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Spot: Ala Moana, HI
Places to stay
At last count there were 345,921,034 hotel, motel, hostel and resort rooms squeezed into a few square miles in Waikiki. Surely you can find something you like?
The www.environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com lists the Ala Moana Hotel as a place that does what it can to preserve the environment. Rates are as low as $139 and as high as $500 which is about what most of the other Honolulu/Waikiki hotels will be, so maybe that’s the place.
There are two Hostelling International youth hostels in Honolulu offering dorm rooms for $18 - $21 and private rooms from $46 - $52 which is a pretty good deal so they are probably popular and booked most of the time. Click here for more information.
There isn’t a lot of camping on this side of Oahu. Sand Island is closest but it’s under the flight path and close to a sewage treatment plant so it’s likely to be a bit noisy and stinky, and has been the domain of a large homeless encampment for years. To find a possible spot, click here.
Food
Endless, from buying fresh poke by the pound at local grocery stores, to paying way too much for a steak dinner in the Waikiki hotels on the water’s edge. In between that, so many good grinds: plate lunches from trucks, local Thai and sushi and Chinese joints that do it right.
Duke’s Waikiki has a surfer angle and maybe you can use your surfer angle to hook up with some tourists from wherever. And for another taste of old Hawaii, it’s nice to walk away from the rattle and hum of the 21st Century and into the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The Pink Palace will take you back to a time when Hawaii was hard to get to and one of the most exotic places on earth. Have a mai tai by the water as the sun is setting and the lights of the cruise ships are passing offshore. It’s beautiful.
Parking, access and directions
Click here for the whole story on how to get all the way to the edge of the sand along Ala Moana Beach Park, straight from the City and County of Honolulu. This is the short version: Ala Moana Beach Park is located across the street from Ala Moana Shopping Center. The Diamond Head (east) entrance is from Atkinson Drive, the Ewa (west) entrance is on Ala Moana Blvd. between Ward Avenue and Queen Street.
Recently there has been a stink about charging parking fees in Ala Moana Harbor and other small harbors around Hawaii. You can read about it on the www.commongroundhawaii.net website.
Surf Shops
Surf shops are to Waikiki/Honolulu what Starbucks are to the rest of the world: There is one on every corner, almost. Some of them are serious surf shops that have been around for ever, others are tourist traps.
Town and Country has shops all over Hawaii but their shop at Ala Moana Center is considered their flagship store.
Hawaiian Island Creations also has a shop on Ala Moana Boulevard, in the Ala Moana Center.
Rip Curl has a shop on the third floor of Ala Moana Center and Blue Hawaii Surf and Pacific Sunwear have stores in the center as well.
Local Motion is the biggest and also has a few other shops around the Island.
Attractions
Surf, surf, surf. Eat, eat, eat. Sleep, sleep, sleep. You need more than that? Waikiki Beach is a tacky, overbuilt, over-priced shopping, hotel and resort destination that really needs a big tsunami, to take it all back to the simple, quiet feral wonderland it was through the first half of the 20th Century. Click here for a taste of that.
There is lots to see and do and buy in Waikiki. It is exceptionally good people-watching and if you are not a pale, overweight tourist from the mid-west, you will be glad you are not a pale, overweight tourist from the mid-west.
Surfing Waikiki is always fun – either by yourself or with a friend - and if you want some old Hawaiian soul go take an outrigger canoe ride and fly across the waves in a man-powered PWC. There are canoes all up and down the beach but if you want to support a surfer family, try Clyde Aikau's Beachboy stand: Call (808) 259-8970 or email: purehawnaikau@aol.com
And if you don’t know how to surf, there is no better place for it than Waikiki. The surf is custom made for beginners and there four beach boy concessions and a number of surf schools along Waikiki. Click here for a listing of surf schools.
Talk to Adam Sandler about surfing and he will claim Hans Hedemann, not that there is anything wrong with that.
The Waikiki Beach Boys have a surf camp and board rentals right on the beach, including those big 12-footers for crowd control and SUP. They are right on the sand at Kuhio Beach.
If you want to get away from the imposed haole culture of Waikiki and immerse yourself in some real Hawaii, a stroll through the Bishop Museum will put some soul in your soul.
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