- 14 things you need to know before you come
to Waikiki in Hawaii.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions.
I do travel guides that are fun,
informative, and entertaining.
This is part of my series on Hawaii
and in this video I'll be telling you
14 things you need to know before you come to Waikiki.
Number one, we'll start with what is the meaning
of Waikiki, that's important to know.
Waikiki translates roughly to spouting water
and as you walk around Waikiki
you'll see lots of fountains and streams
as an homage to the name spouting water.
I think the other thing to know about Waikiki
that's related to this is it is kind of like
the Las Vegas strip, just subtract
the casinos and add the beach.
Okay, number two, Waikiki is small.
It is two miles of sandy beach on the ocean
but it's only three to four blocks inland.
So it's a really small place.
The next thing to know related to it being small,
there's really only two main streets
that run down Waikiki.
There's the main street that runs along the ocean,
it's a one way street most of the way.
And then there's Kuhio which is an
inland street, it's a two way street.
Thing to know number three, Waikiki is crowded.
Waikiki is where most of the tourists in Hawaii come.
The Hawaiian government estimates that 72,000 tourists
every day are in Waikiki.
And the money that is generated and spent in Waikiki
accounts for 42% of all of Hawaii's tourism revenue,
about two billion dollars.
So if you're thinking of having the beach
all to yourself on an island paradise, that is not Waikiki.
You will be sharing that beach with 72,000
of your closest friends.
It's fun and exciting but not tranquil and lonesome.
Number four thing to know, Waikiki is not Japan.
Okay, that's an odd statement but if you walk around
Waikiki you'll notice there are a lot of Japanese tourists.
I'm staying at the Sheraton Waikiki, I think 90%
of the people that stay there are Japanese.
Lots of things are written in Japanese,
many stores will accept Japanese yen,
there's tons of Japanese restaurants.
There's trolleys that'll take you around that only cater
to Japanese but it is the United States of America,
not the United State of Japan.
Number five thing to know, hotels.
Waikiki is home to most of the hotels on Oahu.
The Surfrider hotel is the original hotel in Waikiki.
It was built in 1901, so check that out.
It's got a bit of history.
If you want to save a little bit of money
check some of the inland hotels, the ones
that aren't right on the beach
because you're a pretty close walk wherever you're staying.
Okay sixth thing to know about Waikiki,
we'll talk about transportation.
My first suggestion to you is walk.
Parking in Waikiki is pretty lousy.
You'll be paying a fortune to park.
The hotels all have parking if you're staying here
but if you're driving in from someplace
park your care once and then walk around.
Some of your other transportation options
within Waikiki, there's a number of companies
that run these trolleys through Waikiki.
The most popular ones, the Waikiki Trolley,
I'm pausing for this plane to go over.
(plane flying overhead)
Waikiki Trolley operates the Pink Line.
It basically runs a loop through Waikiki
taking you up to Ala Moana Center.
It cost two bucks to ride or if you have a JCB credit card
you can ride it for free.
You'd never know that because it caters
to Japanese and JCB is a Japanese credit card.
Guess what, someone who comes to Waikiki
on a fairly frequent basis, I have a JCB card
just so I can take the Waikiki Trolley for free.
The other thing about transportation, there's also the bus.
The bus is the Hawaiian Bus Company.
You can take that in and out of Waikiki,
they are pretty clean, fast, and efficient so not too bad.
Okay number seven thing to know is about shopping.
Waikiki is shopping central.
There are shops for just about everything in Waikiki.
There's the Royal Hawaiian Center which
is a big shopping mall in the middle of Waikiki.
There's also the International Market Place
which is a new shopping mall that opened up.
And in the middle of Waikiki there's also
a DFS, a duty free store.
Everybody can shop there, not just people
that are going to another country
so that's something to know.
And yes, a lot of the stores will actually
yen because there's so many Japanese tourists
but in fact this is not Japan.
Okay number eight, let's talk about coupons.
If you're coming to Waikiki it's important
to know about all of the coupons.
As you walk around there's gonna be a lot of these
things that you can pick up brochures on the street.
You can find them at the airport,
make sure you check those out
and pick up the coupons 'cause you'll find
discounts on a lot of things you want.
