5 Hawaii Travel Tips For Families

A family vacation to Hawaii is exciting, and expensive, so I’ve compiled some tips I learned so you don’t make the same mistakes I did! At a high level, here are 5 basic tips and I will dive into each of them with additional details.

1. Reserve a rental car in advance
2. Have a loose plan
3. See the sunrise, sunset
4. Try the local restaurants
5. Visit the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

1. Reserve a rental car in advance

Since 2020, finding rental cars has been difficult everywhere, but it’s been especially difficult in remote areas like Hawaii where many of the rental cars were sold off. This is why I recommend not only reserving a car well in advance of your trip, but also to book that reservation using a club membership. Club memberships will give you preferred bookings, basically you get preferential treatment, making your experience smooth and ensuring you get a vehicle when you reserve one. National Car Rental has the Emerald Club, Enterprise has the Enterprise Plus membership, and Hertz has Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. If you work for a larger corporation, they may also offer you special business class rental reservations, which could increase the likelihood that you will actually get a car upon your arrival at the airport.

Why do I suggest signing up for one of these club memberships? Because on my trip to Hawaii we arrived to the airport and there were 3 families who had reserved a car and only 1 car available. I had reserved the car through my employer who had a corporate partnership with the rental agency, so I got the preferential treatment. I was lucky enough to get the car that day, but that meant two other families had to wait in line until another car arrived, and who knows how many hours they had to wait. You don’t want to be that family when you’ve already been traveling for 10 or more hours and all you want is to drive to your hotel.

I also recommend regularly updating the rental agency each time your arrival flight time changes. If you book your car reservation for 2pm, but your arrival time changes to 3pm, you want to be sure they don’t give your reserved car to the family that arrives before you. Calling the rental agency is a good practice no matter where your destination; I’ve learned that this is also a good way to confirm your reservation in case there was a glitch in the system when you booked originally.

2. Have a loose plan

Oahu is a big island and if you arrive without any itinerary, it could be quite overwhelming. I recommend doing some research about the various attractions and activities to see what your family is most excited about. Make a list of the restaurants and activities, along with their location on the island, so when you get up each morning you can explore a different corner of the island and have an idea of what types of things you can do there. Even if you don’t do everything on the list because you get distracted by all the other cool sites to see, you’ll have a loose itinerary to use in moments of indecision.

When my family was planning our trip, we actually printed a mini map of Oahu and circled some of the main things we wanted to do in each area of the island; Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, Matsumoto Shave Ice, the Polynesian Cultural Center, etc. Each morning we’d say “okay do we feel like hiking today or exploring a museum?” That narrowed down the items on the list for the day and gave us a sense of direction without feeling overwhelmed by all the choices available to us. A rigid schedule will make your Hawaii trip stressful, especially if you’re trying to keep kids on track, but no schedule and too many options could cost you too much time during the mornings.

3. See the sunrise, sunset

If you’re from the east coast like me, then waking up early in Hawaii will be no issue at all since your body will still be 6 hours ahead and you’ll likely find it hard to sleep past 2am. But, instead of staying in bed until a “reasonable” time, I recommend starting your day around 3am. We did this every morning and it was amazing. We got to drive up the eastern side of the island a few times and watch the sunrise, which is the most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen. Sitting in the sand at Laie Beach Park watching the orange rays slide up over the horizon, with the turtles breaking the waves and the chickens walking along the picnic area….it’s the most relaxing way to start your day.

Getting up that early does mean you’ll probably crash somewhere around 6pm, but it gets dark in Hawaii fairly early compared to New England, so we didn’t really mind heading to bed early some nights.

If getting up early isn’t in the cards for your family, then seeing the sunsets on the western side of the island is a must-do! Seeing the red and orange sunset from Waikiki or Waianae is just as beautiful as the sunrise. Plus, Waikiki has a great nightlife with bars and restaurants, making it great for young adults or families with older children. There is a stretch of Waikiki Beach next to the police station where several locals will hang out and try to sell tourists marijuana….so if you don’t want your kids to be tempted, try to stay away from that area at night.

4. Try the local restaurants

When you go to a tourist destination, it’s hard not to just go to the most famous restaurants that you’ve seen on tv or to go to chain fast food joints that you can find anywhere on the west coast. Resist the urge. The famous restaurants are great, don’t get me wrong, but some of the smaller mom and pop businesses are among the best we ate at in Hawaii. Moke’s Bread & Breakfast in Kailua has the best Lilikoi pancakes you’ll ever taste. Matsumoto is pretty famous, but you know what, it has great shave ice, and they open pretty early in the morning; who doesn’t want 3 flavors of shave ice for breakfast?

Do some exploring, don’t settle for the most popular tourist spots.

5. Visit the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

Last but not least, tip number 5 will save you a little money on souvenirs. Each Sunday and Wednesday, Aloha Stadium hosts a swap meet (similar to a flea market) where you can visit tons of booths selling t-shirts for $4 each, bracelets, sandals, hats, wind chimes, and so much more. My family came here at the beginning and end of our trip to get some souvenirs and gifts for our extended family.

The swap meet also has some food vendors and a slush stand, which gets quite the line on hot days. Get some dole whip, refreshers in a coconut, or a simple watermelon slushee all for decent prices.

Summary

This is not a comprehensive list of tips and tricks, but I think it’s a solid baseline to get you planning your Hawaii adventure. These tips are all based on mistakes my family has made in the past, and I hope they help your family avoid them!