Loved Aulani!!!!

[flinkerfrosch]

My family consisting of 2 boys ages 8 & 10, my DH and myself absolutely loved Aulani!
We spent 12 days there and are now in Maui for 11 days.
We stayed in a Studio- ocean view, and rented DVC points. Oceanview was amazing!!!
I will give a quick run down of everything we did while in Oahu.

We did 4 1/2 resort days and the rest we were out exploring. I had planned on more resort days, but we loved Oahu so much that we did more sightseeing then we anticipated which was a good thing!

Here is what we did...

*Dole Plantation
*Pearl Harbour
*North Shore (3 times) and went to many many beaches along the North Shore. My boys also did Surfing Lessons along the North Shore and it was amazing! They loved it!
*Lanai Lookout
*Hanauma Bay
*Halona Blowhole
*Eternity Beach
*Many Lookout places
*Waikiki Beach
*Kaneohe Bay & Sandbar
*Kauila Beach and others along the way
*Paradise Cove (5 mins walk from Aulani)

We drove around a good majority of the island so we stopped at so many places!

We had a rental car the entire time and drove 948Kms in total with all the sightseeing we did!

We also experienced many Shave Ice places including the infamous Matsumotos Shave Ice.

I’ve probably forgotten things, but feel free to ask any questions! Would love to help if I can as I too got some great info from the wonderful and helpful people on this forum

We’re in Maui now, so ask away as well. We haven’t done much yet, but we plan on it lol

Aloha!!!

 

[alohamom]

Oahu kind of gets put on the back burner for so many people because they think they just need to see Waikiki but we just LOVE it, so glad you did too!

I honestly feel that renting (or owning DVC) makes Aulani affordable enough to be a great base from which to explore

 

[lorenni]

My family consisting of 2 boys ages 8 & 10, my DH and myself absolutely loved Aulani!
We spent 12 days there and are now in Maui for 11 days.
We stayed in a Studio- ocean view, and rented DVC points. Oceanview was amazing!!!
I will give a quick run down of everything we did while in Oahu.

We did 4 1/2 resort days and the rest we were out exploring. I had planned on more resort days, but we loved Oahu so much that we did more sightseeing then we anticipated which was a good thing!

Here is what we did...

*Dole Plantation
*Pearl Harbour
*North Shore (3 times) and went to many many beaches along the North Shore. My boys also did Surfing Lessons along the North Shore and it was amazing! They loved it!
*Lanai Lookout
*Hanauma Bay
*Halona Blowhole
*Eternity Beach
*Many Lookout places
*Waikiki Beach
*Kaneohe Bay & Sandbar
*Kauila Beach and others along the way
*Paradise Cove (5 mins walk from Aulani)

We drove around a good majority of the island so we stopped at so many places!

We had a rental car the entire time and drove 948Kms in total with all the sightseeing we did!

We also experienced many Shave Ice places including the infamous Matsumotos Shave Ice.

I’ve probably forgotten things, but feel free to ask any questions! Would love to help if I can as I too got some great info from the wonderful and helpful people on this forum

We’re in Maui now, so ask away as well. We haven’t done much yet, but we plan on it lol

Aloha!!!

Where do your boys do their surf lessons and would you recommend?

Headed there in May with our six year old and thinking he might enjoy a kid focused lesson.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

Oahu kind of gets put on the back burner for so many people because they think they just need to see Waikiki but we just LOVE it, so glad you did too!

I honestly feel that renting (or owning DVC) makes Aulani affordable enough to be a great base from which to explore

Yes, we loved it!! Especially the North Shore and Hanauma Bay.

Aulani is a great home base. And yes, renting points saved us a lot of $$$. We will stay at Aulani again for sure! The drive anywhere wasn’t far as the island isn’t that big.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

Where do your boys do their surf lessons and would you recommend?

Headed there in May with our six year old and thinking he might enjoy a kid focused lesson.

I would highly recommend!!!

The company we used was called Uncle Brian’s Sunset Suratt Surf. Great company, great people and very good with the kids.

I booked the morning of and it was no issue. They take last min bookings as well as advance reservations.

We loved the North Shore because the waves were much better and bigger. My 8yr old is a very tiny 8 yr old, more like a 5yr old in size and he got up and surfed the whole 2hrs and loved it!

Their prices are great! We booked a 2hr group lesson, and my boys ended up being the only 2 and got a Private lesson instead for $80 each which is a great price compared to other companies.

We will use them again when we go back in 2019.

Have a great trip

 

[alohamom]

I would highly recommend!!!

The company we used was called Uncle Brian’s Sunset Suratt Surf. Great company, great people and very good with the kids.

Uncle Bryan is a hoot!

We have used him a few times now and what we found is they really pay attention to the level of fitness of each person, tailoring your lesson to how much you can do.

