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Oahu Travel Guide · Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation

• 0:05
  Hawaii's Best: Welcome to Hawaii's Best Podcast, where we help you prepare for your next trip to Hawaii. Discover the experiences, businesses and stories that make Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host, Brian Murphy
• 0:20
  Bryan Murphy: blowout and welcome to a another episode of Hawaii's Best where we help prepare you for your next trip to Hawaii. I'm your host, Brian Murphy, the owner of Hawaii's Best and just want to say thank you so much for tuning in today.
• 0:31
  Bryan Murphy: And today we have a great packed episode. We're joined again with Andrew flowers, the co founder and CEO of Shaka guide. What's going on Andrew, how you doing?
• 0:43
  Andrew Fowers: Thank you so much, Brian, for having me.
• 0:44
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, this is becoming a thing. And this is like our third or fourth episode together. And yeah, I'm really excited about this one going into it.
• 0:52
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, me too. I mean, I'm just hoping we can get through it all. There's a lot to talk about. But I'm excited.
• 0:59
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah. So the plan is, we're going to be covering a high level overview of each of the islands. And today we're going to be talking about a wahoo also known as the gathering place and Andrew kind of maybe kick off our conversation of a wahoo Why is it called the gathering place and give us a little overview of the island.
• 1:20
  Andrew Fowers: A wahoo is actually wasn't the capital at the beginning, it was actually Kona, but the capital of Hawaii was moved to a wahoo. It's a gathering place for many reasons. It's been the major port for a Hawaii with the Pearl Harbor. Right now it has about a million plus locals that live here. And many more visitors. We get I think it's the most trafficked Island here in Hawaii. But there's a perfect combination of like tons of cool beaches, epic surfing. And then you also have like, these rain forest hikes all within very close proximity. So it really just packs a punch with a lot of stuff to do it with a short amount of distance between each.
• 2:04
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, a wahoo.
• 2:04
  Bryan Murphy: Being home to like you mentioned the state capital of Honolulu.
• 2:06
  Bryan Murphy: And when people talk about or thinking about Hawaii, they think about Honolulu, Waikiki, but wahoo has so much more to offer. Each Island is unique and awesome and its own right you can't you can't choose the wrong Island basically. But maybe there's an island that is kind of you know, best for you your stage of life if you're young family if you just got married if you're retired, we'll cover some of that. But maybe take us around the island specifically a wahoo. Andrew and kind of describe each of the the different shores of the island different sides of the island.
• 2:42
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, definitely.
• 2:42
  Andrew Fowers: So let's start with like the main hub. They're in like Honolulu and downtown. So Honolulu and Waikiki kind of, you know, bleeded together, they're very close to each other. Honolulu is more of the business district. But there's this cool up and coming Kakaako area where there's some cool like coffee shops and, and little boutique shops and just some fun place to walk around Waikiki itself. You know, we have, of course, tons of shopping there, lots of hotels.
• 3:10
  Andrew Fowers: If you keep going out east we have like the East the wahoo portion, where there is like Noma Bay and Diamond Head and some cool stuff out that side.
• 3:21
  Andrew Fowers: If you go to the windward side, which when you go over the mountains, you have Kailua, which is kind of a main hub out there in your condo, hey, it's kind of like a beachy town with some cute cafes, local shops and beaches and stuff. It's definitely much more rainy and green on the windward side, just the mountains kind of blocked the rain in there. So keep going around the island, we got the North Shore. This is where we have like epic big wave surfing.
• 3:46
  Andrew Fowers: You have some cool like shrimp trucks and food trucks. halia was a really fun little beach town there as well to hang out sunset. And then as you come back down the island on the west side, we have kind of like the western portion of Hawaii. And this is like the couple a region but there's also and that's where I live by the height. But there's also colina which is more of a resort district area and that's has the aulani it has the Marriott Hotel there. So that's a nice really manicured place for beach walks and stuff.
• 4:25
  Andrew Fowers: I enjoyed going there with my family on the weekends. And then of course, you have like a central a wahoo which is more of like where locals live. That's kind of near the pearl harbor area. I am pro city stuff like that. So that's kind of, I guess you call it the grand tour, you know, five second overview of the island.
