Hello, Waikiki: view from the top of Diamond Head

The second week of our honeymoon was spent in beautiful Oahu, Hawaii. Though this was my third visit to the island, Rory had never been, so we decided to spend our entire time there. This worked out fine, as this time I went armed with lots of food recommendations and did a lot of things I hadn’t done before, such as hike Diamond Head and visit the Pearl Harbor memorial.

We got a really good deal — round-tip airfare for two, five nights at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani hotel and a rental car for about $1,600 — through Pleasant Holidays. The hotel was right across the street from Waikiki beach, so it was really convenient, and the room was nice, clean and comfortable. We had a partial ocean view room with a king-size bed that came with two bottles of water a day at no extra charge (that may not sound like much, but I hate when hotels charge for bottled water).

Partial ocean view (patch of blue between the buildings) from our hotel room

Aside from lounging on the beach, which we did a lot of, we hiked Diamond Head crater, which was not the best idea as it was a really humid day — even the locals said so. And if you know me, you know that I don’t deal with humidity well. So on this hot and humid day, we hiked up a crater on a trail that was built nearly straight up. I almost barfed, then nearly passed out. But I made it and was rewarded with a 360-degree view of Waikiki (above).

I nearly died at the top of this staircase.

Enough about that. On to the food!

My favorite meal of this trip was at Nico’s at Pier 38, a counter-service restaurant in the industrial part of Honolulu. It was so good, we went twice. Both times I got the marlin burger, which is made with ground marlin, onion and dill and comes two on a bun. Rory got the fish and chips, both of which were fried nicely.

Marlin burger from Nico's

Fish and chips from Nico's

My second-favorite meal of this trip was from Boots & Kimo’s Homestyle Kitchen in Kailua on the east side of the island. This place is known for its breakfast, especially its macadamia nut pancakes, which come smothered in a special vanilla macadamia nut sauce. It’s sweet, and it was so satisfying that I devoured it. I normally don’t go for sweet breakfasts, but I really enjoyed this dish. Rory liked his open-face roast beef sandwich, too. Everything on the menu is described as “onolicious,” and I can’t disagree (“ono” means “delicious” in Hawaiian). This place had a long wait, even during a weekday lunch, so either get there early or order your food to go, as we did.

Macadamia nut pancakes (they're under all that sauce)

Roast beef sandwich from Boots & Kimo's

Another favorite meal came from Duke’s Waikiki, which was surprising considering we have Duke’s restaurants here in California. But the kalua pulled pork on a taro roll, which is part of the Barefoot Bar menu, was really good with a nice balance of sweet and savory notes. The seasoned fries that came with it were good, too. (And yes, I had a Lava Flow cocktail here.)

As for dessert, most people know about Matsumoto Shave Ice on the North Shore, but I’m not sure most know about Waiola Shave Ice, which I think is better. The ice is a bit smoother, and the flavors are a bit nicer. The ambiance may not be as nice as Matsumoto’s store, but your stomach won’t mind. There are two locations in Honolulu, but we went to the original hole-in-the-wall location on Waiola Avenue. The area is a little sketchy, but the shave ice is tops!

Waiola shave ice

In comparison, here’s Mastumoto’s shave ice, which is larger. You can tell by the colors that the ice isn’t as finely shaved as Waiola’s.

Matsumoto shave ice

For a different kind of sweet, we headed to Leonard’s Bakery, which specializes in Portuguese-style doughnuts called malasadas. These are basically fluffy doughnuts without holes. You can get them filled with different flavored creams or simply rolled in sugar or cinnamon. We tried the latter two without filling, and we loved them. They key is to eat them right away because they don’t keep well.

Leonard's malasada

The view from the Kapalua-West Maui Airport

I wish I could show you a panoramic view of what surrounds the airport: ocean on one side, lush green hills on the other. So even though we waited a while for our ride to Enterprise Rent-A-Car (which isn’t actually at the airport but is housed in the Sheraton in Ka’anapali about 5 miles away), the view kept us company. My mother and I were visiting Maui the week before Thanksgiving for my cousin’s wedding, and we chose to fly into the smaller, one-runway airport on the Western side of the island (with a connection in Honolulu) even though it was more expensive than flying into Maui’s main airport in Kahului because it was more convenient to where we were staying in Kapalua, whereas Kahului is about an hour’s drive away.

We stayed at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, where the wedding took place. This was my first experience staying at a Ritz-Carlton, so maybe I was expecting something spectacular, but I wasn’t all that impressed. Don’t get me wrong — the property was very nice, and the service was excellent, but I think the property needs a facelift (apparently it was renovated in late 2007, so maybe I’m just not a big fan of the island theme).

