The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Waikiki Beach and Honolulu

We had to get on the road by 7:30am this morning in order to return our rental car which was due back by 8:45am.

You would think that an hour and fifteen minutes would be lots of time to drive 20 miles (32 kms), but it almost wasn't.

Yes, we had to deal with morning rush hour traffic in Honolulu... and we just made it in time! We had the car for exactly three full days at $40 USD ($53 CAD) per day, taxes included. Probably the most we have ever paid for a rental car. But, I'm glad we had it. The only other way to see the island is with the local bus, and because of the traffic problems it's not that reliable or that fast.

We put 220 miles (350 kms) on the rental car, and had to put a half a tank of gas in it to fill it back up. 6.4 gallons at $3.54 USD per gallon. ($1.25 CAD per liter).

With that done, we sat in the shade at the hotel where the rental car desk was located. Just nice to relax and people watch for an hour.

Then, we went for a walk down Waikiki Beach...

Ruth, getting her toes wet in the Waikiki lagoon.

Waikiki hotels and condos.

Busy Waikiki Beach.

We walked out a short wharf and saw this huge sea turtle!


Further along the opposite way towards Honolulu there is another beach that doesn't have all the hotels and condos backing it.

From there, we walked about 2 miles (3.5 kms) each way to the area around the Honolulu City Hall. We had driven through this area on the bus when we arrived on the island, and it looked interesting.

Walked by the local BMW dealer and saw this pretty little unit.

Scenery along the way.

Honolulu office of Culture and the Arts.

Mausoleum of King Lunalilo.

Downtown Honolulu.

The state capitol building on the right.

Me, with the big banyan trees.

The courtyard of the state capitol building.

Queen Liliuokalani Statue.

Iolani Palace.

King Kamehameha statue.

I'm sure we broke the record for the cheapest ever 3 day visit to Hawaii, but we still enjoyed some treats. We felt like having an ice cream to beat the heat, so rather than paying ice cream shop prices, we went to the Target store and bought a small tub of Haagen-Dazs for $3.50 USD ($4.70 CAD) to share between the two of us. Way too much ice cream, but we ate the whole thing anyhow!

Us, with our ice cream.

Then, we walked back to the Ilikai Hotel where we had stored our bags for the day at $2 each. We hopped on the local bus for $2.75 USD ($3.70 CAD) each and did the 45 minute ride back to the airport.

Atrium in Honolulu Airport.

And so, we are sitting here waiting for our flight to Los Angeles. In fact, we're going to be spending the next 18 hours or so in airplanes and airports as we make our way to Saskatchewan, Canada via Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Honolulu to Los Angeles to Minneapolis to Saskatoon.

We arrive in Saskatoon Friday evening at 9:00pm and have an Airbnb booked for Friday night. Saturday, we have another car rental booked and will go visit our friends in Cabri for the weekend.

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14 comments:

  1. Dash Cam for $20 is a fantastic deal, can't wait to play with it! But it's only Thursday night here in Arizona, even earlier in Hawaii---why does your post say Friday already? You're not in Oz any more, hope you aren't a day early for your flight 😂

    ReplyDelete
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    1. You will have to let us know how it works out for you, sometimes you can never be sure when you are only paying $20.

      Lol, with google posting the time you never know, maybe it thinks we are still back in Australia?!

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  2. A great blog for the trip. It sure requires a lot of time and discipline to post such informative posts with pictures every day of the year. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kay, we are glad that you enjoy our blog posts and appreciate the time Kevin puts into it. It definitely takes some time but after all these years, it has just become a habit for him and the majority of the time he really enjoys doing it.

      Delete
  3. I am surprised at a direct flight from Minneapolis to Saskatoon!

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    1. So are were we and we were surprised to have seen the flight full as well!

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  4. I stayed at the Ilikai in 1969. There were only a very few high rise hotels then and none on the non-beach side of the street. Our room was $24 a night and it included a full kitchen and a separate small living room area. I thought it was very expensive after moving from a smaller, but noisy hotel, that was $13 a night.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Lol, we love the sound of those prices, but boy have things changed. I don't know what the price at the Ilikai Hotel is now but when they call in a luxury hotel you know that it isn't going to be cheap! Times sure have changed since back then both in pricing and in the skyline along the beach and behind the beach.

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  5. Smart deal on the icecream (and what a hardship to have to finish it!). Safe travels!!

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    1. Always out looking for the deal! And to be honest, it was hard trying to finish off that small tub of ice cream. We laughed saying that it would actually have been enough for two meals between us had we had somewhere to store it, lol :-)

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  6. Great three-day trip! Great way to break up the trip, save money and have some fun!

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    1. It was a good three day stopover, we definitely enjoyed our time there and the scenery but we don't ever see us coming back unless it was to make a stopover to break up a long flight again and if we did we would pick a different island.

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  7. Great idea for the ice cream,lol!

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    Replies
    1. We have done something similar many times! We still get to enjoy an ice cream at a fraction of the price. :-)

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