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.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

There are N bead store in Honolulu.

* lizzie flees!!

[snolan.livejournal.com]

Warning, this information is somewhat dated - I was stationed at Hickam AFB in 1985 and 1986... however, it is probably still accurate.

Honolulu (the city's official limits cover the whole island of Oahu, though many parts of Oahu are rural and have smaller communities with their own name) has a fantastic public bus system called "The Bus" and the rates may have gone up but you can ride as long as you like for a flat fee (which used to be 50 cents). Even if it's $2 today, it'd still be worth it. I used to carry a walkman and a pack of tapes and simply ride around all day long to site see and people watch from the bus... which does go out of the main city to the North Shore and to Sandy Beach and many other excellent sites.

When I was there the Waikiki Aquarium was crap, but I have heard that the Aquarium was massively renovated and is now excellent. sutragirl and I plan to visit in August and we intend to go to Oahu as well as either Maui or Kuai just for the Aquarium and the WWII memorials.

The massive waves you hear about off the North Shore are a winter phenomena... you'll only see them from November through March. During the summer the waves are larger on the South shore (Eva Beach, Ala Moana Park, Waikiki, Kahala, and sometimes Sandy Beach) - but summer waves are not as dramatic as winter waves off the North Shore... you are talking about 3-4' swells and sometimes good waves of up to 7' (as surfers measure them, that 7' will look like 12' as you sit in the trough and face it) - but only on a spectacular day.

Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve is a fantastic place to swim and snorkel - the fish are friendly because they know they are protected there and you can see all kinds of wildlife (or is it tame-life?) you'd ordinarily have to dive or search for a long time to see. Hanauma bay (North side) is also where the famous "toilet bowl" is (natural bowl in the rock that fills up with waves and then flushes periodically - to many swimmer's delight).

Sandy Beach is probably my favorite beach on the island, and when you are there the chances are it will be a rockin' spot to visit for active people. It is not a sit on the beach and read a book kind of beach at all - the local rock station brings in big speakers and DJ's from the beach, and the waves there summon boogie-boarders and body-surfers galore... and when the waves are right occasionally surfers and wind-surfers. Sandy is also close to the famous Blowhole and "From Here to Eternity Beach" and there is usually a hundred kite flyers and hang gliders in the area too because of the winds. Be prepared that there are nearly no facilities at Sandy; it remains blissfully wild and undeveloped... just a place where people park their cars (or get off the bus) and hang out where there are no high-rise hotels and nearly no vendors. Bring sunblock!!!!