O’ahu: Still can’t forget the ridges of the mountains that are noticeable at every corner.

Look closely at the picture above. Do you see the ridges / bumps on the mountains? This is what you see wherever you go in O’ahu. Every time I saw them I wanted to run my hands through them. The mountains were just so calming. I wish there was a memento like a replica of the mountains I could have brought back…

Aloha!!! Subscribe to my channel on YouTube or follow me on Instagram and be on the lookout for videos about snorkeling, the Chief’s Luau, and tons of foodie moments.

And if you already follow me on Instagram, you have already experienced my countless stories and my attempts at providing daily vlogs of my trip to O’ahu. Here’s the full story with pictures and words.

Sidefact: I was talking to one of my friends about the symbol for Aloha and how it came to be. As all great facts come to be, this friend heard it from another friend who heard it from another and so on. So it turns out there was this farmer that lived on one of the islands of Hawai’i and every time people would drive past him he would wave (like we normally wave hello) and say ‘Aloha’. But as the result of an accident, when he waved only two of his fingers were lifted: the pinky and the thumb!!! A pretty neat story, but unfortunately it’s not true!

Before I get into the adventures my friend and I experienced in O’ahu, I want to share a copy of our itinerary. Now you all can use this for your own trip, or even comment your recommendations so others can read them too.

O’ahu Itinerary

I kept a daily log of everything we did during our vacation, so what you read here, hopefully, hopefully you can experience almost what we experienced. I did try to cut some details short, otherwise you’d end up reading a novel instead of a blog.

The Beginning

I took my flight in the morning from Seattle bright and early so I could to get to O’ahu in the afternoon. I flew in with Hawaiian Airlines. I had a choice to book United Airlines, but I wanted to get the full experience and experience the Hawaii’an shirts and leis before even getting there. All the commercials on the plane were about the different activities available on the various islands which was really hyping me up. As I was landing I could see mountains and beaches… Already the view was just blowing my mind 🤯!!!

I was hoping for a lei when I landed - but I had to pay extra if I wanted that special treatment! So I picked up the rental car and drove straight to the Pearl Harbor Museum. I did a bus tour to the USS memorials and Aviation Museum. I realized I had a few minutes before I had to pick up Ansu (my friend) so I stopped by McDonald’s for some water. For the record, I’m not complaining about the heat because honestly I loved every moment of it. I then went to a lagoon near the airport and caught the wind (really refreshing).

When we checked in to the hotel, we got a free upgrade to the highest floor and a beautiful balcony with both sunset and sunrise views!!! Also, we got welcomed with lei’s (finally…)! We couldn’t do much that we wanted to the first day, so we walked around Waikiki, caught the sunset there and went to Da Ono to get some authentic Hawaiian food.

Hiking and Beaches

I woke up pretty early because of the jet-lag and it felt great. It felt great because when I opened the balcony doors, I felt that warm breeze with a hint of cold air brushing through my skin. The kind of wind that gives you a hint of goosebumps but not too much that you want to crawl up back into bed. Anywayssss, it felt amazing to wake up. While we were driving to the sunrise spot, we were going back and forth on if we wanted to hike the mountain and watch it from there or from the beach. Ultimately we decided to watch it from the beach - early morning hike just didn’t make the cut. It still looked amazing from the beach though - the sun rose between the two mountains that are visible from Lanikai Beach.

If you are planning to watch sunrises, arrive 20-30 minutes before the sunrise time, so you can see the colors change in the sky (WORTH IT)!

We looked up the Lanikai pillbox and thought why not, let’s hike it… we’ve got time. So after watching the sunrise, we started a very small uphill hike. We stopped after the second peak since we were planning on coming back here later that week. On our way to Island Brew Coffee House, we decided to stop at McD’s and order O’ahu specials for breakfast. After breakfast and coffee, we conquered Koko Crater. While we were walking up these million stairs, locals would pass/run by us - uphill! What a morning workout!!! Looking back now it wasn’t that bad. I got to the top in 45 minutes, took a 30 minutes rest, and then another 30 minutes to come back down.

Next stop, China Walls. Definitely on the list next time we come back since we didn’t get to do any cliff jumping here. On our way to the next stop we did stop by some lookouts. OK, so time for a funny story… any locals reading this, please bear with us. We made our way to Sandy Beach and put on our swim suits. After that hike, getting in the water was a must. We ran for it, got in… and OMA… a wave came crashing in! I got pushed to the shore and as I tried to get up it crashed on to me again. Seriously, I’m sitting there thinking, how do I work these waves?! They were literally pushing us around everywhere. And the sand… soooo much sand on us! We got out of the water confused how people were doing it. We got in again for round 2 and from a distance we heard the lifeguard: “Please do not get in the water if you’re not an experienced body surfer. This is an intermediate beach!” I can’t tell you how embarrassed we were. We knew the lifeguard was talking to us. Ansu and I looked at each other, pretended everything was good, announced it was time to go and walked away.

