"Oahu - Gateway to Paradise" Oahu by M0B1US

O'ahu is traditionally the gateway to the Hawai'ian Islands, and this was the case when we visited, flying into Honolulu before flying on to Maui and the Big Island, before returning back for a few days...

O'ahu is home to Honolulu, the Capital of Hawai’i and three quarters of its population, O'ahu is the most developed of the Hawai’ian Islands and is most famous for the brash and glitzy Waikiki with it’s high rise hotels and world famous strip of sandy beach.

Chances are you will 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 Hawai’ian cultures in a tropical melting pot. Fear not, for 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 include the Iolani Palace (the only Royal Palace on US soil) as featured in ‘Hawai’i 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), a little to the east of Honolulu itself 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.

Dole Plantation

Cheap eats can be had in Chinatown, which has a raft of cheap, high quality Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants. Also the food courts at the Ala Moana Shopping Centre and International Market are good value and allow you to sample local Hawai’ian cuisine. The incredibly numerous ABC convenience stores (aka: ‘All Blocks Covered’) are handy for stocking up on things like bottles of water and snacks etc 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 or if you’re planning on snorkelling throughout your holiday, the best way is to hire it from Snorkel Bob’s at 700 Kapahulu Ave for next to nothing.

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

Last of all… “Hang Loose!”

Torpedoes Away!

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 at 848-5555 http://www.thebus.org/). 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 frankly 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 recon places you might want to spend more time at later on.

Finally, a word of caution: although this is Hawai’i, avoid the rough downtown area of Honolulu after dark, as somewhat surprisingly, even in paradise there is drug and gang activity.

• In a nutshell:Melting pot of US and Polynesian culture