interran@Shasta.ARPA (John Interrante) (02/17/86)
I asked the net a few weeks ago for information about a Hawaii vacation over spring break. Here's the summary of the responses that I promised I'd give. Thanks to those who responded to my inquiry! Any followups about more interesting things to do at Waikiki Beach are welcome - I've been reading net.travel for over a month and it certainly could use MORE articles, not less. I'll post a travel report about Waikiki Beach after spring break. I've enjoyed reading others' travel reports so I think others should enjoy reading about Waikiki Beach. :-):-) ---------------- From kjm@BRL.ARPA Fri Jan 24 06:26:43 1986 I spent a week in Waikiki last December. It was GREAT! If I had it to do over again I would have stayed at least two weeks. I would say that 7 days and 6 nights in Waikiki is definitely worth $360. Waikiki Beach is not very big, but it's really pretty. We were there during Christmas, so it was really crowded on the beach. But for 50 cents you can hop on a bus and ride out to some of the other beaches on the islands. Hanauma Bay, not far out of Waikiki, is a great place for snorkeling. I took a *lot* of pictures there because it's just about the most beautiful view I've ever seen. All the beach scenes in Elvis Presley's movie, "Blue Hawaii", were filmed on the beach at Hanauma Bay. Another really neat beach is right across the road from Sea Life Park, also not far out of Waikiki. I think this beach is called Makapuu Beach. We went to that beach on New Year's Day last year and it was not crowded at all. There were surfers there and lots of local kids riding "boogie boards." I don't know anything about your hotel, but as long as it's clean it will be ok, because I doubt if you'll spend much time in your room. When you're in paradise who wants to sit around in a hotel room? Have a great time! ---------------- From ...!ut-ngp!lsmith Mon Jan 27 22:56:58 PST 1986 Honolulu is a very large, congested city. Waikiki is a tacky tourist area, and the beach is lined with hotels. There is a bus which can take you to other places on Oahu, but the island is pretty much overrun, and you'll want to get to any of the other islands just as fast as you can. Sorry about following up instead of replying directly, but something is broken in the mail system. I spent a week in Oahu and Maui, and will give you details if you'd like. ---------------- From CMP.LSMITH@R20.UTEXAS.EDU Tue Jan 28 08:17:44 1986 The other islands are too far away to ferry, but there are tourist/commuter flights tat run real often. We got a deal for a flight to Maui and back, two days of rent car, and a night in a hotel room for a decent price. It was two years ago, so the details wouldn't still apply even if I could remember them. We thought it was worth paying for a night of hotel in Oahu that we didn't use. I think I'd recommend the island of Hawaii for spectacular scenery, but we enjoyed Maui a lot. There are interesting places to go on Oahu. There's a pocket sized book titled Hawaii: Access that we used a lot. I'll try my best to remember when I get home to dig out my maps and such, But I have a two-week old baby and a mother-in-law to contend with... Let's see what I can remember. The Hawaiian language only has 12 or 16 letters, so all the names sound like a jumble of h's, k's, and a's. If you walk down the street people will give you literature about renting snorkel gear. There's a old volcanic crater at the SE end of the island, and some of the rental places will give you a free bus ride there is you rent from them. It's worth while. It's shallow, and there's a lot of people there, but the fish are incredible. You can buy waterproof cards with pictures of the fishes and their names. I recommend you wear gloves, because you'll get scratched on the coral. We rented a car, but I'm told that the city busses will take you whereever you want to go. The tours will hurry you along. The north side of the island is relatively uninhabited, and there are some nice beaches there. The polynesian cultural museum, run by the Morman missionaries, is really interesting. Spend an afternoon or so there, and they have a banquet at night. It's expensive, but 1/2 price coupons are easy to come by. There is some really good food in Waikiki. The main street parallelling the beach is something like Kalihalia. It forks kind of at the west end of Waikiki, and there is a excellent traditional Japanese restaurant along there. We were the only English-speakers there. Oh, sailing. We sail here a lot, and we always plan to rent a boat in exotic locals, but we never end up doing it because there's so much to see and we can always sail at home. But there are places all along the beach at Waikiki to rent surfboards, sailboats, etc. There's also a deal where you can rent a place on a big dugout canoe, and go out with a group and ride the surf. Looked like a blast. Oh, yes, the tour of Pearl Harbor was mega-boring. ---------------- From kjm@BRL-TBD.ARPA Tue Jan 28 12:12:32 1986 I would say that the one of the most enjoyable things that we did in Hawaii was going on a dinner cruise. We went on the Hilton Rainbow I catamaran. They had entertainment, drinks, and a nice dinner all included in the $32 price. We sailed up and down Waikiki and it was so beautiful at night. The lights from the hills reflecting off the water were really beautiful. If you are going with a bunch of guys from school, you probably won't be interested in the same kind of things that my husband and I were. We did a lot of sight seeing and didn't hit a lot of night spots. We went to places like Sea Life Park, Polynesian Cultural Center, Waimea Falls Park, and a few other places. We went on a really neat hike at Waimea Falls Park. We were all by ourselves in the middle of this jungle and we couldn't hear a sound anywhere. After a while we couldn't even see a path. We just walked and walked and luckily, we found our way back. It was so neat, though, to feel completely cut off from civilization for a little while. We ate at this place on the beach called Perry's Smorgy quite a few times. The food was great and you can go back and get as many helpings as you want. Dinner was only about $6.75 and it was great. Plus, you can go out on their porch and eat right on Waikiki Beach. I thought that was a great price for a dinner right on the beach. Perry's Smorgy is on the ground level of the Outrigger Hotel and one night when we were eating out on their porch, there was a luau (Is that spelled right? I forget exactly how it goes.) taking place on the beach, so we sat there and ate our dinner and watched for free the entertainment that the luau people had paid at least $20 for. We ate breakfast there, too, and it was about $3.75. Break- fast was also delicious. ---------------- From ...!ism780!dianeh Tue Feb 11 03:23:32 1986 (Hope this is still current. It didn't go through the first time due to a bad mail path, and I spaced out on resending it till now. Oh well. D.) I would suggest that you look around a bit more...unless you like built-up areas with high-rise hotels and *lots* of people. Personally, I'd recommend the big island (Hawaii) or Maui, where you can find nice out-of-the-way places to stay and really kick back and relax. If you're into camping at all, you might even want to investigate that possibility. On the other hand, if you like a lot of noise and night-life... ---------------- Once again, thanks to those who responded! John Interrante MSEE June 1986 Stanford University interran@su-shasta.arpa (ARPANET) `mailpath interran@shasta` or ...!shasta!interran (UUCP)