Beginner’s Guide To Waikiki Beach, Hawaii

Welcome to my Beginner’s Guide to Waikiki Beach, Hawaii.  

Our recent visit to beautiful Waikiki, a beachfront neighbourhood of Honolulu, on the south shore of the island of Oahu, in Hawaii, was my third trip there.  Although the first was way back in 1987 when I was 14, so I’m not entirely sure we can rely on that trip as a reference point!

I wrote a round-up of the Top 10 Things To See And Do In Honolulu after last year’s trip.  Click here to read it, we’ll wait for you to come back, I promise.  However this year I thought I’d provide you with all the answers to the questions asked while we were away.

Beginner’s Guide To Waikiki Beach, Hawaii

Who did you fly with?

We flew to and from Honolulu with Hawaiian Airlines.  

Helpful Holiday Tip: Hawaiian Airlines provide DIY check in facilities only. Once you have completed that step you then need to line up to check in your luggage with a staff member.  

It is a very slow process and can take up to an hour from start to finish. Then you have to get through customs – that can also be a lengthy process depending on how many flights are leaving at the time – so allow plenty of time to complete everything.

What did you do about a SIM card and wi-fi access?

I definitely did not organise anything through my Australian carrier as their options were ridiculously expensive.  Instead I replaced my Australian SIM card with a US SIM card, purchased through mrsimcard.com 

There are a number of US-based telcos you can choose from when using this particular website and we always go with ZIP as they are the easiest to set up.

Helpful Holiday Tip: Purchase the SIM card a couple of days before you leave Australia and have the company send it to your hotel.  Collect it from reception when you check in and you will be ready to go from the minute you arrive.

If you don’t want to bother with a SIM card or you don’t need a phone while you’re out and about, you’re in luck because most hotels in USA offer free wi-fi access.  

So once you’re in your hotel room or enjoying a poolside cocktail, you’ll be able to FaceTime or Facebook at no cost. Just ask/check when you’re making your hotel booking – the staff will be able to tell you if they offer free wi-fi.

Where did you stay?

We stayed at Outrigger Waikiki Shore.

It’s Waikiki’s only beachfront apartment style accommodation – meaning each room has a full kitchen and a washing machine and dryer – however if you’re looking for the full Hawaiian resort experience, this is not the hotel for you.

There’s no room service, no pool, no bar, no “Can I take your bags for you Ma’am?”

But there is a great price on the rooms and this cracking view from almost every apartment:

Location wise, the Outrigger Waikiki Shore is in a fantastic spot.  

It has incredible uninterrupted ocean views and you have a front row seat to the Friday night fireworks from your balcony (more on that a bit further down the page.)  

It’s absolute beach front and unlike some of the bigger hotels, there’s no wandering through a gigantic maze of tourists, restaurants and shops to get to your spot in the sand.  

You just take the lift down to level one, walk out the back gate and ta-da! You’re on Waikiki Beach.  Too easy.

The last building on the left is Waikiki Shore.  The shorter building next door is the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort.

Helpful Holiday Tip: Many of the apartments at Waikiki Shore are privately owned and operated. If you google Waikiki Shore you will find a number of different booking agents all ready to help you. They might offer you a better deal price wise than booking directly through Outrigger, however you won’t have access to all of the Outrigger services and amenities.

Booking through Outrigger ensures access to all of the facilities on offer at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort next door – pool, bar, gym and restaurants etc.

What’s the beach like?

The beach is BEAUTIFUL.

The water is warm and the colour of it is incredible.  I could bob around in it on my hot pink inflatable ring all day long!  

However, Waikiki beach is also home to a lot of coral and rock formations, so parts of the beach are very uncomfortable to walk on.  

Water shoes are an excellent idea, particularly if you want to go snorkeling and stand up to take a break.

Helpful Holiday Tip: Inflatable rings and water shoes can be purchased from ABC shops – there’s one on every corner in Waikiki. 

Also be prepared to find all sorts of weird and random items in the water.  It’s kind of gross and makes you appreciate how clean our country is (thank you Clean Up Australia Day!)  

Items we found in the ocean during our stay included:

• sunglasses
• reading glasses
• a $20 note – that was a good day!
• a pair of undies – did not pick those up
• a sinker – took that home and have it on display on the coffee table
• a red drinking cup – thanks sunset cruisers
• a plastic bag – didn’t mistake if for an octopus this time
• and a pen – can confirm it wasn’t a waterproof one

If you’re not staying at a beachfront hotel or the hotel you’re staying at doesn’t offer umbrella service, you can sit yourself down on any part of the beach with a towel.  

Or you can do the Waikiki thing and hire a beach umbrella and sun lounges to lie on the for the day.

Helpful Holiday Tip: On the 1st of every month a Tsunami Alarm on the beach will sound for about a minute.  Don’t panic – it’s only a drill. Presumably to make sure the system is still functioning as when it went off while we were there all the tourists sort of froze, us included, thinking it was a shark alarm.

All the staff on the beach kept chatting amongst themselves like it was no big deal and once we realised there weren’t any sharks nearby and it didn’t look like there was any need to make a run for the hills – thank god, because those hills are a long way off and I did NOT pack my sneakers – we continued with our umbrella slothing.

I really want to swim with a turtle.  Where can I do that?

Well you could fork out a couple of hundred bucks and go on a day trip to go swim with turtles in the middle of the ocean with a group of randoms.

OR you could hang around the rock wall out the front of the Waikiki Shore hotel and swim in waist deep water with the turtles for free!

Every afternoon, usually from about 2pm onwards, you’ll see at least one turtle (but usually two or three – our record was five in one day!) coming into the shore to say hello.

They’re VERY friendly and as long as you keep fairly quiet, they’ll playfully swim around for ages. 

What else can I do at the beach?

So many things! You can

• snorkel. BYO snorkel set from home or buy a cheap one from an ABC shop. Scott and Sophie snorkeled for hours on end and saw something new every day.  
• hire a stand up paddle board ($25 for an hour)
• hire a water bike.  Fun for approximately 2.5 minutes then it’s just really hard work!
• hire a surf board. Probably only a good idea if you’re a reasonably experienced surfer as it’s a long way to paddle out to the waves and you’ll be falling off into coral.
• eat a shaved ice as big as your head. $3.85 well spent, cherry flavour please.
• sit at any of the beachside restaurants or bars and enjoy a cocktail. My kind of beach activity.
• wander into any of the beachfront hotels and have a look around. Strolling through the beautiful gardens of The Royal Hawaiian (AKA The Pink Palace), standing on the verandah of iconic Moana Surfrider and checking out the infinity pool at The Sheraton Waikiki are my top three recommendations.
• pay your respects to the Olympic swim star, movie star and man who was responsible for bringing surfing to the rest of the world, Duke, at his statue.
• watch the sunset at 7.10pm
• watch the free fireworks that kick off at 7.45pm every Friday night from The Hilton Hawaiian Village end of the beach.

Where are the best places to eat and drink at Waikiki?

Excellent question and I’m so pleased you asked!  

As luck would have it, I’ve researched this particular question extensively for you.  

So much so, that answering them requires their very own blog post which you can read right here.

Have you been to Waikiki Beach? Care to share where you stayed and what you did while you were there?

Looking for more? 

For all the details on my favourite places to shop in Waikiki, check out this post

Nikki from Styling You has put together a fabulous post: 17 Tips For Travelling To Hawaii If You Are A Newbie (We were there at the same time and stayed at the same hotel!)