• 4:43
  Bryan Murphy: Each one of those sides of the island each each one of those regions is so unique and that's why one of the things that we like to encourage people traveling to Hawaii is consider a wahoo your first stop because of like what Andrew just mentioned. There's so much to Take in and each area is its has its own personality and this uniqueness to it that you just have to experience like what I love about Kailua and, and the windward side of the island is it's got this you know kind of hometown feel you got farmers markets you got, you know stuff like that going on where you can really see and experience the life of the community. Andrew, what about you if you had to choose when you're going to one region like what's one of your favorites?
• 5:28
  Andrew Fowers: I mean, I think Waikiki gets a lot of attention.
• 5:31
  Andrew Fowers: But me personally, I really love the new Kakaako Chinatown downtown area. I mean, when people think of Hawaii, they don't think of like a cool city center. They think of more of like jungles and beaches. But there's this part of Kakaako that has tons of these art murals. And it's just so much fun. So there's these little bikes you can rent in town here by the hour. And so what I would recommend and I like to do with my family is you've ran a little bike and you go and you see all these cool murals just within 1015 minutes of a bike ride. You go around, see all these cool murals, grab a bite to eat and then walk out to the beach in like watch the sunset. It's just beautiful town that also has a cool night scene as well if you're into that. Yeah, maybe just kind of paint people a picture of words. So
• 6:22
  Bryan Murphy: if you're say you're in Waikiki, you got to go pass. Alamo Juana.
• 6:26
  Andrew Fowers: Right. That's right. So about 1015 minutes past lm Juana, you'll start to hit like, the Kakaako and downtown and Chinatown. Those are all kind of right next to each other.
• 6:38
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, there's some good Good Eats happening over there right now. So
• 6:42
  Andrew Fowers: Oh, yeah, guaranteed. I mean, those are some of the newest restaurants are really innovative type stuff. And it's a little bit more I think local pricing as opposed to tourist pricing on some of the those restaurants.
• 6:54
  Andrew Fowers: That's a good point.
• 6:55
  Bryan Murphy: They got we're going to wahoo and we're staying in this region or we're staying on that side of the island. Now many people reach out to I know to Shaka guide and to us at Hawaii's Best asking for recommendations on you know where to stay, though a fairly large island, only a few areas, you'll be able to find kind of resort areas and hotels. Yeah.
• 7:14
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah. So there's basically three main hotel areas, Waikiki, colina, which is on the west side, I mentioned.
• 7:21
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah. And then Turtle Bay, which is on the tip, the far northern tip of the North Shore. So those are kind of the quote unquote, resort areas where there's more of the traditional, larger hotels, all of them have their different pros and cons. I mean, Waikiki is definitely much more of like urban feeling. Turtle Bay and coline are a little bit more remote, somewhat less convenient. If you're wanting to like grab a bite. I mean, there's not as many restaurants out there. But the other option, of course, is like some Airbnb or VR Bo like vacation rentals.
• 7:54
  Andrew Fowers: Those are kind of spread out all throughout the island. Hawaii does have pretty strict vacation rental rules here. So you'll find that many of them are like a 30 day minimum stay. There are some legal ones that you can stay for less but they're they're usually pretty popular.
• 8:08
  Andrew Fowers: Cool thing is vacation rentals are illegal in Waikiki and Turtle Bay in some places. Those actually are great options. If you kind of want to condo with a kitchen right to kind of cook from then you know, check out Airbnb and vrbo there's some great options there. But kind of outside of that the laws are pretty strict here.
• 8:30
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah. And if you are wanting to kind of do more of the eat at the condo have a kitchen I would definitely maybe recommend looking at the west side as well. You got Costco there you got you know if you're traveling from the mainland, you got you got your target.
• 8:45
  Andrew Fowers: Oh, heck yeah, I'm totally biased. I live I live. I live on the west side.
• 8:48
  Andrew Fowers: It definitely has a lot of options in terms of like shopping in big box stores.
