As you may know, we recently went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We visited both Oahu and the Big Island. But, today, I wanted to share my top 5 favorite things we did in Oahu. Here we go!

My Top 5 Favorite Things in Oahu:

1. Polynesian Cultural Center:

This was one the first thing we did on the island. We loved it! We considered going back a second time we loved it so much. A full day experience, and we didn't even see everything.

The place is divided into different areas for each of the Polynesian countries (New Zealand, Hawaii, Tonga, ect.). In each different area, you can do different activities and see different shows/demonstrations and learn about each culture/place to see what makes them unique. That, in itself, was worth the trip. We learned so much in short time we were there.

There are a lot of different ticket options. The ones we bought, included a guided tour around the villages. The whole day, we had a guide, taking us to the different areas, telling us about them, and answering any questions we had along the way. We didn't spend a whole lot of time in each area, but he did make sure we were able to see the presentation in each village. I think if we had been on our own, we would've missed most of those.

After viewing the villages, the guide dropped us all off at our dinner for the night. Once again, there were a few different options. We signed up for the luau dinner buffet and show. We sat and ate a wonderful Hawaiian meal, while enjoying some different cultural dancing.

After the meal, we had a little time to walk around the Hukilua Marketplace, which was a cluster of nice gift shops and stores. We bought a few souvenirs. And then it was time for the big evening show, "Ha: Breath of Life". This was a full stage production that followed the life of one man, while showing off the different Polynesian cultures, music, and dancing. And the fire twirling at the end stole the show!

All this ran us about $140-$150 for each of us (Ambassador Luau Package). But for us, it was totally worth it. We were able to see all the villages, got a boat ride, had some awesome food, and third row seats at the evening show. I would totally recommend it to everyone going to Oahu. And go early in the day, so you have plenty of time to see everything!

2. Kualoa Ranch:

I talked about this one in a previous post. It definitely goes on my top 5 list, for both the views and just the amount of happiness it brought to my inner geek.

Horseback ride. Beautiful landscapes. Locations where the shot Jurassic Park and Lost. It was an awesome way to spend a morning.

We chose the 2-hour horseback tour. It cost us about $120 each. And if you don't like horses, they have a lot of different tour options that anyone can enjoy, like a tour bus or atv's. If you like movies, its a must see. Don't miss it.

3. Pearl Harbor:

I grew up in a history loving family, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor. Plenty to see and do there: The USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri Battleship, the USS Bowfin Submarine and Museum, and the Aviation Museum. We skipped out on the aviation museum though. In Seattle, we have the Museum of Flight, so we decided to skip it and do other things that day.

The tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial are free, but on a first come, first serve basis. We got there bright and early (a little bit before 7:00 a.m.) to get in line. We managed to get on the first boat to the memorial. We heard that they ran out of tickets around 10:30 a.m. There, you can see the battleship still submerged in the water, oil still leaking from it.

After that, we took a tour around the USS Missouri Battleship. Tickets were $25 (they have packages you can buy, but we weren't sure what we wanted to/had time to see, so we bought all tickets separately). The Missouri is the ship that Japan formally surrendered to end WWII. They run multiple tours that you can jump in on and then you can explore the ship on your own.

The last thing we saw in Pearl Harbor was the USS Bowfin Submarine and museum. Tickets are $12. You are able to walk along the inside and on the top of the submarine. The museum focuses on the history of submarines.

We learned a lot during our visit to Pearl Harbor and I think its totally worth a visit to relive history for a short while.

4. Lanikai Beach

Lanikai Beach is probably one of the prettiest beaches I've been too. Wasn't too crowded. Nice, white sand beach and not too many rocks. We spent a wonderful afternoon here.

We also went to a beach in Waikiki, but this was hands-down our favorite.

5. Parasailing

Neither of us had been parasailing before this. I had expected it to be super scary, but once I was up there, I felt so at ease. It was peaceful and the views were gorgeous! I would definitely do it again! And don't let your fears stop you, you may be surprised, like I was.

There are a lot of different companies that offer parasailing. We went with Paradise Watersports in Waikiki. For us, it was $90 each. That was for the 1,000 ft line, which is there highest one they offer. They also offered an option where they would take a bunch of pictures for you and then give you the SD card, which I thought was super neat.

We did a ton more things throughout the week, but these were definitely my top 5 picks!

Hawaii: My Top 5 Favorite Things in Oahu