Also pick up the English language ones
and the Japanese language ones too.
One of my favorite places to eat in Waikiki
is Teddy's Bigger Burgers.
They offer coupons only in the Japanese
versions of the magazine, so make sure
you pick up both languages of those coupons.
There's also a Visitor Information Center
located down on the Diamond Head side of Waikiki.
So if you didn't pick them up at the airport
or couldn't find them, you can check out
the Waikiki Visitor Information Center.
Okay, the ninth thing to know before you come to Waikiki,
is about the language.
So in Hawaii, it's the only state in the US
that has two official languages, English and Hawaiian.
But if you're coming to Waikiki
you would think it's three because Japanese
is spoken and written just about everywhere.
Signs are in Japanese, signs on the trolley are in Japanese.
You'll find Japanese in a lot of places.
But you might here a couple of Hawaiian words,
the ones you'll here a lot is aloha.
And you know sometimes the bathrooms
will be written in Hawaiian, kane
or wahine for men or women.
You'll typically see men or women but you'll see
those words underneath as well.
Okay, the 10th thing to know before you
come to Waikiki is about the weather.
Weather in Waikiki is usually pretty good.
It doesn't get too much rain, usually pretty warm.
Typically the high is around 80 degrees and sunny.
The better days are actually when it's a little windier
'cause then you get the breeze.
So I you hear it's gonna be a windy day
that's probably a good thing 'cause it'll cool you down.
But it's humid, so be prepared to sweat a little bit.
When you come to the beach you're probably
gonna want an umbrella, you're gonna want some cover.
You might actually want to avoid midday
as a time to go to the beach 'cause it's so hot.
And try the late morning or early afternoon
or even late afternoon as a compromise.
Okay, the 11th thing to know before you come to Waikiki
is ABC stores.
If you don't know about the ABC stores, well you should.
The ABC store is like a convenient store.
There are tons of locations in Waikiki.
I haven't counted them all, but I'd say
there's at least 50 locations.
They are on almost every block, sometimes they are
across the street from each other.
And the ABC store sells everything you would need
as a tourist coming to Waikiki.
They sell food, they sell snacks, they sell clothes,
they sell beach gear, definitely check out the ABC stores.
You can get breakfast there for cheap.
And it's a great store.
So don't leave Waikiki without
visiting at least one ABC store.
The 12th thing you should know
is about the booking stands in Waikiki.
As you walk along the main streets,
you'll find lots of these stands
that will advertise tours, buses, activities,
for cheap, cheap prices, 50% off.
Don't bother, 'cause chances off they're not 50% off
and you can often get a better deal
if you just book direct.
And you don't want to get swindled into
a time share presentation 'cause that's what
they offer you in a lot of those booking stands as well.
So just book those things to your hotel, book 'em direct,
you can find plenty of activities on your own.
Okay, the 13th thing to know is about free entertainment.
Waikiki has lots of free entertainment.
At the Royal Hawaiian Center you can take ukulele
lessons, you can take hula classes.
You'll find a lot of the restaurants and bars
will have evening entertainment, they'll have music.
At the Hula Mound on Waikiki's main street
right in front of the beach, kind of in front
of the Hyatt hotel, they have evening hula performances.
So you walk around, check out that free entertainment.
You'll often find street performers
doing interesting dances and things like that too.
The last one I want to mention is every Friday
at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, which is where I'm shooting
this video, they have free fireworks every Friday.
So do check out the Friday fireworks
at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
They have an evening show that you can book
and go to at the same time as well.
Okay and the last thing to know
about coming to Waikiki is about food.
I think the food here is pretty delicious.
My biggest tip on this is gonna be
to check out my other video which is
the best cheap eats in Waikiki, but a couple things
I'll tell you here to wet your appetite for that is
some of the things you'll often find
that are typical in Hawaii or Waikiki are plate lunches.
Plate lunches you get a plate, you get two
scoops of rice, you get macaroni salad,
and you get some meat.
It's actually kind of hard to find traditional
plate lunches in Waikiki, there's the Rainbow Drive In,
which is the closest but check out my video on that
to see more information at food in Waikiki.
All right well that concludes this video.
I hope you enjoyed it.
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All right have a good one and aloha.