Hawaii - Oahu
September 30th - October 7th 2018
Our trip to Hawaii was nothing short of amazing. Everything we did, we loved and we wanted to do more but ran out of time. So needless to say, we will be back. When we arrived we rent to enterprise to pick up our rental. We rented a Jeep! Then we headed to our hotel in Honolulu. We stayed 5 nights at Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort. Then stayed 2 nights at Aulani, A Disney Resort. The day we arrived we just hung out at the hotel and grabbed some dinner and rested.
Day 1: Kualoa Ranch
https://www.kualoa.com/
https://www.kualoa.com/
On day one we got up early and headed to Kualoa Ranch. We had an all inclusive ATV adventure tour. This included a Jurassic Jungle Jeep Expedition, Ocean Voyage Adventure, ATV tour, and lunch. We loved this day!! On the Ocean Voyage Adventure we went on a boat to a private island and saw many sea turtles from the boat. When we go back, we will be spending the day on this private island, I loved it. The ATV tour was fun as well. We couldn't go fast but the mountains were beautiful.
Day 2: Polynesian Cultural Center + Island Tour
On this day we woke up early to meet a bus to begin our Island Tour. We rode around and made many stops and different places and each one was beautiful!! We wanted to drive back to some of them on our own time, but ran out of time. We stopped at the Dole Plantation and had lunch and of course some dole whip!! After that we made some more stops then headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Here we got to walk around the center and explore 6 pacific islands as they shared their cultural and customs. Then we got to go to a luau, and even got on stage and danced because we were honeymooners. We highly recommend this as well.
Day 3: Hiked Diamond Head + Explored North Shore
Day three we got up early and went straight to Diamond Head State Monument. It is 1-1.5 miles and it is a lot of stairs, but totally worth the climb!! We loved it, I could have stayed up at the top all day. The views are beautiful. Then we got in the jeep and headed to North Shore. We heard that this is where the locals hang out and surf. We got lunch at The Spot which was kinda like a food truck. We then started walking along the beach looking for a spot to lay out. We found one and Ryan immediately wanted to go swim in the ocean. I stayed on the beach and watched. The waves were huge!! Ryan started waving for me to come out there, so I did. We were not out there long before a big wave came and about drowned us both, so we decided to get out of the water for a little while. We got hungry and decided to go back to the Dole Plantation.
Day 4: Pearl Harbor + Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden
This day we got up and went to Pearl Harbor and walked around. We really liked Pearl Harbor. We then headed to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden. You can drive through the garden in your car and stop and get out to look around when you want.
Day 5: Snorkeled at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve
Hanauma is beautiful. We stayed here and snorkeled a while! You have to watch a short video before you can go snorkeling, explaining why it is important not to touch any of the wildlife. This place gets crowded quick, so I would get there early. After we were done snorkeling, we headed to check into our new hotel, Aulani. We hung out here the rest of the day, mainly looking for Disney characters and eating mickey shaped snacks.
Our last day we woke up early to watch Alabama vs Arkansas(we watched it on our ipad). The final score was 65-30, we had to get up at like 5:00am to watch the game, because of the time change. It was worth it though, we got to pick the best seats by the pool. After the game, we had reservations to eat breakfast with characters. This was fun, anything including Disney is fun. Then we relaxed hung out around the beach/pool at Aulani. That night, we went to one more luau at the Disney Resort.
We can't wait to return to Oahu!!
