Best meal:

This should really be called best acai bowl not best meal. We became addicted to these and ate at least one every day. Our favourites were probably those from DaCove Diamond Head Bar. Seriously these were incredible, go here, live here. It’s just awesome. Our second favourite was from a cute little restaurant in Waikiki (but not actually ridiculously priced) called Heavenly Cafe. Expect to pay about $10 for a bowl and they are filling.

Worst meal:

Pizza and pasta from a food court in Waikiki. We should have steered clear but we didn’t. The pasta in particular was watery and bland and we weren’t at all full afterwards so had to go get a massive dessert from the Cheesecake Factory. (Actually quite a good restaurant, quite expensive but has about 30 different types of cheesecakes which in itself is awesome.)

Best wave:

Pipeline and Sandbar (Thomas): Pipeline is THE place to surf in Hawaii (like at times 20 ft waves) although it wasn’t quite up to that standard when we were there. Thomas caught some nice waves here (before eventually breaking his board here.)

Queens (Issy): Actually caught a wave here that went over my head. Terrifying and seriously cool in equal measures.

Worst wave:

The best and worst day for Thomas was at pipeline where on the last day he broke his board colliding with another surfboard (fortunately all was repaired within the day.)

Best activity: (or activities – there were several. Listed from best to worst.)

Surfing (obviously at the top of the list)
Best beaches we found tended to be on the North Shore. In contrast if you’re a beginner head to the South (you can’t go wrong with Waikiki.)

Swimming with Sharks (Hawaii adventure diving)
Apparently this is a fun activity you know swimming with man eating creatures without any form of protection is just too much fun obviously.

Hike up Diamond Head
This is a pretty easy uphill walk and although it is filled with tourists the views over Honolulu are pretty spectacular. Also you climb up through an old bunker which is something a bit different.

Pearl Harbour
The USS Arizona memorial was primarily for a ship which took over 1000 men with her when she capsized after being hit by several Japanese tornados in the attack on pearl harbour in 1941. The memorial is particularly moving as the monument stands over the actual ship, inside of which the dead men are still entombed. Definitely worth a visit. And free too.

Worst activity:

Not applicable. Hawaii gets 5 stars.

Best beach:

Lani’s beach – very likely to see turtles here on the shore and in the sea. No matter how many turtles we saw it was always a bit of a shock to see these beautiful animals swimming only metres away.

Pinballs – we went surfing on the reef here and the water was really clear which meant you could see all the fish swimming underneath you.

Both of these beaches were on the North Shore which was generally less touristy and a bit more pretty.

Worst beach:

Again I can’t think of a worst right now. To me all the beaches were beautiful.

Best location:

Diamond Head – want to live here. Less touristy than Waikiki but still on the South Shore and near to Honolulu. Really pretty and really cool.

Also North Shore – really good waves, more locally, you can easily just be on your own on one of the beaches.

Worst location:

Not enough research done. Will have to go back to research this properly (shame.)

Best thing about a trip to Hawaii:

The surfing. The beaches. The super chilled atmosphere. THE ACAI BOWLS. Basically everything.

Worst thing about a trip to Hawaii:

That you eventually have to leave because the USA doesn’t do working holiday visas. This is not ok. Also Hawaiian airlines are the worst airline (read next blog.)