Hawaiian Islands Vacation: Oahu Day 4Part 3: Waikiki

After leaving the lush windward side of Oahu, we travelled into Oahu's big city, Waikiki. We went back and forth on where to stay in Oahu when planning our trip. The decision was between Waikiki or the Ko Olina resort area. I can tell you that we 100% made the right choice in deciding to stay out of Waikiki.
Don't get me wrong, Waikiki is beautiful, but it is also like being back in NYC. It is super crowded, tourist driven and expensive. The beaches are packed, the restaurants are packed, everywhere is packed. Since we live in New York City, we wanted this vacation to be a tropical island escape, not a hustling and bustling tourist trap. For that reason, staying in Ko Olina was perfect, and renting a car to visit Waikiki was all that was needed.

After playing at the beach for a while, we headed down the main beach strip to take in the sights of Waikiki. The resorts are beautiful and the tropical plants and trees are gorgeous as well. There were lots of fun shops to stop in at, including a fun t-shirt shop that had both Jerry and I cracking up for a while.

We finished our evening in Waikiki watching the sunset, before heading to dinner at P.F. Chang's. We were too hungry to add our name to hour plus wait lists that other famous Hawaiian restaurants had on that busy evening. I have to tell you that there is a "family friendly" restaurant, that is advertised in all of the free guidebooks, downtown in Waikiki, and I can't think of the name, sorry- but we when we showed up the place was empty - not a good sign.

Waikiki is definitely a place to check out while you are in Oahu, I just personally feel that half a day or a day at most is plenty of time to spend there, and other parts of the island are more beautiful and family friendly.

More of our Hawaii Vacation: Oahu Day 4 / Part 2 Oahu Day 4 / Part 1 Oahu Day 3 Oahu Day 2 Oahu Day 1 A Tour of Our Ko Olina Resort Trip Itinerary