Travel Guide: Honeymoon In Oahu!
oahu, hawaii
Something you probably don't know about our honeymoon is that we ended up having to change it the week before our wedding.. crazy right?! We had a full honeymoon booked in the Dominican Republic at the same pace my brother and his wife just went on their honeymoon. Up until like three days before the wedding when Zika virus was going crazy in the DR and we were advised by all of the travel sites to try and get refunds and plan alternative trips. It was pretty crazy especially being just a few days before out wedding, but everything really fell into place and we could not imagine this trip being any different. We decided not to stress about it and to just know that no matter where we went we would be together & that was all that mattered! Oahu ended up being perfect. It was an adventure, our first together, full of sunshine, beaches, amazing food, and exploring the island via Jeep. Alooooha!
Here is a recap of some of our favorite places on Oahu!
ko' olina
the marriott beach club
We stayed in the Marriott Beach Club in Ko'Olina for the first 7 days of our vacation; a gorgeous hotel right on a big lagoon, with three huge pools surrounding the base. We loved that the hotel was within walking distance of two other hotels, so we could walk the long stretch of beach without having to drive anywhere. The lagoons were all blocked off by natural rock walls that were formed from volcanic debris, and they help keep the lagoons calm and clear. The food here was also really good, and we found ourselves eating at Longboards, a beachy cafe on the water, for multiple meals while there. One night we ran into an older couple who insisted they call and make us reservations at one of the nicest restaurants in town, Roy's, to celebrate our marriage. Roy's had the BEST molten chocolate cake! We also loved happy hour (8-10pm) at Monkeypod, a fresh and sustainable restaurant with a patio that had live music & really good pizza. We met a woman named Aly who owned a cute little store in town and she suggested we eat at a place called My Cafe. We ordered a three stack of pancakes and they were unreal; one was chocolate, one passion fruit, and the other cookie batter. We also found out Chase Rice was in town (but he was completely sold out by the time we tried to get tickets) at the checkout here, so we have them to thank for meeting him on the beach later that week! It was pretty funny because we wanted to go to Chase Rice but when looking for tickets to his show we ended up seeing that our faveorite worship band Hillsong was on the island at the same time as us playing that night!! They were playing in Wiakiki just about an hour and a half away from where we were, and honestly that memory became one of our favorites from the whole trip, if not one of our highest memories ever! It was so impactful to see all of these people worship Jesus together, in a place we had never been before! Overall we loooved Ko'Olina, how peaceful and quiet the resort style town was, the views, and the food it had to offer!
the north shore
to watch surfing & get shave ice
The North Shore is well known for its amazing beaches, huge waves, surf competitions, and shave ice. We wanted the full experience so we made sure we experienced all of those things! The best shave ice on the island is called Matsumoto Shave Ice and it is in the heart of downtown. They start with a scoop of sweet ice cream, add the shaved ice, put whatever flavoring you want on it, and top it off with coconut cream - so good! After shave ice we watched the surfers practicing for the Eddie Surf Competition which was the nest day. The waves were CRAZY huge, it was so fun to watch the surfers ride out and try to conquer the waves. We ended our day at North Shore with big salads at a restaurant on the beach and watched the sky put on a show for us with a gorgeous sunset!
waikiki beach, honalulu
to explore the “city” of hawaii
For the second half of our trip we drove to Waikiki, about an hour and a half away from Ko’Olina. Waikiki is a bit more of a tourist town than Ko'Olina and the North Shore, however we enjoyed the lively atmosphere and definitely didn't run out of things to do here in our last four days on Oahu. Matt surprised me with the most amazing condo ever - the view was literally breathtaking when we walked in! It had the most incredible view right onto the ocean and beach, and the sunsets every night were the best I have ever seen.
Our first day there we walked the whole stretch of Waikiki Beach and basically just explored our new spot. There are tons of restaurants, hotels and shops all along the beach. We ended the day with dinner at Goofy Cafe, this tiny restaurant that stuck out over the street by our hotel, that only seated about 15 guests at a time. We had seen it when walking back to our hotel and didn’t realize that it was such a desired place to eat; I don’t think we even ate until like 8pm because the wait was so long to get in! The food was amazing; definitely unexpected and not what we normally would have chosen to eat, but it was delicious and a great memory! We thought it was pretty funny since the place was so tiny that the tables were literally inches away from one another, we had to whisper to keep or conversation to ourselves haha but it was still such a fun atmosphere. This same day, we also ran into one of our favorite country singers on the beach, Chase Rice, only days after we had tried to get tickets to his sold out show - such a funny thing! The beaches in Honolulu are packed with tiny restaurants and big named (Dukes!) alike, as well as places to lay in the sun, swim in the warm waters, and we even saw turtles swimming right up to the walkway!
Like I said, we spent our last several days in Waikiki exploring the beaches, walking along the shops, and getting some sun in of course. I actually got sick on the last two days of the trip so we didn’t end up going on the sunset sailboat ride like we had hoped, but we heard amazing things about it! Overall, our honeymoon was a dream! It didn't really even matter where we went, as long as we were together everything was fun and exciting. I highly recommend a honeymoon, or vacation, to Oahu, and we are already talking about wanting to go back in the next few years for more adventures!