• 8:55
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, but then it's also pretty close to a nice beach. We have the colina beaches there so right. I don't know for me couple days home,
• 9:04
  Bryan Murphy: it's a great hub to rest for the night and then be able to get out and it's a good launching point into the rest of the island as well.
• 9:11
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah,
• 9:12
  Andrew Fowers: I'm only like 20 minutes away from the North Shore too. So right. It's, it's an it's a good combination there.
• 9:17
  Bryan Murphy: Okay, I know you know, as you're listening to this, you're like slow down guys, there's so much that they can and we're gonna link this kind of epic blog article that'll kind of help go and cover all this even more in depth. So be sure to find that link in the show notes below.
• 9:34
  Bryan Murphy: We'll link it on our social accounts as well. Okay, so you found a place to stay okay you know the the spot on the island you're gonna stay you know where you're gonna stay. And hopefully you don't just get stuck there.
• 9:44
  Bryan Murphy: Right? You don't just get stuck at the resort and just sit my ties all day. But you venture how and you explore the rest of Oahu. What are some of the must dues around the island? Oh, man,
• 9:57
  Andrew Fowers: this is a long list but right i mean If you're like a first time visitor on this gonna give you kind of a high level, the must dues for first time visitors. I mean, for a second time visitors, you can still hit this list because it's hard to finish it. But there's like different stuff to see. So, first time visitors, you got to check out Pearl Harbor, right?
• 10:17
  Andrew Fowers: It's a war memorial. It's pretty awesome to kind of go and experience that what happened there and with the attack on Pearl Harbor, so that's about 25 minutes from Waikiki. You need a reservation, but definitely make some time to check out Pearl Harbor. There's something other nearby stuff like the USS Missouri battleship, submarine and then also an Aviation Museum. So if you're kind of into history, and it's cool to go to at least the USS Arizona at a minimum,
• 10:46
  Bryan Murphy: is that open right now? No, you mentioned reservations.
• 10:50
  Andrew Fowers: Yes, it is open we just have to get advanced reservations just because they do get a lot of visitors and so you have to reserve it online.
• 10:56
  Andrew Fowers: They also do have some walk up reservation so if you don't have a reservation, you can get lucky just by walking up. Go early in the morning you can usually get a ticket just walking in.
• 11:08
  Andrew Fowers: Gotcha. All right.
• 11:10
  Bryan Murphy: So Pearl Harbor check what else we got to make sure we hit a
• 11:14
  Andrew Fowers: I mean, if you're doing the North Shore Drive, there's a couple things to check out that either can make for a half day or like a full day depending and these are like different attractions that have different paid things to do. But they're also just a cool little stopover so depending these things are Dole Plantation and Dole Plantation has like some you know amazed has some tours you can check out It's famous for its pineapple right and pretty much what you're gonna want to do if you stop it dole is get their dole whip which is like ice cream soft serve that's has pineapple flavor. And then you got to
• 11:53
  Bryan Murphy: get pineapple on top of it too.
• 11:55
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, pineapple and take the picture and it's super good. So stop over Dole Plantation. They have other tours if you want. But usually I just kind of stop and get the ice cream and then you know, move on and we still love to hit up the the train right there
• 12:10
  Bryan Murphy: anytime. You know.
• 12:10
  Bryan Murphy: It's right yeah, it takes me around the the plantation and you get to see pineapples grow and in different stages. And maybe the first time I see like I didn't know pineapple grew like that. So it's kind of cool to
• 12:25
  Andrew Fowers: me mean there's a bunch of cool stories too about the background of Dole Plantation how it began to be that we talked about on our circle islands more in the shocker that check that box Dole Plantation, you got to check it out. Other things to check out like main, like bigger attractions would be the PCC or the Polynesian culture center.
• 12:45
  Andrew Fowers: It's also can just be a pit stop for a bathroom break quick snacks, they have like a little food court with like some local little restaurants and food trucks. It's It's really good.
