Our flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu got in around 9pm local time and we found the pre-booked direct shuttle our accommodation for the next two nights just two blocks from Waikiki Beach – a smallish but certainly adequate self-contained studio apartment on the 23^rd floor with a queen bed and double sofa-bed.

 When looking for accommodation we wanted something close to Waikiki Beach because we were here for such a short time. The regular high-rise hotels quoted quite exorbitant nightly rates ($300+) so we again looked to self-contained, but most stipulated a three night minimum.  As you can check the availability online there were a few that still showed our nights as available so I sent a few requests off asking whether they would consider taking us just for the two nights.  I got a lovely email back from the owner of one that said yes that was no problem and that he knew about us, having come across our website when doing some research about a ‘round the world trip’, so we were in luck and at a very reasonable $160 per night rate.

 I had visited Honolulu quite some time ago and done all the ‘touristy’ things and remember that everything took much longer to get to than you thought and as that wasn’t what I wanted for our last day decided to forgo them all and just enjoy what we did have at our doorstep.

The apartment had everything we could possibly need to enjoy our brief stay – a selection of Hawaiian children’s story books, which we read before getting out of bed the next morning. In the cupboard there were sand toys, body boards, beach chairs and a beach umbrella – so away we went for day on Waikiki Beach. 

People watching, swimming, boogie boarding and reading,  it was a great day to rest (with just a few tears on my part that it was all coming to an end).  So no visit to Pearl Harbour or the Arizona Memorial – that can all wait until we come back another time. Today was all about us – kicking back on the beach and in the water, having burgers, fries and ice cream and enjoying the day in the Hawaiian sunshine. Aloha!

And two days later (having lost a day going over the International date line) we were home.