While in Hawaii we stayed at the Aqua Wave Hotel which we found through Trip Advisor where it was rated in the top 10 hotels in Waikiki.

The foyer is plain with  a reception desk on one side and the concierge and a couple of shops on the other. There is a chinese restaurant at the end of the corridor-like entrance.

The staff were very friendly and helpful and check in was easy and painless apart from the fact that our room wasn’t ready. This was through no fault of the hotel, as we had arrived early after a 10 hour flight from Sydney, Australia. We checked our bags and after receiving instructions on how to get to the shopping centre we went off to buy a laptop.

On our return we completed the booking in process and finally made it up to the room on the 12th floor – Room 1218. The room has two queen sized beds which turned out to be very comfortable and each bed had 4 soft pillows. Unlike most hotels, the Aqua Wave had a microwave, great for heating up frozen dinners etc. There is a coffee making machine that we utilized for tea making, neither of us being coffee drinkers.

One thing that we did like was the free wireless internet, and although the connection tended to keep dropping out we did manage to get some work done.

The room is very nicely appointed with a small table and chairs to work at, a tv and dvd player, and a plastic table and chairs setting on the balcony.

We have a view, well more of a glimpse, of the water from the balcony.

Complimentary earplugs are provided as the hotel is in a busy nightclub area, however, we weren’t affected by noise at any stage. This is a nice touch for anyone who maybe very sensitive to noise and more sets are available on request.

The Aqua Wave Hotel is located in a very convenient spot, close to shopping, restaurants, buses and of course the amazing Waikiki beach.

Try out the restaurant next door to the hotel ‘Da Big Kahuna’ at 2299 Kuhio Avenue for a great deal on amazing food.

We talked to the housekeeper on our way out in the morning, she was knocking on doors actually waking people up so that she could clean their room, however when we returned some hours later, our room wasn’t made up. Not that we minded, we just thought it a bit odd that she hadn’t made the room up knowing we weren’t in there.

When we returned later in the day after a spell at the beach, the room had been made up and the housekeeper, realizing that we were tea drinkers, had thoughtfully left us some teabags and macadamia biscuits.

Check out at 5am in the morning was equally as pleasant as checking in had been.
Our Rating of the Aqua Wave Hotel:

Checking in and out 5/5
Room 4/5
Position 4/5
Price 4/5
Cleanliness 5/5

Booking this hotel is easy through: Expedia.com!

Slept in this morning and when we finally got up we headed down to the beach.  Today it was crowded and no wonder, the weather is amazing.

We had planned to do so many things – go paragliding, attend a luau, check out the many memorials around and go to Paradise point.  And what did we do, absolutely nothing in the tourist line at all except wander around Waikiki through the shops, the International Market, the Hyatt Hotel lobby which was pretty spectacular with it’s indoor waterfall. We then headed to Kings Village which was made up of quaint looking shops which were really targeted for the tourist.

We needed a mouse for the new laptop so we boarded a bus to Ala Moana Mall.  This was an experience in itself. The place is enormous and all the top designers have outlets here – Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton etc, right along side Macy’s and Sears. They also had a great indoor pond with some huge carp.

I am totally blown away by the cheap tv’s here and the computers are way cheaper than back home.  We found what we needed at Radio Shack and then headed back to Waikiki and grabbed some lunch to take back to the hotel. Unfortunately we bought sandwiches that were pretty tasteless but the cream puffs we bought were delicious.

We also bought some tea to take back to the hotel as in most US hotels they only have a coffee. While we were at the supermarket we checked the food prices and found them comparable to Australia.

As soon as we got back to the hotel we set up the laptop with the new mouse. It’s amazing what a difference having the right equipment makes.  We are involved with affiliate marketing which means we spend lots of time on the computer.  Today we had a hook up with James Martell in Canada for an hour or so in the Affiliate Super Boot Camp. James is a great teacher and we advise anyone interested in learning about Affiliate Marketing to take his course as it is very informative.

Tonight we went next door to our Hotel for dinner at ‘Da Big Kahuna’.  I so wish we had gone there last night instead of where we went.  The food is extremely tasty. We had a medium well New York Steak with fries and crumbed shrimp and Garlic prawns with rice and salsa. The serving was just right and left enough room for us to share a baked New York cheescake with fluffy cream. We came away feeling fully satisfied.

