Aloha and welcome to hawaii! i'm here in oahu i've visited here many different times
this is an island that keeps changing and evolving and i learned so many things about visiting here
i'm going to tell you the things you need to know before visiting oahu many of these things
are really surprising so you want to stay tuned to the end so first of all let me close this
because it's quite loud outside i'm staying here in waikiki which is the center of all of the
action and i'm staying here in december and the reason for that is because i got an amazing rate
on hawaiian airlines my flight round trip from san diego was roughly 233 and if you travel in january
the rates are even better they're around 188 round trip from california so check that out if
you're looking to get out here inexpensively and the reason why i keep visiting hawaii is because
this was the 50th state to be admitted in the union so their culture is very palpable they have
their own language which seems like it's making a comeback and they have their own dance the hula
of big smiles amongst the local people they believe that each person must think and emote
good feelings to others without any obligation in return and it's very very unique to visit a
place that really extends that kind of warmth the governor is taking the covert restrictions
very very seriously so before you travel here you're going to want to go to travel.hawaii.gov
and follow the instructions on the vaccination for example we had to upload our vaccine card you can
also take a covid test if you're more comfortable with that and it has to be done within 48 hours of
your arrival and also expect really long lines i'm actually going to insert the footage right
now right now we are in the vaccine vaccine passport line it has lasted over a half hour
we just finished with our vaccine passport here in hawaii the line took about an hour and a
half and we uploaded our vaccine card to their government website and it printed out a qr code
and they scanned it and that was it when you land expect long lines and if you didn't
get a line when you landed consider yourself lucky there were five other planes that landed
the same time as ours and we just waited in line for a really long time just to scan
a qr code very strict about masks and when you enter a restaurant a lot of times you'll be asked
to shop you'll be asked to take your temperature so it really depends on the establishment and
it's not very consistent as of right now another thing to note is hawaii is known for its very
changeable weather so i'm here in december and as you can see it's sunny outside right now but it
rains off and on and the week before we traveled here there was actually a cyclone and snow in hilo
which made the national news i mean it was pretty crazy so if you're traveling here and it ends up
raining out on you there's a number of things that you can do you can stay in your hotel room
or if you're in oahu you can check out a number of really cool museums my favorite is the pearl
harbor museum and exhibit i learned things about world war ii that i never learned about in school
stories of the local japanese people and what it was like to live here during that time
it's very interesting very touching so if you're interested in hawaiian history or world war ii
history you will really really enjoy that museum some other museums that are really cool are the
uh liolani palace where you can learn about the hawaiian royalty and that's really cool to visit
because they actually had a king and a queen here king kamehameha and you can learn about him
and what it was like to hand over the royal throne and transition to statehood at the bishop museum
there's also the honolulu museum of art there's an aquarium here so you can check those things out if
it does end up raining on your trip i touched upon this briefly but one of my favorite reasons for
coming to hawaii is the food and drink it's very unique here one of my favorites is the kona coffee
you can buy this almost everywhere including the abc store and make sure it says 100 kona
coffee this is grown and produced on the island of hawaii the big island and it's up in the mountains
and they produce kind of like this chocolatey aftertaste to the coffee that's really unique this
is expensive though this will run you about 25 to 35 dollars depending on the size and the quality
you'll notice a lot of really good japanese food here the culture kind of blends japanese chinese
filipino and local hawaiian food all together so you'll notice really cool blend i've noticed some
of the best japanese food that i've had outside of japan i mean homemade soba noodles homemade ramen
and you'll also notice this that is almost on everything that you buy especially if
it's a rice dish it's called furukake this is on pretty much every type of rice dish or fish dish
you can add it to popcorn and other snacks of course another favorite is the
hawaiian host these are the macadamia nuts you can get them chocolate covered and they make
a great gift another favorite of mine is the dole whip which is a pineapple soft serve it's
so good you can also get poke poke bowls they are found in a number of different locations here
ask your hawaiian friends where they go to get it because it's and also i really enjoyed
these shrimp trucks so be sure to check those out they come in the shell and a lot of times
they're flavored with garlic and other spices and of course if you're here you're going to want to
check out a luau because that's where you can try some of the most delicious traditional hawaiian
foods including poi and kahlua pig another thing that's really prevalent here in hawaii is the abc
store this is almost on every corner sometimes multiple ones within a block of each other
and they're kind of like a 7-eleven but even better because you can buy gifts there all
kinds of hawaiian gifts beachwear sunscreen food now as you can tell i'm in waikiki
and this is the most touristed part of oahu so if you want something a little more chill
stay away from the area near dukes that is definitely the most crowded that i've seen or
better yet head to the north shore or some of the other parts of the island like lanikai and get a
home stay there or something an airbnb and you'll get more of a traditional hawaiian experience
there it's very much more laid back more come as you are and less touristed so you can get a more
natural vibe there and if you are traveling to the north shore which i recommend you do
it's about 45 minutes from waikiki and i recommend you take a car and take the coastal route because
that way you can stop off you can go to some of the really delicious eateries along the way stop
off at the scenic viewpoints and you can go to one of my favorite places which is the kulua ranch
this is a fun place to get out there and enjoy nature and have a very authentic
and fun adventurous hawaiian holiday you can go atving you can ride horses you can ride e-bikes
like what we did and it takes you through a number of movie sets that were filmed here including
jurassic park jumanji and godzilla now i'm going to take you on a quick tour of my hotel i'm at
the embassy suites and this is a great place to stay if you are traveling with families because
it's a suite so it has a mini kitchenette it's very walkable as you can see and this will run you
in the 300 range but there's plenty of hotels that are more in the 100 range they might be a little
bit set back from the ocean but you can definitely check them out if you're looking to stay here more
affordably and another reason why i'm staying here in waikiki is because of the water now looking
out here you can notice the waves are very very calm and relaxing you can go out here you can get
any type of water sport a surfboard a catamaran paddle board and you can rent it all on the beach
there's no need to pre-arrange it now one of my favorite things to do in oahu is hike there's a
number of really cool hiking trails i'd love to know your favorites but my favorite is diamond
head i love that one because it's kind of a short hike about a mile and a half and you can get
incredible 360 degree views of the city something to note about hiking diamond head is it actually
costs money to hike there you're at diamond head and just to let you know that it closes
for cars at four and for hikers at six and you do have to pay five dollars per hiker just to hike
and you have to pay at a kiosk and other than that it's very well paved and it's very beautiful
the bird life there is incredible and that brings me to one of my next points which is you will see
a lot of bird life here including chickens and roosters you'll see it more towards the north
part of the island but it's very interesting to see all the chickens and roosters running around
so the sun is setting here in oahu and i'm gonna go walk around now but i wanted to thank you for
joining me in this video be sure to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe i hope you get a chance
to visit hawaii very soon and let me know your recommendations before visiting here what are
your favorite restaurants shout out to some of the local places down below in the comments and mahalo