City Information

More than you imagined, more than you knew, O'ahu is a rich and rewarding destination. O'ahu is the most diverse of the Hawaiian islands with a dazzling array of attractions, activities, and venues.

Whatever your passion, O'ahu offers you an experience unlike any other. Just click on one of the links to the right for the O'ahu experience you seek.

Actually, Oahu is a relatively small island, measuring 26 miles long and some 44 miles across at its widest, totaling 608 square miles of land, with 112 miles of coastline. From outer space, Oahu looks somewhat like a frayed Indian arrowhead with two mountain ridges shoring up each side: the 4,000-foot Waianae Mountains on the leeward (western) coast and the 3,000-foot Koolau Mountains on the windward (eastern) side. At night you can see the lights of suburban Oahu pouring down and out of the mountain valleys and reaching toward the shoreline.

Honolulu
Hawaii's largest city looks like any other big metropolitan center with tall buildings. In fact, some cynics refer to it as "Los Angeles West." But within Honolulu's boundaries, you'll find rainforests, deep canyons, valleys and waterfalls, a nearly mile-high mountain range, coral reefs, and gold-sand beaches. The city proper -- where most of Oahu's residents live -- is approximately 12 miles wide and 26 miles long, running east to west, roughly between Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor. Within the city are seven hills laced by seven streams that run to Mamala Bay.

Surrounding the central area is a plethora of neighborhoods, ranging from the quiet suburbs of Hawaii Kai to kamaaina (old-timer) neighborhoods like Manoa. These areas are generally quieter and more residential than Waikiki, but they're still within minutes of beaches, shopping, and all the activities Oahu has to offer.

Waikiki -- Some say that Waikiki is past its prime -- that everybody goes to Maui now. If it has fallen out of favor, you couldn't prove it by us. Waikiki is the very incarnation of Yogi Berra's comment about Toots Shor's famous New York restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

When King Kalakaua played in Waikiki, it was "a hamlet of plain cottages . . . its excitements caused by the activity of insect tribes and the occasional fall of a coconut." The Merrie Monarch, who gave his name to Waikiki's main street, would love the scene today. Some 5 million tourists visit Oahu every year, and 9 out of 10 of them stay in Waikiki. This urban beach is where all the action is; it's backed by 175 high-rise hotels with more than 33,000 guest rooms and hundreds of bars and restaurants, all in a 1 1/2-square-mile beach zone. Waikiki means honeymooners and sun seekers, bikinis and bare buns, a round-the-clock beach party every day of the year -- and it's all because of a thin crescent of sand that was shipped over from Molokai. Staying in Waikiki puts you in the heart of it all, but also be aware that this is an on-the-go place with traffic noise 24 hours a day and its share of crime -- and it's almost always crowded.