Ned
02-25-2008, 02:14 PM
Here's Part 2, the final part of my Hawaii report.
Oahu:
We went to Oahu for the purpose of seeing the Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor. This was our first time ever in Hawaii (I joined the "50 State Club" with this trip.) and we couldn't not come here. Again we took a 40 minute flight which took 3 hours. Honolulu International is mostly open air, but then again, mostly a typical international big city airport. We decided not to rent a car here, but would do so if we ever came back. We took a cab ($40) to our hotel. We could have taken a shuttle ($12/person) but they take about 45 minutes to get to our hotel, while the cab took about 20 minutes.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki for our two nights. The hotel is excellent, with very good rooms and excellent service. The only thing I didn't like about the hotel was the lobby is on the 2nd floor and only readily accessible by escalator. There are elevators for disabled people, but the escalator gets you there much more quickly. The hotel is across Waikiki's main drag from the beach. Crossing the street is easy. I was surprised how small (depth) the beach was compared to beaches on the east coast of the US.
The Colony Restaurant ($55) at the Hyatt had been recommended to us as the best restaurant in Honolulu, and it didn't disappoint us. The food was superb, as was the service. I had escargot and rack of lamb. My wife had a huge salad and grilled fish (I don't remember what variety). We shared some grilled vegetables. We had a "chocolate lollipop" for dessert; WOW. We also ate at the big time favorite Duke's across the street at the Outrigger. It was fun and delicious, with an amazingly great salad bar as part of the meal. The place is huge and always packed, but the service is outstanding.
We took the day to visit the Arizona Memorial as well as the Missouri, Blowfish and the Aviation Museum on Ford's island. We asked about taking a tour of it from the hotel, or at least a shuttle to it, and decided against both. The Arizona Memorial tickets are issued on a first come - first served basis, whether you're an individual or from a tour. You have to be there to get a ticket. They let about 200 people in every 15 minutes. It's highly controlled. We arrived at 8:00AM (They start selling tickets at 7:30AM and start taking people to the Arizona at 7:45AM.) and our tickets were for 10:15AM. The Arizona is free. When we went to walk over to the shuttle (included in the admission price) to get to the Missouri around 11:00AM the tickets being given out were for 2:45PM. Both the shuttle and city bus take about 50 minutes to get there, because the shuttle stops at so many hotels for pickups and dropoffs along the way. We took the city bus for $4 round trip and got to see much of the city, both good and bad along the way. This is not an inexpensive day. Tickets for the Missouri, Blowfish and Museum with audio tours cost around $70. Couple that with lunch along the way and it jumps to almost $100 per person when all is said and done. Watch out what you think you're getting with tour companies such as Grayline as they only give you what you sign up for. So if it's the Arizona, you don't get the Missouri, etc. I can say that the expense was worth it to see the Missouri, museum (it will even be better when finished in a few years) and Blowfish (submarine). We left the area by bus at 3:30PM, so you can see we took our time and enjoyed it.We really enjoyed our visit to the Hawaiian Island and plan to return. Next time we're only going to visit two islands; Kauai and back to Maui.
A couple of notes. On the way back we broke up the flights again. We flew to LA and stayed a full day, before flying back to PHL. It was another visit with the kids, but it really helped with the time zones.
We took Aloha Airlines between the islands. They have open seating, similar to Southwest. Now that I've done it a couple of times, I must say I'll let others do it. Families with kids over the age of 5 were split up all over the place and it was pure chaos with everyone competing for seats and the later ones boarding trying to find a place to stow their carry-ons. Assigned seating, at the time of ticket purchasing, in my humble opinion, is much better and more efficient, when done right.
Enjoy your trip to Hawaii! We sure did!
Oahu:
We went to Oahu for the purpose of seeing the Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbor. This was our first time ever in Hawaii (I joined the "50 State Club" with this trip.) and we couldn't not come here. Again we took a 40 minute flight which took 3 hours. Honolulu International is mostly open air, but then again, mostly a typical international big city airport. We decided not to rent a car here, but would do so if we ever came back. We took a cab ($40) to our hotel. We could have taken a shuttle ($12/person) but they take about 45 minutes to get to our hotel, while the cab took about 20 minutes.
We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki for our two nights. The hotel is excellent, with very good rooms and excellent service. The only thing I didn't like about the hotel was the lobby is on the 2nd floor and only readily accessible by escalator. There are elevators for disabled people, but the escalator gets you there much more quickly. The hotel is across Waikiki's main drag from the beach. Crossing the street is easy. I was surprised how small (depth) the beach was compared to beaches on the east coast of the US.
The Colony Restaurant ($55) at the Hyatt had been recommended to us as the best restaurant in Honolulu, and it didn't disappoint us. The food was superb, as was the service. I had escargot and rack of lamb. My wife had a huge salad and grilled fish (I don't remember what variety). We shared some grilled vegetables. We had a "chocolate lollipop" for dessert; WOW. We also ate at the big time favorite Duke's across the street at the Outrigger. It was fun and delicious, with an amazingly great salad bar as part of the meal. The place is huge and always packed, but the service is outstanding.
We took the day to visit the Arizona Memorial as well as the Missouri, Blowfish and the Aviation Museum on Ford's island. We asked about taking a tour of it from the hotel, or at least a shuttle to it, and decided against both. The Arizona Memorial tickets are issued on a first come - first served basis, whether you're an individual or from a tour. You have to be there to get a ticket. They let about 200 people in every 15 minutes. It's highly controlled. We arrived at 8:00AM (They start selling tickets at 7:30AM and start taking people to the Arizona at 7:45AM.) and our tickets were for 10:15AM. The Arizona is free. When we went to walk over to the shuttle (included in the admission price) to get to the Missouri around 11:00AM the tickets being given out were for 2:45PM. Both the shuttle and city bus take about 50 minutes to get there, because the shuttle stops at so many hotels for pickups and dropoffs along the way. We took the city bus for $4 round trip and got to see much of the city, both good and bad along the way. This is not an inexpensive day. Tickets for the Missouri, Blowfish and Museum with audio tours cost around $70. Couple that with lunch along the way and it jumps to almost $100 per person when all is said and done. Watch out what you think you're getting with tour companies such as Grayline as they only give you what you sign up for. So if it's the Arizona, you don't get the Missouri, etc. I can say that the expense was worth it to see the Missouri, museum (it will even be better when finished in a few years) and Blowfish (submarine). We left the area by bus at 3:30PM, so you can see we took our time and enjoyed it.We really enjoyed our visit to the Hawaiian Island and plan to return. Next time we're only going to visit two islands; Kauai and back to Maui.
A couple of notes. On the way back we broke up the flights again. We flew to LA and stayed a full day, before flying back to PHL. It was another visit with the kids, but it really helped with the time zones.
We took Aloha Airlines between the islands. They have open seating, similar to Southwest. Now that I've done it a couple of times, I must say I'll let others do it. Families with kids over the age of 5 were split up all over the place and it was pure chaos with everyone competing for seats and the later ones boarding trying to find a place to stow their carry-ons. Assigned seating, at the time of ticket purchasing, in my humble opinion, is much better and more efficient, when done right.
Enjoy your trip to Hawaii! We sure did!