What do visitors want to do in Hawaii?
September 14th, 2009 | 
Author: I am a local girl born and raised in Hawaii. I am in the research stages of building a business that provides private tours of Oahu. The tours that I plan to offer will not be the normal run of the mill tour. I would like for tourists to experiance Hawaii the way I live it. Take them to eat at the places local people like to eat. I am wondering if visitors are wanting the whole commercial tourism experiance or the authentic Hawaii vacation where they build relationships with actual local people and do what local people do and not what tourists do. Please let me know what you think.
Interesting question… I kinda think it is a mixture of both local experiences and tourist stuff that tourists are looking for. I live in Honolulu. I remember one time vacationing on Kauai & getting up early & asking the hotel desk staff were the locals ate. I went there – and the food was pretty good, but really the ambiance was just plain not there. So I was kind of disappointed. If the food had been totally broke da mouth, maybe it would have been OK that the place was kind of so-so in the atmosphere department, but as it was, I remember thinking, "maybe I shoulda eaten at the restaurant at the hotel".
And there are lots of things that tourists enjoy doing that we locals would probably like too, except that we rarely do that sort of stuff for a whole variety of reasons. I’m thinking of things like whale watching tours, even going to Hanauma Bay
But there are definitely things like walking tours of downtown & Chinatown markets, etc that I think tourists would enjoy doing. Lotta locals never do those things either. But don’t take them to the KCC Farmers’ Market! Too many tourists already found out about it & now it is way too crowded.
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3 Responses to “What do visitors want to do in Hawaii?”
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When I went to Hawaii I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to know where an authentic Hawaiian restaurant was, where I could get culture, history, and as much natural beauty as could be found. I also wanted to go scuba diving and to see beautiful beaches.
I’ve heard it has changed, but Oahu was very dirty when I went, so I’d avoid those areas. Also, I didn’t really see much tropical stuff when I was there, which was disappointing.
What I was surprised to find was black sand. Most mainlanders will probably find that interesting.
References :
Interesting question… I kinda think it is a mixture of both local experiences and tourist stuff that tourists are looking for. I live in Honolulu. I remember one time vacationing on Kauai & getting up early & asking the hotel desk staff were the locals ate. I went there – and the food was pretty good, but really the ambiance was just plain not there. So I was kind of disappointed. If the food had been totally broke da mouth, maybe it would have been OK that the place was kind of so-so in the atmosphere department, but as it was, I remember thinking, "maybe I shoulda eaten at the restaurant at the hotel".
And there are lots of things that tourists enjoy doing that we locals would probably like too, except that we rarely do that sort of stuff for a whole variety of reasons. I’m thinking of things like whale watching tours, even going to Hanauma Bay
But there are definitely things like walking tours of downtown & Chinatown markets, etc that I think tourists would enjoy doing. Lotta locals never do those things either. But don’t take them to the KCC Farmers’ Market! Too many tourists already found out about it & now it is way too crowded.
References :
Honolulu resident
Aloha!
I would find that sort of tour very interesting. When we went to Oahu last January I did a lot of research to find local plate lunch locations, historic walking tours etc. We really loved the South Shore Grill in Waikiki and Keneke’s in Waimanolo by the way =)
I would be very interested in a tour that took my group and I to off the beaten track beaches that locals love, plate lunches, local small markets/shops, teaching us how to make lau lau or another local dish, maybe even a luau in someone’s back yard the way it is done for birthdays and other special events. Whatever you think a local person in HI does that we landlocked mainlanders never get to (lol)
We’ll be back in 3 years with about 10-12 people, so keep up the good work! Also, come to hawaii.com message boards and chat with us, we love to talk to locals (some of us are hoping to become locals) – my username is msutton8
Melissa
References :
http://www.hawaii.com