Hawaii - Oahu 1

Hawaii - Oahu Day 1

Aloha! We finally arrived Honolulu at 7 pm local time after a long day of switching planes! We were supposed to fly out from Boston to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to get us to Honolulu by 4 pm....but our plane was delayed in Boston so Delta had to re-book us GRRR! We flew from Boston to Atlanta then to Los Angeles to get us to Honolulu but at least we made it to our destination!  Our baggage made it too, phew....we were worried about it. Before we landed, we had to fill out an agriculture form so a good idea to carry a pen with you (we didn't so we had to borrow from our neighbor). 

We hopped on the Enterprise shuttle to take us to the Enterprise Car Rental office to pick up our car which was a very short ride from the airport.  I reserved the car through Expedia at $133.86 for 5 days, that was the lowest price I saw from weeks of checking.  It was worth the effort to check the rental rate daily because  it changes daily...trust me! Plus, you can always cancel without penalty so it won't hurt to reserve first and keep checking. Also another place to reserve is Discount Hawaii Car Rental, it has a fixed rate which is usually lower than Expedia. Enterprise let us pick our car, we picked the Hyundai Sonata, it was clean and comfortable.  We declined all the insurance, it was cheaper to get the primary insurance from American Express.

After we picked up our car, we drove straight to our hotel - Sheraton Princess Kaiulani; our ride was smooth thanks to our GPS and no traffic at night. We like the location of our hotel, right in the middle of Waikiki and the resort fee included parking (parking is very expensive in Waikiki)! The first thing we saw when we walked in was the huge gingerbread Christmas display!

Felt like Christmas but we are in Hawaii, how nice is that feeling!

Right after we dropped off our luggage in our room, we ran to dinner because we were starving after the long plane ride!  We walked to Marukame Udon (2310 Kuhio Ave, Honolulu) which is located on the street right behind our hotel.  I have read review it this place has the best udon in Hawaii!  It was hard to find this restaurant at first because not all the stores in the street has the house number displayed but we saw a huge line of people so it must be it! Marukame Udon runs like a cafeteria, you first take a tray,  order the udon and they'll add the noodle and soup base right in front of you, then the tempuras and other side dishes, and lastly is the cashier. Total for both of us $22.50 for dinner, very inexpensive and great food! The reviews are right, their udon is the best (tempuras are just average)!

By the time we finished our dinner, it was almost 9:15 pm and there were still people lined up outside!!! If we arrived at 4 pm, we would've time to shop around after dinner but now we don't :(  Oh well, tomorrow is another day! We went back to our hotel and drove our cousins back to theirs - Hilton Hawaiian Village (Sheraton Princess Kaiulani was full by the time they booked due to the Honolulu Marathon).

Hilton Hawaiian Village is more than 1 mile away from our hotel, the location wasn't great in my opinion but it has its own shops and it is really like a "village" with many many towers!  Hubby is a Hilton Honors Diamond member so was very lucky to get a free upgrade from a resort view to an ocean view room at the Ali 'i Tower, located right near the lobby area so was easy to drop off and pick up our cousins. Their room is much nicer than the Sheraton (off course for the extra bucks) with newer furnishing but one down side about the HHV is that they started to charge a resort fee of $25 per day which does not include parking!!!  Good that we booked before they started the resort fee so we didn't get charged!

By the time we got back to our hotel, we were so tired so we went to sleep right away! Can't wait for tomorrow's adventure :D