• 12:56
  Andrew Fowers: But if you really want to have a full like cultural experience, they have a theme park that represents seven different Polynesian cultures that you can check out and they kind of have different villages that you walk around and learn through learn about definitely something you need to do at least once for sure the first time and you got to do the luau and the night show. Super fun. When I was in college, actually, I used to be a canoe pusher there at the PCC so I have a warm you know place in my heart therefore for PCC it's it's a cool place to work.
• 13:28
  Andrew Fowers: And it supports the local university next to
• 13:31
  Bryan Murphy: it you know you're going there you're gonna have a good time but obviously, you're gonna learn a lot to about
• 13:36
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, yeah, super fun. These politicians and they talk about their their islands and they just crack a bunch of jokes insists it's just fun.
• 13:43
  Andrew Fowers: Awesome. So if you're kind of keeping going around the island, the next one would be cool law ranch. This is a very huge ranch. They filmed a bunch of movies, they're like Jurassic Park. Last 51st dates like just tons and tons. They kind of have more of like an adventure feel.
• 14:02
  Andrew Fowers: So you can like rent an ATV. And like drive around the park. You can ride horses, you can get in like a little jungle bus and they'll take you around and talk story. You know, it's it's still a lot of fun. I would I would definitely recommend the cooler ranch as an option for some activities.
• 14:21
  Bryan Murphy: It's also a good spot to grab some food too.
• 14:23
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, yeah, they
• 14:24
  Andrew Fowers: do have a nice plate lunch there. Yeah, little gift shop there. It's like family owned for like, like, I don't know, like five generations or something. It's super cool. Like, that guy there that runs it. I mean, I know him. Yeah, personally.
• 14:37
  Bryan Murphy: So we got a couple spots on kind of the east side and talking specifically about the North Shore. I know you mentioned it earlier. I think that's kind of like a must do.
• 14:47
  Bryan Murphy: But when you get to the North Shore, it's like okay, I'm at the North Shore. Well, what do I do what I do.
• 14:53
  Andrew Fowers: I mean, first of all, just a heads up the North Shore in the winter does get a little packed traffic can get a little real There's sometimes but that being said, Just be prepared. You know, listen to some music. You know, we have a torfx Shaka torian listen to what what you do when you go to the North Shore is you just enjoy it. There is epic beaches, I mean legendary beaches, we got bonds ipipeline, Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay. I mean, these are beaches that are epic. So you definitely have to stop in, check these beaches out, take some pictures, watch the surfers and be like, dude, I wish I could do that. But at the same time North Shore you can grab there's a bunch of food trucks.
• 15:36
  Andrew Fowers: I mean, outside of holly Eva, there's food trucks, which is that's like a small beachy town there with some boutiques and, and like food trucks, but there's also a bunch of food trucks along the north shore especially kahuku. So yeah, I mean, by the time you make it to the North Shore, it's lunchtime.
• 15:53
  Andrew Fowers: You know if you started about 910. So yeah, grab a bite to eat. They're famous for shrimp out there. But they also have a bunch of other cool local food trucks, all varieties, all different nationalities. So grab a bite, go to the beach, take some pictures, there is also a valley, you can walk into the Waimea Valley. It's a paid thing. But you can walk in it's like a nature walk through this cool like jungle ish place to a waterfall at the end. So that's kind of a cool thing for families. It's actually the only waterfall you can see on the North Shore without hiking a ton. So if you kind of want a waterfall experience for families, it's a good option.
• 16:32
  Andrew Fowers: little pricey but you know, hey, you're on vacation. So
• 16:39
  Bryan Murphy: yeah, he talked about the beaches. And even though you know, wintertime, you get the swells and you're not going to want to get in that water unless you're professional. But the stream of beaches, it's called the seven mile miracle and he listed some of those beaches and this just seemed to take it in like Once you're at the North Shore. Yeah, there's these things to do. But the main thing is to really this take it in Yeah, we touched a little bit on culture but specifically want to touch on the must do. Can't miss would be yolandi Palace. Yeah.
• 17:14
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, I think that yolandi Palace is it's close to town, first of all, so you don't need to go far from Waikiki to check it out. There is a paid Tory to actually go inside the ilani Palace. This is the only palace that had hosted, you know, royalty in all of the United States. And so it's a special place that has actually as a sad story related to it and how the monarchy was overthrown by foreign businessmen. But besides that, you can go and actually go inside of it learn about it. Shaka guide also has a walking tour on the outside and some of the other historical sites nearby.
