Hawaii (4) – Waikiki
2018 520 (happy “I love you” day), cloudy with cheer
Recently, I encountered this Microsoft github page: https://github.com/microsoft, what makes a chuckle is this revolutionary title “Open source, from Microsoft with love” (:D words cannot express)
Never-close Waikiki
The best way to tour Waikiki is with a group of your people and preferably is to celebrate some festivities, like 80 years birthdays, reunions with your kindergarten friends, lol. It is a place where you are supposed to party at the beach, watch a long firework at the rooftop, take a boat out for jet-ski, surfing, parasailing, night night shopping at these never close stores, food truck crawl, clubbing … Waikiki is like Vegas but much bigger and diverse than the strip and does not have the gambling aspects. There are many many beautiful resorts, good restaurants, and many tourist groups from all over the world (I met a Chinese girl who currently live in Japan and had a fun chatting with her on a boat)!
Some practical tips to share:
- If you want to live at Waikiki, there are many hotels and apartment complex walking distance to Waikiki, it easily costs you 300$ a night for a 2-bedroom apartment, especially holiday seasons, but it’ll worth it if you enjoy the following: wake up for a morning run along the beach in the salty smell breeze, walk across a few blocks to look for what’s new at the food trucks, wait in line for some authentic Japanese breakfast (Yoshitsune at Park Shore hotel), go up to the rooftop to do a morning swim or sit in the warm Jacqueze watching blue oceans and waves, or just stay at your porch for some stretches, whistle at these hot girls passing …
- If you stay somewhere else and just want to look at Waikiki, most of the hotels have parkings, but certainly will be expensive, 10$ for an hour or two.
- I heard Hawaii is the cheapest place to do skydiving (no doubt a beautiful place too). There are many companies offering water sports. I used Xtreme Parasail and had a good experience . You can book while you arrive there.
- Almost every good hotel here offers a night buffet. It costs more than 50$ a person, these places have nice views, but nothing special in my opinion. I have tried 100 Sails Restaurant & Bar, one of the best rated buffets, but “eh” it is just okay. I feel more exciting about a place called “Helena Hawaiian Foods”, which I will describe in more details in the future blog posts when talking about the Hawaii food
- I came here around new year time, the firework here lasts more than 1 hour long I heard (myself falls asleep before it is over:)). Parties, music, dances went on at the beaches at the new years eve, very good atmosphere to welcome new year, I will certainly try another time!
- Here, I often went out shopping or people watching after 10pm. The weather is warm, the lights are bright, many people around maybe jet-legged :), I walked in my slippers, wear my tank top and shorts, stop at a few places where the street artists perform, buy an ice pop to suck, feel like I go back to my teenage time. Only wish is that all my awesome friends are around 😀 :D. There is this place called “Volcano Shakes”, it offers the head size ice cream, very impressive and tasty. The shopping mall here is very beautifully designed with a big tree in the middle.
- Diamond head is a place that you can see Waikiki from the distance. It is 10 minutes drive away from Waikiki. The parking lot is small, so you might need to wait for the spaces. The hiking is not difficult, there are stairs and concrete paths. It probably takes 15-20 minutes to get to the top if you walk fast. The view from the top is breathtaking.
- There are also China town, and the city of Honolulu that are worth a stop. They are about 5-10 min drive distance from Waikiki. Street parking available.