Day 1: Sydney to Waikiki
Our flight wasn’t until about 8:00 PM. We spent the day hanging out down by the beach. It was quieter today, being a Monday, but there were still plenty of people out and about. Here’s what it looked like flying into Honolulu the following (same) morning. Yes, we lost a day going over and regained it coming back, and it confused our phones when timestamping our photos.
We were able to get right into our room on arrival. This was our view about 11:00 AM.
And here it was about 2 hours later, after a lot of rain. They’d already had a lot before we arrived. We took a nap, went down to the pool for a while, and had poke and fried rice at the restaurant downstairs. And drank our free bottle of wine.
Day 2: Beach and Pool
We had a fire alarm in the morning, which was mildly annoying. But necessary; they had a fire in the kitchen and shut down the restaurant until dinner time. We did some shopping and walked down to the beach. The weather was nice and it was crowded.
So we went back to the pool. We had our free welcome drink and then tried one of the alcoholic slushies. Both were really good. We had a nice chat with a fellow guest from Minnesota. She and her spouse were visiting their sone who lives in Honolulu. Nice excuse for a Hawaiian vacation!
We had poke and garlic noodles for dinner. That’s the poke bowl below. Yum! We also tried some June Shine — an alcoholic kombucha I’d been wanting to try. It was pretty good. We bought more.
Day 3: A Day Off
We had a dramatic sunrise this morning. We were a bit hungover so didn’t do much. Went to the bakery and the ABC Store for trinkets. Had poke again for dinner. It’s ironic that we upgraded to a corner lanai for this stay but couldn’t sit out there because it was too windy. At least we have a corner view.
Day 4: Waikiki to Home
Our trip began about eight weeks ago in New Zealand with rowing boats on the water. Now it’s ending with an outrigger canoe.
We had another night flight so we parked our bags with reception and spent the day by the pool. We love the little lizards with inflating throats. The food at the restaurant downstairs is so good we haven’t gone anywhere else. (We looked at going to Duke’s but there were no openings.) We also like that it’s basically open air; it’s almost like being outdoors.
We got some nice views of Honolulu as we flew out.
Essentials
Lodging
We stayed at the Wayfinder Waikiki — as we did when we started this trip, on the way to New Zealand — which was even better than expected. (And I had high expectations.) The room was cozy and I liked the vintage Hawaii vibe. Our corner room this stay had the corner view and lanai but was otherwise similar. The pool area was compact and felt nicely secluded. The beach is only a few minutes away yet the area feels quiet. Service was super friendly throughout. The Wayfinder is not cheap, though we found it good value. A less expensive option is The Breakers, where we stayed on a previous trip.
Dining
There were plenty of restaurants nearby but we liked the Redfish restaurant downstairs so much we ate all our meals there. Their poke menu is extensive and flexible and they have other interesting options, plus a burger if you’re not feeling adventurous. We liked both the garlic noodles and the kalua pig fried rice. The breakfast menu is interesting too. There’s also a pool bar, and a coffee bar.
Transportation
We used Hawaii23 to get to and from the airport. Prompt, personable, and organized. Other than that we walked everywhere. In flip flops!
Related Posts
Waikiki
Our three day layover in Waikiki on the way to New Zealand worked great, just like the last time we traveled in this direction.
Waikiki Stopover
Waikiki reminded us a lot of Las Vegas. Lots of high-end retail stores, lots of people walking around. The beach is nice, though a bit crowded for our taste. It was a nice weekend but we wouldn’t want to spend longer than that here.
Oahu
Honestly, we were not that interested in Oahu. But since we had to fly through there on the way home, we arranged it so we could spend a day there. We enjoyed it more than we thought we would.