The first time we used him there was another surf school running lessons at the same time and this dude teaching with the other school was such an idiot. He basically just gave basic instruction and let people try to figure it out. Two of their group of 6 gave up and sat on the beach for most of the lesson. Uncle Bryan's people make sure you get up at least once and are very very attentive to the needs of each person.
This is their website

https://surfnorthshore.com/

 

[TeenaS]

We arrive Friday. How is the weather? We were hoping to have lots of pool/beach time. Read a trip report from last week and it sounded like we made a mistake booking for early December.

 

[nkereina]

Oahu kind of gets put on the back burner for so many people because they think they just need to see Waikiki but we just LOVE it, so glad you did too!

So true! On one of the Aulani episodes of the DIS Unplugged podcast, Kevin mentioned that Oahu is his favorite island in Hawaii because it has everything you could want out of Hawaii - the lush windward side, mountains/hiking, beaches of the North Shore, nightlife/shopping of Waikiki, etc. You get the best of Hawaii all right on Oahu. I agree with that so when/if we return, we will probably spend the bulk of our time right on Oahu as well.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

We arrive Friday. How is the weather? We were hoping to have lots of pool/beach time. Read a trip report from last week and it sounded like we made a mistake booking for early December.

Do you mean arrive in Maui on Friday?

We’ve had wonderful hot, sunny weather up until yesterday. It’s been a bit rainy off and on and will continue until next week from what I see at the moment.
It’s still hot and humid at times, and you can swim etc..just no sun for the most part.
Mid of next week looks great though! Lots of sun and little rain.

Enjoy your trip

 

[TeenaS]

Thanks ... we arrive at Aulani on Friday for nine days. Can't wait. Getting over bronchitis and really need some sun!!!

 

[flinkerfrosch]

Thanks ... we arrive at Aulani on Friday for nine days. Can't wait. Getting over bronchitis and really need some sun!!!

Weather pattern has changed now and it looks nice and sunny your whole stay, yay! Hopefully it will stay that way

I’m sure Maui will be a great cure for any illness lol..feel better!

My bad...thought u were coming to Maui. The weather over at Aulani is going to be great! We had nothing but sun sun and more sun, it was amazing weather! Enjoy!

 

[TeenaS]

Thanks for the good news!

 

[marx]

*North Shore (3 times) and went to many many beaches along the North Shore. My boys also did Surfing Lessons along the North Shore and it was amazing! They loved it!

Aloha!!!

We experienced everything you did on our first trip to Oahu. On all our trips to Aulani after that first trip our only ventures out (other than meals and supply runs) were to the North Shore (love the shrimp trucks too), and to the Swap Meet.

 

[alldiz]

So happy you loved Aulani, so did I
Sounds like you are doing Hawaii right with so many days there!!

We were at Aulani for 5 nights before a Pride of America cruise around islands.

I did love all the islands but next time I am 100 percent happy staying on Oahu. There is so much I did not see and each part of island is so different.
Shrimp trucks alone are worth a trip to north shore and possibly Oahu
Kerri

 

[alohamom]

Shrimp trucks alone are worth a trip to north shore and possibly Oahu
Kerri

Mmmmmmmmm I totally agree!

 

[MatthewsMommy]

We'll be at Aulani for our first visit in February and I want to book a surf lesson with Uncle Bryan's for my 11 year old son. Do you know if we can just book a lesson for him and my DH and I can watch from the beach? I would book him in a group lesson.

 

[TeenaS]

We'll be at Aulani for our first visit in February and I want to book a surf lesson with Uncle Bryan's for my 11 year old son. Do you know if we can just book a lesson for him and my DH and I can watch from the beach? I would book him in a group lesson.

Not sure. I did see people getting paddle board lessons while we were on the Beach. I would assume it's the same for surfing. There are very little waves there ...its a cove.

 

[buffettgirl]

We arrive Friday. How is the weather? We were hoping to have lots of pool/beach time. Read a trip report from last week and it sounded like we made a mistake booking for early December.

I think the rain is over. It's currently (9am) 73. Days look plenty sunny and hot in the high 70s, low 80s. Dew point is comfortable as heck. Nights have been getting into the mid to high 60s, so bring a jacket or sweater. It's absolutely gorgeous weather right now.

 

[KristenB17]

I hope we enjoy our visit next year.

 

[flinkerfrosch]

We'll be at Aulani for our first visit in February and I want to book a surf lesson with Uncle Bryan's for my 11 year old son. Do you know if we can just book a lesson for him and my DH and I can watch from the beach? I would book him in a group lesson.

Yes you can! That’s exactly what my DH and I did. My 2 boys surfed and we watched. Uncle Bryan even gave us chairs to sit on.
Enjoy your trip!!