Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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.
ALAMOANA
A great beach as well as a famous shopping mall, Ala Moana is the retail and trans-
portation heart of Honolulu, a place where you can both shop and suntan in one afternoon.
All bus routes lead to the open-air
AlaMoanaShoppingCenter,
across the street from
Ala
MoanaBeachPark.
This 50-acre, 200-shop behemoth attracts 56 million customers a year.
(People fly up from Tahiti just to buy their Christmas gifts here.) Every European design-
er from Armani to Vuitton is represented in Honolulu's answer to Beverly Hills's Rodeo
Drive. For our purposes, the neighborhood called “Ala Moana” extends along Ala Moana
Boulevard from Waikiki in the direction of Diamond Head to downtown Honolulu in the
Ewa direction (west) and includes the
Ward Centre
and
Ward Warehouse complexes
as
well as
Restaurant Row.
DOWNTOWN
A tiny cluster of high-rises west of Waikiki, downtown Honolulu is the financial,
business, and governmental center of Hawaii. On the waterfront stands the iconic 1926
Aloha Tower, now the centerpiece of a harbor-front shopping and restaurant complex
known as the
Aloha Tower Marketplace.
The entire history of Honolulu can be seen in
just a few short blocks: Street vendors sell papayas from trucks in skyscraper-lined concrete
canyons; joggers and BMWs rush by Iolani Palace, where descendants of the original mis-
sionaries (with help from the U.S. Marines) overthrew Hawaii's last queen and stole her
kingdom; burly bus drivers sport fragrant white ginger flowers on their dashboards; Meth-
odist churches look like Asian temples; and businessmen wear aloha shirts to billion-dollar
meetings.
On the edge of downtown is the
Chinatown Historic District,
the oldest Chinatown
in America. This is still one of Honolulu's liveliest neighborhoods, a nonstop pageant of
people, sights, sounds, smells, and tastes—not all Chinese, now that Southeast Asians, in-
cluding many Vietnamese, share the old storefronts. Go on a Saturday morning, when
everyone shops here for fresh goods such as ginger root, fern fronds, and hogs' heads.
Among the historic buildings and Pan-Pacific corporate headquarters are a few hotels,
mainly geared toward business travelers. Most visitors prefer the sun and excitement of
Waikiki or choose a quieter neighborhood outside the city.
MANOAVALLEY
First inhabited by white settlers, the Manoa Valley, above Waikiki, still has vin-
tage kamaaina homes, one of Hawaii's premier botanical gardens in the Lyon Arboretum,
the ever-gushing Manoa Falls, and the 320-acre campus of the University of Hawaii, where
50,000 students hit the topics when they're not on the beach.
KAHALA
Except for the estates of world-class millionaires and the luxurious Kahala Hotel &
Resort (home of Hoku's, an outstanding beachfront restaurant), there's not much out to the
east of downtown that's of interest to visitors.
East Oahu
Beyond Kahala lies East Honolulu and such suburban bedroom communities as Aina Haina,
Niu Valley, and Hawaii Kai, among others, all linked by the Kalanianaole Highway and
loaded with homes, condos, fast-food joints, and shopping malls. It looks like Southern Cali-
