Waikiki books out first. The rest of Oahu is a 40-minute drive.
Which catamaran actually finds the turtles. What a Pearl Harbor morning costs once the Missouri is on the ticket. Whether the circle-island coach beats a rental car. Reviews of every tour you can book on Oahu.
The four bookings an Oahu week is built around.
The coast road, the harbor, the reef and the sail. What each one costs and how long it takes.
- 01The island in a dayOahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe ExperienceNine hours round the coast road with Haleiwa for lunch. The day to book if you are not renting a car.
02Pearl HarborPearl Harbor USS Arizona MemorialThe launch out to the USS Arizona Memorial runs on timed tickets. Take the earliest boat of the day.
03Turtle CanyonTurtle Canyon Snorkel ExcursionA morning boat off Waikiki to the reef where the honu feed, with about an hour in the water.
04The sunset sailOahu’s Waikiki Coast: Moana’s Sunset Cocktail SailTwo hours off the beach with the sail up and the sun dropping behind the Waianae range.
Most of a good Oahu day starts at a harbor.
Turtles at Turtle Canyon, a catamaran straight off Waikiki Beach, humpbacks through the winter and the sail that ends with the Waianae range going gold. Four kinds of day on the water, and what it costs to get on board.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Oahu’s Waikiki Coast: Moana’s Sunset Cocktail Sail
Turtle morningsThe reef off Waikiki, gear on board, an hour in the water.
Catamaran sailsBoarding off the sand, no tender, shade on the trampoline deck.
Sunset sailsTwo hours down the coast, dinner and drinks optional.
Whale seasonHumpbacks off the south shore, December to April.
All 109 days on the water →
Pearl Harbor takes a morning, and the tickets go early.
The Arizona Memorial program is free but ticketed, and the day is usually spoken for before the gate opens. Most tours here carry the transfer from Waikiki and add the Battleship Missouri, the Bowfin or downtown Honolulu on the way back.
- 1Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS Arizonafrom $59
- 2Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorialfrom $55
- 3Pearl Harbor Remembered Tourfrom $143
One road, the whole coast, somebody else driving.
The Pali lookout, the windward beaches, the Byodo-In temple under the Koolau ridge, shrimp trucks at Kahuku and Haleiwa in the afternoon. Nine hours, one seat, and no hunting for parking at any of it.
Waikiki: two miles of sand, and everything leaves from it.
Everything in Waikiki →
The surf school is on the beach, the catamarans pull straight up onto the sand and the trolley loops out to Diamond Head and back. Three ways to spend a day here without touching a car.
A lesson on the Canoes break
The break off Kuhio Beach is slow, waist high and forgiving, which is why every school on the island teaches on it. Go at eight, before the trade wind gets into the water.
Turtle Canyon by boat
Twenty minutes off the beach the reef drops into a cleaning station where green turtles queue up over the coral. Boats run out of Kewalo Basin and the Hilton pier.
The trolley to Diamond Head
Four color-coded lines out of Kalakaua Avenue: the green loops to the Diamond Head trailhead, the blue runs the coast past Hanauma Bay and Sea Life Park.
Waikiki, Honolulu, the North Shore and the windward coast.
The island is 44 miles end to end, and the difference between its coasts is most of the trip. Six places to build a day around, and the best of what leaves from each.
What a day out on Oahu actually costs.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. The cheap end is not the thin end here: a downtown walking tour and a self-guided Diamond Head audio tour both come in under the price of lunch.
Downtown walks, the hop-on trolley, glass-bottom boats, Diamond Head entry and the airport run.
Turtle snorkel mornings, Pearl Harbor with the transfer, catamaran sails and the circle-island coach.
Luau nights, doors-off helicopters, the shark cage off Haleiwa, private drivers and the ranch days at Kualoa.
Four Oahu bookings that will not wait.
Hawaii runs on reservation systems now. These four hand out their slots days or weeks ahead, and turning up on the morning is how people lose them.
- 01Hanauma Bay SnorkelingThe bay caps how many people are in the water and releases its reservations two days ahead at seven in the morning, Hawaii time. They go in minutes.
- 02Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS ArizonaThe Arizona Memorial program is free but ticketed, and the day is usually spoken for well before the gate opens.
