Oahu - Gateway to Paradise

Chances are you’ll be based in the Honolulu Metropolitan area--a teeming urban sprawl of 400,000 replete with skyscrapers, highways, and crowds blending the US and native Hawaiian cultures in a tropical melting pot. Fear not, a quieter and slower paced Oahu is just half-an-hour’s drive away...

Downtown Honolulu is home to a vibrant Chinatown, being geographically closer to China than it is to the US! Other downtown and nearby attractions includes the Iolani Palace (the only Royal Palace on US soil) as featured in 'Hawaii 5-0,' the Aloha Clocktower area on the waterfront, and the Ala Moana Shopping and Entertainment centre.

Waikiki (formerly an area of seemingly worthless swampy land), just to the east of Honolulu is the beating heart of tourism in Oahu with all the pros and cons that that brings! With about 90% of the island’s hotel rooms, most likely this is where you’ll be based.

Oahu is also famous for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 lurching the US into WWII. Visiting the ‘Battleship Bookends’ of USS Arizona and USS Missouri, allows you to experience the defining moments of the beginning and end of America’s war with Japan.

Quick Tips:

Cheap eats can be had in Chinatown’s high quality Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants. The food courts at the Ala Moana Shopping Centre and International Market are good value and allow you to sample local Hawaiian cuisine. The numerous ABC convenience stores (aka: ‘All Blocks Covered’) are handy for stocking up on bottles of water and snacks before a trip.

If you’re keen on snorkelling, don’t rent your stuff at the inflated prices of your hotel! Either take one of the popular excursions to Hanauma Bay, which are sometimes offered for free with other trips. If you’re planning on snorkelling throughout your holiday, the best way is to hire from Snorkel Bob’s at 700 Kapahulu Avenue for next to nothing.

If you’re shopping for authentic Hawaiian clobber, be wary of what you buy as the overwhelming majority is either made or assembled thousands of miles away! Hilo Hattie is a good place to start, as are the markets at Aloha Stadium, and I got my authentic Rayon Hawaiian shirt made in Hawaii for 40% off at the International Markets.

Why not ‘island hop’ spending several days in The Big Island or Maui? "Hang Loose!"

Best Way To Get Around:

Waikiki is eminently walkable and easy to get around, with your accommodation never likely to be more than a couple of blocks back from the beach. In fact Oahu is extremely easy to get around, using its cheap and extensive bus and shuttle network--tickets have a time limit that allow you a free connection. (TheBus 848-5555. Of course hiring a car does afford you the luxury of travelling exactly where you want, when you want, however when you consider the headache of finding a parking space in Waikiki/Honolulu or the traffic, I prefer the cheaper hassle-free option of not renting.

For once I do recommend a coach tour such as the circular tour of Oahu, which takes in the East of the island and then down through the middle, taking in about a dozen major sites. If you do it at the beginning of the holiday, you can use it to recognize places you might want to spend more time at later on.

A word of caution: although this is Hawaii, avoid the rough downtown area of Honolulu after dark, as even in paradise there is drug and gang activity.

On Dec 7th, 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour, "a date that will live in infamy" Roosevelt declared, it also pitched the US into WWII.

The USS Arizona memorial is the most enduring testimony of that fateful day as the scene of the biggest loss of life in the attack, being the final resting place for most of the 1,177 men who died on and below her decks.

One-and-a-half million visitors every year come to bear witness to this solemn place of remembrance. It goes without saying that proper respect needs to be considered here at all times.

Entry is free and entitles you to take the trip out to the Memorial by launch. As you're waiting, you are free to tour the grounds and the Remembrance Exhibit, giving you an insight into the events that sealed the Arizona’s fate, including some moving artefacts rescued from her. The center also honors all the fallen of Oahu on that day.

Once it is your turn, you are ushered into an auditorium for a 20-minute film chronicling the events leading to the tragedy in an even-handed way. From there you are taken to a waiting launch for the short trip out to the Memorial, which seems to float directly across the sunken battleship.

It is a brilliant white structure, with an entry vestibule containing the state flags of the eight battleships present at the time of the attack. The central portion has large open-air viewing ports allowing you to gaze down at the eerie form of the ship lying only 7-8 feet below the surface, even after over 60 years you can see oil still seeping up from below. Some say this represents the tears of the sailors entombed below.

At the end is the hall listing the names of the sailors that died and those survivors that chose to join their fallen shipmates as their final resting place. That these names fill up the entire wall brings home the enormity of the loss in life sustained by the Arizona. If you look out over the bow of the ship where the war began, you can see the USS Missouri, site of the end of WWII.

Directions: Pearl Harbour and Arizona Memorial. By car take H1 freeway from Waikiki and exit at "Arizona Memorial, Stadium," NOT "Pearl Harbor" exit! Also #20 bus from Waikiki.

Phone: 808/422-0561

Second of Pearl Harbour’s ‘Bookends’, Mighty Mo’s career has spanned five decades since her launch on January 29th, 1944, as the last battleship built by the US. Serving late in the war she saw her share of action including a failed Kamikaze attack that dented her rear Starboard side armour plating, and most importantly, as the site of the Japanese Armistice commemorated by a circular brass plaque on the 01 verandah deck.

On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay witnessed by Allied High Command and Mighty Mo herself, Japan signed an end to six years of terrible warfare that had begun when Germany had invaded Poland in 1939, causing tens of millions of casualties the World over.

From this spot, you can look out to the final resting point of the USS Arizona Memorial, site of the US entry into WWII in 1941 and first part of Pearl Harbour’s ‘Bookends’

She continued her service in the Korean War and was decommissioned shortly after in 1955 to languish for three decades in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

In 1986 the Reagan Administration reactivated her, extensively modernizing her armaments in the process. Her last military action was in 1991, launching Tomahawk missiles and firing her gigantic 16" guns at targets in Iraq and Kuwait. She had a narrow escape from an Iraqi Silkworm missile destroyed by the British Destroyer, HMS Gloucester, with seconds to spare.

