Honolulu on a Budget | Elaine Glusac, Michelle Mishina Kunz
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Late on a September afternoon, as the sun warmed the surrounding mountains, I paddled my surfboard past a green sea turtle riding the currents. When I turned around to catch a wave of my own, a spotted eagle ray leaped out of the water, putting an exclamation point on the day.
Not many cities offer such ready access to nature and adventure as Honolulu. Traveling there is rarely cheap, but bargain hunters will find better prices in the capital than in many other Hawaiian destinations. The average hotel room in Honolulu, for example, was $265 last year compared with about $367 across the islands, according to CoStar Group, a commercial real estate company.
Hotels in Honolulu are clustered in the Waikiki area. Prices are lower for hotels situated a few blocks from the beach.
Having visited Hawaii many times, I’ve learned that some of the best experiences — beachcombing, hiking and dining on grocery store poke — don’t cost much, and that things that do, like a surfing lesson, shouldn’t be missed.
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On a recent trip, I focused on trimming costs for food, lodging and entertainment in order to enjoy a few pricier activities.
The following are five ways to stretch your budget — and splurge gently — in Honolulu. (Note: Admission prices reflect rates for out-of-state visitors.)
Stay in Waikiki
Hotels in Honolulu are clustered in the beach enclave of Waikiki, whose waterfront is lined with gleaming malls. But walk a few blocks from the beach, and prices fall. I maximized my budget at two lower-priced hotels, both on the eastern end, near Kapiolani Regional Park.
The author found reasonable rates at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel.
The hotel has plenty of public areas, including an open-air restaurant, coffee-shop and lively pool bar.
Only a block from a swimmable stretch of beach, Hotel Renew Waikiki Beach lends guests beach chairs and coolers. While the hotel lacked a bar or restaurant, my standard room was thoughtfully designed with a window seat and a mini-refrigerator. I paid $119 a night and a $35 daily resort fee. In addition to beach gear, amenities included free morning coffee.
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A few blocks away at Queen Kapiolani Hotel, I paid $181 a night and a $25 resort fee for a city-view room with a balcony on the 17th floor. With its coffee shop, open-air restaurant and pool bar offering views of the volcanic mountain Diamond Head, Queen Kapiolani made a livelier base, if a more expensive one (a local draft beer cost $11).
Thrifty Attractions
Neither Diamond Head nor Pearl Harbor — two of the island’s biggest attractions — costs much to visit, but their popularity ensures you need a plan to visit both.
West of downtown, Pearl Harbor National Memorial preserves the remains of the U.S.S. Arizona, which was destroyed in the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, that ultimately drew the United States into World War II.
Iolani Palace, in downtown Honolulu, was the last residence of Hawaii’s royal family.
Visitors require a boat to reach the offshore memorial, which is free but costs $1 to reserve online. Because it was closed for renovation when I visited, I chose the audio tour of the grounds and museum ($11 and a $1 reservation fee), which paid moving tribute to the 1,177 servicemen on the U.S.S. Arizona who perished.
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On the eastern end of town, the gates to Diamond Head State Monument open at 6 a.m., when reservations are competitive ($5) as many visitors try to reach the summit in time to catch sunrise.
The summit trail, less than a mile long, gains 560 feet on a fitness-testing route that includes steep stairs up a 225-foot tunnel before emerging to views of the city and coast.
Between the two attractions, downtown’s graceful Iolani Palace, the last residence of Hawaii’s royal family, occupies a park, shaded with banyan and monkeypod trees, that is sacred to Native Hawaiians. Built in 1882, the palace — which combines Renaissance and Hawaiian elements, including opened-sided verandas — was occupied until the monarchy was overthrown in 1893 (admission from $28).
Foster Botanical Garden, in the heart of Honolulu, has 14 acres of gardens and trees filled with birds.
As the palace was closed, I headed across the street to the Aliiolani Hale (free), home to the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Its exhibits focused on Hawaii’s royal and legal history, and included rooms devoted to island life under martial law after the Pearl Harbor bombing.
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A downtown refuge from city traffic, the 14-acre Foster Botanical Garden ($5) maintains a collection of “ exceptional trees ” — a preservation status based on criteria like age, rarity or endemic status — including towering kapok, Caribbean royal palms and cannonball trees with orchid-like flowers and softball-size fruit. Among the trees’ fans were ring-necked parakeets, red-whiskered bulbul and fairy terns, which I identified using the garden’s free bird checklist.
