First Stop of Hawaiian Honeymoon: Kahala Hotel in Oahu

My wife and I were originally going to go to Europe for our honeymoon but in order to do that she had to apply for an Italian visa since we wanted to explore Rome and Venice. Since wedding planning was stressful enough, we had to "settle" for Hawaii. Life is tough isn't it?

We decided to spend our first week in Oahu. I wanted to make our first three nights very special, so I took my wife to the Kahala Hotel. It wasn't cheap by any means but it was a great start to our honeymoon. As mentioned in my previous blog post, the staff, the room, the valet parking (free the first night), and beach were fantastic. It was much better than Waikiki Beach, but as mentioned before, you'll have to pay a lot more for style. However, was it worth it? Most definitely. Here are some pictures of the Kahala Hotel:

The beach is literally 20-30 feet from the hotel premises and it was clean and not overly crowded. We arrived at the hotel at 4:00pm to get settled in. Later on, I took a picture as sunset was approaching. The pond in the picture had many fish and also on the other side there is a pool for dolphins to swim in. You would probably have to pay to swim with the dolphins or you can watch others for free.

Here's a view of the beach itself as the sun was going down. There were much fewer people compared to Waikiki Beach. It was Paradise!

The next day we hit the beach! This is one view. There were a few people but not overwhelming.

This picture will give you a better idea how beautiful the scenery was. You can see the mountains, palm trees, and beautiful water. My wife and I were both stunned.

When we arrived at our hotel room, chocolate and fruit were waiting for us. I'm not sure if the hotel remembered that it was my honeymoon or not but we were both quite impressed. The chocolate even had sea salt in it, which threw my wife for a loop. But it was still good!

Here's the lobby of the Kahala Hotel. It's definitely a classy place! If you wanted to have dinner here, there's a room in the background of this picture. That is literally 20 feet from the beach as well.

Here's another view of the hotel from the outside. You can see a heated pool which is walking distance from the beacn and the manmade lake for the dolphins to swim in. It's a pretty stunning scene. My wife was a bit spoiled; she didn't want to swim in the pool since the beautiful beach was just as close and the water was just as warm.

Finally, here's a view of the hotel from the beach. The hot tub and pool are off to the right. I wish I had taken more pictures of the room but I will tell you this. In the room, you'll find a bathtub, shower, iron, wi-fi, I-Phone chargers, plenty of towels, two bottles of water each day, excellent shampoo and shower gel, soap, and a refrigerator. Forgive me if I'm forgetting something, but those are my essentials. :)


Mahalo and see you next time!


Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Overview of my Honeymoon with my wife Eunhee

I just got back from my honeymoon in Hawaii a week ago. And after two weeks in Hawaii (one week in Oahu and one week in Kauai), I came away with some observations. I'll post later more specifically about the trip in a later post (pictures to be included) but I'll start by giving you a summary of our trip to Hawaii.

1. We didn't stay at Waikiki Beach but we did stop by. I found it to be very crowded and full of tourists. I wouldn't recommend staying there.

2. The Kahala Hotel in Oahu was extremely expensive but for a honeymoon it was fantastic. The staff was very friendly, we had a fantastic beach view hotel room, the room had all of the amenities you could possibly want, and the rooms were clean and nice.

3. Kailua Beach (Oahu) is much better than Waikiki and has less people. It was absolutely beautiful. We stayed at someone's home in Kailua using airbnb.com and we had a nice experience. It was also only about a 15-minute walk from the beach.

4. The Ambassador Hotel in Waikiki doesn't look very attractive from the outside but the room we chose was excellent. It was our last night in Hawaii, so I wanted my wife to enjoy one last night in a great room. They said that the beach view was unavailable, yet we got a penthouse room which was huge. We had a big living room, a kitchen, and a decent sized bedroom with two beds. I'm not sure why we got two beds though (haha).

5. People were friendly on both islands. I rented a car at Enterprise at Honolulu Airport and when the lady I was dealing found out it was my honeymoon, she gave me a bigger car at no extra charge. When I rented a car at Hertz (Lihue Airport, Kauai), the clerk was also friendly with me there. When we ate at various restaurants, we got great service as well.

6. If you go to Kauai, expect to see chickens and roosters everywhere. It was a sight to see and it never got old!

7. You can drive around most of the island of Kauai in half a day. It's not very big at all. In fact it's 32 miles in diameter. I explored 60% of the island in a week. Kauai also happens to be the oldest island among all of the Hawaiian islands.

8. A helicopter ride over the island of Kauai will run you $150 if you want to see the whole island and about $350 if you want the helicopter to make about 5-6 stops at some various beautiful spots on the island.

9. You can get cheap Chinese, Vietnamese, or Japanese food without any problems. We also had great Mexican food and pizza in Kauai. You won't have many problems finding good food. However as you head north on the island of Kauai, it gets a bit more expensive especially in the city of Hanalei. The only major shopping mall is near the airport in Lihue which is called the Kukui Grove Shopping Center. It has stores such as Macy's, Long's Drugs, a shoe store, Starbucks, K-Mart, Ross Dress For Less. You can also go to a Hawaiian ramen place, Kim Chee 9 Korean restaurant, Ho's Chinese Kitchen, Jamba Juice, Genki Sushi, and L&L Hawaiian Barbecue.

10. The best sites on the island of Kauai that I was able to see were Waimea Canyon (southwest part of Kauai), Poipu Beach (south side), and Allerton Gardens (city of Koloa-south side). The most unique and tropical beach was at Wainiha where there are a lot of winding roads that have one-lane bridges as you drive through area full of trees. We also stayed at hotels near Wailua and Kapaa (that had decent beaches (few people and warm water).

More to come later!


Scott Worden (L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy