Is Visiting Hawaii Worth It?

Honesty moment: Hawaii was underwhelming af. Maybe it was because we went right after seeing some breathtaking places like Bryce Canyon National Park during our 7-day Southwest Road Trip, but I was very unimpressed by Hawaii. It was supposed to be the leisure luxury part of our two-week vacation, but here are my main qualms with the Honolulu-Waikiki area:

I felt like I was in Miami. We stayed at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel on the main strip. The street leading up to the hotel is lined with every high-end designer brand you could think of: Louis Vuitton, Bottega, Gucci, etc. I always dreamed Hawaii would feel like I was in a completely different place, but it was evident we were still in the U.S. I can take accountability for the fact that we did spend our three days solely in the Waikiki area, which is tourist central, but still, I wasn’t impressed.

Honolulu is not a place you can go to spontaneously because everything is booked. We hadn’t booked anything in advance because we knew we mainly wanted to relax, but even getting dinner reservations was hard. So I’d skip Honolulu if you’re trying to go with the flow.

The food in Honolulu was okay but nothing extraordinary. I got the malasadas puffs from Leonard’s Bakery, which every blogger recommends trying, and it tasted like cinnamon sugar bread. We also got a reservation at the highly recommended Duke’s. And again, underwhelming. Bae’s steak was salty, and the hula pie was simply an ice cream cake. 

Don’t get me wrong, the beaches are beautiful, and my boyfriend and I made the best of our time there. But honestly, Honolulu/Waikiki felt geared toward old, retired white people. So my recommendation is to skip Hawaii.