This Thanksgiving, we wanted to fly somewhere far because travel is finally starting to come back. We have family members in Hawaii, a destination that I’ve always wanted to go but have never been, so we decided on a last minute trip to Hawaii!!
November 21, 2021
We booked our nonstop flight to Honolulu with Delta. It was VERY pricy but we really don’t like to transfer planes (and it wasn’t much of a savings anyway), so it is what it is. The service on the plane has pretty much gotten back to normal. We were served a real meal on the plane.
We rented a car from A1 Auto Car Rental. It was the cheapest I could find. We were given a fair condition Volkswagen Jetta, which was sufficient for our trip. For this week, we are staying at a condo inside the famous Turtle Bay Resort. The drive from the rental car center to the resort was BEAUTIFUL!
November 22, 2021
For breakfast, we came to the Sunrise Shack. We just got here last night and I’m already noticing something about Hawaii, or at least in the North Shore area – dinner restaurants close early and there aren’t many breakfast places to go to, especially if you are looking for something more than a smoothie or a bowl. After not having a real dinner last night, I was really ready for some real breakfast, not a health bowl, but that’s all the options I could find this morning.
Don’t get me wrong, the food was very good here.
Next, we stopped at Laniakea Beach. There’s a lot of kelp on the beach here but turtles like this beach because of that.
Our destination today is the Dole Plantation, but we drove by the Stonefish Grill which was open for breakfast so we did a pit stop here.
We finally made it to the Dole Plantation! The grounds are free to access, but to really experience it, you have to sign up for one of the tours. We did the Train & Garden tour. Dole Plantation does not sell tickets in advance, so get ready to be there early and stand in line. The line moves quickly though.
The train tour was really fun and educational. It takes you around the whole plantation and there was an audio guide that explained all the different stages of a pineapple’s growth, as you went by each. I was also surprised there were so many other fruit trees on the grounds too.
Of course, you can buy Dole Whip here. We bought lots of it.
Next we did the Pineapple Garden Maze, followed by a lunch at Plantation Grille. Be prepared to see a lot of pineapple oriented food items on the menu though – like pineapple chili dog, or pineapple chili bowl. We didn’t take many pictures during all of this because it was so crowded and getting a seat was quite impossible.
We spent about 4 hours at the Dole Plantation, then moved onto the next destination, Wahiawā Botanical Garden. The gardens were fun to explore and it was free.
Next, we went to the Haleʻiwa Aliʻi Beach Park, a beautiful public beach that’s free with free restrooms and changing facilities.
We ate dinner at Haleiwa Joe‘s with a beautiful view of the ocean.
November 23, 2021
Today we are going to visit Teddy’s uncle’s grave. He just passed away two months ago and it was one of the reasons we wanted to come to Hawaii. For breakfast, we stopped at Sweet E’s Cafe.
On our way to his grave site, we drove by some REALLY beautiful places.
Uncle Wiley was a war veteran, so he was buried at the Punchbowl Crater Cemetery, a beautiful veteran memorial set on an extinct volcano. It’s free to enter and it’s quite educational to read about the war heroes.
After hiking all the steps at the Punchbowl Crater, Ava was pretty tired…
After paying our respects, we got back in the car to visit Mānoa Falls.
It was a moderate hike that turned out to be a lot more difficult than we anticipated because it was a wet day and the trail was so muddy and slippery. The falls and surrounding areas were very pretty but the hike really wasn’t all that enjoyable because it was so slippery. We didn’t go to the nearby Lulumahu Falls because I wasn’t going to repeat that slippery experience.
After leaving Manoa Falls, we decided to go to Judd Trail and visit Jackass Ginger Pool. This is one of those local secrets I found online and the trail is a 1.2 mile loop, so how hard could this be? This was a total fail… The idea was to take a dip in the natural pool at the end, but instead neither kid wanted to really relax in the pool because the water was rather cold, and most of the good spots were already taken. The trail was equally slippery as the last so the kids really struggled (so did I) in many places.
Managed to get Alice to get in the pool briefly but she refused to sit down. Ava fell so many times all she wanted to do was cry.
Alright, enough with hiking. We made it back so it’s all good. Now we are going to focus on things we can do without the slippery hike, so we came to Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout. There are lots of hikes around here, like the Likeke Falls Trail, the Maunawili Falls Trail, but as promised, no more hikes. We managed to find a parking spot ($3 to park for visitors, next to free if you are local), and walked the 1 minute walk to the lookout.
Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout is the location of the 1795 battle. Beautiful scenery and you can learn about history.
Next, we went to the Buddhist temple called Byodo-In Temple. The Byodo-In Temple is a replica of the historic Byodoin Temple of Uji in Kyoto prefecture of Japan, established in 1052.
This was a beautiful place and the walk around the temple area was so peaceful. Now it’s time to get back to our “home” for some dinner.
