Its newest shopping mall is the International Market Place ( ), which opened just before Labor Day last year and is drawing rave reviews. Unfortunately, the lighthouse itself and its picturesque grounds are closed to the public but you can still get a partial view of it from the surrounding hillside and fence.īesides the beach, the city's main drag, Kalakaua Avenue, is known for its high-end shopping catering to foreign tourists. It is also very popular with people who are homeless, who have set up tents on the hillside over the beach just below the lighthouse.Ī walking trail from the Lighthouse Beach goes up to Diamond Head Road, where you will get a good view of the Diamond Head Lighthouse. It was once considered a nude beach even though it was never legal but few people swim without a bathing suit there now. The expansive park includes the gay-popular Lighthouse Beach. If you keep walking along Diamond Head Road, take Beach Road, to the right, which will take you down to Diamond Head Beach Park. It is a small beach, but fewer people know about it so it is seldom crowded. If you want to enjoy a quiet and isolated beach but still in walking distance to Waikiki, check out Makalei Beach Park, along Diamond Head Road. It is also gay-popular but with a lot more sand. If you keep walking toward Diamond Head from Queen's Surf Beach, you will run into Sans Souci Beach, which is just past the War Memorial. Many people who use the beach hang out on the grassy and shady area of the park close to the concession stand. The beach itself has gotten narrower and rockier over the years as the surf washed away much of the sand. The beach is next to the Diamond Head section of Waikiki Beach, near lifeguard station 2F, in front of the concession stand and next to Kapiolani Park and the Honolulu Zoo. Queen's Surf Beach in Waikiki is still the most gay-popular beach on Oahu, but it is not as popular as it was years ago before gays felt more comfortable and accepted on the main beaches. Each transfer is good for two bus connections. Be sure to ask for a transfer if you need to connect with another bus so you don't have to pay another fare. Check out its website for directions, scheduling, and real time information about when the next bus is coming ( Like San Francisco's Muni, the cash fare is $2.50. You can get just about anywhere on the city's bus service, The Bus. If you want to take a daytrip outside the area, you could rent a car in Waikiki and return it the same day for about what it would cost to park. Hotels charge $30 or more per day to park.
If you are staying in Waikiki, you are better off without a car.
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Various tour companies offer a wide variety of excursions from full day, circle island bus tours to bicycle and Segway tours that focus on sights closer to Waikiki and downtown Honolulu. Waikiki is also a good home base to explore the island. Waikiki is also where almost all the island's LGBT nightlife is situated, all within about a 10-minute walking radius. That is where you will find the iconic high-rise hotels that line the beach with spectacular views of the long extinct Diamond Head volcano. If you haven't visited before, the most popular part of Hawaii for tourists is Honolulu's Waikiki neighborhood, about a 30-minute ride south of the Honolulu airport. As the population center of the state, Oahu supports a vibrant gay nightlife and a variety of LGBT organizations. While the Waikiki section of the island of Oahu â€" a few minutes south of downtown Honolulu â€" is very much an urban beach tourist destination, it doesn't take long to get away to a more rural Hawaiian experience.Ībout 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.4 million people live on Oahu. Last month I was in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Waikiki and in less than an hour's bicycle ride later, hiking through a tropical rainforest.