Hi all, my name is Brad, and I am from Sydney Australia. I have recently returned from a holiday to Hawaii. I decided to build this blog to outline my experiences in Hawaii. Hopefully this will give those who are planning a holiday to Hawaii some ideas of where to go, attractions, hotels/resorts, restaurants, eating out, shopping etc etc. Please note, I am just detailing my personal experiences of my Hawaiian Holiday. Everyone has different tastes and preferences to travelling. So what I think is great, may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Please feel free to read my blog, and view my photos taken in Hawaii.

After a shower and some sleep, we we’re off on our first walk to explore Waikiki. Waikiki reminded me a lot of the Gold Coast in Australia. It has a very similar feel and layout. Anyway, our first walk had a meaningful purpose…food! And on our very first walk, we managed to find what would become our favourite place to eat out, The Cheese Cake Factory. In spite of its name, the Cheese Cake Factory does serve more than just Cheese Cake. In fact, it has a huge menu ranging from Pasta, Pizza, Mexican, Burgers, to Salads and Breakfasts. You can check out more about the Cheese Cake Factory at their website. For lunch I ordered the Chicken Quesadilla’s, and my girlfriend Alicia ordered the Burrito Grande. And let me tell you something, they we’re not kidding about the Grande part. This burrito was huge! Needless to say, Alicia managed to eat about a quarter of it. My Quesadilla’s we’re great. Crunchy on the outside, and cheesy in the middle. No complaints here! Anyway, after eating and drinking a few Coronos, we decided we we’re too full to eat any cheese cake. So we ordered some to take back to the hotel room for later. The rest of our afternoon was spent walking around the shops then off for an afternoon swim at Sheraton’s beach.

Dinner - We we’re fairly exhausted still from our lack of sleep, so we decided to try and find somewhere close for dinner. Underneath the Sheraton, which I must say looks more like a shopping mall than a hotel, is a bar/restaurant called Rum Fire. The Rum Fire is a very cool place to be at night. Positioned right on the beach, and surrounded by flaming torches, it creates a very pleasant atmosphere. To keep on theme with the Hawaiian mood, I decided to order a traditional Pinacolada, and Alicia ordered a white wine. For dinner I ordered the Rum Fire Lettuce Wraps, which consists of wok fired spiced garlic chicken, sweet chili oil, firecracker sauce. Alicia ordered the Baby Back Ribs. We both decided the Lettuce wraps we’re the way to go. Just a quick note, on the Rum Fire drinks menu, they offer their own version of the Pinacolada called the Deconstructed Pinacolada. This is nothing like the traditional Pinacolada. So if you are expecting a fruity creamy tropical drink, I do not recommend you order the Deconstructed Pinacolada.

On the walk to Diamond head, besides passing many bikini babes, we also walked pass the Zoo, and the War Memorial museum which looked like it was closed for renovations. After reaching Diamond head, we decided it was time to turn back…this time we walked along the foot path, checking out shops on the way

After our walk, we we’re understandably hot…and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon swimming at the beach. The water was beautiful and warm…and the Japanese tourists seemed to have fun getting dumped by every wave that rolled in

That night we decided to treat ourselves to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse for dinner. Unfortunately we did not make a booking, and the restaurant was very busy. But we just sat at the bar drinking until a table was available. I recall ordering a nice juicy Fillet Steak, and a bottle of South Australian Shiraz. Both the food and service was great! No complaints here! Was a nice way to finish the day

Day 4 we booked a shuttle service to Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a popular snorkelling location, not too far from Waikiki. Our Shuttle service was with Tommys Tours, and I have to say, they did a great job! Our driver was a native Hawaiian lady who went by the name “Home Girl”. Home Girl was a funny lady, who recalled jokes and stories for our journey both ways. Actually, I remember at one stage she had the entire shuttle bus singing along with her Anyway, Tommy’s Tour was basically a transport service to Hanauma Bay, and they also provided us with snorkeling gear.

