As this was our first time in Waikiki, we had only movies and TV shows to guide our expectations.



Shopping
Wow - there is lots of shopping here. The Ala Moana center - which we only drove by - is being extended to make it the largest outdoor mall in the world. Right now, it’s only number two!

In Waikiki itself there are number of high-end boutique shops in various small malls and on the streets. The streets feel like a very nice mall, but with traffic to avoid as well as other pedestrians.

Anyone want a Ferrari?


There are trolleys all over this part of town. One of them runs the shopping loop, taking about an hour to get you to all the best shopping in the area. With a day pass, you could easily shop everywhere in town and spend the whole day doing it.

There are also a number of chain restaurants - PF Changs, the Cheesecake Factory (always has a line), California Pizza Kitchen - as well as a number of local brands - the Honolulu Cookie Company stores are everywhere. You will not go hungry in Waikiki. We found prices to be reasonable for the food and location, with Roys being the standout in both quality and value for money (although it’s not cheap, our best meal was probably at Roys)

One fly in the ointment is the small number of persistent time-share sales people on the street. They try to start a conversation with you - where are your from? - And then move in to offer you something to go to their full sales pitch. And then they look like sad puppies when you say no and keep walking. Just don’t engage with them is the best advice. They can be persistent.

Other Tourists
Waikiki is very busy. We were not visiting during the peak season, but even so there are a lot of tourists here. Many of the tourists are from Japan, and there is an amount of infrastructure to support them. We saw one travel tour shop that had not a single sign in english - and the place was packed with Japanese tourists booking tours. There are also a number of Japanese specific trolleys, with the signage and commentary only in that language.

Waikiki Sunset Crowd


Honolulu Traffic
One of the things people tell you about Honolulu is that the traffic is absolutely terrible. Indeed, there is a lot of traffic, but not more than any other big city. Sure, this isn’t the pastoral farmland of the big island, but if you’ve been to a city, you know what to expect. We had one cab driver apologize for the traffic, but there was only a single traffic light that we didn’t make it through on the first green on that trip. We did have some bad traffic out near Pearl City, but they’d closed half the freeway for roadworks, so that’s about what you’d expect.

Overall
I am now a big fan of Waikiki, Honolulu and Oahu. Waikiki in particular was a place I thought I might hate, or at least not enjoy as much, but it does have a touristy charm that I kind of like.