My 3 Best Hawaii Travel Secrets

Gray Cargill who writes solo travel advice at Solo Friendly has tagged me to share my top three travel secrets. This fun travel blog meme started at TripBase with the purpose of highlighting those hidden travel spots that you most likely won’t find in a guidebook. So, here are my top three Hawaii-focused travel secrets.

1. When you go to Oahu, please do yourself a favor and stop into Liliha Bakery in Honolulu for coco puffs. These creamy pastries are absolutely onolicious. I hate to use this overused phrase, but it truly describes you’re first bite of a coco puff – it melts in your mouth.

Liliha Bakery is very popular with the locals, but I’ve never seen it mentioned in a guidebook. On a flight from Oahu to Maui, I noticed several locals carrying Liliha boxes, which I’m sure would delight their friends and family.

I’ve written about Liliha Bakery’s coco puffs and how I highly recommend you give it a try. One reader, Aja, wrote this comment on my post about coco puffs:

“All I can say is WOW – stumbled across this post before going to spend a week in Oahu and it was more than worth the $50 round trip cab ride from Waikiki just to taste one of those amazing coco puffs!! Of course, I couldn’t just stop at one and after buying a box to go I was left licking the wrappers after the last one was eaten. Thank you so much for this recommendation!!”

Yes, wrapper licking is a side effect of coco puffs. 🙂 Liliha Bakery is located in Honolulu at 515 N. Kuakini Street.

2. How would you like to brag to your friends that you slept in a volcano? Well, on the Big Island you can stay in some wonderful Bed and Breakfast and inns in the town of Volcano. You won’t find any big name resorts here, but what you will find are small locally owned and operated accommodations that will provide you with a unique experience of the Big Island.

The town of Volcano is located adjacent to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the world’s most active volcano, Kilauea, which makes it a great base for exploring that area of Hawaii Island. For first time visitors to the Big Island, I always recommend staying in Volcano for one to three nights in addition to several nights on the Kona side.

Though the historic Kilauea Lodge is a favorite of many, I prefer the B&B’s that are surrounded by rainforest filled with Hapu’u Ferns. I’ve stayed at Volcano Rainforest Retreat (Note, this Web site doesn’t open in Firefox, you must use Internet Explorer) and on my upcoming trip to the Big Island, I’ll be staying at the Volcano Teapot Cottage.

3. Hit any beach at sunset in Hawaii and you’ll most likely find it deserted. Can you believe it?  Even the bustling Waikiki Beach becomes a semi-private beach at sunset. I still find it hard to believe myself. My theory on why the beaches are deserted is that folks are either in a restaurant hoping to have a table with a nice sunset view or they’re preparing to go out to dinner. My advice is to use this secret to your advantage and plan a sunset picnic. I’ll bet that it will end up being your most memorable and possibly one of your cheapest dinners in Hawaii. See my post on the best sunset view dining in Hawaii.

So, those are my three favorite Hawaii travel secrets. Please add your secret tips in the comments.

Now, I must tag 5 other bloggers to participate in this meme. I’d love to hear the insight from these folks:

• Melanie from Travels with Two – Melanie and her husband, Adam have practically traveled the world.
• Bobbie and Jerry from The Right Blue live on the Big Island of Hawaii have travel extensively to find new adventures in their “lifetime of ocean devotion”. What will their top three secrets be?
• Surely Gary from Everything Everywhere will have a challenge whittling down to just three top secret spots from his nearly three year long around the world travels.
• Kris from Maui by Photo and Kaanapali Dreamin’ is blogging pal who is nuts about Maui. Hopefully, he’ll share some of his secret spots from the Valley Isle, Maui.
• Jim and Martha write Wanderlust Journey. They love traveling and Hawaii is one of their favorites.