It Is Nuts In Honolulu

audreyh1 said:
Oh wow, this is so awesome I can’t get over it!

Thanks!
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It's fun to switch around between different live web cam streams, you can follow the sun and go around the world.
 
Hawaii is trying hard to restrict tourism, and I plan to respect that. I've heard from friends who have visited that the locals are over it and aren't feeling hospitable (and in some cases are outright hostile) - and who can blame them? - all the mainlanders who come and are rude and pushy and kind of just ruin everything. I love Hawaii, but I'll wait until the craze of people has died down a bit to return. I hope they're successful in reducing the number of folks who can visit there.
 
Although it's only 7am in Maui...it looks like a great time to be on the beach! Personally, I love that time of day when it comes to travel.
 

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And so easy to walk the beach at sunrise there because your body is still on mainland time!
 
Yeah, quite a bit of pent up travel desire.
We go to Hawaii frequently, only twice during the summer months with kids. Most of the time we go in the fall, after school is back in session.
 
audreyh1 said:
And so easy to walk the beach at sunrise there because your body is still on mainland time!
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We haven't traveled to a resort in a while, but it was my practice to be at the pool as soon as it opened. I would most certainly have the entire pool to myself for a couple of hours and it was quite nice. Thankfully, when we travel now we usually rent a house with a private pool.
 
Been to Hawaii twice and loved it, but many other places to see now.
 
DW and I went to Hawaii 3 times in the 1990s on Megacorp's dime. We have talked about going back at some point, but from current reports on the crowds we will wait a while. Our previous trips were between March and May, at the time the crowds were less.

Right now everyone seems crowded. Just driving up the NJ Turnpike a couple of weekends ago there were lines of cars waiting to park in the rest stops, it was crazy. Perhaps school being in session + covid concerns will thin the crowds by next month or October.
 
Returning home from the last road trip I was surprised at the amount of traffic on the roads even for a summer weekend. I encountered several significant slow downs in the middle of farm areas with no visible cause for them other than lots of cars and trucks.

I think a lot of people are squeezing in that last vacation before school starts, or the government layers on more Covid restrictions. Or both.
 
I can sort of understand the locals’ feelings. Our ship docked at Molokai, the only line permitted to do that after a long period of prior discussions and negotiations with the locals. Apparently some locals still weren’t happy. They told us that one mega-line just docked there with no prior notification. They were sent away.

Our last day on Molokai I took the shuttle into town and when I wanted lunch it was pizza and burger joints. Then I realized that since they were serving the locals and not pandering to the tourists there was no Starbucks, no vegan restaurant. Fine with me. I did buy some jewelry from local vendors.

To me, Honolulu was Manhattan with palm trees.
 
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athena53 said:
To me, Honolulu was Manhattan with palm trees.
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That's a good analogy. In my flying days, we would stop there often for overnights and while most other fliers LOVED to crew rest there, I wasn't a big fan. Even back then I thought the crowds were a bit much. And I have been to NYC once and have ZERO desire to go back.

I enjoy solitude and neither NYC or Honolulu offers that.
 
ExFlyBoy5 said:
In my flying days, we would stop there often for overnights and while most other fliers LOVED to crew rest there
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I had a friend once (navigator) who always carried some blown fuses in the pocket of his flight suit. If they needed extra crew rest in a good spot like that he would substitute them for good fuses in the aircraft after landing and report a maintenance issue.
 
Looking forward to making another visit to one of the islands as one of my early and easier travel restart destinations but also not sure when. No doubt that there's pent up demand everywhere but I am curious how busy it will be during the shoulder and off seasons.
 
braumeister said:
I had a friend once (navigator) who always carried some blown fuses in the pocket of his flight suit. If they needed extra crew rest in a good spot like that he would substitute them for good fuses in the aircraft after landing and report a maintenance issue.
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Oh, I have stories of clowns like that. One guy who rarely would fly when called upon was the worst for "breaking planes"; we called him "The Pigeon" because you had to throw rocks at him to get him to fly. The C-5 could be a maintenance hog all on its own; no need to "help" break things. There is a reason we called it "The per diem machine."
 
Make Waienae on the west side your home base and you'll avoid the tourists and get more local flavor.
 
