Nov 27, 2023 5 min read Travel

Honolulu Hawaii

View from Makapuu hike

My husband and I had a few days in Honolulu as a stop over on our way to Australia. We were only in town a short amount of time, but we were able to see quite a bit. The weather wasn't the best, but we didn't let that stop us from having a good time.

Our friend, who has family on the island, was also in town so it was great to have someone more local take us around. It was also great to have a friend to hang out with on the island. This was the perfect little stop over before the 11 more hours on a plane to Australia, we'll be adding this layover in future trips.

Day One

Sights: Dole Pineapple Plantation, KoHana Rum Distillery, Pearl Harbor

It was a pretty rainy day the first day we were in Hawaii. To start the day we went on a stroll to see the ocean and then grabbed some breakfast. We planned to hike diamond head crater, but unfortunately you need a ticket and none were available until the late afternoon.

We decided instead to drive up to the north shore and stop at a few places along the way. First up we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. There is a train you can take around the plantation, a garden and a shop. It was pretty crowded when we went so we just stopped by the shop for some treats. There were all different types of tropical candies.

We also got soft serve pineapple ice cream with a little pineapple topper. It was so tasty!

After we had our pineapple fill we continued to the north shore. Since it was a rainy day the waves were going crazy out in the ocean. We just drove by and watched the waves a little before trying to go on a hike. There is a waterfall hike at Waimea Valley Botanic Gardens which we were going to hike but it cost $25 per person to get in. Instead we just walked around the little area before the paid section and found a really pretty huge tree.

At this point we had given up on finding a hike day one so we headed to the KoHana rum distillery. We had rum flight which included a very tasty chocolate rum paired with honey.

Once our belly's were nice and warm we headed to Zippys to get some fried chicken and spam for lunch. After lunch we headed to Pearl Harbor to go walk off a bit of lunch. A lot of Pearl Harbor is free so we wandered around a few museums and the monuments for a few hours. If you paid for a few of the additional museums you could easily spend half a day here.

Next stop was to go to a few local breweries. First up was Honolulu Beerworks. They had all sorts of tasty beers and a cold hop white tea that was really refreshing. There was live music and really tasty looking food.

The final stop of the night was at a brand new brewery just around the block from Honolulu Beerworks called Howzit Brewery. We tried a few beers then called it a night.

Day Two

Sights: Makapuu hike, Honolulu Cookie Company, Waikiki Beach

We woke up and headed down to the beach, it was a beautiful sunny day! This was the first of many rainbows.

After soaking up the views we went on the Makapuu hike which brings you up to a lighthouse. It was on a paved path and 2.5 mile round trip. The views of the ocean were so pretty up here.

After the hike we headed back into Waikiki to get some lunch and treats before heading out to do some surfing. We stopped by the Honolulu Cookie Company for some tasty macadamia short bread cookies. You can mix and match flavors in different size boxes or you can buy prepackaged cookie assortments. After getting some cookies we got lunch where my husband sampled a variety of spam musubi.

We then headed to Waikiki beach to rent surfboards (tip: look to rent boards off the beach it is half the price if you go just down the block). We left our phones at the hotel so didn't get any good photos but we both had lots of fun. I taught my husband how to surf and he was able to catch a few waves. I caught a few waves myself and was happy I still remembered how to do it, it had been about 8 years since I had surfed. After 2 hours of surfing our arms and backs were so tired. It really is a whole lot of upper body strength!

We cleaned up from the beach we went to walk around the shops to see a few Christmas decorations. Before heading out for a very tasty Japanese restaurant for dinner called Izakaya Nonbei.