Finally decommissioned in 1992 as the last active battleship in the World, she was opened as a memorial in 1999 – 55 years to the day of her launch.

She is a living museum and it is a real privilege to tour her decks and marvel as the history unfolds beneath your feet either on a self-guided tour, or as a member of a guide led tour.

The most fascinating aspect of touring the ship is seeing how she evolved over 50 years of advances in weapons technology from WWII Big Guns and machine guns, to integrated computer guided battle systems such as Tomahawk, Harpoon missiles, and Phalanx rapid fire anti missile systems.

Directions: Access via Trolley Pick Up at the Bowfin Memorial adjacent to Pearl Harbour and Arizona Memorial. By car take H1 freeway from Waikiki and exit at "Arizona Memorial, Stadium." NOT "Pearl Harbor." exit!

Phone: 1-877-MIGHTYMO

Situated opposite Waikiki's oldest hotel, the Moana Hotel, and just down from the Royal Hawai’ian Shopping Centre, this is a huge open-air market that covers an entire city block of prime Waikiki real estate being bounded between Waikiki's two main thoroughfares, Kuhio Ave. to the north and Kalakaua Ave. to the south.

A labyrinthine sprawl of stalls and shops selling all manner of tourist souvenirs, the International Market Place really is the beating heart of Hawai’ian kitsch and tackiness – but don’t let that put you off as there are plenty of gems in there to tempt even the most hard bitten traveler and, let’s face it, if you truly wanted to avoid the rampant commercialism of Waikiki you wouldn’t be there in the first place!

For a start it is a great place to shop for t-Shirts and the ubiquitous Hawai’ian Shirt, as well as souvenir presents for friends and family back home such as Hawai’i license plates, shell bracelets and lei – but watch out if you’re looking for genuine merchandise as like it or not, your ‘authentic’ Hawai’ian shirt will most likely have been made in SE Asia! Bargaining is expected here, and you should be able walk away with plenty of good deals.

The market place is also a great place for kids as there are plenty of activities ranging from having your picture taken in a grass skirt or with a parrot to watching various stage shows, including music and dance and excellent drumming displays. Other activities around include watching local sculptors at work on various native materials, getting one’s fingernails painted with tropical scenes, or getting your palm read.

A good central meeting point is the Koi Carp pool by the huge Banyan tree in the center of the market, or if you get really lost there is a yellow tramline on the floor that you can follow to get you back onto the street.

Finally, we found the food court in the market to sell good quality Hawai’ian style food at some of the most reasonable prices in Waikiki – this reason alone had us coming back to the International Market Place time and again as well priced food was at a premium here. For those whose appetites are of a more liquid variety, there are several decent bars there, including a ‘treehouse’ bar with live music.

This place is bound to have something for everyone.

Waikiki Beach is definitely where it's at on Oahu - this is the quintessential Hawai'ian experience for most visitors to Hawai'i, and many never leave its environs!

It's amazing to think that this stretch of beach once was a swampy marshland and that much of Waikiki is on land reclaimed only at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Tourism began from 1901 with the building of the spectacular colonial style Moana Hotel, the 'First Lady of Waikiki' which was the area's first luxury hotel. Things accelerated in the '20's with the opening of the coral-pink Royal Hawai'ian Hotel, which entertained a steady stream of the rich and famous.

Today this thin strip of sand is the magnet that attracts millions of tourists to the Hawai'ian islands and, given the sheer numbers that visit its shores, it is a surprisingly beautiful and pleasant beach with its soft golden sands sweeping around the shallow bay towards the imposing bulk of the extinct Diamond Head Volcano.

with some of the safest waters in Hawai'i it is not difficult to see why this is such a prime location, which can often get crowded nearer to the famous hotels.

One of the major attractions here are the surfing 'schools', where you can learn to follow in the footsteps of 'The Duke', Duke Kahanamoku, who first popularized the Hawai'ian pastime of he'e nalu, or 'wave sliding', by giving demonstrations around the World and becoming the father of modern surfing. A statue of the Duke commemorates his achievements along the Kuhio beach foreshore.

As well as the obvious attractions of sand, sea, and surf, the Waikiki beachfront takes on a romantic air with the spectacular sunsets giving way to a waterfront lit up by the flickering flames of the many torches that illuminate the promenade. It is at this time that a stroll along the waterfront is best enjoyed.

The Nuuanu Pali Lookout on the eastern Koolau Mountain Range, is one of the best views on O'ahu affording a stunning cliff edge panorama east overlooking the plains of Kane'ohe a thousand feet below and out across the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean. This view really does take your breath away and was a great climax to our highly enjoyable 'Circle Island' bus tour.

It was here in 1795 that King Kamehameha and his warriors defeated the O'ahu armies with superior European weaponry by cornering them against the cliffs and sending thousands to their deaths over the steep drop to their deaths on the jagged rocks hundreds of feet below.

It is said that the bleached bones of O'ahu's fallen warriors could still be seen strewn across this land during the time of Mark Twain's visit. This great victory allowed him to unite all the Hawaiian Islands except Kauai through force, which he could only 'conquer' years later by diplomatic means with the help of Europeans.

This spot also happens to be the windiest place on O'ahu and as it was already extremely windy on the island when we made this trip - it was so bad up there that even the tour bus we took was shaking violently in the buffeting wind, quite exciting actually!

As you can see by the photos, perhaps I was lucky not to be swept off to join all those other unfortunate souls back in 1795. . . !