We have been to Oahu 3 times, the big island of Hawaii and Maui each twice, but Kauai only once. The last time we were there was late Oct 2019 for Oahu and Maui, and it was not bad at all.

Just a couple of days ago, checked out travel info to Kauai for this year end, and found that airfare was not bad, lodging seemed a bit more expensive, and car rental was $120/day.
 
I've been off Island for a couple of months now. Things were really heating up (tourist wise) about the time we left. No expert, even though I live there most of the year but here is my take:

1) Summer is always high season because it's traditional travel season everywhere (kids are out of school). Hawaii is one of those "warm" places that's still just "warm" in the summer time (Full disclosure: Summer temps average 5 degrees F higher than winter.) It is rarely "unbearably hot" in the Islands. If it ever is, all you have to do is find a mountain to ascend. It's not like florida where there is no escape.

2) So many places went totally belly up due to Covid and they are never coming back. SO, at least until SOMETHING takes their place, the businesses which survived are going to have to serve all those tourists (and a few of us kama'aina.) Keep in mind that Hawaii is just like the rest of the nation when it comes to work force. All the Covid issues are in play. I'll say no more.

3) Haven't checked the stats, but I THINK tourism is actually still down from its high. So see 2. Lots of hotels were opening up very slowly as we left. So rates were ridiculous. Rental cars were hard to find and expensive. The Covid disruption will be felt for at least a year (my guess.)

4) As far as locals being upset with tourists: There has always been a love/hate relationship with tourism. It pays our bills (for the most part) but the price is we share our Islands and it's crowded for everyone. I for one (as a former tourist) appreciate the break (in taxes) we get because of tourism. There are lots of issues when tourism is your life blood (agriculture is a shadow of its former self and even the Military is not as big a contributor to the economy.) Nothing is perfect - not even Paradise.

5) If I could offer any advice, it would be to be flexible about when you eat and what tourist attractions you visit. Plan on-line as much as possible. Otherwise, wait a few months. Pre Covid, there were no real low seasons, but dead of winter and summer are (very) high season. Fall and Spring are a bit better in terms of prices and especially less crowding. Someone mentioned "pent up demand" and I think that will be true for a while.

Again, not a tourism expert - just a kama'aina, so YMMV.
 
We were in Waikiki in early June for a week. Hotels were open at full capacity, but restaurants were still limited. So places that allow lines to form had really long ones and the others just turned away all walk-ups without reservations. It's very hard to get dinner reservations anywhere. Places are booking up weeks in advance. Having seen similar issues here at home, I figured that's how it would be, so we stayed in a condo with a kitchen and reserved our few dinners out a month ahead of time.

"Just hop over to Maui" was not possible then. You had to have a Covid test within 72 hrs of an interisland flight and you needed to make reservations for the covid test appointment well in advance. It may be easier now if they are accepting CDC cards instead of requiring tests for interisland travel.

We actually got a fairly reasonable rental car rate through Alamo via Costco Travel, but I did book that as soon as I bought the airfare. We still had a long line to get the car, and then once we'd gotten through the process we had to wait for one to be cleaned for us. They didn't have time to refuel it, so we got a credit for starting with an empty gas tank.

We didn't even try to get into Hanauma Bay. There are enough other places to snorkel. The North Shore was nice, not as crowded as in winter. We stopped at the shrimp trucks and to see the sea turtles and enjoyed Waimea Valley.
 
cathy63 said:
We were in Waikiki in early June for a week. Hotels were open at full capacity, but restaurants were still limited. So places that allow lines to form had really long ones and the others just turned away all walk-ups without reservations. It's very hard to get dinner reservations anywhere. Places are booking up weeks in advance. Having seen similar issues here at home, I figured that's how it would be, so we stayed in a condo with a kitchen and reserved our few dinners out a month ahead of time.

"Just hop over to Maui" was not possible then. You had to have a Covid test within 72 hrs of an interisland flight and you needed to make reservations for the covid test appointment well in advance. It may be easier now if they are accepting CDC cards instead of requiring tests for interisland travel.

We actually got a fairly reasonable rental car rate through Alamo via Costco Travel, but I did book that as soon as I bought the airfare. We still had a long line to get the car, and then once we'd gotten through the process we had to wait for one to be cleaned for us. They didn't have time to refuel it, so we got a credit for starting with an empty gas tank.

