Best day to visit North Shore?

yfamdiscruise

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 14, 2016
Is there a particular day of the week that is best for visiting the North Shore? We have Sunday-Thursday available. I know rush hour can get hectic during the week. Would that potentially impact our drive back to Aulani in the evening? Or wouldn’t that be the same roads? (I’ll admit, I haven’t looked closely at a map yet.) Would we be better off going on Sunday, or is that potentially more busy with locals up there as well? If we go during the week, is there a certain time we should shoot to be back to Aulani in order to avoid traffic? We went about seven years ago (stayed in Waikiki and traveled all around the island), but I don’t remember traffic being an issue like people talk about now. Maybe we just got lucky and happened to miss it!
 
Is there a particular day of the week that is best for visiting the North Shore? We have Sunday-Thursday available. I know rush hour can get hectic during the week. Would that potentially impact our drive back to Aulani in the evening? Or wouldn’t that be the same roads? (I’ll admit, I haven’t looked closely at a map yet.) Would we be better off going on Sunday, or is that potentially more busy with locals up there as well? If we go during the week, is there a certain time we should shoot to be back to Aulani in order to avoid traffic? We went about seven years ago (stayed in Waikiki and traveled all around the island), but I don’t remember traffic being an issue like people talk about now. Maybe we just got lucky and happened to miss it!

I'm a resident of Oahu. Best Advice: Do NOT go to the North Shore on the weekend. It gets packed with townies (folks from Honolulu). Traffic gridlock, packed restaurants, scarce parking. On the weekdays, traffic all over the island gets bad during evening rush hour - about 4 pm to 6 pm. So go on a weekday and then head back to Aulani either before or after rush hour. Tip: You can have dinner in Haleiwa (lots of choices) or in Wahiawa (try Maui Mike's) and then have a leisurely drive back to Ko Olina. Aloha.
 
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I'm a resident of Oahu. Best Advice: Do NOT go to the North Shore on the weekend. It gets packed with townies (folks from Honolulu). Traffic gridlock, packed restaurants, scarce parking. On the weekdays, traffic all over the island gets bad during evening rush hour - about 4 pm to 6 pm. So go on a weekday and then head back to Aulani either before or after rush hour. Tip: You can have dinner in Haleiwa (lots of choices) or in Wahiawa (try Maui Mike's) and then have a leisurely drive back to Ko Olina. Aloha.

THANK YOU!! Great information!
 
Thank you Sparky. I will heed your advice when we go next week. I am excited to see the surfing
 


We went to Haleiwa on a Monday because that happened to be the day that worked best for us. We left Aulani around 8:15-8:30am because we went to the Dole Plantation first, which opened at 9:30am. As I recall, we didn't hit much traffic on the way there. No gridlock or stop-and-go traffic, anyway. We made our way back after dinner around 7pm, and it was fine then as well.

As far as crowds in the area, it was very manageable for us on a Monday in late September. Busiest areas were the stretch of road near Waimea Valley because its one lane in each direction. No line at the shrimp trucks and the Matsumoto line was minimal, and moved very fast. Dole Plantation does get crowded the later in the day it gets - we left there around noon, and it was packed.
 

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