Day 7: Makapu’u Point Lighthouse, Waimanalo Beach and LUAU!

Thursday, June 6

Starting to wind down our time in Oahu! I can now see why Oahu is such a popular choice when people visit Hawaii- it is SO family friendly and there is just so much to see and do that works for various ages.

On Thursday Ivan and I started the day with a long walk down the main avenue in Waikiki. We eventually got coffee/tea but mostly just wanted to walk.

By about 9:30 we set out for the day. We had tickets for a luau in the evening at 5:15, which would require showers + a decently long drive beforehand, so we didn’t have that much available time really.

I decided we would do the Makapu’u Point Lighthouse trail. That’s another thing that is nice about Oahu- there are quite a few paved, or more accessible for all, trails and shorter hikes that are still stunningly beautiful.

Makapu’u Point Lighthouse Trail

It was HOT! The weather seemed to get progressively hotter throughout the week. (The first few days were windier and tended to be more partly cloudy or overcast, which honestly felt a touch too cool to me sometimes! As the week went on it definitely felt plenty warm.)

This hike is all uphill on the way up, and full sunshine!

Only about 2 minutes up the trail the views were already so beautiful:

This whole Windward side of the island is so green and lush!

The trail continues up this big hill. Gorgeous ocean views the whole way.

Finally you get a glimpse of the little lighthouse! The lighthouse is cute but the draw to this hike is definitely the views.

Closer to the top, the views were just SO amazing!!!!

I have some great videos that capture the view even better.

From the top viewpoint you can look down on the lighthouse from the other side.

More pics of us + the view…..

And then we headed back down!

I’d definitely recommend doing this in Oahu. It’s not too far from Waikiki, so it’s convenient, and it’s FREE, and it’s only a couple miles total round trip. (Though, the uphill part may be tiring/challenging for some. But the back half is easy at least!) And, it’s gorgeous!

Waimanalo Beach

Next we drove up the Windward coast a little to the town of Waimanalo. Grabbed some food quickly for lunch and then planned to hit the beach for a while.

If you recall, we had tried to visit this coast the other day, but it was too windy. Now it was calm, and I really wanted to check out these beaches. They are supposed to be the best, most Caribbean-like beaches on the island (sandy, brilliant blue water, etc.)

A blog reader (if you’re reading, hi Kara!!!) emailed me a bunch of great tips and recommended Waimanalo Beach as a favorite, so we went there.

It was sooooooo pretty!!!! Again, the photos are crap in comparison to real life. Those mountains/hills in the background are really all varying colors of bright green, which in this picture just looks like a dark blob.

The beach was also not really busy at all. A GREAT spot!

The water was also warm and clear and there were just nice rolling waves- not totally flat, but not crazy huge either. Just right!

I took my phone out in my water bag for a bit and swam with the boys and Ivan too. 🙂

The water felt so good. This was really fun! I hadn’t gotten in the water much yet, due to the other beaches either being kind of rocky, etc.

I was having a great time until a man nearby with a boy called over to us that they had just seen a Man-of-War in the water a little ways over.

😳 And….. I’m out. 😅

(I had read that this side of the island is more prone to Man-of-Wars especially after a few windy days, so I had had my eyes peeled. The boys kept swimming and had no issues, but as we were leaving a bit later two young girls down the beach were crying and had been stung. The lifeguard was spraying them with ammonia.)

Minus the stinging creatures, this is an amazing beach! We stayed just for a couple hours and then had to head back to get ready for our special luau night!

Mauka Warriors Luau

We cleaned up and were ready to go by about 4:15.

The drive out was BUSY. The highways here are no joke especially around rush hour.

Once we cut across the island though, we were up in a beautiful remote area for the luau, up on a hilltop.

We got checked in and the gave us our leis.

To be honest, I had been on the fence about doing a luau. Everything I read said that it was a “must do” experience in Hawaii, but they are also expensive and I thought maybe would just be a cheesy tourist trap.

I was so wrong!! I can’t speak for other luaus, but this one was AWESOME. Seriously, all 6 of us, including the boys, just loved it.

The first hour or so was just open for photos, getting a drink, and participating in different cultural stations.

This is the cooking demonstration station:

The general set up- tables overlooking Honolulu in the distance, with a big stage up front. There was live Hawaiian music being played the whole time which was fun.

We took a nice family photo!

Made flower bracelets:

There were hula lessons (didn’t partake, just watched 😉 )

There were various other activities too- we didn’t have time even to do them all.

The big group cooking demonstration was actually very educational and interesting (and funny! The main guy was a total riot!! 😂 He was so so good!)

While I did the flower bracelet, Ivan got a temporary “warrior” tattoo drawn on! hahaha. He’s totally not the tattoo type so he had fun with this.

Then it was time to eat. The food also FAR surpassed my expectations. It was delicious! I had figured it might be kind of “meh”, as buffet type things often are. I was so pleasantly surprised at how great the food was.

Our tickets also included two drink tickets each.

After dinner, the show started. It had some cultural demonstrations first (again, soo funny! We were all in stitches.)

After dark the main part of the show started.

This luau focused a lot on the “warrior” history of Hawaii (and all the Polynesian islands). That was part of why I picked this one- I thought this might be more interesting and attractive to the boys.

There were music and dancing pieces representing all the different islands and each one outlined specific parts of their history, cultures, warrior dances and traditions and the meaning behind it all.

I am not exaggerating- this was so fabulous!

I obviously am not including pics from every one but it was a long show and each part was different and really good.

The end had these amazing fire jugglers!!! And some were as young as 15 years old or even younger.

After, I took a pic with some of the dancers 🙂

I was blown away by the luau and so happy that it totally WAS worth the cost!! Yay!! lol. I would whole heartedly recommend this luau to anyone going to Oahu. Here is the link: Mauka Warriors. (We got the mid grade option. The main difference is the very front seating in the top tier plus a flower lei. We got a Kukui Nut lei and mid section seating, but we lucked out and got the very first table in the mid section! So I was like 3 feet from the front section tables, which would have cost us an extra $120 for our family of 4.)

Back at the hotel, I wanted a few more pics in our Hawaiian clothes. Haha. I felt like we ran out of time at the luau for a nice full group shot….

It was like 9:30 or so by the time we got back, and the boys went up to the room to chill. The adults decided to go around the corner for one drink at Tiki’s, the place we ate our first night. Loved the vibe there.

We chatted for just a bit and hung out and then called it a night!

I’m so happy with how this day all panned out, and I loved loved loved the luau! I’m very glad we decided to do it.