Found this googling for Waianae beaches.
For my last week in Oahu, I booked a room in a hale in Waianae. When I mentioned this, several coteachers in Kaneohe warned me about Waianae, suggested I cancel and stay somewhere else, and told me to keep my car locked and my eyes on my wallet all the time. Joke’s on them, I don’t have a car!
But actually, Waianae is my dream vacation neighborhood. The lava coastline is so beautiful it kind of hurts. In the mornings, I’d go drink a coffee and read on the rocks, and I’d only see a few grandpas out fishing, and maybe a dog-walker, peacefully enjoying the beach.
There are tasty plate lunches, Chinese and “Chinese” meals, diner food, and beachy seafood all for under $10. But put a fork in your bag, because most of this deliciousness is sold at counters or stands, where everything is disposable. Prices for food and coffee were literally a third of what they were in Honolulu and Waikiki, and no one seemed to be in a hurry here, so I often found myself chatting instead of getting hustled out to turn the table.
And Waianae’s on the bus line to Honolulu for all the other touristing I wanted to do! To me, Waianae is like Bed-Stuy or Jersey City or whatever, only with stunning natural beauty. Just a regular working-class neighborhood, plus endless rainbows, epic mountains and wild hibiscus flowers all around.
Waianae under a rainbow
