And Away… Oahu, Hawaii Family Travel
Early this year, we hopped on a plane and flew to Oahu, Hawaii for a dream family vacation. For as long as we’ve been married, Josh and I have talked about going to Hawaii together. My mother-in-law loves Hawaii so Josh grew up with frequent trips, I was raised in the Midwest where people only go to Hawaii if they make it to their 50th wedding anniversary. I’m joking, but not really joking! For me, there has always been this holy reverence and mystery around Hawaii.
As we’ve planned trips over the years we’d considered Hawaii, but I was adamant that I didn’t want a quick trip there and back. We wanted to go as a family, for as long as we could and maybe after a film to rest and celebrate together. Our dream scenario worked out and I’m still in unbelief that it all came together as well as it did.
After we wrapped production on our latest film, our friend gifted us flights to Oahu. I know, it was ridiculously generous and one of those wrap gifts that you only read about. We were blown away, but it ended up being the perfect thing because the dates were set in stone and the planning could begin.
Our Hotel: Turtle Bay Resort
Our trip was for 10 days on Oahu. As soon as it was booked I got to work researching the best places to stay. I knew that we wanted to truly unplug and on this trip so that crowded out Airbnb (I was not cooking or cleaning!) and some smaller hotels in Honolulu (too busy!) Turtle Bay Resort had the best reviews and seemed like a truly luxurious spot for families. It was. We loved our time here and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to any family traveling to Oahu.
What we did – Oahu, Hawaii Family Travel
Waimea Valley hike to Waterfall
Kualoa Ranch Tour – Oahu, Hawaii Family Travel
Hands down, our favorite moment from the trip was our UTV tour of Kualoa Ranch. Being a film family, we had to come out and see this beautiful ranch that has been the film location for many movies and tv shows. This was most notably the “real life” Jurassic Park so we booked this as a birthday surprise for our dinosaur loving boy. It was one of our favorite family memories of all time. I still can’t get over how much fun this day was!
The UTVs were intense. Josh did the driving and I am not a fan of heights, so there were some times where it got a little dicey, for me only, Josh and Hugo were just fine. I will say, the valley was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life.
Now that we’ve been in person, I can’t stop seeing Kualoa everywhere! Josh and I are 3 episodes away from finishing LOST and the show was filmed on Oahu (Hurley’s “golf course” was Kualoa). Pearl Harbor was filmed in part here. I was watching a random Hallmark movie and noticed it again. I think we need to branch out some of our filming locations and make a movie in Hawaii!
Oh, and if you go, do not wear white! You will get so dirty at the end of the tour. Our light colored clothes never recovered and made a huge mess in our suitcase.
What we ate:
Mainly açaí bowls! Jet lag hit all of us, me the hardest and I was asleep by 7pm almost every night, Our hotel had great food and there was a food truck village just a few minutes down the road, so we didn’t need to venture too far out. But the light and refreshing acai bowls were our favorite. We loved Raised by the Waves for their fresh vegan food, we ate here several times.
Our hotel had gluten free pancakes that were amazing! And I discovered a love of papaya on this trip. I had never had papaya that tasted like this and I ate it every single day.
I kept up a daily stream of photos for my mother-in-law everyday because Hawaii is her thing and she had tons of great planning advice for our trip. She kept asking if we were going to go anywhere nice for a seafood dinner, but I didn’t make it to dinner time most nights (JETLAG!) Finally, the last night, I sent her photos of our amazing feast and us, awake to enjoy it!
Oh look! Another acai bowl.
I had to laugh at mine and Josh’s vacation reading choices. Solid, dog-eared 1990s books. You can tell a lot about a person by what they’re reading by the pool. P.s. I can’t recommend either of these books enough. Margin and Business by the Book.
In all, we had a marvelous trip. Hawaii was more wild than I was expecting, maybe that was because we were staying on the North Shore, but it truly felt unique to me.
Have you been to Hawaii? Which island? And what did we miss out on and which island should we explore next?
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