We didn't even try to get into Hanauma Bay. There are enough other places to snorkel. The North Shore was nice, not as crowded as in winter. We stopped at the shrimp trucks and to see the sea turtles and enjoyed Waimea Valley.
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Yep. Knowing your way around - even a little - helps a lot. I'm sorta not looking forward to going home this fall. Tourists were just beginning to clog the roads and streets as we left (but God love and protect the tourists - we NEED them!) Maybe the summer rush will be over by fall - we hope so. We've never had much problem finding places to eat because we usually avoid Waikiki. But due to Covid, a lot of our "favorites" closed for good. Little out-of-the way places, neighborhood places, etc. - most are gone now. We used to head to Kailua/Kaneohe as well. Hope Covid spared most of our favorites there.

By the way, we have heard that Covid was the best thing to happen to Hanauma Bay in decades. It was closed for several months and much of the damage done over the years has begun to heal itself and many of the reef fishes have once again returned or multiplied. It has been since we were tourists that we visited. Just driving past the entrance you can tell it's a "zoo" and the parking fills up fast. It's free for Kama'aina, but we don't want to take up space that folks who never get this opportunity should take advantage of - if possible. I've never tried to snorkel at Sharks Cove on North Shore, but you can often wade out and look at the sea creatures in tidal pools - it's free but hard to park sometimes. Cool stuff - oh, and there are no sharks.

I hope the Arizona Memorial has reopened. I'm sure I've been a dozen times and it is the ONE thing everyone should try to see at least once in their life time.

Man, I'm getting home sick! I haven't really "done" North Shore for 2 years now. First thing when we get back. Matsumoto's Shave Ice - only place on the Island I'll stand in line for - except at the TSA. I think Kua Aina Burgers has survived Covid. I hope so. Great burgers and BEST french fries on the Island of Oahu. YMMV so I'd better quit.
 
Maui tourist numbers in July were up almost 25% vs pre pandemic 2019 numbers. And with the Delta COVID spike, just this week Gov Ige mandated restaurants go back to 50% capacity.

We’ve never lifted indoor mask requirements.

Not sure if rental cars are any more reasonable. Heard that $400/day was common. I know several people doing Turo, renting their own vehicles, or even buy/leasing 5-6 cars and Turo’ing them out, having their own mini car rental business.

Maui mayor just got legislation passed severely limiting number of VRBO/AirBnB rentals and increasing enforcement measures.

But if you want a job as a dishwasher making $20/hour this is the place to come. Lol.
 
gcgang said:
Maui tourist numbers in July were up almost 25% vs pre pandemic 2019 numbers. And with the Delta COVID spike, just this week Gov Ige mandated restaurants go back to 50% capacity.

We’ve never lifted indoor mask requirements.

Not sure if rental cars are any more reasonable. Heard that $400/day was common. I know several people doing Turo, renting their own vehicles, or even buy/leasing 5-6 cars and Turo’ing them out, having their own mini car rental business.

Maui mayor just got legislation passed severely limiting number of VRBO/AirBnB rentals and increasing enforcement measures.

But if you want a job as a dishwasher making $20/hour this is the place to come. Lol.
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Heh, heh, of course, you can't LIVE on $20/hour - unless you share housing with two or three others earning $20/hour. Lots of that going on in Paradise but it's worth it (to many.) YMMV
 
Koolau said:
... I've never tried to snorkel at Sharks Cove on North Shore, but you can often wade out and look at the sea creatures in tidal pools - it's free but hard to park sometimes. Cool stuff - oh, and there are no sharks.

I hope the Arizona Memorial has reopened. I'm sure I've been a dozen times and it is the ONE thing everyone should try to see at least once in their life time.
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Yes, the Arizona Memorial reopened. We had our daughter with us and she'd never been to Hawaii, so we did go to Pearl Harbor one day since I also think it's something everyone should see once. Reservations are needed in advance for the boat trip out to the memorial.

Sharks Cove is one of the places we stopped on our day at the north shore. Didn't snorkel there, but we were able to walk out to the end of one of the taller lava flows and look straight down about 8 feet into a shallow pool where three turtles were feeding on whatever grows there. We enjoyed watching them for quite a while.
 
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