Honolulu
2011 and 2019
We made two visits to Honolulu, Hawaii, spending five nights in early March 2011, and six nights in late October/early November, 2019.
In 2011, we stayed in Waikiki Beach, at the historic Royal Hawaiian Hotel. We were shocked at how much Waikiki had changed since the last time we were there in 1985. Gone was the old outdoor market, and instead there was a huge enclosed shopping mall, plus dozens of high end shops all along Kalākaua Avenue. The entrance to the hotel was hidden behind a smaller mall, too. Sigh. But inside the hotel was still lovely, and it has the best stretch of beach in Waikiki, so there is that.
The Moana, below, where we stayed in 1985, still fronts right on Kalākaua Avenue.
Our first full day in Honolulu we went to the wonderful Honolulu Museum of Art which has a fantastic collection of Asian Art and is the jumping off spot for tours to Shangri-La, the home of Doris Duke with her impressive collection of Islamic art. It was really quite a wonderful tour, although it was a cloudy day and one main room was closed for renovation.
When we returned to the center of the city, we went to the Kamehameha Statute and walked around the civic center area before taking the bus back to Waikiki.
The next day we hung around Waikiki and went to the charming old school Waikiki Aquarium (the home of rescued monk seals).
The next day, March 5, was kind of rainy so we put off our planned hike and instead went to the Honolulu Zoo. We had visited both the zoo and aquarium in 1985.
In the afternoon, the weather got better, so we hopped on “The Bus” (what they actually call it) with our handy five day bus pass and went to the Foster Botanic Garden in downtown Honolulu. It had beautiful orchids and other tropical plants.
We also visited Lyon Arboretum (below) which we had been to in 1985 (when we had to cut our visit short due to very hungry mosquitoes). It was a lovely walk and this time we had repellent. We love seeing anthurium in the wild. The garden is managed by the University. It was a more “wild” experience, or perhaps less manicured is a better way to describe it, compared to the Foster Garden.
We had planned to climb Diamond Head on this trip, but a case of bronchitis prevented that. Oh well, maybe next time.
When we returned to Honolulu in 2019, we elected not to stay in Waikiki. There are not many other choices, so we chose the Kahala Beach area, located on the back-side of Diamond Head, where we arrived on October 30, after a flight from Oakland (yay!).
The Kahala beach was lovely and uncrowded compared to Waikiki and with Uber (or rental car) it was easy to get anywhere. We stayed in the area of the hotel called “dolphin quest” and enjoyed watching the activity with the dolphins. The captive dolphins are controversial, but it seemed to us they were well cared for and enjoyed the human contact. We believe they are still associated with Sea Life Park where the dolphins originally were located before coming to the hotel.
The next day, like last time, we ventured to the Honolulu Museum of Art and a visit to Shangri-La. It was sunny this time, and we got better photos of the property and the view back toward the City.
We also again visited Iolani Palace, and this time took the self-guided tour inside (second photo). The exhibits idn’t make us feel too good about how the US government treated Hawaii.
We spent November 2 mostly hanging out at the lovely beach and relaxing.
Saturday November 3, we went to the KCC Farmer’s Market, not far from our hotel. It was hopping and almost had more prepared foods than produce. Fun!
We then picked up a rental car and headed out from the hotel. First we went to the Punchbowl View Point for a great view back to the central city, Waikiki and Diamond Head.
Then we went to the fantastic Bishop Museum with its historic artifacts. We greatly enjoyed our visit there.
When we got back to the resort, we were lucky to observe a fantastic ceremony for the release of two sea turtles who had been raised at the resort. It was an incredible event with a Hawaiian priest blessing the turtles who quickly made their way out to the open ocean.
The next day we took our rental car and drove over the Pali (viewpoint closed) to the windward side of the island. The scenery was breathtaking. We enjoyed La’ie Point (second photo) and Shark’s Cove (third).
On our last day, November 4th, we drove out to Koko Head before heading to the airport for our afternoon flight home.
We had a great time and enjoyed being away from the “scene” of Waikiki (although we did go have cocktails there one evening to watch the sunset before dinner).
This map shows many of the places we visited during our two trips.
Honolulu is a great place to visit for a combination beach and city vacation. For pure beach relaxation, the Big Island is a better choice, but we enjoyed both “combo” visits.