Final stop of the day before dinner was Waimanalo Beach. If you want to find out what happened here, I dropped some hints on my instagram reel for Day 2 in O’ahu. The water color was so different and there were beautiful mountains in the background. Also way less waves and so much more relaxing (we eventually learned how to body surf). For dinner, we got Helena’s Hawaiian Food - and I would definitely recommend this place over Da Ono.

Snorkeling

Still a bit jetlagged, so woke up a tad early again today. We started getting ready for a day of snorkeling (my first time). With a coffee from McD’s we headed over to Ohana Rentals to get the snorkeling gear. And with our luck as we got there… Leonard’s Bakery had just opened. We HAD to get something from here. Even the basic flavors (as a tiny teaser) - WHOA! So good. We finally got the gear and the staff were very helpful in guiding us a bit regarding the bay.

Once we got to Hanauama Bay, the line was long. What we didn’t know was that we could register online for a certain time and come. There were some helpers there and they were able to get us in a bit earlier which was great. It was my first time snorkeling and I loved it, so many fish and reefs all in different shapes and colors.

We were really debating if we should hike Diamond Head with some spare time we had. In the end we decided not to and went to Foodland and got some fruits, spam sushi and poke!! They had a HUGE selection of raw fish for poke. We got ready for the Chief’s Luau - looking very glam! It was almost an hour drive because of rush hour traffic. Everything at the luau was on point - really a once in a lifetime experience. I will have to post a separate YouTube video of all the performances, but feeling the heat live is definitely better so try it out if you get the chance.

Kayak and Foodie Moments

Today, we went strayed from the plan a bit which is always okay especially since we had a large list of places to hit. We caught the sunrise from Sandy Beach Dunes. I would definitely recommend this place because it is quiet and has rocks everywhere. We went over to Sunrise Shack to get some smoothie bowls (another first for me). Honestly I could have this as breakfast all the time - it fuelled me for basically the whole day!

The next thing we wanted to do wasn’t available - but we quickly shuffled the itinerary around again and we were on our way to a nearby kayak rental shop. Ohana Rentals is owner-operated and the super nice staff provided us with a kayak to make it all the way to Kaneohe Sandbar. I have kayaked before and it’s an activity I find relaxing and enjoy. If you haven’t kayaked before, I would not recommend doing this on your own or with an inexperienced group. As we kayaked, there were so many big reefs right beneath us. The shop also provided us with snorkeling gear if we wanted to take a swim. We decided not to since we weren’t experienced with snorkeling and unsure of the safety protocols.

As we were getting near the sandbar we could see a strip of SAND (as per the name). Let me tell you… It was a vibe. There were other fancy boats there with music and tons of people. If you plan on doing this (or anything in Hawaii really), please please remember to wear lots of sunscreen. I was pretty much burned from the previous day of snorkeling and my shoulders were done after this day of kayaking.

We got back to shore around 1-2PM and I was exhausted - my body needed more fuel! And this is just one of many reasons I was excited to head over to GIOVANNI’S SHRIMP TRUCK. I was so hyped for this place - every Hawaii prep video I watched or blog I read said this was a must try.

I ordered the spicy garlic shrimp which got me a plate with 2 scoops of rice, garlic shrimp, spicy sauce on the side and a piece of lemon. I squeezed the lemon over my shrimp, and poured the spicy sauce all over my plate. Reading this you’re all think what a simple dish. But once I took that first bite, the butter and garlic along with the lemon and a hint of spicy sauce…my goodness it was just unbelievable! If we had timed it, it probably took us less than 5 minutes to finish our plates. For anyone who knows me, you know I take my sweet time eating food - at least 10 minutes for a slice of pizza. Although it was very tempting, we resisted getting another plate.

We drove near Waimea Valley and realized we needed to pay, but since it closed in an hour or so we decided to come back another day. While we were there, we drove to Matsumoto Shaved Ice and got the Ichiban Special (may as well go all out right?). It was vanilla flavoured ice cream with guava, red bean and mocha all in a waffle bowl. After that, we drove to Lanikai Beach and watched the beautiful sunset - made even prettier with the sound of the powerful waves crashing against the shore.

Bigger Hikes

We had a big big hike planned for today so we needed to fuel up the same way the locals do - a breakfast food called Loco Moco. The food was really good and also really heavy. That was a good thing for this hike but I don’t think I could eat it for breakfast every day. It could’ve also use a little more spice for my taste. Basically it’s rice, egg, and a burger patty with meat sauce on top of it all.

