Oahu, Hawai’i

Where to stay? We stayed at Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort! There were many reasons why I chose this place — I wanted convenience more than anything. This is Hilton’s largest U.S. property and it is indeed large. There are several buildings to stay at on the property and we opted for the Ali’i. It has a separate check-in process (much faster and less crowded), newly renovated and spacious rooms, and their pool is for guests staying in the Ali’i only. Along with the Rainbow Tower, it’s the only building on site that is on the beach so we had spectacular views. We spent more for the oceanfront room, but it was 100% worth it. The property has several restaurants, shops, and their own beach. It also was in a part of town close to other restaurants if you wanted to go off property!

Should I rent a car? Depends on how much moving around you’d like to do! Lyft and Uber were everywhere so we mainly utilized that and it worked out super well. We knew we wouldn’t be going far for most of the trip, plus Hilton charges $68 per day for self-parking and we just didn’t want to spend that (many locals also warned us that parking is really tough). We did rent via Turo for our day that we traveled to the North Shore, simply because it was over an hour drive from Waikiki and we wanted to have the freedom to make stops. It was extremely affordable so if you’re going far enough and want control of your time spent, I recommend Turo!

Where should I go to eat? Staying at a big resort like the Hilton provided us with a lot of snack and lunch options - the Wiki Wiki Market had sandwiches, salads, pizzas, etc. Duke’s is a must on Oahu! Round Table Pizza, Fresco’s Italian, and Lappert’s are on Hilton’s property as well. Breakfast at Cinammon’s is also a must - get the guava pancakes! Da HI Brew, Hawaiian Aroma, Banan, and Leonard’s are also fabulous for breakfast / smoothies. Hau Tree is incredible! Goofy was a great spot just off of the Hilton property. You won’t find better shrimp than at Fumis on the North Shore (cash only!). Also in that area is the famous Matsumoto Shaved Ice, Sunrise Shack, Coffee Gallery, and Ted’s Bakery.

What can I do on Oahu? Woof there is so much. This was my 30th birthday trip so there were some things that I wasn’t interested in doing this time around like Pearl Harbor, Honolulu Zoo, Dole Pineapple Plantation, and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The main reason why I went to Oahu is to swim with sharks with Island View Hawaii and spoiler alert: I did and it was the most amazing experience. Some of the activities we did was hike to the top of Diamond Head, took a surf lesson, snorkeled, experienced a reiki healing, and rode an ATV through the lush parts of the island on the famous Kualoa Ranch! We were really wanting to do a luau, however they are fairly expensive and just wasn’t in our budget this time. The Hilton does have a firework show on their beach every Friday night at 8 p.m.! Going to the North Shore was a huge highlight and I highly recommend — there are so many shacks along the stretch of beach that have such great food and cool shops of things made by locals. The beaches are amazing and the water was so clear!