We understand that not everyone loves cities. But the folks who skip the Hawaiian Island of Oahu miss so much more than just Honolulu and Waikiki. To see how much more, we spent several days wandering around the rest of the island.
Here’s what we found:
Delicious handmade Japanese noodles from Marukame Udon in Waikiki for as little as $3.75 per bowl.
Hawaii is an expensive travel destination, or so we’ve been told. And before arriving we fully expected to shell out a ton of cash on food. Needing to buy three meals per day, every day, at high-priced restaurants and cafes in this island paradise can really dent your wallet. But it doesn’t have to.
Here are the strategies we used to survive three weeks on the island and a lifetime on the road while still eating well and saving a fortune.
It’s good to be the king.
When David Kalakaua ordered a new palace built in 1879 in Honolulu, the Hawaiian kingdom’s capital and an increasingly important hub for international trading, the monarch mandated that no expense be spared. The building was intended to impress, lest overseas VIPs think his realm in the middle of the Pacific was a backwater.
Iolani Palace was decked out with cutting-edge amenities like indoor plumbing, a telephone, and electric lighting, which it had before the White House or Buckingham Palace. Constructed in a unique architectural style, the building melds European-inspired features with traditional Hawaiian elements such as wide, wrap-around lanais.
The only official state residence in the U.S. once occupied by royalty, Iolani Palce looks like the domain of an Italian duke rather than a dwelling in the tropics. While admiring the architecture and décor is reason to visit the residence, it’s more than just a pretty façade. Roaming its gilded rooms with a self-guided audio tour reveals intriguing stories about what played out within them, well before Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state.
We nearly missed the boat.
So wrapped up were we in booking the big stuff for our six-week trip to Hawaii and Alaska—flights, hotels, and car rentals—that we overlooked a few details. Like the fact that we would be visiting Pearl Harbor during a highly-trafficked holiday weekend.
There is an excellent, comprehensive museum, as well as other exhibits and even a submarine, but visiting Pearl Harbor’s main site, the USS Arizona Memorial, means catching a ride out into the harbor. When we looked into the logistics after landing in Honolulu, all of the free, timed tickets for the shuttle boat were booked the entire time we were in town.
Everywhere Once 