Originally Posted by Butter
We went to Hawaii in December 2020. At the time, they required a negative PCR test within 2 days of departure, which we were able to find a rapid test near our house at that time. Right now, forget it.
HOWEVER, you're in luck because they also allow rapid antigen tests. And CVS has dozens of locations near me that would do that, so they should be near you. And those are supposed to take just hours. And I believe the requirement is "within one day", which means any time on the day before you leave on your first flight, not "24 hours", which is way better. They do have an app you have to upload your test results to, and then you have to present that you have a negative result through the app upon arrival. And a vaccination card. Not bad.
As far as things to do, my wife and I spent 2 weeks on Oahu. We did all the standard tourist-y stuff, a couple of luaus, Dole Plantation, etc.
Here are a couple of my favorites from Oahu:
Ko Olina lagoons: a gentle place to swim where you don't feel like you're going to get murdered by the waves. Although if I remember right, you need to check which lagoons are swimmable, as at least 1 of them had health/safety issues in the news semi-recently.
Plantation Village: Learn about what life was like for early Asian immigrants to Hawaii who worked on sugar plantations. Definitely kid friendly, but not overly so. When we went, we basically had a private tour guide as tourism was still low at the time and they were just reopening.
Iolani Palace: Final Royal Palace before US annexation. Kinda boring for kids, but really interesting.
Bishop Museum: Outstanding for both kids and adults. We spent hours here.
KoHana rum distillery: They had some chocolate rum that tastes like liquid chocolate. They also sell honey.
Byodo-In Temple: A Buddhist temple that is just a place of quiet and rest, and has a bunch of cats that is fun to visit.
Kualoa Ranch: We did the ATV movie sites tour, and you get to drive your own ATV around with a guide and a small group to many Hollywood movie sites. Just driving the ATV around this beautiful park would've been enough.
21 Degrees Estate Cacao Farm: Tour and discussion about how they make chocolate bars. It's the northernmost place that grows cacao, apparently. The couple that runs this place was really great, and the chocolate for purchase was terrific, lots of varieties.
If you do a luau, I highly recommend EXPERIENCE NUTRIDGE. It is basically run by this really nice guy, and he has a small group of people that present it with him. That dude WILL try to sell you on a case of pineapples to take home, but it is all in fun... unless you want to buy some pineapples. Seriously though, it is an intimate experience, unlike the first luau we did on our 2 week trip (which was at Sea Life Park, I don't remember the name of the luau). Really well done, very authentic and tasty food. You get to watch the sunset from hills overlooking Waikiki. It was the last thing we did in Hawaii and one of the most memorable.
We did also take a sunset catamaran tour, and I got seasick as fuck. That was also a lot of fun, but I was too busy sweating bullets to notice.
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