Oahu only?

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi all

We are planning a trip to Hawaii for August 2015 and have currently got a 7 night cruise booked to island hop, planning a couple of nights on Waikiki beach before the cruise and five nights at Aulani afterwards.

I'm now questioning whether to cancel the cruise and just have a two centre vacation on oahu (4 nights Waikiki/10 nights Aulani) ?

My reasoning is that this will hopefully cut down the costs, and I'm wondering whether it will also be more relaxing with our two boys just to see all of oahu, rather than little bits of four islands?

I know many dislike Waikiki/Honolulu, but I do enjoy cities, and coming from the UK, we will (perhaps weirdly!) enjoy visiting some of the US chain restaurants that we enjoy in Orlando.

So I guess my question is - is it too far to come just to experience Oahu, or is actually a one island trip with two youngish (8 and 11 when we travel) boys a good option?

Many thanks for any advice

 

[bwvBound]

I like your original plan over the revised plan. While the cruise portion will be "hopping!" it will still seem restful as your hotel moves with you. You will have a true "home" on the ship during that week.

 

[Cinderpamela]

We just got back from a Waikiki and Aulani split trip and it was great.

A cruise sounds like a great way to experience the different islands, but if it's becoming too cost prohibitive I would definitely consider a split stay

We used the Waikiki time to get all of our touring out of the way.... hiking Diamond Head, doing Pearl Harbor, heading up to the North Shore, the Bishop Museum and Iolani Palace, great Honolulu dining spots, ect. was all done on the first 4 days with Waikiki as our home base.

Then we headed out to Aulani for the rest of our 11 day stay and had lots of time to enjoy the resort. Did surf lessons with Hawaii Fire (they picked us up right at the resort, it was a highlight of the trip!), relaxed poolside and visited the spa and such.

I highly recommend this way of doing Aulani/Oahu.... for the days you are booked there it’s really hard to want to leave the resort.

Our boys (16&12) wound up loving the Northshore & surfing so much that for our next trip we will probably add at least a few days up at Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore as well.

 

[Mfischee]

We have been to Aulani on two separate occasions, during spring break & Christmas. Our first trip we toured all through Oahu going to Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, & The North Shore. I felt like that was plenty for our family since there was still tons to do at the resort. On our recent Christmas vacation we ended up flying to The Big Island and went to the Hawaii Volcano State Park and and to another state park to see a waterfall. I feel like you will have tons to do on Oahu since it is the one Island that pretty much has it all!

 

[cedricandsophie]

We have done a Aulani twice and are going in May again. We rarely leave the resort. But did drive around the island last year. The true hawaiin experience though is either Maui or Kauai, both exquisitely beautiful. Kauai is the garden island and is so green and lush. You can actually only drive around about half of it, the rest is only doable by boat or hiking/camping. We took a helicopter ride and it was magnificent. Saw where some of Jurassic park was filmed. We also did zip lining there in the jungle
...lots of fun. There Is a great canyon there, can't remember the name offhand, but a small version of the Grand Canyon. Maui is wonderful too. Lush in some parts. Mountainous in others. Dry in some. Excellent hotels and restaurants and some of the best surfing. If you will only get to the Hawaiin islands once, I'd encourage you to see as many as possible. The big island of course has the active volcano which is fun it visit too.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Hit wrong buttons...

 

[Dean]

Hi all

We are planning a trip to Hawaii for August 2015 and have currently got a 7 night cruise booked to island hop, planning a couple of nights on Waikiki beach before the cruise and five nights at Aulani afterwards.

I'm now questioning whether to cancel the cruise and just have a two centre vacation on oahu (4 nights Waikiki/10 nights Aulani) ?

My reasoning is that this will hopefully cut down the costs, and I'm wondering whether it will also be more relaxing with our two boys just to see all of oahu, rather than little bits of four islands?

I know many dislike Waikiki/Honolulu, but I do enjoy cities, and coming from the UK, we will (perhaps weirdly!) enjoy visiting some of the US chain restaurants that we enjoy in Orlando.

So I guess my question is - is it too far to come just to experience Oahu, or is actually a one island trip with two youngish (8 and 11 when we travel) boys a good option?

Many thanks for any advice

If you've never been I'd do a week on Oahu and a week elsewhere with Maui being my top choice. I'd only do the cruise if I planned to use it as a precursor for multiple future trips to plan locations.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Thank you everyone for your replies - they've really given me food for thought

Steve and I have been to Hawaii once before (15 years ago we cruised from Vancouver to the main four islands and ended with three nights at the hilton Hawaiian village) - in all honesty I don't remember very much about the trip (I think possibly it was because we were fitting so much in?)

We had a family chat and the boys aren't keen on the cruise (they loved the disney cruise but realise that the NCL trip would be more of a hotel base than a destination in itself - am I right in that assumption?).

They are also not yet at the age to appreciate full on sightseeing (as an example - we toured the med on the Disney cruise last year, and they much preferred the pool time/ onboard activities than getting off the ship!)

S we talked, and I narrowed down what we all want to see - and I think the only thing that we are all going to be sad about missing is the Kauai helicopter trip we had planned, as we'd all love to do that. Has anyone any suggestions how we could add that in to our trip without huge expense or is it too much for say a day trip?