What we were attempting to do today was the one and only Haiku Stairs. We were attempting it the ‘legal’ way mean we had to start the trail from Managua Valley - which could total up to a hike around 17KM. We started the hike and it was amazing, a lot of flat trails at the beginning and very tropical. I enjoy these types of hikes because I know the end view is going to be the most amazing reward. Ansu wasn’t really feeling it since the views at the beginning were the same, so I don’t blame her. We walked around 3.5 KM one way and decided to turn around.

It was lunch time, meaning the perfect time to try some Ono Seafood for poke. Honestly so much better than Foodland. I would not even recommend getting Foodland poke after trying a legit poke spot. It was pretty pricey but definitely worth it. Also, we were right next to the legit Leonard’s spot so obviously had to get that too. We got haupia, guava, pineapple, macadamia, custard, sugar and salt. I wouldn’t get the sugar and salt, guava is probably my favorite fruit, and macadamia was a bit too sweet.

We drove to Ma’ili pillbox, but we were unsure where the hike started from. Pro tip: If you see a pink smoothie truck that’s the start of the hike. There are a bunch of rocks and tree branches along this hike. And it’s all uphill. Koko crater was all uphill, but with stairs. Personally I preferred this hike more since I’m not a huge fan of stairs. The hike was 30 minutes to get to the top and the view from there was just breathtaking. Yes there is a pink pillbox - hence the nickname. The wind at the top is so powerful, definitely refreshing after having climbed uphill in the heat. Once we made it down, we got a really expensive smoothie from Pinklicious. Sorry, we just could not believe a fruit smoothie was around $12-$14… Still delicious though.

We quickly got on the road and made our way over to Manoa Falls. I’m not weird but let me tell you the rainforest smell was amazing and I loved hearing the birds behind the trees. In a way it reminded me of Kerala so much. It’s hard to express with words but my heart felt so warm and connected to my motherland during this hike - loved every second of it. We went off the trail a bit to explore and found a lot more views. There were no fireworks at Waikiki Beach, so we did what everyone else does on a Friday night 😉… Sorry no pictures!

All About The Views

Late night meant late morning so we watched the sunrise from our balcony. Today was mainly a rest day and driving around to take in the sights. I got a Kono coffee from Island Vintage Coffee. We got to Aloha Stadium Swap Meet - essentially a flea market. We had some chilled mango which wasn’t exactly like the Kerala version I was expecting. Then we went to Nu’uanu Pali Lookout and experienced breathtaking views again.

Still tired at this point, we drove over to Byodo-In-Temple. There were so many koi in the koi pond I might even say there were too many! We walked around the temple and came back to the car and did exactly what you’d expect - took a power nap. I did say it was a slow day.

After that we drove over to the east side to do a quick hike at Mauuppu Lighthouse. The whole trail was paved and we got another view of the beach and islands. Unfortunately we didn’t see any whales while we were hiking so we ended our day by resting at Waimanalo Beach.

More and More Hikes

We woke up early determined to do a sunrise hike. We completed the Lanikai Pillbox hike, watched the sunrise and walked further than the pillbox point. As I said at the beginning, we were obsessed with the mountains - especially the ones with the ridges. So when we saw an opportunity to continue the hike, we did.

We drove to the famous botanical garden and found thottavadi. Prominent in Kerala, this plant (also known as a shameplant) folds up when you touch it. I’ve never looked up the actual reason, but I’ll leave that to the botanists in the family.

Next stop was the Dole plantation because I love pineapples. We walked around and took it slow. Like I said before we did end up coming back to Waimea Valley - and sure the hike to the falls was nice but I wouldn’t recommend paying the entrance fee. We thought we would see some nice waterfalls and be able to rope jump, but alas disappointment ensued.

To end off our day we watched the sunset from one of the north shore beaches.

Full But Final Day

The day I was dreading had come but I knew it would sooner or later - we had to leave today! Not ready to go just yet and determined to squeeze every last drop out of the vacation, we started the day with the Kuilouou Ridge Trail (around 8-9KM). Once we got to the top, it felt like we were even closer to the mountains and ridges - not close enough that I could touch them though. Then we went over to Kuala Ranch and did a bus tour. We stopped at Poi Factory and got fresh ice cream, poi, pork and rice. And as a beautiful end to the vacation, Ansu made a reservation at Skybox so that we could watch the sunset and have a final drink.

Overall, I absolutely LOVED my time in Hawaii (made even better spending it with a friend) and I would come back again in a heartbeat. Maybe I’d even live here…

A hui hou, O’ahu!