- 03Diamond Head CraterOut-of-state visitors need an entry reservation for the crater, booked to a time slot, and a separate one for the car park.
- 04Paradise Cove LuauLuau nights run on fixed evenings at fixed tables. The three big ones fill their weekends first.
When the north swell is up, the south side keeps working.
From November to March the swell that makes Pipeline famous also shuts the snorkeling on the whole north coast, and lifeguards close the bays. The lee side stays flat: lessons off Waikiki, the harbor boats out of Kewalo, Pearl Harbor, and the humpbacks arrive at the same time as the surf.
- 1Paradise Cove Luaufrom $150
- 2Toa Luau at Waimea Valley, Oahufrom $133
- 3Chief’s Luau Admissionfrom $144
Three things that only happen on Oahu.
Warm water and a good beach are everywhere. A film set you can ride through, a night of Polynesian dance and fire, and a cage in the open ocean off Haleiwa are not.
Kualoa Ranch
Kaaawa Valley has stood in for Jurassic Park, Lost, Kong and most of the jungle shot in Hollywood since 1993. It is still a working cattle ranch, so the tours run on the same tracks the film crews used, by bus, by ATV or on horseback, with the Koolau ridge straight up behind you.
- 1Kualoa Ranch Movie Sites and Ranch Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,655 reviews
- 2Kualoa Ranch UTV Raptor Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,569 reviews
- 3Kualoa Open Air Jungle Expedition Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 555 reviews
A luau night
Kalua pork out of an underground imu, hula that travels from Hawaii out to Samoa and Tahiti, and a fire-knife finish. Paradise Cove and Chiefs run on the west side, Toa sets up in Waimea Valley on the North Shore. Doors open late afternoon and dinner is part of the ticket.
- 1Paradise Cove Luau★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,498 reviews
- 2Toa Luau at Waimea Valley, Oahu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,350 reviews
- 3Chief’s Luau Admission★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 3,018 reviews
The cage off Haleiwa
Boats leave Haleiwa harbor for the deep water where Galapagos and sandbar sharks follow the fishing fleet in. You go into a floating cage at the surface, no scuba qualification needed, and the skipper keeps the boat drifting so the sharks stay under the hull.
- 1Oahu Shark Dive★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,903 reviews
- 2Shark Cage Dive on the North Shore★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,485 reviews
- 3Shark Cage Diving on Oahu’s North Shore★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,391 reviews
The Oahu days out more travellers take than any others.
Every Oahu review →What the island actually books: the coast road, the harbor, the memorial and the reef.
1
Oahu Grand Circle Island and Haleiwa Tour: 9-Hr Deluxe Experience
Travel around Oahu with an English-speaking guide such as Marlon, Lola, Tony, or Lulu. You’ll see coastal lookouts, Byodo-In Temple, a macadamia farm, Haleiwa, and Dole Plantation. It’s a bus-based introduction to the island, with hotel pickup and about 90 minutes in Haleiwa.
From · $140
Read our review →
2
Grand Tour Around Island 16 Locations plus Snorkeling
from $109
3
Parasailing Experience in Waikiki, HI
from $44
4
Salute to Pearl Harbor Including USS Arizona
from $59
5
Majestic Circle Island Tour with Lunch
from $181
6
Oahu’s Ultimate Tour: Dole, Turtle Snorkel, Pali Lookout & More
from $108
7
Oahu Circle Island Tour with Turtle Snorkeling— Small-Groups
from $149
8
Pearl Harbor USS Arizona Memorial
from $55
Around the island, shore by shore
By kind of day, water or road
Waikiki, Pearl Harbor, the coast road: a first Oahu week in the order it works.
The newest Oahu tour reviews.
Newest on the site →
Private Pearl Harbor and Mini Circle Island Tour from Waikiki
Read our review →
Pearl Harbor USS Arizona and USS Missouri “Private”
Read our review →
Private One-way Airport Transfer Honolulu Airport To Honolulu
Read our review →
Private Tour Oahu Circle Island – Fully Personalized Experience
Read our review →
Private “Limousine” USS Arizona Memorial & Cultural Honolulu Tour
Read our review →
