Return to Waikiki

I've been to Honolulu twice before, once for fun and once for work. I returned again this summer for work, for a two day meeting in Waikiki. I kept busy during the day, but had a few mornings and evenings to enjoy Honolulu's amazing food scene with colleagues. I'm a huge fan of Waikiki - it's touristy and over-priced, but also amazingly unique and vibrant with walkable streets and beautiful trees and flowers. Not the "real" Hawaii by any means, but a destination in its own right.

Views of Diamondhead while flying in.

The "Weekend at Burmese" salad at Piggy Smalls. Highly recommend this restaurant. 

Early morning on the sidewalks of Waikiki.

Iced coffee and a ham and cheese croissant from my favorite quick breakfast spot, Kona Coffee Purveyors.

We had a tour of the tsunami warning center.

NOAA's building at Pearl Harbor.

NOAA has a nice museum about their work in the Pacific.

Udon for lunch at Marukame. It always has a line, because it's delicious and cheap.

The view from the restaurant of the Outrigger Reef, where our meeting was held.

Shrimp and avocado salad at Mahina and Sun's.

Nighttime view from my hotel.

Gotta have ramen when in Honolulu! This is from a fantastic new Japanese food court called Yokocho.

Inside Yokocho, with multiple stalls/restaurants serving a variety of Japanese foods.

Daytime view from the Outrigger.

Asahi and a chuhai at an izakaya.

Beer Lab HI had a nice variety of brews.

The shopping areas in Waikiki are all open-air, with beautiful trees.

Tree in the courtyard of the historic Moana Surfrider hotel.

The famous Duke statue!

Pier along Waikiki beach.

View toward Diamondhead early on a cloudy morning.

Did I mention I love the trees?

Lots of tropical flowers around Waikiki as well.

Another weird tree/flower.

A Nene!

More flowers.

These huge canopy trees are impressive.

A tropical iris?

Palm trees and hotels.

The courtyard of the airport.

Even the airport has amazing trees!

Hard to believe this is in an airport.

Until next time, goodbye Waikiki!

Weekdays in Waikiki - Or, Adventures in Ramen and Udon

I spent a few days at the end of May at a work meeting in Honolulu. I was busy with the meeting so I didn't have time to venture much beyond the tourist neighborhood of Waikiki. We've been to Honolulu before, and the city is just as weird as always. Waikiki is essentially one big shopping mall of Japanese tourists, but it does have a lot of surprisingly good food if you look for it, and of course the famous beach. I didn't have time to visit the beach - it was rainy all week anyway, but with the time change I was waking up very early (3AM on the first day!) so I did get in quite a bit of walking and exploring before the meeting start times.

After landing I had some amazing udon for dinner and walked around a bit before going to bed early. The next day I got to Diamond Head in time for the 6AM opening, and hiked to the top and back to my hotel before going to work. Diamond Head is a volcano with a big crater that looks over Waikiki. The hike to the top is pleasant early in the morning, but I can imagine it gets hot in the afternoon. There are decent views of the city, but it's not really one of the better hikes I've done. It's worth it if you have extra time in the city, but the hikes we did on our previous trip to Hawaii, especially the Kalalau trail, were much more impressive.

Marukame Udon - delicious!

This is the lunch time line for Marukame Udon. And it's worth it.

Banyan trees in an outdoor shopping mall.

Famous Waikiki beach.

The Duke Kahanmoku statue.

The Ala Wai canal. I jogged this path at sunrise a couple of times.

The view before you walk in to the crater of Diamond Head.

The tunnel in to the crater.

Inside the crater.

The Pacific from near the top.

Looking back across the huge crater.

And the view of Honolulu!

It was pretty crowded, even at 6AM.

Part of the path up is these stairs, which were part of an army facility.

The city has a lot of beautiful trees and flowers.

And there are random chickens!

Another cool banyon tree on the beach.

Kuhio beach, which has a protected lagoon.

Looking back at Diamond Head from a small pier.

Time for a taro bagel and coconut frozen coffee at Kai Coffee.

My food goal on the trip was to try a lot of different types of ramen and udon. Hawaii has a huge Japanese influence, so ramen is plentiful. There's also saimin, which is kind of like a Hawaiian fusion version of ramen. Luckily I was able to find unique ramen, saimin, and udon for just about every meal! I certainly got my fill.

Lunch break on the first full day was spicy tonkotsu ramen at Agu. Very good.

And ramen for dinner in the foodcourt of Ala Moana. Pretty decent.

Breakfast the next morning at Kona Coffee Purveyors right next to my hotel. This place was delicious! I came back again.

I got a nitro cold brew and a black sesame kouign-amann.

The overcast streets of Waikiki in the morning.

Another lunch - this time a yummy udon at Sobaya at the Lanai in Ala Moana.

Dinner was Korean BBQ with colleagues at Sura Hawaii.

Grilled baby octopus.

Nightime along the canal.

Brought a couple of local beers back to the hotel.

My hotel, the Laylow, had a chill vibe and a cool aesthetic.

Another delicious breakfast at Kona Coffee. This place was so good!

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, a big pink landmark in Waikiki.

A change of pace for lunch - empanadas from Mami's. Also delicious.

My hotel pointed me in the right direction.

The final evening I was able to try some local beer. There's a neighborhood near downtown called Kaka'ako that has a couple of new-ish breweries and beer focused restaurants. It's pretty much the craft beer heart of the state of Hawaii. We had some happy hour drinks at Village Bottle Shop and Tasting Room, which had a great selection of beers on tap and was full of locals. It's in a new development called Salt, and the neighborhood has a lot of neat art and new shops and restaurants. We met some very friendly locals who gave us tips on what beers to try and where else to go... and came along with us for dinner two blocks away at Honolulu Beerworks. I would definitely recommend visiting this neighborhood if you're in Honolulu. And it didn't even exist the last time we visited!

A taster flight at Village bottle shop. Great place!

There were a lot of cool signs and maps on the wall.

Art in the neighborhood.

Lots of murals.

Honolulu Beerworks had a fun vibe.

Another taster flight!

On the last day, I had some time in the morning to walk around (it was finally sunny-ish!) and of course had one more bowl of ramen before flying home.

The open air lobby of my hotel. Too cool for me!

So I guess I technically made it to the beach on the way to more ramen?

The last ramen was at Ramen Nakamura. It was good, and the space was fun - just a horse-shoe shaped ramen bar with room for about a dozen people.

This is inside the airport!

I flew on the Spirit of Atlanta back home.

Waikiki is definitely worth visiting. If you make it to Hawaii, you should really try to get to the Big Island and Kauai, which we loved. But don't overlook Honolulu and Waikiki. Yes, it's touristy, and yes, it's weird - but it's a one of a kind neighborhood. And oh, there's good ramen. :)