Bring the kids: Haleiwa Town
Haleiwa. Part of the famous North Shore of Oahu. We definitely recommend this sweet, historical little surf town. We drove to Haleiwa without much of a plan - we just wanted food, and to check out what was around. Looking back, I would have brought beach stuff too.
What the town offers:
- Shopping
- Food
- Surfing Lessons
- Paddle Boarding - Rentals
- Kayaking - Rentals
- Canoeing - Rentals
- Horseback riding
- Camping
- (once a year) Arts Festival
- Dole Plantation
- Golfing
- Hiking
- Motocross
- Polynesian Cultural Center
- Waimea Valley
- Waimea Bay
- Banzai Pipeline (Surfing)
- Turtle Bay
- Haleiwa beach
There's so much you can do! But... If you're like us and you just sort of wandered in with no plan and two kids on a hot day, you can try some of these options;
First of all, we came on a Sunday, and this particular Sunday just happened to be one of two days of the Annual Arts Festival. I absolutely recommend checking the festival out if you happen to be here during it. Parking is basically anywhere and everywhere your car might happen to fit along the road or in the little lots and fields. We got lucky enough to find a spot in the parking lot right next to the festival (Located on Haleiwa Beach park), so we decided to walk around.
TIP: If you have kids with you, DEFINITELY bring a stroller. Or a wagon.
The Arts Festival is beautiful. Stunning displays of handcrafted items, fine art and decor by local artists. If you have the money - buy something from them. We didn't have the money. It's a lot of money.
After walking through the festival, we were ready for lunch. The festival had some great food stands - but we decided to walk and see if there was somewhere with air conditioning that we could eat at (The kids had gone into cranky-pants mode). Now, this is the part where I wish we had grabbed the beach wagon out of the back of our car. But we didn't. And we should have. Instead, I was wearing my 5 month old in a wrap, and my husband was attempting to hold my 3 year old's hand and drag her along. It was slow going, a half mile down the road in the heat with growling stomachs, over the bridge, and then finally to the very first restaurant we saw. We didn't care if this place was $100 a plate or only had a half a star - we were going in.
FOOD. Turns out, we ended up at Teddy's Bigger Burgers. This place was perfect! We only spent about $30 on lunch (variety and tasted amazing), it was kid friendly (thank the restaurant gods), and it was air-conditioned (hallelujah). So, after cooling off and filling our stomachs, we were ready to set off again.
One block away was the famous Matsumoto's Shave Ice. It's worth the line you have to wait in (which honestly wasn't bad. Like ten minutes). When you get to the counter, you tell them what size you want, and which flavors (up to 3), then you move down the line and watch them make it right in front of you.
TIP: Get the Large bowl ($3). You can share it and its only 25c more. The large one was perfect for me, my husband, and our daughter to snack on together. Unless you have a huge appetite, i recommend sharing.
We chose Lemonade, Strawberry & Lime - which basically tasted like a bag of skittles when mixed together (That's not a bad thing). We most definitely will be going back and trying ALL of the flavors.
After eating our delicious shave ice in the shade, we were refreshed and ready to make the hot walk back through the town. The whole town is basically made up of quaint little boutiques, surf shops, locally owned art galleries, and little restaurants. If you don't mind walking a bit more (or you could always drive), you can head towards the opposite end of the little town and find the food trucks that Oahu is so famous for. That was our original destination, but we found out they were closed for the festival, so we chose Teddy's instead. Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, we will try you next time!
After getting back to our car, we drove for a few minutes right outside of town. We passed a horseback riding stable, and found our way to Waimea beach (which has this great big rock you can jump from). I was regretting not bringing our beach stuff, but honestly, there was barely any parking available anyways (weekends are crowded). So if you want to visit, I would suggest going during the week, instead of a weekend.
So what did we learn?
Bring a stroller. Have backup beach gear.
We are in Hawaii, after all. It's basically one big hike to a beach.