• 17:52
  Bryan Murphy: What are some of the other ones on a wahoo to be aware of?
• 17:55
  Andrew Fowers: There's another walking tour for Waikiki.
• 17:58
  Andrew Fowers: Waikiki is a beautiful resort district. But really if you peel back that, you know layers of buildings, there's actually a ton of really cool history there in Waikiki. And so on the tour we try to actually help people connect with these place names these stories these people that helped make Waikiki what it is not only now but in the past and so there's some really cool stories there about you know, Duke kahanamoku princess PA, he Bishop principle here, those are some just Heroes for Hawaii here that helped shape the the island and protect Hawaiian values. So definitely check that out. You have a chance.
• 19:34
  Bryan Murphy: Okay, so we did all the things right. But, you know, you land even as you're descending into Honolulu, this, the views of Hawaii are just breathtaking. And really Hawaii needs to be explored and needs to be like we mentioned on a previous episode, to be explored responsibly talking about travel Pono allama. Ayana, taking care of the land as you get out there and you want to explore some of these beaches and the sights and hikes and and all that maybe let's start with beaches first, Andrew, what are some of the popular beaches beaches to maybe check out?
• 20:13
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, definitely.
• 20:13
  Andrew Fowers: So if you're here to I'm assuming that you're we're here to just hang out at the beach.
• 20:19
  Andrew Fowers: Right? If you're looking to serve right, then there's a whole nother you know, discussion about where's the breaks and where's the surf spots, but if you're just looking to hang out a good family friendly beach where you can get wet and you can have fun, maybe a little bit of wave action but not too much. Really looking at Waikiki that's a really perfect really calm break, especially in the summer months. It has a beautiful nice barrel long barrel so you can kind of catch the wave nice and gentle bring it in. Also a nice beaches to hang out lounge.
• 20:50
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, the Waikiki Beach is actually a ton of beaches, right. It extends the Higher strip of Waikiki. It also goes up an alum Juana and any of those beaches are good options to kind of just hang out for the day.
• 21:04
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, for sure.
• 21:04
  Bryan Murphy: And then maybe kind of going around the the site a little bit Kailua area.
• 21:09
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, Kailua is also a really fun beach. It's very fine San is beautiful fine sand out there. Yeah, in the Kailua region, there's this place called Lani Kai beach.
• 21:21
  Andrew Fowers: It's also beautiful beach, but I kind of recommend skipping it.
• 21:24
  Andrew Fowers: It's just gets really difficult parking issues. And there's been some local neighbors there that aren't happy, but it really is a beautiful beach. If you can check it out. Just make sure you don't park it in front of someone's mailbox,
• 21:38
  Bryan Murphy: right. Yeah, that's that one with the two islands out there.
• 21:41
  Andrew Fowers: Yes. And personally, my favorite beach in Kailua region is actually the Waimanalo Beach Park. And Kailua gets a lot of attention. And Lani Kai gets a lot of attention. But frankly, it's a little bit more crowded. So my go to beach, if I just want to chill for the day is Waimanalo Beach Park.
• 21:58
  Unknown: Yep, it's a good spot.
• 21:58
  Unknown: Just
• 21:59
  Andrew Fowers: a beautiful beach. It also you can see the most the two Island is let's from the distance, it has great surf if you're looking to kind of get tossed a little bit in the summertime, but also in the wintertime is just really calm waves to hang out. So yeah, definitely check out Waimanalo Beach Park, do you have a chance as well.
• 22:18
  Bryan Murphy: Now we're going up the east side a little bit and we find ourselves on the North Shore again. during the summertime. It's pretty amazing.
• 22:22
  Bryan Murphy: Like if you come you come during the wintertime and you go up to the north shore and it's just like it's alive. It's roaring like you can hear the ocean and it's like really intimidating actually. Yeah. And then you come back maybe next time you come back for a trip and it's summer and it's like, what, what just happened?
