Kauai to Honolulu (Waikiki Beach)
It bears repeating that during our entire stay in Kauai, we stayed at the Kauai Sands Hotel. It is located in Kaapa just north of Lihue, which is Kauai's largest city and location of its international airport.
This strategy would not have been our first choice as it would have been preferable to have booked a hotel for three nights in the south of the island and then two nights in the north to minimize driving as we were determined to see all of the island no matter the location of our hotel.
This north-south strategy did not come to fruition, as there were no reasonably priced hotel rooms available on the island, except for the Kauai Sands, at the time of our booking just before Christmas 2007.
The Kauai Sands was nothing to write home about but it was adequate and well located on a beautiful bay right next to the Coconut Market, perhaps the largest concentration of shops, boutiques and restaurants on the island.
On the west side of Lihue is a large modern shopping mall, which includes big box stores such as Costco and much more.
The main disadvantage of the whole Lihue area is the incredible concentration of traffic on the coastal road, which is more or less the only highway to get through the area. Just leaving the side road from the Kauai Sands to cross Highway 56 was a challenge.
Today, on January 8 we were leaving Kauai and for the last time we would be taking a return flight to Honolulu International Airport.
That was the bad news but the good news was that we had planned for two more days in beautiful Waikiki Beach to end our Hawaiian holiday.
That indeed was something to look forward to. What one realizes after a tour of the Hawaiian Islands is that there is no other city in the islands that remotely comes close to either Honolulu as a major city or Waikiki as a major tourist destination.
Therefore it makes sense to start with Waikiki Beach and after three days it may get stale and that is the time to tour the islands and after almost four weeks there is a certain eagerness to see it all one more time. It would have been disappointing to fly from Kauai to Honolulu and then head for an Air Canada flight back to Vancouver without another multi-day stay in Waikiki Beach.
On our previous stay in Waikiki we stayed at the Waikiki Park Hotel where we were upgraded to a better room because of a cockroach (see Blog no. 80 - Scream and Stomp). The upgraded room was excellent but we could not afford it upon our return.
We therefore opted for the Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel which is located not along the Beach like the Waikiki Park Hotel but rather four blocks back along the Ala Way Canal which runs parallel to the beach.
It proved to be an excellent choice for $110 per night. Unlike the Waikiki Park Hotel where we really felt uncomfortable in the room that was originally assigned to us, the room in the Waikiki Sand Villa Hotel was clean and comfortable and high enough that we had an excellent view along the canal and the back of buildings along Waikiki Beach.
While it is about four blocks back of the main drag, Kalakau Avenue, there is no problem in walking about even late at night. The area is extremely well lit and there are plenty of other pedestrians on the street providing a perceived sense of security.
Our stay here was a fitting way to end our Hawaiian vacation.
Coming Soon: Waikiki Beach and a little more of Honolulu
More thumbnails ...
11 votes 
