Circle Island Tour Review

[Minnie824]

Just back, and did the Oahu Circle Island tour excursion booked through Aulani. This is on Thursdays at 7:30am and states 7 hours. We arrived 15 min early with breakfast to eat on the bus and some waters. Bus arrived on time (there were actually 2 busses that day). We had the best guide ever.... Shannon O'Brian the Irish Hawaiian as he said. He was great...told us so many facts and knew everything about the island and kept us entertained the entire day.

Headed off towards Honolulu and then the first stop was Hanauma Bay about 9:05am. Took some great pics here. This was a bathroom stop as well, and there were a lot of chickens running around. Continued down the road (east) and stopped at a lookout to see the water blowhole and more pics here. Stopped along the side as we headed north at another scenic lookout.

After this headed up to the mountain by Nu'uanu Pali lookout (i'm getting the names of this from my pics so I apologize if some are incorrect). Beautiful view and SO windy up here. After that headed to the temple for pics. Got here around 11:15. Rang the bell, visited the temple, gift shop and bathroom here as well as snacks/water to buy.

After the temple continued on around to the north and stopped at a few more scenic spots for pictures. Went to Fumi's shrimp for lunch. Got here around 12:40. LONG line, lots of busses. They got through pretty quickly though. covered picnic tables to sit at and they have chicken and then, not on the menu, hamburgers, if needed. Food was excellent and we were starving by then too. Food was not included in tour price, btw, around $12 a plate.

We left lunch and headed to Waimea falls. Parked here and then took a paved walk up to the waterfall. You had 3 choices, walk on your own (map provided), walk with guide and he would go over flowers, birds, etc, more guided, or you could pay $10 to get a golf cart ride up to the top. We decided to walk up on our own. Very easy walk. On the way we saw a wild boar running around! Beautiful waterfall too. You can swim in it if you get a life vest, but we asked the lifeguard, and they let you just walk in up to your knee on your own, so we did that. We spent about an hour and a half at the park. They had a farmers market here as well, so we got some snacks and drinks.

Leaving the falls, we stopped at the Dole Plantation and had about 30 min to shop in the store. SO much to buy. Delicious dole whip and we bought some chocolate covered pineapple as well as other items.

leaving Dole, headed back to resort and returned about 5:45pm.

I would highly recommend this tour...you get to see so much and our guide was awesome and so knowledgeable. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[CT15]

Hello- I will be heading to Aulani in Sept, and am thinking of taking this tour- did you go to Diamond head at all- it mentions Diamond head in the tour description, but it doesn't say much- so it might just be a "drive by".

 

[Minnie824]

It was def more of a drive by. we did not hike or get out around diamond head, just drove around it.

 

[CT15]

Good to know thanks very much.
Do you feel like you had enough time at each stop- or was it more "just get a taste" of the area, and back on the bus? How long does it take to get to the north shore from Aulani? I keep hearing about traffic -

 

[Minnie824]

I felt it was enough time everywhere. we spent quite a bit of time at the falls which was great. Everything else was good for timing. North shore depends on the day. we got around to the food truck by 12:30, and then no traffic to the falls. He warned us leaving there it might take a looong time to get to dole, but it really wasn't too bad. He had said the week before, twice as long. They account for that in their travel time though. North shore back to hotel...we stopped at Dole in between so I'm not sure of how long if you went directly there. But it is a 2 lane road the whole time, so anything along there would cause some back up.