Our highlights of a week in Oahu started with an email deal from Hawaiian Airlines. I had been writing a post about which are the best airlines and as I was writing it, I got an email from Hawaiian Airlines that contained amazing deals. They were offering packages that included airfare and hotel stays for a whole list of hotels. Crazy as it seemed, one of the deals was for Holiday Inn Express which included a full, hot, cooked breakfast every morning. So, it was round-trip airfare, eight days, seven nights, two people, one room for less than $2k total. Add to that three days of diving, and we were at $2.5k.
I got this deal while I was working on our Europe trip. Originally, I investigated diving in Italy and Croatia, which is doable, but expensive. Rick wanted to go diving while we are there, but I really don’t want to cart our equipment all over the place, and it’s expensive to rent equipment. Plus, the water is liable to be chilly. So, I felt a little guilty about not scheduling diving into our plan for Italy and Croatia. And we like to dive every six months to keep our skills fresh. Since we went diving when we were in the Florida Keys in September, March was the six-month point.
Needless to say, I jumped on the deal. Turns out the deals were plentiful because the dollar is too strong (yes, this is a problem in Hawaii) against the Asian currencies, in particular the Japanese Yen. Hawaii attracts Japanese residents because it’s generally advantageous to go to Hawaii for them, but right now it’s expensive. We learned this from our first Uber driver, Charlie. Charlie told us that hotel occupancy was at best 70% right now. Later he said he was probably being generous about that percentage.
Diving
Prior to booking the deal, of course, I looked at dive operators and their ratings and reviews. I landed on Hawaiian Diving Adventures. It was an easy walk to their boat from the hotel. They had a multi-day dive deal, which was somewhat hard to find on their website. But, after talking to them, we decided to book it. We’re glad we did. They were able to keep our gear on the boat for the multiple days we were diving, which meant we didn’t need to haul it back and forth. The dive sites we went to included three reefs: Nautilus Reef, Secret Reef, and Horseshoe Reef. And we went to the Sea Tiger wreck for our deep dive twice. The Sea Tiger has an interesting story we looked up later.
Here are some pics we took while diving and a couple from the last day. You can see the name of the boat is, “the Beach,” so we dived from the Beach every day. And you can see Rick is loaded down with gear to haul back to the hotel. Thankfully, the crew let us wash it out in their tubs, so we didn’t have to try to hose it down in the tiny shower at the hotel.
Hiking
After getting that deal, I started looking into other things to do. One of the highlights of our week in Oahu was one I hadn’t planned though. The morning after we arrived Rick realized he had lost his backup hearing aids out of his backpack while on the plane. And he’d forgotten to pack the charger for his rechargeable hearing aids. Since the Veteran’s Administration had provided his rechargeable hearing aids, he called the VA audiology group in Honolulu. After some checking, they found a charger he could borrow. We hailed an Uber and headed over.
This could be a much longer story, but I’ll spare you the details. Rick walked up to what he thought was the audiology building to pick up the charger to borrow. Instead he went to a different audiology building (yes, there are two). While there, the staff searched for a charger and found one that worked for his brand of hearing aids. He asked about when he needed to return it, and they told him he could keep it! We hailed another Uber.
Summit Trail hike at Diamond Head
Having read about the three crater hikes, of which there is one of each level: moderate, intermediate and advanced, we decided to Uber to the Diamond Head National Monument entrance. This was the easiest of the hikes. Since it was thunder showering off and on, the other two were out of the question. We thought we could wait until we got a car at the end of the week to possibly revisit Ku’au, which is the hardest, but offers a waterfall.
The Uber driver took us to Diamond Head entrance where we discovered we needed reservations to access the trail. Fortunately, we had cell service, so we were able to acquire tickets for the next timeslot, which was 15 minutes away. We walked through the tunnel to get to the ticket booth. We told the guy at the booth that we were early. He said, “we like early,” and let us in anyway. Here are some pics of the hike, which was very busy.
After the hike, we walked back to the hotel through periodic thunderstorm showers. Occasionally we’d have to duck under a tree.
Manoa Falls Hike
The first waterfall we went to is a very popular hike called, Manoa Falls. You can drive to the trailhead. The parking lot costs $7 (according to the sign) or $4 if you’re a veteran or in the military. Or you can park in the residential neighborhood and walk, but locals frown upon this. You can also take the bus to the entrance. Probably one of the reasons this is a popular location is because of this U.S. News article.
