Discount Hawaii Vacations

Oahu has a lot to brag about: two mountain ranges, great natural beauty, world-class shopping, lots of sandy beaches, accommodations ranging from surf shacks to five-star hotels, sleepy country villages, international sophistication, a modern city and urban resort with clean air and water, open space, high-rise towers, a multicultural population, nightlife, a major university, and considerable wealth, drawn by quality of life.

Small wonder everyone sooner or later ends up on Oahu. America's gateway to the Pacific and most-visited island in the chain. Ironically, and island famous for so much gets a bad rap from critics who complain of too many buildings and people. Perhaps they never left Honolulu. the truth is that the entire city space, the urban resort or Waikiki, and the lion's share of suburban housing are squeezed into a narrow 26-mile-long corridor between the Koolau Mountains and the Pacific. Leave that corridor and your have another Oahu.

You need only cross over the mountains to the cool and scenic Windward Coast or head up the central valley between the Koolau and Waianae ranges to the North shore to discover Oahu's more natural side, or go west past the airport to be surrounded by old sugar lands.

Waikiki

After a costly facelift, Waikiki sports new gardens, walkways, pools, and street lighting, as well as an emphasis on projecting Hawaiian culture to guest in the un-Hawaiian environment of tall buildings and busy streets. If you think of Waikiki as a lively urban resort where an incredible variety of people enjoy the most famous beach in the world, you'll love it, as public theater if nothing else. You can see hula, Hawaiian arts and crafts, and nostalgia; hear Hawaiian music, and watch surfers as long as you want.

Waikiki packs into a square mile of space about 33,000 visitors’ rooms into 175 hotels and condos properties plus apartments that house some 50,000 residents, restaurants, boutiques, theaters, nightspots, fast-food joints, museums, beaches, boats, churches, and just across the Ala Wai Canal, a major convention center.

You could say Waikiki, in which an estimated 100,000 people sleep on any given night, is the antithesis of urban spiral. the closeness puts everything within walking distance or a short bus ride.

Our suggestion is to visit Waikiki for at least two or three days, time enough to get your bearings, shake off jet lag, and press on, either elsewhere in Oahu or to a neighbor island. While you're in Waikiki, go our early one morning, walk the beach when it's deserted and the sand is cool, and stop for an al fresno breakfast at one of the hotels you pass.

At night, the sidewalks of Kalakaua and Kihio are constant paradises of passerby, including visitors from every corner of the globe.

Waikiki is a safe area. the Honolulu Police Department maintains a strong an reassuring presence there. In addition, a citizens group calling themselves the "Aloha Patrol" prows the streets at night, assisting visitors and keeping an eye out for trouble.

After years of traffic congestion during Waikiki's facelift, residents from outside the tourist district rarely go there. Venture outside of Waikiki to experience the local lifestyle of Oahu.

Honolulu

Honolulu has been the capital of Hawaii since 1850, when it was the heart of the islands. Today, its realms are financial, political commercial, and cultural - during the daytime at least. The lively downtown shuts down at night. Except for Chinatown and parts of the waterfront, the downtown restaurants and bars are open in daytime only, and so are the stores. But retail continues unabated into the evening in the out-of-downtown shopping centers.

Windward Oahu

For peace and scenic slender without high-rise canyons, go over the mountains to the Windward beach town of Kailue, where hotels are banned but vacations rentals and bed-and-breakfasts offer affordable access to the excellent beaches; or Haleiwa, former plantation town and home of big-wave surfers on the North Shore; or Ko Olina Resort, the neighbor island-style luxury spread in west Oahu.

No signs point the way to Kailua, but it’s over the Pali Highway from downtown. There's no tourist booth and not many tourists. Kailua's great beaches were largely unknown to visitors until recently, but Kailuna Beach and Lanikai Beach have been named two of America's best, and now the secret's out. A quaint beach town at the foot of the Koolau, Kailua is a bedroom community of about 50,000 and the bed-and-breakfast capital of Oahu.

Bed-and-breakfasts in Hawaii are most often rooms or suites in people’s houses with breakfast or light kitchen facilities provided, rather than the quaint inns of the East Coast. Scores of B&B and other low key places to stay, including vacation rentals on or near the beaches, can be found online. May operate underground since the City and County of Honolulu, in poor display of civic aloha, banned new bed-and-breakfasts years ago.

Windsurfing, kayaking, swimming, and snorkeling are the main water activities where in the home of Robbie Naish, former world champion windsurfer who is now leading the industry in kite surfing. The scenic Mokulua, two photo-op islets off Lanikai, are the most popular kayak destinations. Rent all the gear you need right in Kailua Beach Park or at one of the shops in town.

Hikers scale 603 ft. high Kaiwa Ridge for panoramic view of the Windward side or hike other trails through the Koolau rain forest along the Windward Coast. Fearless hikers with sheer-cliff experience test their mettle on the spiky pinnacles of Olomana.

Kailua is the recommended choice on Oahu for families with small kids, who can safely play in gentle waves. Kailua is a favorite of many visitors seeking to live Hawaiian style. A rental car is necessary to make most of it and to enjoy the surroundings Windward Coast. Farther up the reef-protected Windward shores, more than 50 miles of empty beaches are suitable for snoozing, swimming, snorkeling, spear fishing in the lagoon-like waters.

Natural attractions include Kaneohe Bay, one of the most beautiful in the Pacific, with snorkel and dive trips departing from Heeia Pier; Kualoa Ranch, a 4,000 acre cattle ranch with 75 horses for trail rides and myriad other outdoor activities; and Hoomaluhia Botanical Park, a 400-acre municipal garden with Hawaiian ethnic plants at the foot of the cathedral-like Koolau.