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Diamond Head, sandy white beaches and the
impossibly blue Pacific - everything looks
better from a convertible. Ask TRAVEL
TRAVEL to book the rental car of your
choice when you are in Honolulu sightseeing. Planning
a vacation in Hawaii or just dreaming? Take a virtual
tour.
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 Honolulu,
Hawaii's largest
city, is sometimes perceived as being less
"Hawaiian" than the rest of the state,
meaning that its high-rise office buildings and
traffic don't easily match many people's
romantic ideal of what Hawaii should be—remote
palm-fringed beaches and lavish resorts.
Map
of Honolulu
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 In
truth, Honolulu is probably the most Hawaiian
part of the state simply because it best
reflects the many different things that Hawaii
can be: It's a multicultural mix of people; it's
a beautiful landscape of greenery and ocean; and
it's a place where stupendous historical events
have unfolded, many of them recounted in
Honolulu's historic sites and museums. All
that's exciting about big-city life—theater,
opera, shopping, nightclubs, fine dining—is
set against a backdrop of majestic,
rain-forested mountains and sweeping vistas.
And, with Waikiki,
one of the main Honolulu attractions, along one edge of the city, Honolulu even has a
beach resort. Waikiki remains
Hawaii's busiest tourist spot and makes a good
departure point for exploring the recreation
possibilities afforded by the greater Honolulu
area.
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Active travelers can race down volcanic
mountains on bikes, ramble across pastureland
and past ancient religious shrines, or swim with
the green sea turtles off Waikiki Beach.  The
best way to see Honolulu is to first decide
which of Honolulu's attractions most interests you and then group your choices
according to their physical location. Honolulu
sightseeing might mean spending a morning exploring Chinatown, stop for
lunch at one of the many excellent Asian
restaurants there, then relax on the beach at
Ala Moana or Waikiki in the late afternoon when
the sun's rays are less intense. Or you might
plan tours of Iolani Palace and the Mission
Houses Museum (they're close together), eat a
picnic lunch on the Palace grounds, then spend
the afternoon trekking on one of the Hawaii
Nature Center's short rain-forest trails.
An early-morning
visit to the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor
would put you right across the street from the
Aloha Stadium Swap Meet with its hundreds of
stalls. Or you might plan a driving tour along
Oahu's rugged eastern shore. Stop at Hanauma Bay
for a swim and snorkel, lunch in Kailua, buy
ripe fruit at a roadside stand, visit the Byodo-In
Temple in Kaneohe and return to Waikiki through
the Likelike Tunnel.
For full
immersion in Polynesian culture, be sure to
visit the Bishop Museum (it also has a good
planetarium), the Lolani Palace and the
Polynesian Cultural Center. Whatever
you decide to do, remember not to rush. Outside
the city, Oahu is a laid-back island, so relax
and take things slowly.
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