Since we are staying at the condo side of Turtle Bay Resort, we do not have access to the pools, but we do have access to their restaurants and bars. There are some really nice restaurants on site here, but the prices are eye-watering. We chose Off the Lip, which has a smaller menu but great views and more casual.
The view here is second to none.
November 24, 2021
This morning, we discovered an interesting restaurant called Pagoda. Pagoda is a floating restaurant with koi ponds and gardens. The cuisine is Hawaii Asian fusion and they serve breakfast!
After breakfast, they gave us some food to feed the fish!
Next we went to the south side of the island and visited the Kahanamoku Beach. This is in the heart of Waikiki, the more commercialized part of the island.
Kids enjoyed playing with the water here and did not want to leave.
This was such a different feel than the area we are staying. There are lots of high rises, restaurants, food trucks, water sports, etc. Even though the kids didn’t want to leave, we had to get going because we had already booked our visit to the Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor was a somber place but a nice experience. You can spend a whole day here if you want to. There’s a lot to see and a lot of things to read. You have to reserve your tickets far in advance if you want to get in – it seems many people did not do this and the line to buy tickets was very long. The ticket is free, and the ferry for the Arizona Memorial is $1.
If you don’t know about what happened at Pearl Harbor, please read up on it. This is a very significant piece of modern American history.
Next we drove to the Aloha Swap Meet, an outdoor shopping experience much like a flea market. The drive to anywhere has been jaw droppingly beautiful, any direction you turn. We had a little trouble finding it but I’m glad we didn’t give up. This turned out to be a very worthy stop. My kids and I absolutely LOVED the selection of island dresses. I only WISH we bought more. The prices were extremely reasonable here.
Tonight, we went to the beautiful restaurant next door to Off the Lip, called Alaia. Like the rest of Hawaii, everything was super pricy, but the food was very good and you can’t beat the view or the convenience to our condo.
The view from our table was amazing.
*Turns out, tonight was the night we were supposed to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I had paid for the 4 of us to attend 2 shows with the best seats available, with buffet and luau. I apparently got the days mixed up and thought it was for tomorrow. Our tickets did give us 7 night entrance as well, which we ended up not even using because when I called to inquire, they told me it’s so crowded that they can’t even promise we could get in. (Our resort was a drive to the Polynesian Cultural Center and considering how crowded EVERYWHERE has been this whole trip, I didn’t even want to attempt the journey just to be turned away.) They would not give us any concession for my mistake so it was money completely wasted. The reason why I got my days confused was because when I purchased the tickets, I had to keep switching days to find seats together for both shows.
After Alaia, we moved onto the Sunset Bar next door, to just soak in the beautiful view.
November 25, 2021
Today is Thanksgiving day and we are visiting Teddy’s cousin Dan. This morning, we walked around our condo area.
For breakfast, we went to Ted’s Bakery, a very popular bakery restaurant that you definitely want to order ahead of time. We had to wait a LONG time to get our order in and get our food. This has been a common part of our trip – crowdedness. Next, we took the kids to Turtle Beach, the beach located on Turtle Bay Resort.
Next, it’s time to visit family. Dan and his family provided lots of food for us, which I’m so thankful for because I’ve been eating very little on this trip due to the cost.
This will go down in history as one of the best Thanksgiving meals I’ve ever had.
November 26, 2021
Today we got up late. For lunch, we went back to Ted’s Bakery. They have those plate lunches that are so good, and now we know to put in our order on line before arriving, it wasn’t as painful but there was still a wait.
Back to the resort, we watched the waves hitting the North Shore and enjoyed some Hawaiian drinks in our hands.
We had a front row seat to the view.
Dinner was at Sunset Bar.
November 27, 2021
Today we had breakfast at the resorts, then took the kids to Kawela Beach for some beach time.
Next, we went to Waimea Valley to hike the Waimea Valley Trail to see the Waimea Falls. This is a very popular destination. This hike was a lot easier to manage than the ones we did earlier in the week. The pool at the end of the trail was beautiful too.
After the hike, we had to return the car and shuttle back to the airport. We spent some time in the Delta Lounge, like on the way here, but the lounge here has tuna poke!
Conclusion
The kids and I have never been to Hawaii before but we’ve all heard how it’s on everyone’s bucket list. The beauty of Hawaii lived up to its expectations but I could have never anticipated the crowd at all of the touristy destinations. The parking was difficult, hiking was very difficult due to how muddy it was, and everything was more expensive than I had even anticipated. I don’t know how crowded Thanksgiving in Hawaii usually is, but I’m sure our situation was exacerbated by the fact we had a shut down of almost 2 years and travel just opened back up for Hawaii. Lots of the “tourists” really were not tourists, they were locals who had been cooped up just like everyone else. Lesson learned – the next pandemic shutdown, don’t go to super popular areas the week it opens back up.