Waikiki Beach

The beach is small, smells like urine, major homeless issue, covid killed a ton of businesses and it just seems dirty. The most the restaurants we ate at were over priced with bad food, and you have to make a reservation or you're not getting in unless you're willing to wait an hour and a half.
Cheeseburger in Paradise, Hy Steak house and a food truck were the only 3 places I would recommend eating at. Hy steak is a very classy restaurant with a dress code. Truly enjoyed this experience.
If you're staying in Waikiki I recommend planning in advance the different excursions out of the town.

The beach was just too crowded for me to like. The water was dirtier than I thought as well. Finding restaurants along the Waikiki main road is also very painful, now after COVID, prices have drastically risen! If you want to watch the sunset I do not recommend it as much as I would the other west coast beaches, because on Waikiki the whole sunset is blocked by a small mountain.

Very nice beach but not all that large and can get crowded. If you plan on being out there for the day there are chair and umbrella rentals that are a good idea as even on nice temperature days the sun can still be quite brutal. Very nice water and stays relatively shallow for quite a way out. Not a lot of sand area, but there is also a lot of food and shopping venues just across the street. You can also go further down towards the south side of the beach and there is a large shaded park area that can be explored. Parking is at a premium so you might have to pay a meter or park at a nearby parking garage but the bus is also a good option as the stop is right in the middle of the beach area!

Waikiki Beach and the surrounding area is ok but the rest of tourist and working class Honolulu is no better than third world (unless you visit the multimillionaire areas).

Spent a week at one of the high rise hotels on Waikiki beach in early February. Waikiki is very nice but an extremely expensive area.

Totally unimpressed with the rest of Honolulu though. More like being in a third world city than our perception of Hawaii from TV shows. Dirty, rundown, noisy and way too much traffic and pollution. Constant traffic jams and speeding vehicles make walking hazardous.

Used the Waikiki Trolley as our main means of transportation and saw many areas of the city where we would not have gotten off the trolley to wander around without feeling totally unsafe, especially Chinatown.

The city has changed for the worse since we were here in the 1980s.

Honolulu International Airport restrooms near the American/United check-in areas are also horrendous at 230pm in the afternoon. Dirty, smelly, trashy and pee all over the floor. Another example of Hawaii state not caring about its number 1 industry, Tourism.

I never got tired of the view from our balcony high above the beach watching the surfers, sunbathers, sailboats, and sunsets. Once down on the street, however, the crowds on the beach, lines at every shop and restaurant, homeless people approaching, and traffic made the street level less appealing. Waikiki, an urban city with a beach running along the edge, is not representative of the relaxed, tropical island paradise atmosphere Hawaii is famous for.

My wife and I stayed at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort for our anniversary. The beach is stunning in its beauty. I recommend staying in one of the few hotels that are actually on the beach as most are across the street. We went to the beach early and late in the day. The morning and near sunset are lovely times to be on the beach and it is not too crowded at those times. The beach does get very crowded during the main time of the day, but it is an exciting vibe. The surfers are fun to watch as are the sail boats. Diamond Head on the one end is breathtaking. The sand is soft and the waves generally are calm. It is fun to people watch as well. There is so much to do in the Waikiki area we had no need for a rental car.

We enjoyed Waikiki Beach because we didn't go for a traditional beach day. Our first visit was during our first night in Hawaii, just before sunset. It was still crowded, but not nearly as packed as I imagine it was during the height of the day.

We returned the following morning shortly after sunrise (thanks East Coast jet lag) and enjoyed the beach for about an hour before the crowds showed up.

The proximity to the city is convenient and the view of Diamondhead impressive, but for a "day at the beach" I'd prefer something a little less central & crowded!

We mostly swam at the end of the beach nearest the Duke statue and near Waikiki Zoo. Wouldn't really recommend. Was packed and one side was too rocky, where the other side, while being protected and great for little kids, felt dirty. If you go up the strip and swim in front of some of the nicer hotels, you'll have a better time. All in all, it's a stunning beach with crystal clear waters and near-white sand, but parts of it are nicer than others!

We have visited the other islands, and I had hesitated to come to Oahu because I thought Waikiki would be too touristy. Well, it is very touristy, but not in the sense of an Ocean City or Orlando. It's very pretty, with the hills in the background, and lots of green space. It was cloudy and rainy the last few days of our vacation but it was still pleasant, and we enjoyed the Iolani Palace, Bishop Museum and Honolulu Museum of Art.

Not sure why there’s so much hype about this beach. It’s crowded, very built up and the coral under your feet once in the water isn’t the best experience. It’s pretty to look at in spots, the water is clear (although the rubbish in the water at the nearby marina is disappointing), and it’s suitable for small kids as there’s almost no waves.