Where should we stay in Oahu?

Hi,

My family and I are heading to Oahu in October this year, it will be my parents (in their 50's, 60's), myself and my brother (in our 20s, 30s), and we are after an area that is both pretty and not crazy touristy, but also has some level of nightlife so we can all go out for dinner or a few beers after the beach etc.

I'm really struggling to find anywhere that meets this - I see areas like North Shore that has the prettiness we are after, and isn't full of high rises and crazy tourism, but then there is hardly any nightlife out there from what I can see. In comparison, I then see Waikiki, which gives us the restaurants, cafes, bars etc, but seems to be very busy, and less traditionally 'pretty Hawaii' than we were envisioning.

Does anyone have any ideas of some ideal areas that might work?

If you want nightlife and bars etc, stay downtown Honolulu. Waikiki Beach has a many nice hotels.

North Shore is a small one horse town area mainly catering to surfers and people renting homes.

Recently spent time on Oahu; ended-up renting a house off AirBnB on the North Shore on a hilltop over Pupukea. I cancelled the reservations in downtown Honolulu, with absolutely no regrets. Waikiki and the downtown area are noisy, congested, vagrants everywhere. Tourist areas are over-developed looking like a mix of Rodeo Drive, Vegas Strip, and SoBe. With hotel parking, tourism taxes, and other hidden fees, the rental house came out much cheaper and only about an hour from the city - if we wanted to go there.

The North Shore is much more laid back; roadsides lined with food trucks. Closest thing to 'nightlife' is probably found in the town of Haleiwa with numerous eateries, bars, shops; an area surrounded by the natural beauty you'd expect to find, though hardly swarming and further over-priced like you're going to find in Waikiki. It's also a gorgeous, convenient drive to all attractions on the Windward Side of the island.

It's going to be a trade-off; one or the other, so determine which is more of a priority.

Waikiki is definitely where the night life is, but is an anthill of tourists. I would just plan some nice day trips over to the North Shore or to the Kualoa Ranch area to get a good taste of country. I think that would make a nice happy medium.

This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Email community@lonelyplanet.com if you would like to add to this topic and we'll unlock it for you.