One Week on Oahu Hawaii - Our Favourite Places

First of all, do you say "in" or "on" Oahu? Because it is an island.. so it would be on... right? I'm struggling. I am writing this blog to share some of our favourite places that we discovered on Oahu in the hope that you can enjoy them someday too!

If you were following along on Instagram, you may or may not remember our trip to Oahu and Kauai that we went on last year. It is a trip that I will never forget because it is the trip that I left to go on with a boyfriend and came back from with a Fiance! I will cover Kauai in a separate blog so for now I am just going to talk about the first part of our trip which we spent on Oahu. See! There I have said "on". If anyone knows the answer to this, please tell me! Pictured below is the moment right after Dave proposed. We jumped in the water for a sunrise swim right after.

We flew into Honolulu International Airport early in the morning after a night flight, which neither of us were able to sleep on and went straight to pick up our hire car. We then drove from the airport all the way to Turtle Bay resort which was a only a bit over an hours drive, but it felt like 3 hours because of how tired we both were. Dave started driving, couldn't handle the tiredness, we stopped at Maccas for ice coffees (way too sweet) and I drove the rest of way which I must say I'm very proud of. On the way, we stopped off at the Polynesian Culture Centre for a small nap in the car and a very yummy crepe from one of the food trucks. Guys, if there is anything we learnt about Hawaii, it's that food trucks are HUGE. Food trucks are everywhere, kind of replacing cafes and keeping the islands nature intact which is super nice. Hawaii definitely had a very natural, hippy feel about it, especially the North Shore, which is where Turtle Bay is located.

Turtle Bay and Sharks Cove / Garlic Shrimp /Sunset Beach

We didn't actually stay at Turtle Bay because we are all about travelling on a budget. Instead we stayed at an Airbnb at a villa complex literally just down the road from the resort, meaning that we could walk into the resort and swim at their beach, go to the restaurants and bars and have a sneaky look around pretending to be richer than we were. As our room wasn't ready until after midday, we went straight to the beach at Turtle Bay, lay down on the grass under the palm trees and both fell straight asleep. It was glorious. Then once we had had a dip in the water, we were ready for some cocktails so we went to one of the outdoor bars (this one was on the beach side) at Turtle Bay.

The food at Turtle Bay was obviously fairly expensive so we decided to go and find some good trucks. We drove further into the North Shore and came across a bunch of food trucks at Pupukea which was only around a 12 minute drive. If you use google maps to direct to "North Shore Shrimp Truck," this will get you there. There is also a Food Land next door for any groceries that you may need. There we had our first Garlic Shrimp and me oh my it was delicious! If you are going to try anything new in Hawaii let it be the Garlic Shrimp!

The food trucks are right across the road from Shark's Cove which is a great snorkeling spot! Don't let the name deter you as we did not see any sharks but did see turtles and loads and loads of fish. There is also a cool Aloha sign written with shells underwater. Not sure if this would still be there though. We actually brought out own snorkelling gear with us from Australia because we knew that we would be doing lots of snorkelling and thought it would be easier than having to hire every single time.

Sunset Beach

While we were staying near Turtle Bay, we went to Sunset Beach for... yes, you guessed it, sunset. This was Dave's original spot that he planned to propose at, but I was more in the mood for cocktails than chilling at the beach so I made the beach trip a little to short for him and he had to wait and pick another spot. Gotta keep em on their toes! Anyway, Sunset Beach is actually really gorgeous and we highly recommend catching a sunset or two there. It is quite popular so as long as you are not expecting to have the beach to yourself you will love it!

Kailua and Lanikai Beach - Sunrise - The Proposal

After our stay on the North Shore for 3 nights, we ventured down the East Coast to Kailua where we stayed in the loveliest Airbnb. Kailua is a very modern beachy town and we absolutely loved it there. We would love to go back for an anniversary one day as it will always be very special to us, being the place where we got engaged. The day Dave proposed was a big one and my favourite of the whole trip. We got up for sunrise and went to Lanikai beach where he proposed while we were taking photos (He sneakily set the camera to video instead of photo and got a video of the whole thing!). The full video is available on our Instagram if you want to check it out. We then went for a swim, and then went on the Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail Hike which was followed by celebration cocktails at an awesome beach cocktail bar (Buzz's Steakhouse) Then, after calling our parents to tell them the good news, we finally went out to a Japanese Restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was called Tokoname and was so delicious!

Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail Hike - around 3 hours return This is one of the easier ridge hikes on Oahu, from what we gathered, but that didn't stop us from freaking out slightly before starting the hike and leaving a note for our Airbnb hosts to come looking for us in case we didn't return. We saw a few other people on the trail but not too many which was nice.

The beginning of the hike was along a fire trail for quite a long time, which did get slightly sleep in sections and made me worry about it raining as I can imagine that the clay-like mud would have gotten extremely slippery. The fire trail was surrounded by trees on either side so we couldn't see the views yet. This section of the trail probably lasted around 45 minutes.