• 22:42
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, there's a lot of like people like what they see all these like, they see all these like, you know, videos like this is the North Shore. Right, right. But then it's like it's like a lake in the summer. Right? So yeah, if you go to the North Shore, it's still fun to check out. But there's gonna be no surfers in the North Shore during the summertime. So it's still fun to go check out and be like, well, this is bonsai pipeline, even though it looks like you know, a lake, but still worth it worth check it out as well. Yeah. The other one to mention is a colina Lagoon, right. This is a nice family friendly beach. It's actually man made lagoons. But nice little boardwalk. I think there's four or five lagoons there. You can walk, walk through and check out so that one's a nice one as well.
• 23:25
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, I think there's there's four manmade and then up the coast a little bit on the west. There's like two or three still natural curves up there.
• 23:34
  Andrew Fowers: Yes. Nice day for a beach out there really perfect for families and young kids.
• 23:38
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah.
• 23:40
  Bryan Murphy: Alright, so you did the beach. Now you're ready.
• 23:43
  Bryan Murphy: Or maybe you you want to do a hike and then you want to go chill at the beach. What are some hikes that you'd recommend for someone coming to wahoo?
• 23:50
  Andrew Fowers: Alright, so here's the quick round up on the on some easy, cool hikes. A lot of these hikes are already very famous on Instagram. They're legal hikes, they're generally safe, but they're also some great views. So just really quick, there's Diamond Head, which is right next to Waikiki.
• 24:09
  Andrew Fowers: They do charge to get in but you can hike to the top of the Diamond Head peak and get some epic views of Waikiki and downtown. Another one is Lani Chi, which is actually on the Kailua side of town. And that's a pillbox and when they say pillbox in Hawaii, that's actually an old military bunker right? after Japan tat attacks Hawaii. There's like a bunch of military bunkers that were built all over the island. And so a lot of the hikes in Hawaii on every side of the island are like these bunkers. That's kind of like how the trail was made, because they actually had to hike up and build these cement bunkers. And there's like machine turrets inside the bunkers, you know, it's like, they, I mean, it seems like so long ago, but that was a really real fear back then. So Lani Kai pillbox with Lani Kai bunker is a cool hike. It is in residential, so you kind of have to again, watch your parking.
• 25:07
  Andrew Fowers: But if you can find a good legal spot, there's a beautiful hike up to Lani Kai mokopuna Point Lighthouse. This is a state park really nice parking lot. So you don't have to worry about that paved and so you can kind of walk up with strollers if you have kids in the winter time and mokopuna you can actually see whales like yeah, breaching and stuff so that's a really cool thing to do during the winter time.
• 25:31
  Bryan Murphy: One thing to note on that Hi, yeah, they do have parking available that can spill over and then people start you know, parking on the highway and so just yeah, just be really super careful that people you know, crossing and it's, you know, it's a 45 you know, speed speed zone there. So just be careful. Sure, yeah, just
• 25:49
  Andrew Fowers: be careful there.
• 25:49
  Andrew Fowers: It does get busy. I recommend kind of going earlier in the day or later in the evening. It just there's no shade and so It can get really hot if you're not prepared. But there's some it's a beautiful place for a sunrise or sunset.
• 26:02
  Bryan Murphy: That's true. All right, what, what's next? What else do we got to make sure we, this is a busy day.
• 26:09
  Andrew Fowers: And again, you can't really all hit this in in one trip. So maybe some of the stuff you kind of come back to wahoo a second time. Another thing would be the North Shore pillbox, or what's called a crouching lion hike. That hike is is really popular on Instagram right now. But it overlooks like the kahana Valley. It's really short hike.
• 26:29
  Andrew Fowers: It's like, I don't know, like point five miles, it's really steep. So be careful. I mean, there has been some accidents where people slip there, but that's a cool hike to check out as well. Awesome. And then all the last one I forgot is Coco head. So Coco head is it's like an old railroad tracks that go up this super tall mountain.
• 26:47
  Andrew Fowers: It's actually an old crater. And at the top of COVID, you can see Hawaii Kai, you can see like, downtown, it's just a really fun hike if you're into like the stairclimber 3000. hike. You know,
• 27:06
  Bryan Murphy: it's funny, we posted about coca head recently.
