Aulani for quick Honeymoon

surgefest

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 20, 2006
My fiancée and I will be going to Aulani for a brief honeymoon trip lasting 6 days. What are the must do's while we are on the island. We are hoping for a good mix of relaxation but also doing some exploring. I realize we aren't going to be there for nearly enough time, but what are the highlights and things that are definitely worth doing. Be it sightseeing, hiking, sunsets, etc etc... Thanks so much for any advice. the more details the better...even down to airport transportation.
 
My fiancée and I will be going to Aulani for a brief honeymoon trip lasting 6 days. What are the must do's while we are on the island. We are hoping for a good mix of relaxation but also doing some exploring. I realize we aren't going to be there for nearly enough time, but what are the highlights and things that are definitely worth doing. Be it sightseeing, hiking, sunsets, etc etc... Thanks so much for any advice. the more details the better...even down to airport transportation.

Congratulations!! :)

As far as ‘must do’s I can name a few things we’re doing on our upcoming trip. We’ve never been to Hawaii before, but I’ve received a ton of valuable information from this board and have done a TON of research!

Here’s some things I have planned and you could research them and see if you would be interested.

•••Hanauma Bay (Has amazing snorkelling) Closed on Tuesday’s

•••Pearl Harbour

•••North Shore Beaches- Here are a few we would like to check out!
•Haleiwa Ali’l Beach Park (Turtles)
•Laniakea Beach (Turtle Beach)
•Waimea Bay
•Sharks Cove (Snorkelling)***Food trucks & Shave Ice across the street
•Banzai Pipeline
•Sunset Beach Park
•Laie Point and don’t forget about the yummy Matsumotos for Shave Ice

•Kualoa Ranch

•Kaneohe Bay (Sandbar) ***We have a Private Boat Tour Booked to go out to the Sandbar and to see some other places ie: Giligans Island and some other snorkel spots and so on...their is a place that you can rent kayaks from right at the Bay and you can Kayak out to the Sandbar as well. It’s called Holokai Adventures

•Kailua Beach (Read this is one is breath taking)
•Lanikai Beach is only about 5 mins from Kailua Beach
•Waimanalo Bay Beach Is appx 20 mins from Lanikai Beach so we plan on hitting all 3 in one day.

•Diamond Head

•Waikiki Beach (some love it some don’t)

•Here are a few other things we hope to see on our trip
•Makapuu Lookout
•Makapuu Tidepools
•Makapuu Point Lighthouse Trail
•Halona Blowhole***(Eternity Beach is next to it)
•Lanai Lookout
•Amelia Earhart Lookout

You won’t get this all in, but you could check these places out if they interest you and pick some of your top favs! I’ve been researching and planning for about 1 yr and a 1/2, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Also, the book Oahu Revealed is supposed to be really good and informative.

Hope this helps:)
 
My fiancée and I will be going to Aulani for a brief honeymoon trip lasting 6 days. What are the must do's while we are on the island. We are hoping for a good mix of relaxation but also doing some exploring. I realize we aren't going to be there for nearly enough time, but what are the highlights and things that are definitely worth doing. Be it sightseeing, hiking, sunsets, etc etc... Thanks so much for any advice. the more details the better...even down to airport transportation.

I forgot about Paradise Cove which is walking distance from Aulani which has great snorkeling and you can usually see some sea turtles and even possibly a monk seal.
I’m sure someone else can chime in on their experience while visiting this place.
Here is the info I received on how to get there from Aulani...

***Go out to the road in front of Aulani, turn left. Go past the Four Seasons, and see a parking lot. Along the water side of the PL their is a fence. Their is a break in the fence line with fencing on both sides of the path. Follow the path to the cove.
 
I definitely recommend Hanauma Bay( it was our favorite thing on Oahu. It's easily combined with Diamond Head for a full day. I recommend Kona Brewing Company at Koko Marina for dinner; love that place. Also, you could hike Koko Head, but it was definitely more than we wanted to attempt!

