- A travel guide for visiting the beaches
of Ko Olina in Hawaii, I'm Chris.
This is Yellow Productions,
I do travel guides that are fun,
informative, and entertaining.
This video is part of my series on Hawaii,
and today we're gonna be visiting Ko Olina.
This is my favorite beach
on Oahu and in this video,
I'm gonna walk you through the Ko Olina beaches
and some of the Ko Olina hotels.
What is so great about Ko Olina
is it's not as busy as Waikiki
and some of the really, really touristy parts of Oahu.
That's not to say that Ko Olina isn't touristy
but it is a lot less busy then Waikiki, a lot more relaxed,
and I love the swimming at these lagoons.
So I'm gonna walk you through the different lagoons,
starting with lagoon one, ending at lagoon four.
And the major features of this place
are these four man-made lagoons.
They are pretty nice,
and then I'll walk you through the hotels.
We're first gonna start here at the Four Seasons
and then we're gonna end down
there at the Marriott timeshares that are on the beach.
And I'll show you some of the other things
you can do in and around hotels
and off the beach on the other side of the resorts.
One thing I like about Ko Olina,
particularly staying at the hotels here,
is they provide beach chairs and umbrellas
typically included in your room rate.
No extra charge for them.
And I also like going in the lagoons
because there's no waves, they're protected from the ocean.
So it makes it easy to swim.
You don't have to really worry
about currents or rocks on the bottom.
And if you do make it out to those rocks
right there that open to the ocean,
well there's pretty good snorkeling out at those rocks.
You can also rent stand-up paddle boards and boogie boards.
Although I don't know why you'd wanna boogie board
'cause there's no waves.
You can also rent gear for your beach activities
like snorkels and stand-up paddle boards
from the hotel desks
that front the sidewalk around the lagoons.
If you like sun, by all means, set up on the sand.
If you like the shade, there's plenty of trees
on the grassy area above the lagoons
to get away from the sun on a hot day.
Fronting each lagoon, you'll also find
public showers, public restrooms,
and oddly enough, public payphones If you're the one person
that still doesn't have a cellphone.
And a nice touch, they've got drinking fountains
with water bottle fillers.
Because these lagoons are technically private property,
they are not lifeguarded
by the typical Hawaii public lifeguards.
So swim at your own risk.
But the good news, because there aren't many waves here,
there's really no rip currents
and so this is one of the safest beaches in Oahu to swim at.
Ko Olina's also really great if you like walking.
Why?
Well there's this wide sidewalk that connects
all the lagoons and all the hotels.
A great way to walk.
Probably not in the heat of the middle of the day
but I think the best time to go for a walk here
is just at sunrise or at sunset when it's not too hot.
The first hotel we'll check out is the Four Seasons.
This one's at lagoon one.
This is my favorite hotel in Ko Olina.
It used to be the JW Marriott.
I stayed here twice as the JW Marriott.
What I like about this is every room has a balcony.
They're pretty big, kinda oversized rooms.
Just a really peaceful, serene hotel.
I think it's best for an adult's trip,
maybe a couple's trip, or a family with just one kid
because this one doesn't have a lot of kids activities.
But let me show you around the Four Seasons.
The hotel has two pools,
an 18 plus pool that we'll get to in a minute
and the main pool, the circular pool,
which looks out on the lagoons.
This big circular pool is open to all ages.
All around the pool is the hotel bar
and a couple of hotel restaurants on multiple floors.
You will not go hungry or thirsty
if you're staying at the Four Seasons.
Or if you're hungry and thirsty
and not staying at the Four Seasons,
well you can come here and dine at these restaurants
though they won't be cheap.
If you don't wanna get in the ocean,
the Four Seasons has a really nice infinity pool
looking out at the real ocean, not those lagoons.
The lobby of the Four Seasons
has a historic Hawaiian canoe.
It's an open, breezy space open to the elements.
Check-in there's in the back.
But what's also really cool is these hallways up here.
These are the hallways to the rooms
so you can see all the way down to the bottom
of the lobby as you're heading up to your room.
Ko Olina is a popular place to get married,
particularly for Japanese visiting Hawaii.
You'll find a wedding chapel in the Four Seasons Hotel.
We'll see a few more wedding chapels
as we walk around Ko Olina.
