Hello there! Hailey here, writing to fill you in on all the details of our most recent trip to the Aloha State! This blog is a bit overdue, since we traveled in May and I’m writing this in July, just after we returned home from another trip, this time to Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort and Walt Disney World. Keep an eye out for that blog, coming soon!

So, back to Hawaii then! This trip was a graduation celebration for both me and my cousin, since I graduated from college this year and she graduated last year, as well as a trip in honor of my grandpa who passed away last year. The travel crew this time around included the usual suspects: my mom, dad, and me, plus some exciting extras: my grandma, aunt, two cousins, and my boyfriend. Everyone except my boyfriend had been to Hawaii before, so this was a fun first for him! The theme for this trip was exploring and experiencing new things on Oahu. In our previous trips here, we mostly spent our time hanging out at the resort, and didn’t get to see all of the things this beautiful island has to offer. Safe to say that we fixed that this time around!

Two long flights and eight sore butts later, we arrived in Honolulu. At the airport, we picked up our two rental vans and started the drive to Ko Olina and our home away from home, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa. But, before we could check in to the resort, we had planned a scenic railroad ride with the Hawaiian Railway Society, which operates the only active historical railway on the island of Oahu. This was such a great way to get to experience the beauty of the island, and we even got to ride on the railroad tracks that run just in front of Aulani, making for some great pictures of the resort as well!

Being a group of 8 who didn’t want to be piled on top of each other for a week (bringing a whole new and unpleasant meaning to family togetherness!), we decided to split into two rooms for this vacation. The room that my parents, boyfriend, and I shared was a two bedroom villa with the island gardens view. The room that my grandma, aunt, and two cousins shared was a two bedroom villa with the ocean view. Both views were spectacular!

The next day was our first pool day. We spent the day enjoying the lazy river, the beach, the waterslides, and the amazing infinity pool! I think everyone’s favorite was the lazy river, we all spent the most time in there! We also had rented a Ka Maka Cabana for the day, which holds up to 12 guests. These cabanas come with some very helpful amenities, such as a refrigerator, a ceiling fan, a TV, complimentary bottled water, and our own comfortable exclusive seating area. Some great snacks are included as well, a fruit platter, naan bread and hummus platter, and a dessert platter. The hummus platter was my favorite, so delicious! You also have a host who checks up on you throughout the day, brings you these platters, takes other food orders, and brings you anything else you might need. My family loves the acai bowls and shave ice that they serve here. We all have our own personal preference when it comes to shave ice flavors (and we all argue about who has the best combo), and my favorites are li hing mui, green tea, and haupia (coconut).

While the rest of the fam stayed behind at the resort, my boyfriend and I ventured off on our own to try a new restaurant! We decided beforehand that we wanted to try some new places that my family had never eaten at before. My family has a lot of picky eaters to please, if you know what I mean! The two restaurants the BF and I chose were just a quick walk away from the resort. First, we tried the Monkeypod Kitchen restaurant. We loved the atmosphere and the food was great! We ever saw a rooster hanging out in a tree, which made for some great laughs. Our favorite part of this meal was the dessert, which was a seasonal mango cream pie. The thinly sliced mango was so delicious and this pie will live rent free in our heads for many years to come. Later in the trip we also tried the 808 Craft House restaurant, which was another lovely dinner! I think the dessert was my favorite part again, which was a delicious creme brulee. Overall, two great date nights!

Next up was a day exploring the island! We drove out to Kualoa Ranch, which is a huge nature preserve on the island that has been used as a filming location for many popular movies and TV series. Kualoa Ranch was featured in films like Jurassic Park, Godzilla, and 50 First Dates. The TV series Lost is perhaps one of the most notable uses of Kualoa Ranch as a film location in a TV series. We took the Movie Sites & Ranch Tour here, which included a ride around the ranch to see popular film locations and props/sets, as well as an old repurposed World War II bunker. The ranch still has several interesting remnants of film sets that you can spot, including Godzilla’s footprints in their cow fields (which had to be made shallower since the cows were falling in the footprints and couldn’t get back out), the fallen tree that the characters from Jurassic Park hide behind while being chased by the herd of dinosaurs and T-Rex, a field of bones from Kong Skull Island, and the road that Lucy takes every day in 50 First Dates.

Our experience here also included a lunch buffet and an ocean voyage. The day that we visited Kualoa turned into a rainy one, which did not make for smooth waters on the ocean voyage part of our tour. I’m not a fan of small boats and choppy waters (thanks, motion sickness!), so I did not particularly enjoy that part of our experience here. But, that’s ok, because I absolutely loved the first half!

After we left the ranch, we had planned stops at several different beaches around the island. The beaches we ended up stopping at were so stunning. The beautiful blue water, the mountains meeting the sea… just so amazing! We also saw lots of people kitesurfing at one of the beaches, which was so impressive and so scary at the same time. Super fun to watch, but I’ll leave the kitesurfing to the experts! We also stopped at just about every overlook that we passed, which made for some breathtaking views and insane pictures! We were starting to run late for our dinner reservation at the Hard Rock Cafe in Honolulu after making all of these stops, so we had to cut some stops short.

The following day was our visit to Pearl Harbor, to see the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. After that, we headed over to the Ala Moana Center, which is the world’s largest open air shopping center. We had some lunch there, but didn’t end up hanging out there too long. So, we made our way to the northern part of the island to experience the Toa Lu’au at Waimea Valley. This was our first time experiencing this lu’au, and we all really enjoyed it! It was a very informative and immersive experience, the performance itself showcased different styles of dance that have originated from each island. There were some performances that involved fire dancing, done by some insanely talented people! Before the performance, there were interactive cultural demonstrations showing how to remove the husk from coconuts and peel taro roots, as well as a weaving activity. One of the performers also demonstrated how to climb up a coconut tree, better him than me!

On our final day, we had planned to visit Waimea Valley and the North Shore of the island again to visit the Waimea Valley waterfall as well as a few more beaches. But, we all decided that we wanted to have one last pool day before we left, so we changed up our plan and ended up spending the day at the resort instead. Oh well, that just gives us one more reason to go back to Oahu in the future!

For this pool day, we rented a different type of cabana to try out, which was a Makua Cabana. These cabanas are located at the adult only pool. Similar to the Ka Maka Cabanas, these cabanas also have an private seating area for your family, a TV, a ceiling fan, refrigerator, and cabana host. But the only included treat that you get in this type of cabana is the fruit platter, as well as the complimentary bottled water. Overall, both cabanas were lovely and both had their own benefits.

After this last fun pool day, it was time to make our way back to the airport. On our ride back, we saw a perfect, whole double rainbow! Such a lovely parting gift from the island of Oahu! All eight of us are already dreaming of our next visit to the Aloha State.

Until next time!

Hailey