Aulani 5 Nights too much?

[Dizzydizney]

We have spent 8 nights at Aulani once and ended up driving out to the other side of the island everyday. Waikiki is hard to get in and out so Aulani isn’t a terrible base. This time we split our 8 days in three locations.
Waikiki: 3 nights and do the Waikiki thing such as Diamond Head, shopping, Hanauma Bay and Kailua area to kayak.
Aulani : 3 nights to chill, Central Park of the island like Dole Plantation, Japanese Temple and Pearl Harbour
North Shore Turtle Bay : 2 nights. Polynesian culture center, Waimea beach and water fall. Macdamia nut farm and shrimp truck.

Giovanni’s shrimp truck was so good.....except for all the flies in the picnic area! North Shore was interesting...some spots reminded me of the lates 60s early 70s....the psychedelic era.

 

[BillPA]

Sun rise/set times

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/honolulu?month=12&year=2021

 

[KaystotheKingdom]

I know this is an older thread but I had a question about this. We are coming from the east coast and planned stop in Disneyland to break up the flight. We have 3 kids who will be ages 10, 7, and 2.

We were thinking flying out late in a Wednesday to CA, spending Thurs, Friday, Sat there. Flying from CA to HI Sunday, then staying until a Friday 3:30 pm flight that would get us back to Boston 6 am the next day.

What are your thoughts? Are we shortchanging the time in HI too much? Of all these excursions mentioned here and the driving around, are there any worth it or recommended for kids these ages?

I guess I’m trying to determine how likely we are to be be the sit put and enjoy the hotel family vs get out and go with a 2,7, and 10 yr old.

Thanks!

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I know this is an older thread but I had a question about this. We are coming from the east coast and planned stop in Disneyland to break up the flight. We have 3 kids who will be ages 10, 7, and 2.

We were thinking flying out late in a Wednesday to CA, spending Thurs, Friday, Sat there. Flying from CA to HI Sunday, then staying until a Friday 3:30 pm flight that would get us back to Boston 6 am the next day.

What are your thoughts? Are we shortchanging the time in HI too much? Of all these excursions mentioned here and the driving around, are there any worth it or recommended for kids these ages?

I guess I’m trying to determine how likely we are to be be the sit put and enjoy the hotel family vs get out and go with a 2,7, and 10 yr old.

Thanks!

The plan to break up the trip sounds good. We did something similar, but stopped at Disneyland on the way back instead of on the way to Hawaii (flying from home in Toronto so the time change was a whopper!)

We spent 10 days at Aulani and honestly it didn’t feel long enough. However I think that’s the way to do it - leave something to look forward to. We stayed there as a base while we explored the island and alternated resort days / exploring days so really it was probably 5 full days at Aulani.

Hard to predict what kids like and with a 2-10 split the activities will differ. DD was 8 when we went, she loved: getting early breakfast at Off the Hook together and watching the sun come up, all the community hall activities, stand up paddle boarding, snorkeling at the resort, playing on the beach including the fun mermaid activity offered, star gazing, listening to stories around the fire, the pools (no adult pool at the time), and she absolutely loved the lazy river. She hated Aunty’s so we spent the whole trip together. The scavenger hunt was okay. She hasn’t been into character meets for years so we waved to them around the resort but no interactions otherwise.

Off site we did a luau (she hated), short hike to a waterfall (hated), scenic drives (hated), shell collecting at various beaches (loved), watching surfers at the North Shore (loved), trying different local restaurants (mixed, she didn’t care for shaved ice as much as us parents did and she hated all musubi including Mickey ones, but she loved malasadas), horseback riding (loved), tours (hated Pearl Harbour and just refused to go to the palace).

I’m probably forgetting a lot but with a 2 year old you may end up staying at the resort a fair amount. There’s definitely enough to do at Aulani for 6 days.

Edited to add: Also visited the Dole site, she hated all the activities offered and didn’t care for the food options, only part she loved was watching the cats there. So we had some beverages in the sun and watched the cats for an hour while DH explored. It was nice and relaxing. I’m making it sound like DD hated a lot of stuff we did, and it’s true that she never wants to go on a hike or to a luau again, but she absolutely wants to return to Hawaii and Aulani specifically. Like, now. I think going with the flow and letting everyone pick 1-2 activities worked out for us. Just wish there was more overlap on the preferred activities!