As we are coming from the UK, we are also breaking up the journey with a stay in Anaheim, and by leaving out the cruise we can probably fit in an extra couple of nights there - allowing us to see Disneyland 'properly' over four days and leaving an extra day to go to universal studios and to see the Hollywood sign etc. The boys are excited by this!

I'm just still so very up in the air!! I'm not going to cancel the cruise just yet, and will probably hold off on the final decision until the flight prices are released at the end of September.

Thank you all once again - as always I'm very grateful for your input

 

[CocosMeme]

We did the Norwegian cruise and then a week stay at Aulani last year and it was wonderful. We were glad that we did the cruise first because we did a day long excursion every day of the cruise since we had never been to Hawaii before. We were tired the day we got to Aulani and spent the first 4 hours after check in (at 9:30 am) relaxing by the pool and beach. We were lucky and got into our room around 1:30 that afternoon. They have a nice lounge with dressing rooms and showers for you to wait in while your room is being prepared.
We rented a car and toured the island with stops at Pearl Harbor (did advance reservations on line before going), west coast drive up to Turtle Bay Resort for lunch, Dole Pineapple Plantation, and Waikiki area (and east coast drive). I would have been happy staying at the resort all week. Do not miss a massage at the spa - it was the highlight of the trip!

 

[Anal Annie]

I think adding in a few nights in CA would be a great way to split up your trip - especially if you can still swing 2 weeks for Hawaii on top of it. You are going to be dealing with so much jet lag - and your kids would surely appreciate a few days at Disney. I would then plan for minimum of 5-7 days on Oahu and then the remainder of the time on another island (like Maui). It would be best to not have less than 4 nights in any one place. So I guess your total time that you can allow for the trip might determine the final outcome. But I think it is much to far for you to travel from the UK to Hawaii to NOT spend time on at least 1 other island for a few days. Each island is so different from each other. Helicopter tours can be planned on just about any of the islands I think. The only island we have done that on is the Big Island to include the active volcano. So you might want to even consider a combo of Aulani and the Big Island and do the helicopter tour there - it was definitely a highlight that none of us will ever forget. Good luck planning!!

 

[amystevekai&bump]

Hi again - thank you both for your replies

Well we think we've decided - and we're cancelling the cruise!

So... we are now having almost two weeks on Oahu, with six nights at Waikiki and a week at Aulani. I know Oahu isn't everyone's favourite place, but we actually like Honolulu and all our fav US chain restaurants! . Having looked at things to do, we are going to hike diamond head, do the movie tour, explore the north shore and the east coast, have surfing lessons, swim at a waterfall, visit pearl harbour, go to a luau, spend time on lovely beaches and ultimately chill at Aulani! We're hoping this way, we'll at least get to know one island really well, rather than just scratching the surface of several.

We will then have a full week in Anaheim, including a day trip to universal and a little tour of Hollywood - the boys are both excited at this!

So whilst I'm sure this isn't most people's idea of a great Hawaiian adventure - I think this will make for a good family trip for us (hopefully with lots of relaxation time thrown in! )

I'm still a little sad about missing Kauai - but I'm thinking that we will return to Hawaii one day - to do a two centre trip between kauai and maui - either when the boys are older or on our own after they've flown the nest - for now I think spending time together in beautiful surroundings where everyone is enjoying themselves, is more important than me getting to see everywhere that I want to, with the children trailing along behind me being grumpy!

Thank you all for your posts, its really helped me clarify what we want from this vacation - and I guess at this stage in the boys lives, its more about being together than seeing lots of things

 

[travelbug]

Hi again - thank you both for your replies

Well we think we've decided - and we're cancelling the cruise!

So... we are now having almost two weeks on Oahu, with six nights at Waikiki and a week at Aulani. I know Oahu isn't everyone's favourite place, but we actually like Honolulu and all our fav US chain restaurants! . Having looked at things to do, we are going to hike diamond head, do the movie tour, explore the north shore and the east coast, have surfing lessons, swim at a waterfall, visit pearl harbour, go to a luau, spend time on lovely beaches and ultimately chill at Aulani! We're hoping this way, we'll at least get to know one island really well, rather than just scratching the surface of several.

We will then have a full week in Anaheim, including a day trip to universal and a little tour of Hollywood - the boys are both excited at this!

So whilst I'm sure this isn't most people's idea of a great Hawaiian adventure - I think this will make for a good family trip for us (hopefully with lots of relaxation time thrown in! )

I'm still a little sad about missing Kauai - but I'm thinking that we will return to Hawaii one day - to do a two centre trip between kauai and maui - either when the boys are older or on our own after they've flown the nest - for now I think spending time together in beautiful surroundings where everyone is enjoying themselves, is more important than me getting to see everywhere that I want to, with the children trailing along behind me being grumpy!

Thank you all for your posts, its really helped me clarify what we want from this vacation - and I guess at this stage in the boys lives, its more about being together than seeing lots of things

I think this sounds like a wonderful vacation! Have a great time!

 

[Cinderpamela]

Your trip is going to be very similar to what we did this past December and it wound up being one of our favorite vacations to date!

Do you know yet where you are staying in Waikiki? We rented a condo through VRBO and it was great.

Also you can reserve Pearl Harbor online in advance so be sure and book that early to get the best date and times http://www.recreation.gov/tourSearchResult.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72369&tourId=0