Chowing down on dim sum for breakfast in Chinatown, soaring� in a seaplane over� the site where Godzilla was filmed,�holding� a real wood and bone weapon in your hands on a �behind the scenes� tour at the Bishop Museum: great stuff, but who knew? Most people landing in Oahu head to Waikiki Beach�to toast their tans. Nothing wrong with that. But eventually you�ll get bored and will want to go exploring. And the variety is endless:� on a recent five-day visit I�didn�t repeat anything I�d ever done before. Here�s a sprinkling of things you may not have tried;�off-beat things to do,� new places to eat,� local items to buy and unique places to stay.
Soar Over the Island in a Seaplane
As we lifted off the water with a splash, in� Island Seaplane Service�s 6-passenger DeHavilland Beaver,� pilot /owner Pat Magie told us stories about how he and his planes� have appeared in the movie �Godzilla� and the re-make of the TV series �Fantasy Island.��� The sky was a brilliant blue and the water below ranged from deepest navy blue to turquoise, so clear you can often see turtles swimming below, Pat said.� We soared over surfers and body boarders at� Waikiki Beach, people hiking Diamond Head Crater, Hanauma Bay with its snorkelers, and then veered up the Windward Coast, past the droll island called Chinaman�s Hat and� over the North Shore surfing areas, then returned over lush valleys of pineapples and coffee,� over Schofield Barracks and finally the� saw� the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor below. The � hour flight is $79 and the hour is $129. Call (808) 836-6273 to book it or contact them by email at seaplane@lava.net
Go to a Church Service given in the Hawaiian language
At the Sunday service at the missionary-built 1842 Kawaiahao Church in downtown Honolulu, across from the Iolani Palace on King Street,� the congregation greets visitors with sincere warmth and aloha, with many women dressed in their best� muu-muu�s.�� Several� hymns are sung in Hawaiian and part of the service is conducted in it as well. An hour in this Protestant Christian� service will make you feel a real part of the islands.
Service begins at 10:30 a.m. Be careful not to sit in the velvet- cushioned seats in the back, as they are� reserved for the descendants of Hawaiian royalty.
Take the Behind the Scenes Tour at the Bishop Museum
Some of the most fascinating� pieces in this extensive collection are held in storage areas and rotated in and out of exhibits due to their fragility. But if you take this tour, leaving at 1:30 p.m. each day, you can see the feather cape that King Kamehameha� wore when he united the islands, other feather capes of royalty, handle wooden tools and shark-tooth weapons, and see other� rich holdings that make the� Bishop Museum the world�s premier source of Polynesian artifacts. The tour is $15. You can also choose to take a four-hour cultural tour to learn about Hawaiian history and culture,� where you learn� how to chant and dance a hula, make a lei, play the ukulele and other Hawaiian� cultural skills, and which includes a local-style lunch of hibachi chicken, kalua pork, poi� and passion guava juice. Make reservations a day ahead for $30 per adult or $42 per adult with transportation, children under 12 are $20 or $42 with transportation.� Call (808) 847-8291 to reserve.
Get a Bargain Hotel Package
The Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel is offering a great package for $140 per night per room, and you can choose the room with a rental car, or with breakfast for two daily. Children under 17 can stay for the same rate, as long as no additional linens are needed.� There is a two-night minimum. The hotel has been recently completely renovated, including every room, and is the home to durable island icon Don Ho, who performs in the hotel�s Hoku Hale show room nightly.� Ho has recently enjoyed a new popularity with young people,� a la� Tony Bennett.� Call the hotel at (800) 622-4646 or via email at www.waikikibeachcomber.com
Snorkel in Hanauma Bay
Locals tell you to get up as early as you can and drive to Haunama Bay, a sunken volcanic crater open to the ocean on one side, located on the other side of Dianmond Head, for perfect snorkeling.�� Slender reefs protect you from the open ocean as� Yellow tangs, Moorish Idols and Parrotfish swim up to eat out of your hand. If you arrive before 8 a.m. you can beat the tour buses and have the bay more� to yourself . Bring bread, because the fish prefer it to the food you can buy there to feed them.
Explore Chinatown
If you�re an early riser and an adventurous eater, have dim sum for breakfast at Sea Fortune, at 111 North King Street in Chinatown. Then later stroll Maunakea street to browse� the lei shops which offer the best prices on pikake, ilima or orchid leis, and walk through� the Maunakea Marketplace� to see island fruits and vegetables. A little later in the day visit a few of the galleries on Nauuanu� Street, and don�t miss artist� Pegge Hopper�s gallery, with her huge paintings of� Hawaiian women riding motorcycles.�� The best place for lunch is Indigo at 1121� Nauuanu, where chef Glen Chu offers a buffet of� Asian dishes with modern twists, such as won tons filled with sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese.
