Lodging Information:

As the ceremony, reception and all-guest BBQ are being held on the North Shore, we're encouraging people to stay there for convenience. However, before you decide, here are some considerations surrounding lodging location:

• Lodging on the North Shore is limited and more expensive with only one real hotel and the rest of the opportunities made up from condo and private home rentals. Details on both of these are listed below.
• Hotel, condo and home rental on the South Shore in and around Honolulu is more available and affordable with some inexpensive hotels in Waikiki at the heart of the tourist area.
• The Honolulu area is also more convenient to the airport, shopping, tours and other tourist attractions and has a much wider variety of dining options.
• As mentioned, the North Shore is roughly 45 north of downtown Honolulu and about an hour from Waikiki, so if you plan to spend a lot of time in the city, Waikiki, Honolulu or its environs may be your best bet.
• However, don't forget that Honolulu is a large city and for the price of convenience you'll not get the as much of the real Island experience. The North Shore is beautiful, rural sometimes even rustic, and very low key. So, if you're looking for a go-go vacation, tourist shops and the ability to walk to fast food restaurants, stay in town. If you prefer lounging on an uncrowded beach and don't mind driving everywhere else, check out the NS.

Lodging Links:

The following links should help you plan your lodging while on the island...

North Shore

• The only real hotel on the North Shore is the very nice Turtle Bay Golf & Tennis Resort, (right). We spoke to them and though they won't give us a special rate for our guests they do recommened searching the web for package deals as they're often better than one can get through the hotel's reservations.
• There are many beautiful homes on and near the beach in the area. Our terrific real estate agent on the NS, Jeri Haynes is able to help you research these properties. Please contact her at 808.375.9004 (jeri@hawaiianbeachrentals.com) and tell her that you're with our group.
• On the extensive Turtle Bay property there are many privately owned rental condos of varying sizes. Jeri also represents a dozen or so of these homes, starting at about $150/night for a 1 bedroom condo...
  • Toast of Turtle Bay (1 bedroom, 4 guests max)
  • Kui Lima West (1 bedroom, 4 guests max)
  • Condo Plumaria (2 bedrooms, 6 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 161W (3 bedrooms, 8 guests max)
  • Kuilima Hale (2 bedrooms, 6 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 158W (3 bedrooms, 8 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 129W (2 bedrooms, 6 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 93E (1 bedroom, 4 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 103E (1 bedroom, 2 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 195W (1 bedroom, 4 guests max)
  • Kuilima Estates 25W (1 bedroom, 2 guests max)
• You can check out homes and condos by number of bedrooms, location and price range at: www.hawaiianbeachrentals.com

Honolulu and the rest of Oahu

While the rest of the island has many hotels, here are a few that we've been to and can recommend:

• The JW Marriott Ihilani (right) is a beautiful resort and spa about 20 minutes west of Honolulu with a man-made lagoon great for swimming and an indoor pool filled with hammerhead sharks and manta rays
• The Kahala Mandarin Oriental a is a very nice hotel 10 minutes east of Waikiki with a pod of dolphins on residence
• The Sheraton on Waikiki Beach is a decent hotel with pretty good rates
• Here are a some site links with hotel descriptions...
  • Frommers
  • Fodors
  • Hawaii.com
  • Click here for a link to a cool, moveable interactive map of waikiki showing hotels and attractions.
• The Info & Maps section has a detailed Waikiki map showing many of the city's hotels.

Activity Information:

Most group activities and individual activity opportunities are still being planned, though we have a pretty good idea of what people would like to do from the survey results. But, so far here are a couple of items that we're looking at:

• Sunday afternoon, we'd like to host all of our guests at a North Shore beach park BBQ. The location and details are still being worked out but we wanted everyone to have the chance to catch up with old friends and get to know new folks in a casual and fun setting. Our very small way of saying thank you for traveling so far to be with us.
• Monday evening, we're looking at finding a group discount for one of Oahu's best lauas at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel right on Waikiki beach (~$75)
• One morning, we'll take a trip to the moving USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor (free).

This site has a good list of most attractions, beaches and tourist sites on Oahu.