‘Da Big Kahuna’ has great decor and the service was excellent. We thoroughly recommend this restaurant.

Tomorrow we have to leave the hotel at 5am to get to the airport for our flight to Los Angeles but even so we are still awake at 11pm. I guess we are still on Australian time.

What did we like about Hawaii?

• The weather is amazing at this time of the year – a perfect temperature.
• The people are friendly and very helpful.
• The sandy beach of Waikiki is beautiful.
• Everything is green and lush.
• Tourist attractions are very reasonably priced e.g. parasailing is $25-$45
• Dining out is very cheap.
• Computer equipment is cheap.
• Lots of bright and colourful reasonably priced souvenirs.
• We learnt two new words – Aloho which means hello and Mahalo which means thank you.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hawaii and would love to spend a bit longer the next time. I think a week would be better as we would have time to see Pearl Harbor, the volcano, go parasailing and spend more time on the beach.

On our approach into Hawaii we flew over parts of Honolulu and Pearl Harbour. We noticed a lot of military aircraft both as we were flying over as well as at the airport.

After collecting our bags we were ushered upstairs to catch a WikiWiki which is made up of three separate bus bodies joined together.

We found it somewhat amusing to be driven a few miles down the road to customs, usually customs is in the arrival terminal building in most other aiports we have come across.

Checking through customs was quite uneventful apart from the fact that for the first time ever we both had officers who were pleasant and chatty unlike most others we have had the pleasure to meet in the past.

We took an airport shuttle bus (which cost $9 each) to our hotel, the Aqua Wave in Waikiki. As we had arrived early, our room wasn’t ready so we checked in our baggage and set off to find a new laptop.  We had dones some research before leaving Australia  and after receiving directions from hotel staff we headed off to catch a local bus to Circuit City which was about 40 minutes away. One of the ladies on the bus thought it amazing that we were prepared to sit on the bus for 40 minutes but as we live in Australia 40 minutes travel time is nothing to us
The bus trip cost $2 each as against a taxi which would have cost about $60 each way. Bus fares in Honolulu are $2 one way no matter how far you travel and you can receive a transfer if you use the same ticket within 2 hours.

We had searched the internet in Australia for a laptop but as we had run out of time to purchase the one we wanted from Dell we decided to see if we could pick one up in the US. We checked out laptops in Hawaii on the net and came up with an Acer for $499 at Circuit City.

When we arrived we headed straight upstairs and found the laptop we wanted and bought it immediately along with a laptop bag. We are delighted with our purchase and Paula is typing this blog post in as we speak. (Wanda being the bossy one is dictating this to me).

As it was about 5 hours since we had eaten on the plane and what we had eaten was meagre we decided to have lunch at a place called Anna Millers. We both had fish and chips with salad, bread and a drink. It came to $25 for two plus the usual tips which is all part and parcel of travelling in the US. The food was reasonably tasty although we were a little surprised to find that fresh fruit juice wasn’t available.

After refeulling our bodies we felt much better and headed off to catch the bus for the 40 minute ride and 20 minute walk back to our hotel. At this point we were both ready to keel over as we had very little sleep on the plane.

The room was ready when we returned and the first thing we did was to check out the view which isnt too bad as we can see a bit of the beach from the balcony.

After setting up the laptop, we headed down to check out Waikiki Beach which is just beautiful. We made it down there just as the sun was setting and took off our shoes and walked along the waters edge which was lovely and warm. It was all very relaxing and a great feeling after working so hard for the past few weeks.

After getting sand in everything and complaining how we really don’t like the beach after all, we headed back up to the main road to look for somewhere to have dinner. Unfortunately of all the eating houses available the one we seleceted wasn’t really that great. It was certainly reasonably priced, costing us $11.95 for an all you can eat dinner. However the food wasn’t anything special and both the chicken and  the meat were undercooked and the rest of the food really wasn’t very appealing at all.

As we strolled around the shops we noticed that the food, souvenirs, clothes and shoes are very cheap.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and started to try and use the laptop with Paula cursing all the while about how crappy Windows Vista is.

Tomorrow is another day with plenty to do before we head off to LA.