When I went to Hawaii back in September/October of 2010 (FYI, you will be hearing a lot about this trip in the coming posts because there were so many great things from that trip!) my friend Laura (my BFF from High School) and I decided to go a different route than to just stay at high priced hotels and resorts.
I was given the task of finding a place for us to stay both on Oahu and later on Maui. And I had SO much fun finding the places! There were so many to choose from, which was intimidating at first, but later it became a fun game to find out the absolute perfect place for us to stay.
I think we both agreed that after the first few days in the crazy tourist area of Waikiki, we were eager to get out of the city a little bit and settled on a wonderful place in Kailua, about 30 minutes outside of Honolulu.
I found the vacation rental via Home Away, which lets owners rent out their property to travelers such as myself.
We chose the cottage in Kailua because it was a central location for us to access Honolulu as well as the North Shore, while still being near to a beach (about 3 minutes away). Neither Laura or I had ever used any vacation rental place like Home Away or VRBO, so we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into. To our amazement we arrived to a room with this view:
It pretty much blew all my expectations for the place. It was perfect. The property was gated off and you just felt totally safe. Most nights/days we didn't even lock the doors! And I'm a paranoid person, so that's saying something about how nice and remote the area is.
The owner, Elizabeth, was so wonderful and hospitable. She even had a welcome basket with food and fresh fruit, and some drinks in the refrigerator.
On one of the days, Laura had gone off to scuba dive (I am freaked out by the idea of scuba diving...) and I got a chance to sit down with Elizabeth, who was roughly my parent's age, and heard about her childhood growing up in Kailua (her parent's built the house there).
It was so interesting listening to her talk about how things were back in the days there. I had been telling her how Laura and I had gone to the Waimea Falls and she was talking about how she used to play there as a kid and that Awapuhi plants used to line the banks there and how they would break off the plants with their giant blooms and hit each other over the heads with them. The plan would foam up and produce a really nice shampoo for their heads. I remember using Awapuhi shampoo as a kid. I love hearing stories like that.
The place just got more beautiful every moment we spent there. But due to a tight schedule, we didn't really get to spend much time there. But the views that we did get to see there were amazing!
One of my favorite moments of the entire time we stayed there though was one night when we came back from having dinner with my good friend Jaq. It started pouring out right around the time that we got back to the place late at night. And we decided to jump in the pool. There are few things in life as wonderful as being in a pool, or lake, or ocean when it is raining out. If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it.
So, if you ever find yourself headed to Kailua, Hawaii (on Oahu) be sure to check out this cottage that is available via HomeAway! You will leave filled with the Aloha Spirit!
I was given the task of finding a place for us to stay both on Oahu and later on Maui. And I had SO much fun finding the places! There were so many to choose from, which was intimidating at first, but later it became a fun game to find out the absolute perfect place for us to stay.
I think we both agreed that after the first few days in the crazy tourist area of Waikiki, we were eager to get out of the city a little bit and settled on a wonderful place in Kailua, about 30 minutes outside of Honolulu.
I found the vacation rental via Home Away, which lets owners rent out their property to travelers such as myself.
We chose the cottage in Kailua because it was a central location for us to access Honolulu as well as the North Shore, while still being near to a beach (about 3 minutes away). Neither Laura or I had ever used any vacation rental place like Home Away or VRBO, so we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into. To our amazement we arrived to a room with this view:
It pretty much blew all my expectations for the place. It was perfect. The property was gated off and you just felt totally safe. Most nights/days we didn't even lock the doors! And I'm a paranoid person, so that's saying something about how nice and remote the area is.
The owner, Elizabeth, was so wonderful and hospitable. She even had a welcome basket with food and fresh fruit, and some drinks in the refrigerator. On one of the days, Laura had gone off to scuba dive (I am freaked out by the idea of scuba diving...) and I got a chance to sit down with Elizabeth, who was roughly my parent's age, and heard about her childhood growing up in Kailua (her parent's built the house there). It was so interesting listening to her talk about how things were back in the days there. I had been telling her how Laura and I had gone to the Waimea Falls and she was talking about how she used to play there as a kid and that Awapuhi plants used to line the banks there and how they would break off the plants with their giant blooms and hit each other over the heads with them. The plan would foam up and produce a really nice shampoo for their heads. I remember using Awapuhi shampoo as a kid. I love hearing stories like that.
The place just got more beautiful every moment we spent there. But due to a tight schedule, we didn't really get to spend much time there. But the views that we did get to see there were amazing!
One of my favorite moments of the entire time we stayed there though was one night when we came back from having dinner with my good friend Jaq. It started pouring out right around the time that we got back to the place late at night. And we decided to jump in the pool. There are few things in life as wonderful as being in a pool, or lake, or ocean when it is raining out. If you have never tried it, I highly recommend it.
So, if you ever find yourself headed to Kailua, Hawaii (on Oahu) be sure to check out this cottage that is available via HomeAway! You will leave filled with the Aloha Spirit!
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