What to Do on Oahu {Part 3!}

It’s the third and final part to my mini travel series on our favorite highlights from our recent trip to Oahu!  If you’ve missed parts one and two, click here and here.  On Friday, I’ll be sharing all about where we stayed and why I highly recommend it!  But, for now, the list continues!

12.  Shop the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet.  This was another must-see that several people had recommended to us for our trip, and it turned out to be a lot of fun and the perfect place to buy some souvenirs.  This is held every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday around the perimeter of the Aloha Stadium, and is full of vendors selling everything from kukui nut leis to shell chandeliers.  And it was true that most of the same souvenir items we were seeing around the island  were sold for the best prices here.  Bring water and plan to stay a couple hours at least if you plan to see all the booths!

13.  Spend some time at Pearl Harbor.  This was definitely at the top of our agenda when we first started planning our trip.  It’s such a moving memorial and site of historical significance that we knew we wanted to see it.  It really is so amazing to think of all the lives lost there, and especially humbling to think of how many soldiers’ bodies are still entombed under the water on the U.S.S. Arizona.  The grounds and the museums are very nicely designed and it’s worth the extra cost to take the audio headset tour–both interesting and educational for both kids and adults.  Make reservations in advance to avoid long lines.

14.  Stop in at the historic Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  On Waikiki Beach, there’s a beautiful pink hotel that’s been a hotspot for tourists since it opened in 1927.  It’s absolutely gorgeous in architectural style and in a dreamy location.  The signature pink beach umbrellas dot the gorgeous ocean view with a glimpse of Diamond Head in the distance!  There is a cute bakery in the lobby, gift shops, and some restaurants as well as a luau if you’d like to plan a longer stay here.  Or, of course, check in if you want to stay in a hoppin’ place.  We just took a tour for a few minutes to take it all in and it was fabulous!

15.  Shop in the beautiful Ala Moana Center.  This is a shopper’s Hawaiian paradise in Honolulu, with over 300 of the best stores and restaurants in a gorgeous open-air type mall.  We didn’t visit here until our very last day en route to the airport, and that’s probably a good thing!  If you love shopping, this is a must-see for you!

16.  Take a drive to Kailua.  The drive across the island to Kailua through the mountains was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on!  I’ve lived near the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee all my life, but these were different with the views of the ocean right beside them and rainbows overhead!  And the town of Kailua was super cute with gorgeous beaches as well.

We drove around the beach side in the beautiful residential areas and pulled off a couple times at beach walks to take in all at the fabulous views!  One of my Instagram friends recommended Lanikai beach as her favorite, and it was breathtaking!

The shops in Kailua are so adorable, too!

For dinner, we headed back to the beach to eat at Buzz’s Steakhouse, which was so cute and charming and has been there for years, apparently!  We even got a table on the porch overlooking the beach.  It was the perfect spot for our last night on the island!

And that pretty much wraps up my list of our favorite things to do, with the exception of relaxation, which we did a lot of back at our resort!  All about where we stayed and why we loved it so much is coming up on Friday, and I’d love for you to stop by and check it out if you are ever thinking of visiting Oahu!  I hope you’ve enjoyed re-living this trip with me.  I’m loving it all over again!