Well, if I may recommend, maybe 2 or 3 days would be good enough at Aulani being your first time to Hawai'i. As I always share, I am here in Honolulu and we stay at Aulani every school break (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring) so my opinion will be much different than others but if I may share, because it is your first time to Hawai'i in general, not just O'ahu, Hawai'i, you need to stay at least the same number of nights in Waikiki to get the full Hawai'i or in this case, Waikiki experience! There are a lot of hotels to choose from but I always recommend the Outrigger Reef on the Beach or Outrigger Waikiki. If you are ready to splurge 7-10 days at Aulani, I recommend a stay along the beachfront or...at least on Kalakaua Ave. I would love to share more details and will try to contact you via message just to share all that I can with you. But thankfully, October is a cheaper time for flights and hotels because it is a low peak time and it's just before things get pricey heading into the Holiday season. =)
I tend to agree. Have been to Hawaii several times in the last 35-ish years - 7 times, and at least 2x to each of Oahu, Kauai, Big Island and Maui (some trips involved island hopping). Certainly nothing compared to
@WillGan's experience, but take it from a lifelong mainlander - it is NOT like CA, it is NOT "just going to a beach."
We just came back from 2 nights Waikiki + 7 nights Aulani and if I could do it over again I would have: (1) made my flight decisions differently and (2) split the trip 3 nights Waikiki or other non-Aulani and 6 nights Aulani.
Reasons:
1. This was our first trip with kids who were no longer napping or in strollers. (last 2-3 were with at least 1 baby). For reasons mostly due to my inertia, I didn't make flight plans in time and ended up doing 2 legs with a longish layover. We were all up for almost 24 hours straight by the time we got to our Waikiki hotel, and that first night at dinner - we were at Hula Grill with a gorgeous view, becoming sunset, ukulele music, amazing weather, and my 7yo had a meltdown beyond all meltdowns and I told DH that I regretted planning the trip. By sunrise breakfast at the beach (with a view of Diamond Head) the next morning I had changed my mind and was very thankful to be there. Anyway - if I could do it over again I'd have gotten a direct flight if possible or flown to LAX, spent a cheap night at the airport hotel, and then been on the first flight to HI the next morning. Indecision cost me. (On the return we spent a night in LAX after an afternoon flight from HNL and it was SO much better.)
2. split the trip: Aulani is expensive, especially compared with ... any resort not called Aulani. (I'm sure there are exceptions, but there were good deals to be had where there's more competition). Waikiki is a lot closer to many of the tourist attractions on the east side of the island, like Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, and Kualoa Ranch. Diamond Head (Le'ahi) and Hanuama Bay have a reservation system and for many reasons including jet lag, it's best to get an early AM reservation at both of those places. It's an hour or longer drive from Aulani but a short trip to both of those locations from Waikiki. Also, we felt less of a need to "get our money's worth" from exploring and staying at the resort when we were at the Waikiki hotel. Although Waikiki Beach was more crowded than the lagoon beach at Ko Olina, my kids enjoyed body surfing right off the beach and our hotel room was a very short walk from the beach. We could have easily spent another day at the beach in Waikiki and also another day doing a combination of day trip + beach there. Aulani was lovely, but it felt quite secluded and it just was very "easy" to stay put at the resort. Aulani hotel room rates were close to $1000 when we were there, and even though we stayed on DVC points the conversion to $ value was still kind of eye-popping. Our 1BR oceanview at AUL was spectacular, but cost almost the same number of points as 2 BR theme park or savanna view room at BayLake/Contemporary or Animal Kingdom. We had a great time, but I also would have been happy saving a few hundred $ in room costs *and* have gotten out and about more, seeing more of Oahu.
tl; dr: it's your first visit to Hawaii, and while Aulani is AMAZING and lovely, there is so much more to Hawaii and Oahu. This most recent trip was the most sedentary trip to Hawaii we've ever made. Another option since it sounds like this is an adults-only trip would be to take advantage of the jet lag and rent a car, drive out every day for a half-day excursion/exploration, and then come back for resort time in the afternoon - then you'll have the added bonus of not having to engage in pool chair hunger games!