The� Indonesian-inspired caf� has an airy indoor-outdoor style, Balinese carved wooden doors and lots of plants.
Take an Outrigger Canoe Ride
The best $5 experience on Oahu is a damp but delightful ride in an outrigger canoe paddled by two professional beach boys and eight novice� visitors, leaving from Kuhiio� Beach on Waikiki. Several times you will paddle out and roll in over crashing waves to the shore. If you�re lucky you�ll see one of the surfer-photographers surfing alongside taking your photo . You can come back the next day and buy a copy.
Buy an Outfit from a Famous Local� Designer�
Anne Namba is a local girl who went to New York for fashion design training and experience, and is now back home creating her one-of-a-kind contemporary outfits make from antique kimono fabrics. Her clothes are wearable art, and they aren�t inexpensive, but she also makes less expensive sets� from fabrics she designs and has printed, usually with images such as cranes or kubuki� figures. Several hotel� boutiques sell her work, but for the best selection drive up to her workshop and store� in Manoa, a twenty-minute drive from Honolulu.� Call at (808) 988-9361.
Stay in� a Legendary Hotel
The Halekulani is one of Honolulu�s oldest hotels,� once a large beach home.� Expanded in the 1920s, it now houses five buildings but keeps its luxury-home feeling. In The House Without A Key, the indoor-outdoor restaurant and lounge, you can sit and sip a��
mai tai in the evening while you watch a hula dancer sway to the sounds of slack key guitar music under a towering keave tree.� It�s expensive, rooms start at $315 a night, but for an anniversary or special trip it�s worth it. Gracious service starts with a concierge taking you to your room to sign in, no standing in line at a desk here. For a splurge, eat in La Mer, where each meal begins with complimentary champagne and offers such dishes as
duck with lavender honey� and rack of lamb with Provencal herbs. The service is like Paris, but the ambiance is pure Polynesia,� with the sun setting on the sea and the rustling� of palm fronds just outside the open windows. Call the hotel at (808) 923-2311.
Eat at a Hot New Restaurant
So many chefs in Honolulu are French that the current style of cuisine combines both Asian, island and French components, which I think of as �Pacific Provencal�. Chef� Mavro�s, at 1969 S. King Street, owned by French chef George Mavrothalassitis, is spare and elegant� in design. The chef�� pairs each dish with a wine, such as a Santa Barbara Chardonnay, Au Bon Climat, with the Charbroiled Keahole Lobster and Molokai Sweet Potato Puree.�� The Fall three-course dinner is $39 or $50 with wines at each course. Try the grilled veal sweetbread with thyme-tomato coulis.� Call (808) 944-4741. Padovani�s Bistro is a new restaurant in the Alana Double Tree Hotel on Ala Moana Blvd.� In a formal and very elegant room� chef� Phillipe Padovani� serves items such as� perfect� Muscovy duck breast with sauteed endive and pickled ginger plum sauce. Upstairs is a wine bar with hundreds of wines by the glass and there�s a cigar room, too. Call (808) 946-3456. At Hoku�s, in the Kahala Mandarin Oriental, every table has an ocean view, and when the sun goes down you can watch the fiery woks in the open kitchen. Thai Beef Tenderloin on a Lemon Grass Skewer and Steamed Opakapaka �are popular items. �Call (808) 739-8779.
Get a Hawaiian�Spa Treatment
The Ihilani Hotel and Resort is located at the far western end of the island, 25 minutes from the airport in the Ko Olina Resort development. There�s a great golf course, but most people head here for the spa treatments. The spa building is a separate structure with sections for men and women.� Sea weed wraps and sea water treatments are big here, but their� signature treatment is the Botanical Body Polish, using jasmine scrub and a pineapple body wash. Call (808) 679-0079.
Chowing down on dim sum for breakfast in Chinatown, soaring� in a seaplane over� the site where Godzilla was filmed,�holding� a real wood and bone weapon in your hands on a �behind the scenes� tour at the Bishop Museum: great stuff, but who knew? Most people landing in Oahu head to Waikiki Beach�to toast their tans. Nothing wrong with that. But eventually you�ll get bored and will want to go exploring. And the variety is endless:� on a recent five-day visit I�didn�t repeat anything I�d ever done before. Here�s a sprinkling of things you may not have tried;�off-beat things to do,� new places to eat,� local items to buy and unique places to stay.
