Another thing to consider is you don't want to be stopping at numerous tourist venues with a trunk full of suitcases in a rental car. A suggestion would be to arrange for a late check-out (if possible), do as much as you can and come back to pick up your luggage. That would only leave a very few hours with luggage in the trunk.

If it was me I'd spend the extra $75 bucks or so to use taxis instead of a rental, storing my bags at the hotel. And I would stay at http://www.honoluluairporthotel.com/, $125 on AAA or AARP rate, for the convenience.

But that's me. On a short-time situation such as this, I value time way above savings of a hundred-ish $.

Second the motion about hiking up Diamond Head first. When the cabbie gets you to Diamond Head, I would ask him/her to come back in two-and-a-half hours to get you. The I'd ask the cabbie to drive me slowly through the Punch Bowl cemetary on the way back to Pearl. I also would have looked up the Punch Bowl and Diamond Head on www in advance, to make the experience more complete and efficient.

In any case, simplicity of Diamond Head and Pearl being the foci is good.

Entertainment Book Coupons
 

Tried to e-mail you privately but unable to contact you. I would be interested in some of your left over coupons from Hawaii. Please contact me at [email protected]

Thank you

Depending on your sleep patterns, you may want to get to Hanauma Bay early. We went the day after we arrive from the East Coast, so we were up at 4:30 in the morning. We were there as it opened (5:30 or 6a) and counted about 14 other people in the entire bay. When we left at about 11 the beach was getting crowded and the line at the entrance was out door, up the sidewalk, around the corner, down the parking lot, and around the corner. We couldn't see the end of it.

Being there alone made for a great few hours.

The next day we made it to Pearl Harbor just as the gates were opening. The line was wrapped around in a spiral in the grass front area - 90 minutes to get tickets for a 12:30 admission. By the time we got to the front, the line was about 1/4 as long, so everyone seems to have the "get there early" mentality. We probably could have arrived at 9, waited 20 minutes, and had tickets for a 2p admission.

Maybe Hanauma Bay first thing, over to Pearl at 11 or so, and check out the Bowfin and Missouri while waiting for the Arizona trip.

8 hr layerover at Honolulu Intl Airport-what to do?
 

On Friday July 14, we will be arriving from Maui at 2:30 PM, and leaving on Air Canada (to Vancouver) at 10:30 PM. Besides checking our luggage and getting boarding passes at the AC check-in counter, and perhaps using lounge access (we are Star Alliance Gold members, flying business class), what activities can we (2 adults and our 10 yr daughter) partake in, without renting a car?

Without renting a car, for 8 hours, you can certainly take the bus somehwere, say to Waikiki. Or, perhaps even take a cab to Pearl Harbor. But, I need a little more direction to answer this question. What is it exactly that you're looking to do? Did you want to see some of the sights, or perhaps grab a bite to eat?

Are you checking your baggage through from Maui? If not, will AC let you check luggage more than 4 hours before your flight?

Either sites, or shopping.

17 hour overnight
 

I will arrive in the evening 530pm and leave 1030am the next morning.

a little jet-lagged, i have two options
1) rent a car check into a hotel and wake up early for the sunrise.
2) skip sleeping (as i would be travelling Biz and a long flight afterward), drive around, find some place to kill time (a club?) 11pm-3am(?) then go see the sunrise and return to airport around 830am.

would you recommend 2? if so, what to do between 11pm and 5am?
(i suppose it is pretty safe at night in oahu?)

thanks very much.

Relatively safe compared to other cities, but you should still keep your guard up and don't visit places that might seem "sketchy."

I'd go with #2. There are a lot of great clubs around town that you could take advantage of. And, you could also have a nice meal at one of the many 24 hour restaurants around town. There's a thread on this forum with more info of restaurants open 24 hours.

Thanks very much.

where would I find them? Are there some specific places you would recommend?

(I seem to have problem with the search function)

Try a few of these articles:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar...605120306.html
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar.../il/il01a.html

Tips to schedule a long layover?
 

A related question... I think. :) (This thread is pretty long to read through every post!)

We are going to Hawaii this summer, with a week in Kona and a week on Kauai. I'm a bit diappointed to go to Hawaii for 2 weeks and not get to see Pearl Harbor. Then I noticed most flights from Kona to Kauai go through Honolulu, and I thought perhaps we could schedule a 6-8 hour layover and go see Pearl Harbor.

The thing is, most travel sites (including Aloha's site) don't let you select individual legs. Any tips on how I can do this?

Also, since we'll be staying on the same airline and not claiming any bags, I'm thinking 8 hours should be enough time?

Thanks,
Marc

Aloha Marc. I don't understand what you mean by this? You could book each leg separately or book a "Multi-City" ticket and open-jaw between cities. Let me know if this solves the problem.

Also 6-8 hours might or might not be good, depending on when you actually go. There are some great threads about Pearl Harbor on this forum. But, basically, going early is best.

Thanks, I guess I wasn't thinking of this as a "multi-city" flight, just a KOA-LIH flight with a long layover. :) Multi-city lets me pick the legs I want but (as I feared) the fare is a little higher -- an open-jaw flight is $78 while the one-way (via HNL) flight is $73.30. But I guess that's the price to pay for flexibility in the schedule.

One other concern, though... would we be able to check our bags through to LIH, or would we have to claim them and re-check them? Can you even check your bags in that early?

I found flights that would put us in HNL at 9am and leaving again at 7pm, which should give us plenty of time for sightseeing. I'll check with my dad, who went to Pearl Harbor about a year ago, on how much time we need to allow.

Would it be safe to assume that weekends are actually less busy at Pearl Harbor than weekdays, since most tourists are travelling on Sat. and Sun.? (Please excuse the off-topic question.)