Traveling with Toddler- Oahu Edition

We spent 10 days in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Hawaii in October of 2021. This post is a summary of our trip; the hotel we stayed at and some activities in the area I’ve also included some extra spots to check out that we didn’t have time for but are “must sees” on Oahu. There aren’t as many toddler tips on this post since we spent a majority of our time with wedding activities.

Honolulu is different from what you might expect when you travel to Hawaii since it is a large city but, I believe it is worth a visit if you have a chance. If you have the time, there are parts of Oahu that are more of the typical Hawaiian vibe that you may expect. For this trip, my mom was able to come with us to watch our daughter while we attended the various wedding events. It also gave my husband and I a chance to go to dinner on our last night, just the two of us 🙂

The Flight

Since we fly out of Portland International Airport, our flights are between 5.5 and 6 hours, depending on the direction. This is a very manageable amount of time in our opinion and is the longest flights our daughter has been on so far. You can read about our toddler travel tips on this post.

The Hotel

We stayed at the Sheraton Waikiki in one of the Ohana Suites. We choose the Ohana Suite since it is a true 2 bedroom and my mom had her own private room to retreat to. The Sheraton is located between the beach and Kalakua Avenue, which is the main road along Waikiki. For this trip, we wanted to have the ocean view and be in close proximity to the beach and restaurants so we didn’t have to pack up too much when leaving with our toddler in tow.

We loved the Ohana Suite and it will be a hard experience to replicate on future vacations. We had an ocean view and a view of the iconic Diamond Head on one balcony and an ocean view with sunsets on the other balcony.

The rooms were both great sizes with smart TV’s in each. The beds were very comfortable and the second bedroom included a small desk as well. The bedroom we stayed in with our daughter had a separate, private balcony with a Diamond Head view and large dresser. There is a living room and dining room with 2 couches and lots of additional storage spaces. The dining table was a good size for the 4 of us and the mini fridge came in handy for our small needs. There isn’t a microwave so leftovers that needed to be reheated were not an option for us. They do have a coffee maker that we used every morning and we did end up requesting additional regular coffee bags since they didn’t get replenished each day.

The bathroom was a great layout for 4 people. It had a separate room with a walk-in shower and toilet so we could still use the sinks and additional tub/shower combo if someone was already in that room. The toiletries were super stocked when we first arrived and there were still some unopened bottles at the end of our trip.

Due to renting a car, we had to pay for parking. The on-site daily self park fee is $45 and the valet was $55 so we opted for the extra $10 a day and it was well worth it from our experience.

Hotel extra’s

Our daughter spent a lot of time walking around the hotel property, hanging out by the pool, and visiting the mall across the street. We mostly ate at the surrounding restaurants and fast-food options since we were out and about a lot. The mall between the hotel and Kalakaua Ave (the main road parallel to Waikiki beach) has a lot of restaurants in a variety of styles from fancy to fast food/food court to wine bars.

There are also some little shops on the property you can go to but we found most of it to be the typical resort, tourist trappings. If you are looking for some of those items, especially the Hawaiian cookies, this is the place to look.

Pools– The Helumoa Pool, is the main pool and includes a fun water slide and rock features. There is also a small kids waiting pool that our daughter spent a lot of time in. There is also an Edge Infinity Pool that is only for those 16 years old and over. We could see a line forming every morning before it opened at 8AM so this is definitely a popular pool that fills up fast.

There are a few restaurants on property:

• RumFire- Lunch and dinner. We had the rehearsal dinner food from here and it was delicious. The pricing is pretty typical of a resort, with entrees in the high $20’s-$30’s.
• Edge of Waikiki- Pool bar, lunch and dinner. We had the rehearsal dinner served in this location but the food was brought over from RumFire. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of this location though.
• KaiMarket– Breakfast: We didn’t end up eating here but it was very popular based on the line to get in each day.
• Honolulu Coffee– This was our go-to morning stop for some coffee and we usually grabbed a pastry.
• Baskin-Robbins– Our daughter saw this on her first trip to the pool and grandma treated her to a few more throughout the trip. They definitely thought through the placement of it being in such close proximity to the pool.
• Poolside– On one of our last days, we decided to rent a cabana at the pool overlooking the ocean. Since we rented it half way through the day, it was half the price, about $60. For the shade it was nice but probably not worth the price if you can find a good spot with some of the free loungers. We ordered some lunch and drinks while sitting there and the pasta (pictured below) was cold when we got it but otherwise was pretty tasty.

Rental Car

We rented a Chevy Tahoe for this trip since my husband went on a few golf trips with the guys that allowed them to all fit, with their golf bags included. We found the rental company Sixt through the Alaska Airlines website and found the best deals for the type of vehicle we were looking for. This was our first time renting a car seat as well and it that was a super easy process. The car seat was given to us at check in and took no time at all to install. The best part was when we returned the car, we just left the car seat in the car and didn’t have to pack it back home.