We were amused by all the signs about not cleaning your boots in the sink at the Visitor Center and also appreciated their plentifully filled snack machines with every possible thing you could need on a hike. Then we headed out to the trail with approximately two hundred other people. It seemed like a race to get to the end with everyone competing to get there first. The trail was not bad, but there was an elevation gain (about 420′). I’m pretty sure not everyone made it.
When we got there, a lot of people were either in the waterfall or in front of the waterfall. So, we patiently waited for our chance to get a clear shot. Once we did, we headed back down the trail (and off the trail) to catch some of the sites we’d buzzed by on the way up. There were some beautiful scenes to capture. I saw a very large bird fly into a tree and got a shot off just as he decided to fly in my direction. So, the shot I got has him appearing to look right at the camera. Here are some shots I captured at Manoa Falls trail.
In the upper (overflow) parking lot, there is a hose you can use after you hike the trail to wash off your boots. If you park in the lower lot, you can get to the hose by going into the Visitor Center, up the steps, and across the bridge. The hose is at the end of the bridge.
Lulumahu Falls Hike
This highlight of our week in Oahu involved a lot of mud. First, the parking to get to the trailhead and hiking the trail requires a permit, and spots are limited. Now, it’s possible we were the only ones who acquired a permit. It didn’t seem like anyone was checking permits. But the permit is $2.50 so it seemed like it was worthwhile to avoid getting a ticket. You need to print the permit and display it on your dashboard, and you need to carry a copy with you or have it on your phone.
Second, the trail is not well marked. You’re supposed to be able to follow pink ribbons and/or red spray paint markers, but those guided us in the wrong direction at least once. Here is our AllTrails hike. If you’re lucky, you’ll run into somebody who’s actually been to the falls before and can guide you. This happened to us. We also went on an expedition with the person (his name is Denny) to find a higher waterfall, but the terrain was such that we gave up. We went to a clearing just before the main waterfall and Rick tried to put his drone in the air, but there was no GPS signal. And he didn’t want to fly blind, so we abandoned that effort too.
Recommended Gear for this Trail
Except for scaling the sheer mountain to find the higher waterfall, the trail was muddy but not too difficult. You do cross a stream at several points in order to stay on the trail and that’s where we had the most difficulty. Unlike Manoa Falls, there’s nowhere to wash off your boots. And you do need hiking boots here. I wear Keens and I get these from REI. I like them because they keep my ankles from turning, and they’re waterproof. You can get them from Amazon, but the benefit of getting them from REI is that, if you’re a member, you can return them for up to a year for a replacement or a 100% refund. If you’re not a member you can still return them, but you’re limited to 90 days.
You need to carry water with you. A GPS is helpful. We wear zip-off, lightweight hiking pants too. It was cool enough that I didn’t zip them off here. But on the next day’s trail, the weather was so humid, that I definitely zipped them off. The most comfortable for me are these No-Fly Zone pants from LL Bean. I also wore my Insect Shield T-Shirt from LL Bean.
Here are some pics we took of the Lulumahu trail and waterfall. I had to work hard to take the waterfall pic without people in it!
Turtle Bay Trails
On the day we did this trail, it was very stormy. We had planned to do one of the crater trails, but since it was raining, we decided to take a drive around the island and find some other trails. Denny had told us about pillboxes around the island and there was one at Turtle Bay; so, that’s where we ended up. The Google Map directions took us to a blocked-off dirt road. So, we backtracked a bit and parked with several other cars along the highway. Our AllTrails map shows the hike we took.
We first encountered Kawela Bay, which is stunning and virtually uninhabited. This explains why it’s a popular filming location for movies and TV shows. There’s a plaque on the trail that lists all the things filmed here. We found some very large crabs clinging to rocks on the right side of the bay. And there were interesting birds along the trail as well. A mongoose was on the prowl under the banyan tree, but I didn’t get a shot of him before he disappeared into the base of the tree. Here are the pics I got of Kawela Bay and Turtle Bay, the pillbox, and the wildlife.
Likeke Falls Hike
Before heading to Likeke Falls, Rick had to stop at this farmer’s market, mainly because one of the stands had his first name on it, and another stand had his middle name on it. After he ate his deep-fried banana (yuck) and bought me some grapes, we jumped back in the car and headed south.
Parking and Bathroom Locations
This trailhead is on the property of a country club. You either park in the country club’s parking lot or you can park outside the gates and walk in. But it’s a bit of a trek to get to the gates from any place you can park alongside the road. It’s $10 to park, and no discounts of any sort. But they do have bathrooms. Getting to them is the problem. It took two tries for us. Basically, if you drive up to the country club entrance there will be an attendant there to take your money for parking.