On arrival to Hanauma Bay, we we’re required to watch a movie  before we could begin snorkeling. The movie basically covered some rules and guidelines in order to protect the bay and its sea life. I was fortunate enough to visit Hanuama Bay back in the 1980’s, and I must say the coral and sea life was much more abundant and colourful. I guess having thousands of tourists a day over a 20 year period has really taken its toll on the reef. The water was very rough the day we arrived, so we did not spend too much time snorkeling. But it wasn’t a total waist of a day…we managed to do a lot of swimming and sun baking

For dinner that night we went to a place called Gyu-Kaku. Gyu-Kaku is a Japanese BBQ restaurant, and would end up being our favourite place to eat…yes, even out ranking the Cheese Cake Factory There is nothing special about eating at Gyu-Kaku…just your standard Japanese BBQ, but damn the meat is soooo good! And service is great! I highly recommend dining there!

Day 7 we decided to go to the Waikiki Zoo. The Zoo would be about a 20 minute walk from the Sheraton, but we we’re feeling lazy and decided to get a taxi there. The Zoo itself was surprisingly good! Spread amongst beautiful green luscious plants and trees…the Zoo was very clean and very well maintained. It also had a great range of animals that we spent hours admiring. My girlfriend was very excited to see the Hippo, which the Zoo allowed for an up close and personal viewing through a glass barrier. And as always, the monkeys we’re energetic and entertaining. I can’t remember how much we paid for entrance to the Zoo, but I remember it being very cheap in comparison to Zoo’s in Australia. Also, like many places in Hawaii…if you are a local you have the benefit of even cheaper admissions.

I thought I should mention where we had dinner that night…mainly because it was a good memorable meal. We dined at a Restaurant called PF Changs. PF Changs is an asian (Chinese) style restaurant famous for their lettuce wraps. I fondly recall ordering the Wok Seared Lamb, and a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Malborough New Zealand. A quick note on drinking wine in Hawaii. I don’t wish to offend anyone, and this is just my personal taste (everyone is different), but we did not have much luck finding any decent American Wines. In fact the American white wines we’re all very sweet and syrup like tasting. If you are going to order a white wine, anything from Malborough NewZealand is good. If you are wishing to order a nice bottle of red, you can’t go wrong selecting a Shiraz from the Barossa Valley in South Australia.

Day 9) Today we we’re booked for a 9:45am tour called the “Outrigger Aquatic Eco Tour”. These tours leave from Waikiki beach in a large catamaran. There was a group of about 15 people. Basically the Tour took us out to some of the reef areas off Waikiki beach. They also supplied Snorkeling gear, drinks and a life guard for our safety. This turned out to be a great day… we managed to swim up close with many turtles. There we’re also a good variety of colourful fish. If you get the chance, I highly recommend heading out on this tour.

This would be our last morning at the Sheraton Beach resort. After the tour finished we grabbed our bags, and hopped in a taxi which took us to the Kahala Resort. My first impressions of the Kahala was wow! We had actually booked a Dolphin room which gives a view of the lagoon. But unfortunately (or fortunately) the Dolphin Rooms we’re all booked out, so they upgraded us to an Ocean View room. Everything about the Kahala is beautiful. From the resort and its interior, to the tropical grounds and the man made lagoon. The Kahala is not cheap, costing around $1000 a night..but well worth the money!

That night we had dinner at Plumeria, one of the many Kahala Resort Restaurants.  Great food and Berry Melon Cocktails was a nice way to end a very pleasant day

After swimming with the Dolphins, we had lunch at Cabanas Seafood Grill. Cabanas is another one of the restaurants attached to the Kahala Resort. We basically spent the rest of the day swimming at Kahala’s private beach. The view from the beach is absolutely amazing. I recall looking down the coast line from the water. The view was that of a post card picture, with palm trees bending over the clear turquoise water and white sand. We spent the rest of the day swimming sun-baking and sleeping.

That night we had dinner at Hoko’s, another restaurant within the Kahala resort. Being our last night, we decided to order the Seafood mountain and a nice bottle of white wine (from New Zealand of course)…After dinner it was time for us to start packing, as sadly tomorrow morning we would be heading back to Honolulu airport, then back to Sydney Australia.