Hawaii Itinerary

Iolani Palace

My itinerary the 6 days, 5 nights I spent in Hawaii was as follows:

Day 1 - Arrival at hotel, explore the immediate surroundings
Day 2 - Hike to Diamond head. Originally we planned to visit Iolani Palace, but it's closed Sundays!
Day 3 - Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) This was a pretty fun living museum that actually taught me some new things about Polynesia. For $15 dollars our host the lava lava wearing "Cousin Ken" led us around the huge grounds of the PCC. There are Polynesian "villages" representing the major islands that make up Polynesia (Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa among others). Each island had performances featuring the dance or song of each respective island. The Samoa village had a jokester, who kept everyone in stitches with his quips. That village had the most exciting demonstrations such as fire making, coconut tree climbing and coconut cracking. After the performances, I opted in for a luau and the night show called "Horizons". I spent the whole day there. We were picked up close to our hotel around 10 AM and then we were driven back to the same spot by 10 PM. Transportation to and from hotel costs $20 extra. The entire day of fun cost me around $115. I think it was worth it for all the shows.
Day 4 - Iolani Palace, built by the Merrie Monarch
Day 5 - Lounging on the beach in beach chairs and under an umbrella. I spent only 3 hours on the beach because the sun was getting too hot for me around noon. Catamaran ride with Outrigger. It was supposed to cost $30, but we found a $10 coupon. We opted for the supposedly "high speed" cruise, but the actual cruise was actually slow and relaxing. False advertising if you ask me.
Day 6 - Exploring Ala Moana shopping center. Originally we also wanted to visit Lyon Arboretum, but since it was New Year's Day, the bus system was on their reduced holiday schedule. The bus we were waiting for never even came after we waited close to 1 hour. We just decided to look around the Ala Moana shopping center and then visit the Duke statue on Waikiki. Alright, that was a lesson learned, I guess. Don't take the bus on Sundays, or the holidays when in Hawaii.