Cheap and Casual Food
Over the years, I’ve learned to keep dining simple, opting for to-go meals, food trucks and plate lunches.
The Foodland grocery chain offers poke choices the way mainland grocers stuff deli counters. Varieties may feature tuna, salmon or octopus. At Foodland Farms at Ala Moana in Waikiki, I encountered online influencers posting live from the poke counter and picked up onigiri, Japanese rice balls, stuffed with salmon ($2.49 each).
A selection of local dishes included in the “tasting plate” at Highway Inn.
In the heart of Waikiki, Maguro Brothers, which developed its reputation for sashimi and poke at its original Chinatown location, generates lines for its raw-fish preparations, including seaweed-laced poke bowls ($13.85). It is part of a food hall in the Waikiki Shopping Plaza, where vendors sell items such as Korean fried chicken, lobster rolls and shave ice.
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For Hawaiian food, I stopped at the Highway Inn diner in Kakaako between Waikiki and downtown. Its original location in Waipahu has been serving Hawaiian fare since 1947. A tabletop guide for newcomers, who are known as malihini, defines items like kalua pig (traditionally cooked in an underground oven) and lomi salmon (a salt-cured-fish salad). My smoky pork with cabbage, rice and potato-macaroni salad ($16.99) fed two.
Seeking a spot off the tourist track, I visited 8 Fat Fat 8 east of downtown. My husband and I walked through a dart game to enter and sat at a banquette patched in duct tape, part of this friendly tavern’s well-worn character. Pan-fried potstickers ($10) preceded the Fat Fat special chicken ($15), which was worth the 30-minute wait.
Bargain Entertainment
Honolulu has many free hula dance performances, including the Kuhio Beach Hula Show on Saturday evenings on the beach near Waikiki’s statue of Duke Kahanamoku, known as the father of modern surfing.
I appreciate Waikiki malls for their free events: I’ve caught live bands, hula shows and ukulele lessons at the Royal Hawaiian Center.
Dancers from Hālau Hula Ka Pā Nani ʻO Lilinoe, a hula school, perform in Waikiki.
There are many free hula performances in Waikiki, where visitors and locals can get a taste of this traditional art form.
On this trip, I sat with a crowd of families on the artificial turf at the nearby International Market Place for its free hula show, held three times a week. Four dancers performed ancient and modern routines, tracing Hawaiian history from its Polynesian roots to pop-cultural emergence in the early 20th century as reflected in hapa haole (half-foreign) music featuring English lyrics.
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Some evenings, you just want a mai tai. But beware bars with views. Distracted by free music, I paid $24 for one at Tiki’s Grill & Bar overlooking the beach in Waikiki.
Regrouping, I discovered the neighborly bar Favorite Son, several blocks from the waterfront, where the daily happy hour offered $10 mai tais and daiquiris.
Worth the Splurge
Despite that expensive mai tai, I had saved enough to partake in a few high-priced adventures, starting with a snorkeling excursion at Hanauma Bay State Park.
A stretch of calm water off Waikiki.
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Protected since 1967, the curved bay, part of a sunken volcanic cone, is known for its shallow reef and the fish it nurtures. Today, to curb overtourism, reservations are required, and visitors must watch a video on the fragility of the reef and ways to avoid damaging it.
Part of the calculus required in visiting Hanauma Bay, a 30-minute drive from Waikiki, is the cost of transportation. I priced out a rental car at $65 a day before gas and fees and decided I would come out ahead with the park’s transportation package ($54.95). The six-hour trip included hotel pickup and drop-off, and snorkeling gear ($25 park admission separate).
Arriving around 8 a.m., I saw orange-spine unicorn fish and Christmas wrasse before many swimmers were in the water, and enjoyed a free talk by park rangers who identified local marine residents like baby hammerhead sharks and octopus.
The author took a surfing lesson with the company Stoke Drift. Above, teachers conduct a lesson in Waikiki.
Apart from hotels, I spent the most money learning to surf with Stoke Drift in Waikiki ($107 a person for a group of two or more).
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Surfing requires upper body strength to paddle, agility to pop to your feet from a prone position and balance to stay upright. It also takes patience and a meditative mind-set in selecting the right wave — all part of the instruction.
During our session, I saw turtles and rays, gazed at Diamond Head in the warm late-afternoon light, managed a few decent rides and even enjoyed some crashing wipeouts. It’s hard to put a price tag on exhilaration. After three thrilling hours, I felt the return exceeded the investment.
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