John Sisker wrote:
> Hank,
>
> It's around 5 miles, as the crow fly's. If cruise line transfers are
> included with your cruise, or can be purchased for a nominal fee, I think
> that would be the way to go.
A taxi from Waikiki (much further away) is around $40 one-way. I've
not gone straight from the cruise ship docks, but since its ~2/3rds of
the way to the airport, plus its on the good side of a lot of the
traffic congestion and so forth, I'd be surprised if its more than $20.
> However if you want to see a few sights along the way, then opt for a taxi.
If this is the ship-to-airport homeward bound return, as someone else
pointed out, the flights back to the mainland often leave in the
evening, so there's the question of either a day room or some other way
to stash your baggage for a few hours while touring.
In any event, while most people would consider it to be a "long" walk,
to go from the cruise ship docks into 'old town' Honolulu is within
walking distance. Two "sights" worth considering would be lunch at
Honolulu's Mei Sum Chinese Dim Sum Restaurant (65 N. Pauahi St.), which
while it very busy, is excellent and IMO worth the wait...they roll the
carts here, and its also very inexpensive.
A "more worthy" sight than merely grabbing a good local lunch would be
the `Iolani Palace, which is a Hawaiian national treasure and the only
official state residence of royalty in the United States. Tour
admission is $20/pp and their Website is:
http://www.iolanipalace.org/
The other major attraction that is likely on most people's to-do lists
is the Arizona Memorial over in Pearl Harbor. There's a lot of bus
tours that do this, and unfortunately, due to its popularity is a very
crowded event. If you only want to spend a half day there, you're
going to have to be in line 30-60 minutes *before* they open (8:00am
opening) if you want to have any real chance of making one of the boats
before 9:00am to make it only a half day. If you don't have your own
rental car with which to 'beat the crowds' (or can sort out some
arrangement with a taxi), I'd expect one of the minivan sized based
tourgroups would probably do better at getting there early. The key
question to ask the tour operator is "what time will you get us in
line?" The other planning alternative is to make it into an all-day
excursion by passing on the initial rush, get there at 9-10AM for your
Arizona ticket, then go do another tour in the area (such as USS
Missouri) while you're waiting for your afternoon trip out. BTW, the
parking lot here is notorious for break-in's, plus the NPS does not
permit any backpacks, camera bags, etc, etc. If you get stuck, there
are lockers available, although its at a private concession that's not
close by...figure around a 1/4 mile walk.
> Then again, as suggested by another, you might want to
> consider flying in at least a day early, to see and experience
> more of Honolulu itself.
IIRC, there's some hotel towers right near the docks that would then be
a short transfer.
-hh
|