Depending on which attendant is there, the directions to the bathroom will be either spot-on or entirely confusing. Fortunately, we got clear directions on our second try. After you drive into the roundabout, leaving the entrance, you go right. Toward the end of the road, you make a right to go down a hill and around the back of the country club. After the first speedbump, the bathrooms are on the right.
To park, instead of going to the right to go behind the country club for the bathrooms you go to the left at the last row of spaces to park and go all the way to the end. The trailhead is opposite the last parking spaces.
Navigating the Trail
This was the first trail on Oahu that reminded us of the worst trail we’ve ever encountered which was on Kauai — the Awa’awapuhi Trail. Here is our AllTrails path for the Likeke Falls trail. One problem with this trail is that it’s very slippery and muddy. One young lady we talked to had been wearing white shorts when she started, but when she turned around to show us, her shorts were covered in mud and very much brown after she’d slipped. Hiking boots are a MUST here. The second problem is that it’s very easy to get lost. The country club closes its gates at 4 pm; hence, if you parked inside, you’ll need to be on your way out of the gates before then.
We arrived at the country club at 2 pm and after getting lost twice, we didn’t have much time to look around. After our bathroom search, and taking two mistaken paths, we got to the falls around 3 pm. We spent some time there to photograph them, but there was a vista that would have been good to further investigate. Rick did get a pic of the vista though. Here are the pics we got of the trail and the falls.
Eating & Drinking
Off the Wall Craft Beer & Wine
This place is similar to a local restaurant that used to be near us. You give your credit card to open a tab and you get a card in return. The card you use to fill your glass with beer or wine for which the taps are all lined up along a wall. The card keeps track of what you drink and how much.
The food was good. I had the blackened fish tacos and Rick had the pork tacos. But two days after we ate here, Rick was looking at the receipt and realized they’d charged him double what the menu said his item cost. So, after diving on Thursday, we returned. They told us the menu online had been updated to exclude rice so the tacos by themselves were updated to $12. But the POS system hadn’t been updated to remove the rice and that’s why they charged us $24. They insisted that was because the old menu had tacos + rice/beans for $24 and then they explained that the rice was made in house and that’s why it was $12. Yes, Rick got a dollop of rice in addition to the tacos. But no way was it worth another $12. We later were wondering if that’s the only thing they made in-house.
Rick mentioned that he’d captured a photo of their menu items on Tuesday for what we picked so we could post it on our website. And suddenly, they decided they could comp us an order of calamari in compensation for the extra charge. Hmmm. Here are the dishes we had, including the comp’d calamari.
Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood at Hilton Hawaiian Village
This place had excellent food, and the amount of the bill matched the advertised prices. We ordered two dishes and split them. One was fish and chips and the other was a garlic shrimp dish. Rick also got a pineapple smoothie that came in the pineapple. The only problem we had was finding the place. It’s squirreled away inside a bunch of shops, aka, “the Hilton Hawaiian Village,” which makes Google Maps useless to find it.
Cheeseburger in Paradise
On our first-ever trip to Hawaii, we ate at a Cheeseburger in Paradise in Lahaina with our kids. So, when we saw this one in Waikiki, we couldn’t resist. The food was good. The service was mediocre. Observing the staff, it seemed that there was a great deal of attention paid to young men, but not so much to anyone else. Rick had the Island Style Cheeseburger, and I had the Mahi Sandwich. Here are some pics.
Alternatives to Dining Out
Since we didn’t want to break the bank by eating out, we also went to Whole Foods and a lovely store called Duke’s Lane Market and Eatery. We didn’t eat anything made to order at either place, unless you count the salad bar at Whole Foods. But we found the prepackaged salads at Duke’s to be excellent. We either would eat our own salads from Duke’s or split a salad and eat a microwavable entree from Whole Foods, which had some excellent options. This saved us money and time, and we could watch our favorite NBA team (the Kings) play while we enjoyed our “home-cooked meals.”
Toasts to our Highlights of Oahu
Thoroughly worn out from our trip, we returned to the rooftop of our hotel to uncork a bottle from our favorite winery. We live about 40 minutes from the best Barbera in the world. We always take a bottle of one of their wines with us when we travel, and we toast to their founder, Dick Cooper, who passed away in August 2021.
After a good night’s sleep, we headed to the airport for our return trip. We acquired two Mai Tais to toast Rick on his birthday.
With this, we returned to the cold, rainy Northern California. The trip home on Hawaiian Airlines was NOT good. I will need to update my post about which airlines are the best.
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