Honolulu's neighborhoods have distinctive identities. The office buildings of downtown Honolulu are just north of Honolulu Harbor. To the east of downtown is Waikiki, which is bordered by Diamond Head. Makiki Heights, to the north of downtown, surrounds the Punchbowl, a crater that is the home of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Inland from Waikiki is lovely, rainy Manoa, where you will find the University of Hawaii. Farther east are Hawaii Kai and Kahala, both known for their expensive homes.

Getting Around
Residents of Honolulu rarely use compass directions to express where things are. Instead, islanders have developed a system of reference points that take Oahu's unique geography into account. You may be going toward the mountains (mauka) or the sea (makai). If you are on the leeward side of the island heading west, you are going ewa (pronounced evah), because the town of Ewa is on the southwestern tip of Oahu. If you are heading east, you are going "Diamond Head."
• More about Oahu transportation

History
The history of Honolulu is really the history of Oahu. The island was an independent fiefdom controlled by a succession of Polynesian chiefs until the 1780s. That's when the ambitious king of Maui, Kahekili, conquered Oahu and killed its chief — his own stepson — in a bid to enlarge his territories. After Kahekili's death, his sons battled one another for control of the islands. This division made it easier for the now-legendary Kamehameha I to conquer all of the Hawaiian Islands. With the help of Westerners with firearms, Kamehameha's troops took Oahu in 1795 in a rout that ultimately forced the defenders to flee to the mountains behind Honolulu and over the cliffs at Nuuanu Pali. His court was set up in Waikiki, then moved to Honolulu in 1809.

During the first half of the 1800s, Oahu saw the same influx of foreign missionaries and whalers that arrived on other Hawaiian Islands. By the 1840s, Honolulu was a busy port town doing a brisk trade in the sandalwood harvested on the island. Sandalwood later gave way to sugar, and laborers from China, Japan, Portugal and the Philippines were brought in to work the plantations.

After U.S. sugar companies engineered the takeover of the Hawaiian Islands, Oahu's Pearl Harbor became the centerpiece of U.S. naval operations in the Pacific. On 7 December 1941, a squadron of some 400 Japanese planes attacked the base, killing more than 2,400 people and marking the entrance of the U.S. into World War II. With the advent of jet travel in the postwar years, Honolulu became the gateway for millions of paradise-seeking vacationers, and developers built the towering hotels of Waikiki.
• More about Pearl Harbor

Modern Port City
Honolulu gets a bad rap. As Hawaii's largest city, it's sometimes perceived as being less "Hawaiian" than the rest of the state, meaning that its high-rise office buildings and traffic don't easily match many people's romantic ideal of what Hawaii should be — remote palm-fringed beaches and lavish resorts.

In truth, Honolulu is probably the most Hawaiian part of the state, simply because it best reflects the many different things that Hawaii can be: It's a multicultural mix of people, a beautiful landscape of greenery and ocean, and a place where amazing events have unfolded — many of them recounted in Honolulu's historic sites and museums. All that's exciting about big-city life — theater, opera, shopping, nightclubs, fine dining — is set against a backdrop of majestic mountains, lush rain forests and sweeping vistas.

And, with Waikiki along one edge of the city, Honolulu even has a beach resort. Though it's certainly not as idyllic as some would wish, Waikiki remains Hawaii's busiest tourist spot and makes a good departure point for exploring the recreation possibilities afforded by the greater Honolulu area. Active travelers can race down volcanic mountains on bikes, ramble across pastureland and ancient religious shrines, swim with the green sea turtles off Waikiki Beach and surf past Diamond Head.
• Find accommodations on Oahu

Nightlife & Entertainment
Honolulu's nightlife — mostly clustered in Waikiki — showcases an eclectic mix of Hawaiian, country-western, jazz, alternative, contemporary and even Las Vegas-style entertainment. Check local listings for performances by one of Hawaii's excellent entertainers, such as musicians Aunty Genoa Keawe, Jake Shimabukuro, Makana, Fiji, Henry Kapono, the Brothers Cazimero and comedian Frank DeLima, who pokes good-natured fun at every nationality in Hawaii, including his own Portuguese ancestry.

Another area chock full of nightclubs is Restaurant Row, at the corner of Ala Moana Boulevard and Punchbowl Street, near downtown Honolulu. Some of the island's hottest nightclubs are there.

If you prefer a relaxing happy hour rather than staged entertainment, drop by the Waikiki beach hotel of your choice around sunset and sip a cocktail to the sounds of a small combo in an open-air lounge. Our favorite spots include the Halekulani Hotel and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Both always engage first-rate musicians.