Things to do

The majority of our time was spent in and around Honolulu on this trip. Some of the restaurants we went to for the various wedding festivities in Honolulu were (it is fairly easy to Yelp in this area as well:

• Maui Brewing Co:
  • We spent a few different nights meeting up with the bridal party here. It was a great central location for all of us staying around Waikiki area and the food was delicious. For those drinking beer, the drinks were great and those of us that prefer cocktails and wine, the drinks were good but definitely overpriced. We tried a little of everything; from pizzas and burgers to nachos and tacos and it was all delicious. There was live music most nights as well.

• Buho Cocina y Cantina:
  • We had dinner on the rooftop one night with the bride, groom and family. It is a beautiful location and seemed to be kid friendly with the 4 kiddos we had that night. They serve delicious margaritas and everyone was pleased with their food.
  • I also got to visit for the brides bachelorette party when we finished off the night with some plates and a few extra margaritas. The vibe was much more upbeat/club style atmosphere later in the evening. The food was still good but the service was definitely slower this time. I think they start to focus on the drinks later in the evening.
• Duke’s Waikiki:
  • This is a famous yet touristy spot that we stopped by for brunch. We went for the mimosa flight; you get a bottle of bubbly of your choice and it comes with a bunch of different juices (orange, pog, pineapple and guava). The food was delicious and, of course, priced as you would expect for a tourist destination.
• Cheeseburger in Paradise
  • Great happy hour prices on food and drinks. We had a blast here with the whole bridal party and everyone loved getting our drink on while watching football games on Sunday. It was also some of the best service we had and our group was large. We loved it so much we took my mom and daughter back for breakfast too.

We had a chance to meet up with some friends at Kaimana Beach and our daughter had a blast running around with her new little friend. We decided to walk down to Sans Souci State Park to enjoy dinner at Barefoot Beach Cafe. It is an outdoor cafe with a walk up counter to order from surrounded by the park and an unobstructed view of the ocean. I shared the Kailua pulled pork sandwich with my husband and it was delicious and filling. We loved the low key vibe and calm atmosphere while enjoying our dinner watching the sunset and people strolling along the beach.

We spent a day at the beach with the bridal party after grabbing some drinks and snacks from a local market. I highly recommend checking out a local market if you have a chance. The deli had some interesting finds I had never tried like spam musubi (not my favorite but my husband kept going back for more), poke (you have to have poke in Hawaii), and the different varieties of shortbread cookies and treats. It was also much cheaper to get alcohol and juices from the markets as well.

Some other attractions in the Honolulu area to check out are:

• Diamond Head-If you are in to hiking, Diamond Head is a top spot to visit. You can hike up to the Crater but check the current government website for up-to-date parking and entrance fees.
• Pearl Harbor Memorial- I visited the memorial on a different trip and it was well worth a visit. You can enjoy the memorial grounds but I recommend taking the time to boat out to the USS Arizona Memorial as well. It was an experience that has stuck with me after all these years.
• Dole Plantation- This was one location I wish we had more time for on this trip. I have never been able to visit but I’ve heard it’s great for families. There are some tours you can choose from but you can also relax and enjoy delicious food and soft serve ice cream at the Plantation Grille on site.

Around the island

We spent most of our days in and around Honolulu with all of the wedding festivities but, on our last full day, we hopped in the rental car and drove around the whole island. Our main objective was hanging out around north shore for lunch and sightseeing through the remainder of the island by car. We decided to plug in Haleiwa and drive straight for it so we could make it in time for lunch. It’s only about an hour drive from the hotel if you cut through a portion of the island but you can certainly make it a longer trip with the scenic route.

Once we got to Haleiwa, we found a public parking lot that we stopped at and decided to walk around the surrounding shops. There is a public restroom and lots of little shops and restaurants within walking distance. We found the famous Matsumoto Shave Ice and each got our flavor combinations of choice. Then we hopped over to the Growing Keiki to find a cute dress and book for our daughter.

We jumped back in the car and headed over the bridge to Laniakea Beach. We parked across the highway and ran down on the beach to catch the sea turtles. This is the beach to go to on Oahu if you are hoping to see turtles up close. Please note, do not try to touch them!!

After enjoying the sand between our toes and the beauty of the turtles, we headed around the tip of the north part of Oahu and stopped for some quick snacks and to fill up gas along the way. One of the cool parts to drive by is Kualoa Ranch, just south of Kaawa. It’s called Jurassic Valley and you can tour the spots they used for filming in the Jurassic movies. We didn’t have time for a tour but just driving by on the highway gives some beautiful views of mountains that made it famous. We didn’t have a chance to pull over while driving through but the below picture is a quick snap from the car while driving by. You can imagine what it looks like the rest of that drive. I do recommend stopping for restroom breaks and food and drinks when you can because this part of the island is a little more remote.

The rest of the drive was spent getting back towards Honolulu and enjoying the sites along the way. I highly recommend a trip around the island if you have a day or two to spend. We would have added a lot more stops if we had the time but we also wanted to be able to relax and enjoy some family time on our last day.

Although we spent 10 days on the island of Oahu, most of the time was structured with wedding events so our “tourist” days were spent fitting in what we could with a toddler in tow. If you have a chance to visit this beautiful island, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. There is certainly a lot to discover here.