So just next to the Four Seasons is the Disney Aulani Resort
often referred to just as the Aulani.
But this is a Disney Hotel located here in Oahu.
If you've got young kids this is probably
the best place to stay 'cause there's lots of activities
for the youngins, an amazing pool complex,
they've got Disney characters you can meet.
Really fun for the kids.
If you want to snorkel
but aren't too sure of your swimming abilities,
well the Aulani Hotel has the rainbow reef.
It's a swimming pool that has fish in it
so you can snorkel in a pretty shallow wave less area.
Did I mention the pool complex is huge?
It is huge.
It's got just about everything.
It's got a lazy river and a water bridge play area.
What's nice about the pool, they won't nickel and dime you.
Well, at least on the inner tubes.
You've probably spent a fortune to stay here,
so the inner tubes are free.
They will nickel and dime you if you want a veranda
or extra-special lounge chair by the pool.
The Aulani Hotel has done a really good job
of making a Disney resort feel Hawaiian.
It starts when you enter right here.
This is the hotel's lobby and valet entrance.
Does it look anything like Disneyland?
No, not really.
In addition to the Hawaiian paintings on the ceiling,
you'll find Hawaiian artifacts
and arts scattered around the property.
And Hawaiian music playing on the overhead speakers.
If you like Disney souvenirs,
you'll definitely want to stop by their gift shop
for a whole bunch of Ducky supplies
or the Hawaiian Olu, a friend of Ducky.
Olu is a sea turtle which are protected in Hawaii.
It may not look like Disneyland,
but at certain times it certainly feels like it,
especially when the characters
come out for character photos.
Though get in line early,
'cause the character photos are mighty popular.
If the line for Lilo character greeting is too long,
well you can always take a selfie with the Lilo statue
with some leis on top.
If you're hungry you'll find lots of eating options
at the Aulani Hotel though I would point out,
they do come at Disney prices.
In addition to operating as a hotel,
the Aulani also operates as a time share.
Take a tour of one of their open models at your own risk.
You may like it so much
you might want to stay and come back every year.
I said we'll see more of these,
just beyond the Aulani is two wedding chapels
currently under renovation.
Don't worry, we'll see more.
Next up on the tour is lagoon two.
This is the second lagoon,
this one a lot less crowded then lagoon one.
So if you're coming yourself
this is a pretty good one to escape the crowds.
And this one is fronted by the Ko Olina Beach Villas.
And here we have lagoon three.
Lagoon three is fronted by the Marriott Beach Club.
This one is also quieter then lagoon one
but busier then lagoon two.
It's got more seats on it 'cause those are provided
by the Marriott Beach Club which is a hotel and a timeshare.
And finally, we have lagoon number four.
This one, the most public of the lagoons.
Why?
This one isn't fronted by the hotel,
it's just fronted by a big public
parking lot just over there.
What else is on this one?
Yes, another wedding chapel.
So if you're coming here on a weekend
lagoon number four is gonna be your best bet
because this one has the most parking.
And then, just for distance sake,
if you wanna see how far
it is from here to lagoon number one
I'll swing this camera back and the Aulani Hotel,
well you can see the rooftops back over there.
It's about a 30 minute walk
from lagoon one to lagoon four.
The best way to get to Ko Olina is to drive.
It's about an hour from Waikiki
or 30 minutes from Honolulu Airport.
The biggest problem with driving here though
is if you're not staying in one of the hotels, is parking.
There's very limited public parking.
Between the lagoons there's these little lots
that are about 20 cars big.
Make sure to get here early
or wait in line to get a spot.
The most parking is at lagoon four
which is kinda the lagoon furthest
away from the Aulani Hotel.
The parking is free but there's not a lot of it.
If you find all the public parking lots full,
well your last resort is to park at one of the hotels.
You can park there and pay,
it won't be cheap though.
One more note about parking though,
if you are parking in the public parking lots,
well you gotta get out by sunset.
The public parking lots are only open
sunrise to sunset.
So if your travels take you to Oahu,
definitely consider visiting Ko Olina
for some really nice lagoons
and some pretty nice hotels.
If you enjoyed this video,
you might enjoy watching
some of my other videos on Hawaii.
You can click here, here to watch them
or find links in the description below to them as well.
Well I won't say goodbye
because I'll see you in one of these videos.