wahiawa, and at the first stoplight in town, turn right. There's a tiny little mom & pop Korean place about a block up on your left. Eat there.
- In the mall in Mililani, find Waldo's Flying Pizza Company, and have a beer and the french onion soup.
- If you have an evening to kill and it isn't raining, pick up a six-pack of beer and some chinese by the mall, and catch a double-feature at the Kam drive-in.
- Go to the north shore. Sit on the beach. Watch insane locals surf apartment-building-sized waves. If you get the urge to do this yourself, drive back to waikiki and rent one of those foam longboards from the dude in front of the Hale Koa and surf on the little pissy 2-foot break there. And mind the coral that's underneath that break, shit still hurts when you slam into it.

That's about it.

[snolan.livejournal.com]

Dude - sounds like you were there in winter. Summer waves will be acceptable on the south shore - though not as amazing as north shore winter waves to be sure.

Waikiki - the water there used to have a half inch coating of sunblock oil from so many tourists, though watching for foreign tourists who do not know that topless is prohibited was always fun (grin).

Thanks for the food tips - it's been so long since I was there that I figured all my old haunts would be gone... Thanks!

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

I was there from March 94 until April 97, so my information is a little dated as well.

My surfing spot of choice was Kaneohe marine base - never was crazy enough to face the north shore - but the Waikiki break is just big enough for a 200lb tourist with no skills to stand up on it, so that's what I recommend for 200lb tourists with no skills. It's also missing the cool nurse shark that lives at the end of that one beach on the Ewa side that all of the locals know not to fuck with, and every year at least one tourist gets bitten by. Dude! Don't fuck with the shark, and the shark won't fuck with you!

Kaneohe - sweet

[snolan.livejournal.com]

When I was there in the 80s, even active duty USAF folks could not get on to Kaneohe - so though I heard the base had nice beaches and surfing, I never got to see it.

Though thinking about it - I bet some of that stuff is more open than ever. Is Kaneohe still a base? I'll bet it's closed now and open to public (Hawaii has Democratic representatives).

For that matter, what used to be Bellows AFS in Waimanalo (sp?) is probably open to the public now too! That was a gorgeous beach and very quiet - familiar to anyone who watched Magnum P.I. as the setting for the "Robin Masters private beach" scenes.

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

For the Korean place, does this location look about right? The Dong Yang Inn.

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's it.

If it's still the same family that's running it, know what you want, because they don't speak a lot of english. And, if you go there with a group, they'll bring the soup in a bucket-sized bowl and expect all y'all to eat out of it. This really freaked out my mom for some reason. It's fucking awesome korean food, though.