Finally, we reached the spot where the stairs started with a spot to brush off your shoes. This is where the views start getting good and the definition of "Ridge" trail comes from. There are a few spots where there is a steep drop off on one side but for a lot of the hike, we were surrounded by shrubbery which kind of makes you feel a little more at ease. There are sections of the hike closer to the top where you have to pull yourself up using a rope but they are not too bad. Please take care and note that this hike would be treacherous in the wet as the mud would be extremely slippery!

From the top, you can see views of the sea and of Waikiki which is pretty awesome. This hike gives you the feeling that you are in the middle of the island with mountains all around you which is quite true. We were going to stay for sunset but ended up going back down because we were scared it would start storming and didn't want to slip down the path on the way back. Conditions in Hawaii change frequently due to the tropical nature of the island which we were not used to.

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens

I'm sure you have seen a picture of this place on IG, the iconic road with the jagged Hawaiian mountains in the background and beautiful palms on either side? Well, let me tell you that taking a photo in this spot is now illegal so if you want to do it, you need to be extremely sneaky as the guard at the gate will let you know very quickly. We had no idea of this, as we had seen so many photos on IG so the disappointed hit us hard. But that's okay, the rest of the gardens are free to take photos in and they are just as beautiful. The first photo pictured below is the iconic IG spot, however from our moving car as we were too scared to break the rules. 😝

Crouching Lion Hike

This is a fairly short (around 30 minutes of hiking/scrambling up) but steep hike as shown in the last picture of me struggling to climb down. We did this hike smack bang in the middle of the day but from what I have heard, it is best done at sunrise or sunset. Other websites recommend not to leave valuables in your car as the area is prone to break ins. The small carpark is across the road from the trail head. I have to say, the trail is hard to find if you don't know what you are looking for. Type Crouching Lion Hike into google maps to get to the general area. Heading North, you will want to keep driving after you reach the google maps spot and you will drive around a bend You will see a bunch of parked cars on the side of the road on a patch of dirt. Not an official carpark but this is the spot. Once parked, you will need to cross the road and walk back towards the direction you came in.

Here you should see two signs, One says "danger hazardous cliff" and the other says "Area closed." This is where the trail starts. The hike is a bit of a scramble but the views from the top are awesome! We will definitely do it again at sunrise or sunset next time we are on Oahu.

After our little hike, we explored the area a little bit. From where we had parked our car, we walked towards the ocean a little and came across a couple of rope swings which were kind of fun to mess around on for a while (We are all just big kids at heart).

Kahe Point (Electric Beach)

We ended up going to Electric Beach twice, actually by accident, (one was on a boat tour) but it was so worth it! if you plan on snorkelling anywhere, do it here.

Kahe Point got its nickname, Electric beach because it is situated next to a power station. The power station outflows warm water through its pipes. The warm water from the pipes makes the ocean a few degrees warmer than normal, which attracts an abundance of sea creatures. When we went to the beach the first time, we were snorkeling in the wrong spot and later realised on the tour that you needed to be out at the spot where the pipes end. Here you will find load of fish swimming into the outflow and get pushed away and then coming back again almost like its a game. We saw so many sea turtles at this spot too. Please take care as the water is fairly deep where the pipes end.

Hanauma Bay

This place is awesome but much more touristy than Electric Beach. So much so, that you actually pay to get in as the bay is a protected Marine Sanctuary. We arrived very early before the opening time and were able to get in for free as some sort of "you are the first visitors for the day thing." I'm not really sure what the go is with this but we obviously did not complain.

Our favourite fish at Hanauma bay was definitely the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa (pictured below). We also had a ton of fun learning how to say it! haha

Waikiki

We actually stayed in Waikiki at the end of our trip once we arrived back from Kauai but I will include it in this blog so that it fits in with the rest of Oahu.

Once we had checked out from our Airbnb in Kailua (we stayed there three nights), we returned our car at the airport and caught our flight to Kauai (Kauai adventures to be told in another blog).

Returning from Kauai, we caught an Uber to our hotel in Waikiki and went straight to get Poke Bowls. Poke Bowls are so delicious in Hawaii and I really recommend you try one! They are rice with salady type bits and then a meat or fish of your choice. My favourite was the salmon sashimi. We stayed at the Waikiki Resort Hotel for one night only which was around AUD$300. Once thing I have to note is that Hawaii is not cheap! We did it as cheaply as possible with some splurges here and there for dinner and cocktails and we probably spent around AUD$5,000 for our two weeks there. This is a pure estimate as I do not have a spreadsheet for this trip but I am planning on keeping better track of our expenses on any future trips that we do to assist you guys when you plan holidays to the same places.

While we were in Waikiki, we spent our time at the beach, rented some surf boards from the beach surfboard rental and completely failed at surfing and then chilled out at our resort pool, before heading to the restaurants on the beach for some sunset cocktails and our last dinner in Hawaii. We made the mistake of being in the restaurant while the sunset was putting on an awesome show but I saw it from the window and ran outside and got some not very good photos pictured below but at least they provide how awesome the sunset in Waikiki are! I am so keen to go back and spend more time there.

We hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and can't wait to share more of our adventures with you!

Kerry and Dave xx