This place is really big. It took us at least a good five minutes to get to the lobby from our hotel room. The Ritz-Carlton is part of the Kapalua resort area, which includes other hotels, restaurants, golf courses and tennis courts on a peninsular area akin to Rancho Palos Verdes in the L.A. area. It’s all very quiet, which is nice when you’re looking for a getaway. Anyway, the Ritz has a large pool area that overlooks the ocean, as well as a private beach. I’ve never understood why you’d go to Hawaii and choose the pool over the beach, so I spent my tanning time on the sand.

Private beach at dusk

Our room at the Ritz was sufficiently roomy, with plush queen-size beds and a sizable bathroom. There were two closets, too. Here’s what the room looked like:

Inside a Ritz-Carlton Kapalua room

Bathroom

Shower

Bathtub

Balcony. It was bigger in person.

View 1 from balcony

View 2 from balcony

One thing that I was impressed by was the food (at least some of it) at the Ritz. The Alaloa lobby lounge served up some good cocktails and some really great food. The Blue Basil cocktail, made with vodka, fresh blueberries and lemon basil leaves, and the Grapefruit Caipiroska, which is basically a grapefruit mojito made with vodka instead of rum, were both refreshing and had just the right amount of sweetness.

Blue Basil

Grapefruit Caipiroska

The ahi salad — a substantial piece of seared and spice-encrusted ahi on top of a bed of spinach, mangoes, teardrop tomatoes and macadamia nuts — may just be my mom’s new favorite salad. And the chicken cobb salad here is definitely now my favorite salad, hands down. How could you go wrong with a chicken breast topped with melted bleu cheese and wedges of butter lettuce adorned with avocado, bacon, soy beans and teardrop tomatoes? It’s to die for.

Seared ahi tuna salad

Chicken cobb salad

Despite the deliciousness I experienced at the lobby lounge, I wasn’t impressed with the hotel’s breakfast buffet at The Terrace restaurant. Everything was just kind of OK. However, my cousin got a freshly made Belgian waffle and it was great, so maybe the à la carte items are a better bet here for breakfast.

My mom and I had some time to check out the former whaling town-turned-tourist-trap of Lahaina, where we had last been 16 years ago! This jewelery/trinket shop had the funniest sign and was actually nicer inside than it looked from the outside:

Funny shop in Lahaina

Ululani’s Shave Ice was my favorite stop of this trip. The small storefront offered tons of flavors, including tiger’s blood (cherry and coconut), tamarind and green tea, as well as add-ons such as mochi, azuki beans, ice cream and a sweet cream mixture called Snow Cap.

Ululani's Shave Ice

Mom and I shared this one with passion fruit, guava and mango flavors was azuki beans and mochi:

Shave ice from Ululani's

One of my favorite places to have breakfast in Hawaii is McDonald’s. Yes, Mickey D’s. Instead of a platter of pancakes and sausage, Hawaiian McDonald’s restaurants serve up steamed whited rice, scrambled eggs, Portuguese sausage and/or Spam. And it’s good!

Hawaiian McDonald's breakfast

SLS Hotel: To celebrate its first anniversary, the SLS Hotel is randomly giving away two rooms a week for $1 a night to lucky winners who happen to visit its Web site at the right time. But hurry because the promotion ends Nov. 30.

Embassy Suites: If you stay at any Embassy Suites before Dec. 31, you can enter to win a grand prize of a trip to one of nine Embassy Resorts, which include properties in Lake Tahoe, Waikiki and Myrtle Beach. The prize includes a five-day/four-night stay, airfare and ground transportation. There will also be 100 first place prizes of $100 Visa gift cards.

Marriott Hawaii: Marriott has put together the granddaddy of giveaways — seven nights at two of five Hawaii hotels (so you can visit more than one island), airfare (including inter-island flights) and a private luau for you and 11 of your friends. Yes, that’s right, a trip for 12 to Hawaii. All you have to do to enter is make a three-minute video before Dec. 20 showing why you love Hawaii.

San Juan Marriott. From Don Riddle (Flickr).

Through June 12, Marriott International Inc. is offering a “Deal of the Day,” with up to 60 percent off rates at a different Caribbean, Hawaii or California hotel each day for 24 hours. Other deals that’ll be offered include free nights based on a minimum length of stay, and free services and amenities. You can find the deals starting at 7:00 a.m. on either Marriott’s Twitter feed (@marriottintl) or at www.MarriottDealoftheDay.com. Today’s deal is 10 percent off daily room rates to $167, with a fourth night free on either a pool- or ocean-view room and free daily breakfast for two at the San Juan, Puerto Rico, Marriott. Though Marriott won’t release the locations of the hotels beforehand, the company says most will be beach resorts. You’ll have to find your own way there, though.

Of course for L.A. locals, the Westin Bonaventure has been giving away free rooms since March via its Twitter feed (@thebonaventure).