As we lifted off the water with a splash, in� Island Seaplane Service�s 6-passenger DeHavilland Beaver,� pilot /owner Pat Magie told us stories about how he and his planes� have appeared in the movie �Godzilla� and the re-make of the TV series �Fantasy Island.��� The sky was a brilliant blue and the water below ranged from deepest navy blue to turquoise, so clear you can often see turtles swimming below, Pat said.� We soared over surfers and body boarders at� Waikiki Beach, people hiking Diamond Head Crater, Hanauma Bay with its snorkelers, and then veered up the Windward Coast, past the droll island called Chinaman�s Hat and� over the North Shore surfing areas, then returned over lush valleys of pineapples and coffee,� over Schofield Barracks and finally the� saw� the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor below. The � hour flight is $79 and the hour is $129. Call (808) 836-6273 to book it or contact them by email at 
Some of the most fascinating� pieces in this extensive collection are held in storage areas and rotated in and out of exhibits due to their fragility. But if you take this tour, leaving at 1:30 p.m. each day, you can see the feather cape that King Kamehameha� wore when he united the islands, other feather capes of royalty, handle wooden tools and shark-tooth weapons, and see other� rich holdings that make the� Bishop Museum the world�s premier source of Polynesian artifacts. The tour is $15. You can also choose to take a four-hour cultural tour to learn about Hawaiian history and culture,� where you learn� how to chant and dance a hula, make a lei, play the ukulele and other Hawaiian� cultural skills, and which includes a local-style lunch of hibachi chicken, kalua pork, poi� and passion guava juice. Make reservations a day ahead for $30 per adult or $42 per adult with transportation, children under 12 are $20 or $42 with transportation.� Call (808) 847-8291 to reserve.
Locals tell you to get up as early as you can and drive to Haunama Bay, a sunken volcanic crater open to the ocean on one side, located on the other side of Dianmond Head, for perfect snorkeling.�� Slender reefs protect you from the open ocean as� Yellow tangs, Moorish Idols and Parrotfish swim up to eat out of your hand. If you arrive before 8 a.m. you can beat the tour buses and have the bay more� to yourself . Bring bread, because the fish prefer it to the food you can buy there to feed them. 
Anne Namba is a local girl who went to New York for fashion design training and experience, and is now back home creating her one-of-a-kind contemporary outfits make from antique kimono fabrics. Her clothes are wearable art, and they aren�t inexpensive, but she also makes less expensive sets� from fabrics she designs and has printed, usually with images such as cranes or kubuki� figures. Several hotel� boutiques sell her work, but for the best selection drive up to her workshop and store� in Manoa, a twenty-minute drive from Honolulu.� Call at (808) 988-9361.
The Halekulani is one of Honolulu�s oldest hotels,� once a large beach home.� Expanded in the 1920s, it now houses five buildings but keeps its luxury-home feeling. In The House Without A Key, the indoor-outdoor restaurant and lounge, you can sit and sip a�� 
So many chefs in Honolulu are French that the current style of cuisine combines both Asian, island and French components, which I think of as �Pacific Provencal�. Chef� Mavro�s, at 1969 S. King Street, owned by French chef George Mavrothalassitis, is spare and elegant� in design. The chef�� pairs each dish with a wine, such as a Santa Barbara Chardonnay, Au Bon Climat, with the Charbroiled Keahole Lobster and Molokai Sweet Potato Puree.�� The Fall three-course dinner is $39 or $50 with wines at each course. Try the grilled veal sweetbread with thyme-tomato coulis.� Call (808) 944-4741. Padovani�s Bistro is a new restaurant in the Alana Double Tree Hotel on Ala Moana Blvd.� In a formal and very elegant room� chef� Phillipe Padovani� serves items such as� perfect� Muscovy duck breast with sauteed endive and pickled ginger plum sauce. Upstairs is a wine bar with hundreds of wines by the glass and there�s a cigar room, too. Call (808) 946-3456. At Hoku�s, in the Kahala Mandarin Oriental, every table has an ocean view, and when the sun goes down you can watch the fiery woks in the open kitchen. Thai Beef Tenderloin on a Lemon Grass Skewer and Steamed Opakapaka �are popular items. �Call (808) 739-8779.