Hawaii portrays for many the honeymoon paradise, beautiful beaches and breathtaking views. I never thought of it as a backpackers paradise in the normal sense as it is also known for being extremely pricey. But even though it completely destroyed my tiny little backpacker budget, I’ve had the best week over there, meeting really cool fellow backpackers, seeing incredible things and jumping into my last year of my twenties like…. check it out.

Oahu

I arrived in Hawaii after a day of traveling from Mexico City to LA and further to Oahu airport. I was exhausted, ready for bed and couldn’t wait to get to my hostel. There aren’t many hostels in Waikiki, as it is overpowered by hotel chains, but I decided to stay at the Beach Waikiki Boutique Hostel, 5 minutes walk away from Waikiki beach. As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by my Mexican roomies and this marked the end to a quiet night (and quiet stay in general) in Hawaii. So much fun! The hostel is not a crazy party hostel as for example the wild rovers, but it’s for sure a good spot to get your party started with some drinks on the rooftop. They offer pizza night (free pizza) every Friday and tours around the island that cost no more than 10-20 bucks. As an alternative, you can also stay in the Polynesian hostel, which is right behind the beach Waikiki hostel. Just be prepared, that hostels in the US and Hawaii are in general way more expensive than anywhere else and it can really drain your budget if you don’t look for good deals.

After a night of partying, and basically on my first day on Oahu, we decided to climb Diamond Head, which is one of the main view points of the island. Unfortunately, the track was closed during weekdays due to renovations, so we head a little further out to Koko Head. Climbing Koko Head with a bit of a hangover is probably not the smartest idea, as the climb is fairly steep and the steps (which are old train tracks) are not equally distributed along the way. But the view up there is just so rewarding and makes this one definitely worth it. And for a refreshing dip afterwards, you can just head down to the beach there, which is suppose to be amazing for snorkeling (unfortunately I missed going there as we met another girl at Waikiki beach that day).

If you are looking for good and affordable food, I can highly recommend the food trucks that are located approximately 15 minutes from the hostel. There is a super friendly family that runs one of the truck, who just recently relocated from the main land to Hawaii and explained us more about typical dishes and were just really nice to talk to. Just ask in the hostel and they will point you in the right direction. I had the Loco Moco plate, which was amazing, even though the portion was so big that it could have fed an entire family haha. Hawaiians for sure like it good and solid. Speaking of food in Hawaii, you’ll definitely have to try poke-bowl if you into fish. It is THE food there and super tasty.

In the evenings, we always had a couple of drinks on our terrace or on the rooftop and went out to dance after. To be honest, Hawaii during the week is rather dead on the streets, they have some clubs that are busy and where you can have good fun, but there are not too many choice if you don’t want to spent a fortune. We went to a gay bar around the corner of our hostel a couple of times as well as Play Bar and District club (not 100% sure about the name haha but this one was quite good). Oh and don’t forget to bring your ID. Me, just coming from Central America where I never had to carry one to enter clubs, forgot my ID, when going out all the time and got a lot of shit for it, obviously. Haha

On the next day, we decided to take the bus to the Managua Falls trail, which leads to Managua waterfall, while passing bamboo forests and jungle. It’s a relaxed 45 minute track up there and a chill activity for a couple of hours. I recon not to book this activity with any tour, as it’s easy to reach by yourself. The waterfall was a little disappointing, as we thought that you could actually swim in the pool in front of it but it was too tiny and stoney to do so.

If you head east from Waikiki beach, you can also visit Makapu’u tide pools and walk the trail up to the view point. The way down to the tide pools looks a little scratchy, so don’t do it when it gets dark, but down there it’s super chill. You can swim in the pools (don’t go too close when the water comes back in), spot some whales and enjoy the sun down there.

Another thing that you should definitely do when being in Oahu is visiting the North shore. You can either rent a car and drive up there, take a bus (but that takes a while) or book a tour with the hostel. We booked a tour via our hostel, meaning that the driver is collecting you from the hostel (that is, if you are not one single minute late…. Facundo?! Haha) and drops your off at either Waimea Bay beach, Shark’s cove or Sunset beach. You can walk to all three locations, watch surfers tackle major waves or go for a swim or snorkeling. I have to say, snorkeling at shark cave is not amazing, it’s nice to chill but that’s about it. But if you want really nice fish tacos, go check out the food tracks that are located on the other side of the road.

In addition to the beaches, the north shore can also tickle your sense of adventure- we gathered a group of people and went skydiving on my birthday. I’ve been skydiving before, but doing it in Hawaii, jumping over the ocean with this stunning view was just amazing. I think I could have not spent my birthday in a better way. If you want to jump as well, go check out Skydive Hawaii, they were really cool and jumping with them was good fun and a great end of my time on the island.

Maui

During my stop in Hawaii, I did not only want to see one island, no, of course I wanted to see two. One week is definitely not enough time, but either way, I decided to spent three days in Maui. Word to the wise beforehand – Maui without a car is pretty difficult to manage. Uber’s and taxis are expensive and public transport is not running very frequent if at all. So, if you go there, make sure to rent a car and drive around. Saves you lots of time and money (in Oahu it’s also better by car, but not impossible to get around).

Major fail at the beginning of this Maui short trip was, that I had booked my flight to the wrong airport. Don’t ask me how this happened, but it did. So, there I was, standing in the middle of nowhere, no WiFi, nothing and stranded on the other side of where I was suppose to be. Haha smart. So, I had to take a super expensive cap up to the hostel where I was staying AND had to rebook my flight back to Oahu, as it was cheaper than to take a taxi back. So people, apparently there are more airports on Maui, be cautious as to where you want to go, as it can cost you a shit load of money,

I stayed at Aloha Surf hostel, which is a cool hostel located in the little town Paia, offering free tours everyday and located close to the town beach (where I spent th rest of my first day), supermarket and nice cafes and restaurants. The atmosphere at the time of my stay was just not very social, so if I would do it again, I would probably stay at Banana Bungalow, as it’s suppose to be awesome there, with great parties and lots of young people.

Even though my hostel offers free tours every day, Road to Hana was one of the the things hostel highly recommended to me, and they did not offer it on the days I was there. So, I booked a tour online with Mahalo Tours (via TravelShack) and spent the entire day exploring Road to Hana. Our guide was amazing and we spent the day exploring black and red sand beaches, chasing waterfalls, tasting pineapple wine and eating yummy Hawaiian food. Must do for everybody that is in Maui.

On my second day, I joined the hostel tour to Maluaka beach for some snorkeling. You leave around 9 in the morning, make a stop to buy snacks etc along the way and pick up your snorkeling equipment. Even though the tour is free, the equipment and snacks are not and you are expected to tip the guide around 20$. It was an ok tour, but the waves were too strong so we could not really see anything in the water, which was a shame. After the tour, our guide took us to a bar, where we were able to order tacos and they had liter cocktails for their happy hour, which was insane, and probably was the best part of this trip. If you want to chill on a nice beach, which apparently a nice reef, check out Maluaka, but you definitely don’t need to book a tour for that.

If I could redoMaui again, I would have probably squeezed the sunrise tour on top of the volcano in as well, but I am happy that I’ve spent two full and very chill days on the island exploring, even though it was just for a tiny bit ( and especially because I got sick as a dog, while being there).

Mahalo, Hawaii – you are such a beauty!