We snorkeled at Sharks Cove too and had fun, but it was nothing compared to Hanauma Bay!! Of course, if you surf, the north shore is great.

Not sure if you want to do Pearl Harbor on a honeymoon or not, but plenty of info here on it.

We skipped the Dole Plantation; it just seemed like a way to kill time, and we found plenty of more fun (it seemed) stuff to do.

YMMV on the turtles and seals at Paradise Cove; we saw neither in a few attempts. (We did see seals on Kauai though!!) We enjoyed the PC luau. Fia Fia looks like a nice setting, too.

There's a golf course across the street. IIRC it was about $175 for 18.

If it were just us with no kids, I would check out some sort of cruise or charter from the KoOlina Marina so I didn't have to drive back.

Also, plan on spending some sunsets in the awesome two tier infinity hot tub :)

My #1 if we return to Oahu is seeing Kailua Beach.
 


I would highly recommend a couples massage at the spa at Aulani. The outdoor area is great too.

Airport transportation: I would not recommend speedishuttle. A lot of waiting and not worth the cost savings. We took Charlie’s taxi this time which was great. They have flat rates and were early so no waiting.
 
We spent part of our honeymoon at Aulani as well! My trip report is in my signature.

I agree with PP about the couple's massage at Aulani. The massage itself was good, nothing spectacular, but the spa amenities were the nicest I've seen. The hydrotherapy gardens are very unique. Considering that, I thought the price of the massage was actually pretty good.

I agree with PP that if you are short on time and/or trying to pack in multiple activities, the Dole Plantation is not worth a stop. We are glad we did it, but it ate up almost 3 hours of our morning and we had arrived at opening when lines are the shortest. The later in the day you go, the more crowded it becomes.

I would definitely do Haleiwa and the North Shore and Kualoa Ranch again. Enjoyed both. Next time, I'd also plan to spend more time in Kailua and the beaches in that vicinity. They were much nicer than the beaches at and around Aulani.
 
I third the suggestion of visiting the Spa. We spent half a day in those hydrotherapy gardens. It was DH's first spa experience and now he is hooked!

We also really enjoyed a short tour and rum tasting at Manulele Distillers (a quick drive from the resort). It was inexpensive (before DH decided to buy a few bottles after our tasting haha) at $25 a person and included a really informative tour of the farm and a tasting of multiple rums. We would do it again!
 


We did a 7 night honeymoon at Aulani and it was AMAZING. It was the most incredible week of my life. We rented a car for the week and it was worth every penny. We took a lot of trips to eat dinner in Kapolei & Honolulu and drove ourselves around the entire island.

Here's what we did:

Saturday - Arrived at resort at 4PM
Sunday - Resort Day
Monday - Kualoa Ranch (VIP Movie Tour & Catamaran Tour) Can't recommend this enough.
Tuesday - Resort Day
Wednesday - Wild Dolphin Snorkel Cruise with Dolphins and you @ 530AM-Noon , after that we drove down to Kaena Point beach, absolutely incredible. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the resort and then walked over to Paradise Cove and did the VIP Luau. That was incredible as well!
Thursday - North Shore Surfing with Sunset Suzys (WOW)
Friday - North Shore Surfing (again because we loved the North shore SO much) & Dole Plantation - Paradise Cove Lagoon (swim with turtles!)
Saturday - Resort day until 4PM , flight out 10PM

Let me know if you have any questions!!

There's not a thing on here I would miss, but if I had to rank them I'd put North Shore & Kualoa (make sure to go on the catamaran tour in addition to a land tour) at the top.
 
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There's not a thing on here I would miss, but if I had to rank them I'd put North Shore & Kualoa (make sure to go on the catamaran tour in addition to a land tour) at the top.

100% agree. If/when we do Aulani again, the North Shore and Kualoa are probably the only two things we'd repeat.
 

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