 

[KaystotheKingdom]

The plan to break up the trip sounds good. We did something similar, but stopped at Disneyland on the way back instead of on the way to Hawaii (flying from home in Toronto so the time change was a whopper!)

We spent 10 days at Aulani and honestly it didn’t feel long enough. However I think that’s the way to do it - leave something to look forward to. We stayed there as a base while we explored the island and alternated resort days / exploring days so really it was probably 5 full days at Aulani.

Hard to predict what kids like and with a 2-10 split the activities will differ. DD was 8 when we went, she loved: getting early breakfast at Off the Hook together and watching the sun come up, all the community hall activities, stand up paddle boarding, snorkeling at the resort, playing on the beach including the fun mermaid activity offered, star gazing, listening to stories around the fire, the pools (no adult pool at the time), and she absolutely loved the lazy river. She hated Aunty’s so we spent the whole trip together. The scavenger hunt was okay. She hasn’t been into character meets for years so we waved to them around the resort but no interactions otherwise.

Off site we did a luau (she hated), short hike to a waterfall (hated), scenic drives (hated), shell collecting at various beaches (loved), watching surfers at the North Shore (loved), trying different local restaurants (mixed, she didn’t care for shaved ice as much as us parents did and she hated all musubi including Mickey ones, but she loved malasadas), horseback riding (loved), tours (hated Pearl Harbour and just refused to go to the palace).

I’m probably forgetting a lot but with a 2 year old you may end up staying at the resort a fair amount. There’s definitely enough to do at Aulani for 6 days.

Edited to add: Also visited the Dole site, she hated all the activities offered and didn’t care for the food options, only part she loved was watching the cats there. So we had some beverages in the sun and watched the cats for an hour while DH explored. It was nice and relaxing. I’m making it sound like DD hated a lot of stuff we did, and it’s true that she never wants to go on a hike or to a luau again, but she absolutely wants to return to Hawaii and Aulani specifically. Like, now. I think going with the flow and letting everyone pick 1-2 activities worked out for us. Just wish there was more overlap on the preferred activities!

Thanks for the insights into what she liked and didn’t- very helpful!

 

[Hokies37]

I know this is an older thread but I had a question about this. We are coming from the east coast and planned stop in Disneyland to break up the flight. We have 3 kids who will be ages 10, 7, and 2.

We were thinking flying out late in a Wednesday to CA, spending Thurs, Friday, Sat there. Flying from CA to HI Sunday, then staying until a Friday 3:30 pm flight that would get us back to Boston 6 am the next day.

What are your thoughts? Are we shortchanging the time in HI too much? Of all these excursions mentioned here and the driving around, are there any worth it or recommended for kids these ages?

I guess I’m trying to determine how likely we are to be be the sit put and enjoy the hotel family vs get out and go with a 2,7, and 10 yr old.

Thanks!

We just took our kids (7yo boy, 4yo girl) to Oahu over Thanksgiving — 6 nights at Aulani, 2 at Turtle Bay, 1 in Waikiki. We flew from the east coast (DC) and spent one night in LA on the way to Hawaii. We flew straight back home and I wish we would have spent another night in LA. I think it really helped with the time change on the way out.

My kids loved Aunty’s so they both spent 90 minutes there each day. My 7yo loved the scavenger hunt and snorkeling while my 4yo loved meeting characters. We only left Aulani on foot (Monkeypod, Four Seasons, etc) and the kids were never bored.

We hit Wamea Falls and the Dole Plantation on the way to Turtle Bay from Aulani. We also watched surfers at Pipeline Beach and got shrimp at Giovanni’s on a Turtle Bay day. We went to Pearl Harbor on the way to Waikiki from Turtle Bay. My 7yo was really interested in learning about WWII and still asks us questions about it. Another highlight for him was surfing lessons in Waikiki. We didn’t try Diamond Head because the 4yo was too small to make it on her own but too big to be carried. There is a nice paved trail at Makapu’u Lighthouse where you can see whales if it’s the right time of year.

 

[Budzooka]

We did a split stay between Waikiki and Aulani on our first trip in 2021 and it was fine. A bit of a pain to pack up and move but we managed.

Just finished a 9 night stay at Aulani and that is the way to go. Only had to unpack once and Ko ‘Olina is so easy to get in and out of. Way less traffic than Waikiki and Kapolei is close to get food or go to the store.

No more split stays for us!