To find out who is playing where, check the nightlife guides in the free tourist publications This Week Oahu and Spotlight's Oahu Gold. They carry current and fairly comprehensive information. The Honolulu Weekly newspaper also has a good run-down on the latest musical happenings. Most clubs keep the beat going until 2 am.
• More about events and entertainment

Food & Drink
If the physical surroundings of Honolulu don't tempt you to stay a few extra days, the food will. Hawaiian regional cuisine, an easy blend of Asian, Polynesian, U.S. and European traditions, pleases a wide variety of tastes, and the local chefs are very inventive. You'll find scrumptious cross-cultural dishes based on fresh local ingredients — especially seafood, vegetables, herbs and fruit — as well as pure Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, French, German, Swiss and Italian favorites.

Good restaurants are plentiful in Waikiki, but you'll also find some of the city's best near downtown at aptly named Restaurant Row (a mega complex of offices, shops, and restaurants), which is on the corner of Ala Moana Boulevard and Punchbowl Street.

Few Honolulu restaurants offer foods that were prepared by the early Hawaiians. It's mostly at luaus that you'll encounter lomi salmon, kalua pig, poi (taro ground into a purple paste) and laulau (salted pork, chicken or fish, wrapped in a taro leaf and baked). A word about the luau, the traditional Hawaiian feast whose main dish is a roasted kalua pig: There are some excellent ones, and there are some real losers. In any case, one luau is usually plenty. The best luau we've found is at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. You might want to ask other visitors which ones they've attended and seek a recommendation.

Standard fare for most Hawaiians these days is the inexpensive plate lunch available from outdoor snack wagons and served in a paper box, just perfect for a casual outdoor meal. A plate lunch typically consists of a fried meat, chicken or seafood entree, macaroni salad, two scoops of white rice and sometimes a third starch. For a tastier and less filling local treat, try saimin (Japanese noodle soup), shave ice (snow cones) or manapua (Chinese steamed buns filled with red pork).

In restaurants, breakfast is generally served 7-9:30 am, lunch 11 am-2 pm and dinner 6-10 pm.
• More about food and restaurants

Activities and Attractions
The best way to see Honolulu is to first decide what most interests you and then group your choices according to their physical location. You might spend a morning exploring Chinatown, stop for lunch at one of the many excellent Asian restaurants there and relax on the beach at Ala Moana or Waikiki in the late afternoon when the sun's rays are less intense. Or you might plan tours of Iolani Palace and the Mission Houses Museum, eat a picnic lunch on the Palace grounds and spend the afternoon trekking on one of the Hawaii Nature Center's short rain-forest trails.

Pearl Harbor, on the edge of Honolulu, is a poignant reminder of the event that catapulted the U.S. into World War II. There you can visit the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri and other vessels. Nearby is the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet with its hundreds of stalls. Venturing farther afield, you might plan a driving tour along Oahu's rugged eastern shore. Stop at Hanauma Bay for a swim and snorkel and have lunch in Kailua. Then buy ripe fruit at a roadside stand, visit the Byodo-In Temple in Kaneohe and return to Waikiki through the Likelike Tunnel.

For full immersion in Polynesian culture, be sure to visit the Bishop Museum (it has a good planetarium), the Iolani Palace and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The Honolulu Academy of Arts offers an excellent collection of art from Asia and elsewhere. If you make reservations in advance, you can see Shangri La, the beautiful home of philanthropist Doris Duke, which has a huge collection of Islamic artwork. (The tours are run in conjunction with the Honolulu Academy of Arts.)

Whatever you decide to do, remember not to rush. Outside the city, Oahu is a laid-back island, so relax and take things slowly.
• Read more and book tours & luaus

Weather
There is no "best" time to visit Honolulu. The city's climate is warm and sunny most of the year, though residents do notice a seasonal change, with temperatures dropping to an average of 75 F/25 C in early November. Things stay that way through May, before the temperature goes soaring just above 90 F/32 C, where it stays from July through October.

Trade winds blow across the island most of the year, and the air only gets uncomfortably humid when trade winds stop and Kona winds from the south take their place. November-April is considered the island's rainy season, even though the rain showers often come and go in a matter of minutes. The combination of rain and sun makes conditions ideal for stunning rainbows, which can often be seen arching over mountain valleys. Most of Oahu's rain falls in the higher elevations and on the island's windward side, ensuring contoured slopes covered with thick verdant rain forest.

Hawaii also has a hurricane season lasting from late summer through fall, but Honolulu residents rarely experience anything more than somewhat stronger winds.

Basic facts...
Honolulu population: 371,657

Metropolitan Population (island of Oahu): 718,182

Predominant Religions: Christian (applicable to entire state)

Time Zone: 10 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (-10 GMT). Daylight Saving Time is not observed. (applicable to entire state)

Voltage Requirements: 110 volts (applicable to entire state)

Telephone Area Code: 808 (applicable to entire state)

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