• 27:09
  Bryan Murphy: And some people say it's like, the hardest, like ever. I couldn't do it. And it was it was a cakewalk. So yeah, I'm curious, like if you if you do the hike, be sure to reach out and let us know. How was it for you?
• 27:22
  Andrew Fowers: Yeah, not all may not be for all ages. You have to be a little fit to finish that one.
• 27:29
  Bryan Murphy: So is that one open? Again? I know they're doing some some rent. Oh,
• 27:34
  Andrew Fowers: yeah. They are doing some renovations. I think it's still it's close for a little bit. Yeah. Because there's actually a few like, places if you don't step in the right on the right style, you can like fall through and there's some there's been some erosion, they're still actually trying to like, reinforce and make it safe. So that's great.
• 27:49
  Andrew Fowers: All right. All right.
• 27:50
  Bryan Murphy: Well, we got our, our work cut off for us going to Oahu. But I think the main thing is to really just take in Hawaii, taking a while who take in the culture, the people, pace yourself. Don't feel like you have to do all this. But these are some great options to choose from as you're planning your trip.
• 28:11
  Andrew Fowers: And just one thing here, like I live in Hawaii, I love this island. And sometimes the vacation isn't really about how much you do, right. But it's really about enjoying it one step at a time.
• 28:21
  Andrew Fowers: And it's not about like, super busy, like I had to do everything. I mean, those types of vacations are exhausting. So just plan to like, enjoy yourself, see as much as you can enjoy as much of it as you can.
• 28:36
  Andrew Fowers: But don't try to do it all. It's it's something that a vacation is meant to be enjoyed and not meant to be, like the grueling marathon where you have to do everything at the same time and earn one trip.
• 28:50
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:50
  Bryan Murphy: As you're, you're talking and I know, we've said a few times, like take it in slow down, like, Okay, what does that really mean. And I think if we had to sum it up, at least want to hear from you to Andrew, but like, is to be present. So I think that's just if you want to, you know, do a life philosophy here, but like, you're on vacation, yeah.
• 29:11
  Bryan Murphy: And it costs probably quite a bit of money. And you saved up for this, and you got the family there and you're doing the list and, and I think human nature, you kind of want to like okay, check the box and get to the next thing. But as best as we can to be present and to be in the moment of whatever activity you're doing whatever restaurant you're eating out if you're even if you're eating, you know, spam and McDonald's, like, you know, the experience, the spam and McDonald's or whatever, but like to really be in the moment, because what you're going to take from Hawaii, are those memories, and hopefully those times that you were bonding more closely to your loved ones that you travel with.
• 29:49
  Andrew Fowers: Totally, it's totally about the memories, it's not about you know, you got to check all these boxes and do all this stuff. It's really about the memories, enjoying the time that you spent with your family.
• 29:57
  Andrew Fowers: And, and that's what I really love about what we do at Shaka guide is we actually take people around the island, we have six tours for a wahoo. And what we do is as you're driving the island, we help tell stories that help you connect better with what you're seeing. So it's not just, Oh, that's a pretty beach, there's like there's a really cool story. And there's a history behind that. And also what you should do to be safe and be respectful of those areas. So I really love that as a part of what we do at Chicago and I help that. I think that helps enhance your overall visitor experience. So yeah, check out shock if you have a chance. It's you can download on the App Store. Just search Shaka guide.
• 30:41
  Bryan Murphy: Absolutely. Yeah, guys, we will link all that and we'll also we talked about this epic blog post kind of like your go to travel guide for the island of Oahu. Andrew, thank you again, so much for for coming on today.
• 30:55
  Andrew Fowers: No problem.
• 30:55
  Andrew Fowers: Thanks for having Me and welcome everyone to come to a wahoo and check out this beautiful island.
• 31:01
  Andrew Fowers: Absolutely. Thanks
• 31:02
  Bryan Murphy: again guys for listening. Thank you for your time. And until next time be well. Aloha.
• 31:11
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