Terron and I selected Hawaii to honeymoon! It was the best decision ever! We opted to travel in July although we were married three months prior. This worked for our work schedules as Educators. We had never visited Hawaii before and were excited to take this trip together.
PACKING
You definitely want to make sure you use a packing checklist to help you prepare to travel to Hawaii. My friends over at The Sweet Escapes created an amazing packing list. Take a look.
Visit their website: https://www.thesweetestescapes.com/blog/hawaii-packing-checklist
I wanted to share some essentials to pack as you prepare for your trip to Hawaii!
Hawaii During The Pandemic
There was a lot to plan to travel to Hawaii during the pandemic. Thankfully Hawaii has a Safe Travels website that highlights and provides information on how to safely travel to Hawaii. If you visit the Safe Travels website you can create a user name and password for each traveler. You will need this to upload any required travel documents. For Terron and I we need to take a COVID-19 test with negative results and upload them 24 hours prior to traveling.
Planning Tools
Since we never traveled to Hawaii, we wanted to get educated. We found some locals on Youtube who we felt did a great job highlighting each of the islands. The Hawaii Vacation Guide was a jewel for us! We watched a video highlighting which island we should visit that is published on their YouTube channel. We were hooked from there. Take a look:
After watching that video, Terron and I began watching different videos about each island. Using their advice, we chose Oahu and to specifically target Waikiki for a number of reasons. Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor, and North Shore surfing make Oahu the most visited Hawaiian island. While many scoff at the crowds and traffic, most cannot resist visiting this island paradise for the nightlife, history, and beaches. Click here to see the official page on The Hawaii Vacation Guide for Oahu.
The Hawaii Vacation Guide has a website full of itineraries they created for each island. There is literally a list of things to do for the island you select, for each day! It is so organized and user friendly. We purchased an itinerary from their website and were able to download it to prepare for our trip.
Click here to explore the Island Guide options by The Hawaii Vacation Guide.
Transportation
When we arrived, locals shared helpful information with Terron and I. We learned that Hawaii had inflated prices for Uber’s and Lyft’s due to the pandemic. We were advised to explore public transportation because of the affordable price point. Each day, we purchased an all day pass to ride the public transportation for $5 per person per day. We purchased a reloadable card to help us with this. We were not permitted to enter any buildings or public transportation without a mask on. That made us feel so comfortable. Using public transportation, we visited Pearl Harbor, The North Shore, The Dole Plantation, and many other places.
Night Life
The night life was busy and entertaining near Waikiki Beach. There were a mixture of restaurants we were familiar with and some local restaurants near Waikiki Beach. The wait times were super long. I would highly advise making reservations well in advance to avoid longer than usual wait times.
The Most Beautiful Beach
Terron and I visited one of the most beautiful beaches in the world! Lanakai Beach. Lanikai Beach or Kaʻōhao Beach is located in Kaʻōhao, a community in the town of Kailua and on the windward coast of Oahu, Hawaii. The water was the most beautiful water I have every seen! It was hot! Thankfully our hotel, like many other Waikiki hotels provided free beach umbrellas, beach chairs, and beach towels.
Saying Goodbye to Hawaii
As you can probably imagine, it was hard to say good bye to such a beautiful place. However, we know for sure, we will return back to Hawaii with our entire family in the future.
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