sunset in waikiki

It is hard to forget the friendly smiles in this island and the gorgeous sunset at Waikiki. The scenes are still vivid in my mind and I find myself missing Honolulu. Though many have this perception that it’s a commercialized city with lots of branded shopping and high rise condos, I look beyond these and appreciate the ‘hang loose’ spirit and laid back pace. To me, Honolulu has a nice mix of city life and natural beauty. The weather is lovely at most times of the year and you don’t need to go too far to escape from the bustle of the city. This is a gourmet haven where food is concerned. The Hawaiians are exotic in their cooking and tropical ingredients can be easily spotted in their cuisine. Hubby can’t have enough of Eggs n Things and I guess he would need to bring along his hoodia pills the next time we head this way again.

Honolulu… what a lovely city you are…

sunset in waikiki

This morning, I woke reminiscing the excellent moments we had during our last family vacation to Hawaii. Six months had passed and every time we ran through the videos with our preschooler, I would be reminded of the golden sunsets at Waikiki and the superb ocean views from our room. This must be one of our best vacations! Though my other half still complain and nag every now and then about my shopping indulgence and splurge, I know he had a lovely time himself too. He went for surfing lessons for the first time while I spent some quality time with my boy in DFS Galleria Waikiki and the Ala Moana mall – that was nice!

views of our room

One of the fun things we did was the cruise with NCL. That being our first time was memorable and exciting. The seven days cruise in the Hawaiian waters gave us the opportunity to savour the beauty of Maui, Kauai, Big Island – not the best way to enjoy the islands but good enough for first timers. Of all the islands, we love the relaxed ambience of Kauai and Kona. We thoroughly enjoyed our first cruising experience especially in the evenings when our boy was deposited at Kids Club! The youth carers did a great job in keeping him entertained while we had a no-rush dinners in a different specialty restaurant every night. That was a real treat for us – after all these years of eating cold meals

Being a strong supporter of online accommodations, all our hotels during our 2 weeks visit to Hawaii were done online. With the convenience of online hotel comparison sites like Hotels Combined and a few others, you can check out the best deals within your travel budget by comparing the hotels of your destination all at one go. Not only can you check out the best deals among the various accommodation sites but you can even book the hotels with instant confirmation.

With miles of sandy-white beaches and emerald-green waters, it’s a place enjoyed by people of all ages. But unlike the other 49 states of America, Hawaii isn’t just one solid mass of land that can be explored through driving; it’s a chain of islands that represent the entire state. Best of all, you don’t need to be Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Lopez to enjoy this lovely island. Hawaii is a friendly and affordable place to travel to. So go ahead, pack your Johnston and Murphy and plan your vacation!

Below, you’ll find few ideas to help you decide on where to go for your vacation.

1. Hawaii resort
You can choose to put your frequent flier miles to good use and take a beach vacation on the island of Hawaii. Here, you can relax on the beach, swim in the ocean, play golf, and even indulge in one of the many innovative spa treatments. Hawaii enjoys some of the best weather in the world – making it a great choice for your beach vacation.

2. Golf and Beach in Georgia
Popular among the East Coast, the Cloister at Sea Island in Georgia offers you 54 holes of championship golf, sandy beaches, and a wide array of things for you to do. A great chance to whip out your Cobra golf clubs and driver.

3. Oahu beach vacation
At the Kahala Mandarin Oriental you can expect to be pampered like never before. You can visit the spa, take scuba diving classes, or choose to swim it up with the dolphins. The resort is conveniently located 15 minutes away from Honolulu and Waikiki Beach.

I made it a point to book a beachfront room since we are visitors from afar. Besides the Hilton Hawaiian Village, we stayed one night at the Marriott Waikiki which was a great place for anyone who liked to be near the crowd. The lagoon in front of the hotel was nice for children and it was nice just to float in the shallow waters. The beachfront room we chose was very spacious with a comfortable bedding and a million dollar view. I like the luxurious bathroom area – Grohe faucets, marble flooring and a nice bathtub. The balcony is a great place to watch those golden sunsets and a conducive area to sip your morning coffee.

So if you have a little budget to spend in your Waikiki vacation, check out these two hotels.

I believe a nice hotel team makes me feel that the rates I paid for is worth the while. Most importantly, it helps to determine if I will be back again.

The nice thing about traveling is that I get to shop for unique gemstone jewelry whenever I find the opportunity. When we were in Oahu, we took a drive to the North Shore and I found this beautiful Mother of Pearl pendant crafted by a local artist. Without any hesitation, I bought the lovely piece to remind myself of this beautiful island.

Our cruise to Maui, The Big Island and Kauai took us to quaint villages where I found local jewelry stores that specialized in sea pearls and original craft. Since I wasn’t a big fan of pearls, I had to give Maui Divers a miss but I had to admit that some of the Tahitian Pearl and coral jewelry found in Hawaii were the loveliest especially the Chocolate pearls.

If you ask me, I think Hawaii is a great place not just to visit, relax, dine and play but it’s a nice place to do some nice handmade products. So if you ever travel to this sunshine state, don’t forget to allocate some space for a real shopping spree!

Of all the ports of call, I enjoyed Kona and Maui though Kauai was nice too. Hilo was abit gloomy that day and we didn’t catch any rainbows at the falls. Kona is a nice village to walk around and spend a lazy afternoon with lots of surf shops ready to entice the ardent shoppers.

Here are some of the photos taken in the cruise ship and various ports of call… you can see that our little three year old was having a real good time!

I have to say that the cruise on the Pride of America has been an amazing one. Being a freestyle cruising experience, we are allowed to dine whenever and whatever style we like and this is great for families with children. Besides, this cruise has the most ports of calls and that allows us to experience the various islands within a short time. Only thing is I should have bought myself a pocket watch so that I can manage my time zones more effectively.

We have one more night in Waikiki and we head to Los Angeles for Christmas. It hasn’t been easy updating this blog as often as I want to though… wishing all a Merry Christmas!

It has been an amazing week in Waikiki – lovely sunshine, clear skies, beautiful weather… we had so much fun. We rented a car and drove Oahu island, explored our way in Hanauma Bay Reserve on the first day, then to Kailua and the North Shore on the second.

Kailua is known as the Windward side of Oahu and it truly is! It is, however, a quaint little town with so much charm -less crowd, lots of space, miles of beaches and calm waters. We found a nice spot where we could sit down and be swept by the gentle waves… this could be Clayton’s favourite beach too!

It was good that we had all our cables for our digital camera and videocam for this trip. We took so many photos and videos. We were initially looking out for sophisticated connections like HDMI splitters but it turned out that we didn’t need them.

We also drove to the North Shore, the place known for surfing competitions and big waves but there wasn’t any that day. Though we only had the car for two days in Oahu but we had a fantastic time.

I don’t know why naysayers keep saying that there is nothing much to do in Honolulu but seriously, I’ll come back anytime again just to witness these lovely sunsets and moments…