Cheap flights to Honolulu from C$ 342

Welcome to Honolulu – grab a lei and a Mai Tai and settle into a relaxing vacation on the shores of O’ahu. Hawaii’s capital city is the centre of the island’s tourism and financial growth, but there’s more to this city than luau’s and the hula.

Surfers dream of flights to Honolulu for a chance to catch the waves off Waikiki Beach. Considered to be one of the world’s most beautiful beaches, Waikiki attracts about four million visitors each year. Along with swimming, surfing and sunbathing, weekend beachgoers can enjoy Sunset on the Beach, a free movie shown on a nine-metre screen. Geologists book Honolulu flights armed with cameras and notebooks to explore the extinct famous volcano, Diamond Head, and take a look at authentic Polynesian artifacts. Families and friends find cheap flights to Hawaii for an island-getaway that rivals most U.S. beach destination spots.

Away from the beach, the city is home to the Bishop Museum, Hawaii’s largest museum, founded in 1889 in honour of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha family. The Honolulu Academy of Arts boasts more than 50,000 works, and the Lyon Arboretum is an 80-hectare botanical garden, the only university botanical garden located in a tropical rain forest in the U.S.

Honolulu climate

Book flights to Honolulu any time you want. The year-round temperature typically ranges from about 20 to 30 degrees (Celsius).There are two seasons — dry and rainy. The rainy season runs from November to March and the dry season is the rest of the year. June to November is the time for hurricanes.

Getting around Honolulu

You can cover most of Honolulu and O’ahu using TheBus. The Waikiki Trolley that stops at attractions in Waikiki and downtown Honolulu, with the driver providing commentary along the way. Few places on O’ahu are more than an hour’s drive from Honolulu. Car rental prices tend to be reasonable and gasoline prices high. However, traffic is heavy; there are approximately 400 cars for every mile of road on O’ahu.   

What is good to know if travelling to Honolulu?

• The Arizona Memorial Museum straddles the tomb of the 1177 sailors and Marines trapped below deck when the battleship sank, marking the worst disaster in US naval history. It’s a sombre and moving experience. Admission is free, and tickets are handed out on a first-come first-served basis. On a busy day, tickets are gone by noon.
• The Science Adventure Centre of the Bishop Museum is not to be missed. It has 30 exhibits through which you can experience adventures such as walking into a volcano, operating mini subs in a “deep sea” tank, and creating tsunamis. The museum’s other permanent exhibits include the Hawaiian and Polynesian Halls, Hawai’i Sports Hall of Fame, Planetarium, and Maritime Centre.
• Downtown Honolulu’s historic Chinatown is a mix of Asian cultures. There are brilliant colours everywhere, a Buddhist temple, a Japanese shrine, herb and Chinese grocery shops, art galleries, restaurants, an open market where tangy spices rule the cuisine, ever-present scent of burning incense, acupuncturists, and herbalists. Every day the area is bustling with busy residents and meandering visitors from all over the world and a rich mix of sounds, from the traffic to the high-pitched talking of vendors to the retired men “talking story” over a game of mah-jongg. When you’re here, make sure to check out the lei sellers on Maunakea Street, where Hawaii’s finest leis go for bargain prices.
• Botanical gardens abound on O’ahu. The Foster Botanical Garden, in downtown Honolulu, is the oldest of the Honolulu Botanical Gardens and has magnificent trees that were planted in the 1800s. The Wahiawa Botanical Garden is a tropical rain forest. Senator Fong’s Plantation and Gardens covers scenic valleys and plateaus of landscape that is relatively the same as what early Polynesians saw when they came to Hawaii. And this is just three of many gardens on O’ahu.
• The Byodo-In Temple is a replica of the Byodoin Temple in Uji, Japan. A three-tonne brass temple bell brings good luck to those who can ring it. The highlight is the Lotus Buddha, the largest wooden Buddha carved in more than 900 years. The Temple grounds include traditional Japanese gardens, a koi pond, and wandering peacocks. (The Temple was used as a filming location in the first season of the ABC drama series Lost.)
• The weather is usually perfect for a walk. The island has more than 20 trails that take you through rain forests, mountain forests, dry valleys, and gulches. Or create your own walking tour in Honolulu or Waikiki — the O’ahu Web site has great suggestions for attractions to visit in the city.
• Golfing on O’ahu is a unique experience. The rough might be rain forest or lava rock, the constant wind highlights all mistakes, and the ground is harder, which means that the ball runs off the tee more and doesn’t stop as quickly on the greens.
• Smokers beware. It’s against the law to smoke in public buildings and restaurants, including the airports, grocery stores, retail shops, movie theatres, banks, and government buildings and facilities. Most bed-and-breakfast establishments also prohibit smoking.

Honolulu airport overview

As the main gateway to Hawaii, Honolulu International Airport (HNL) is one of the busiest airports in the United States, with 21 million travellers passing through it each year. The airport is busy with old-fashioned terminal buildings that haven’t changed much since they were built in the 1960s.

There are three terminals at Honolulu Airport, and as the airport is not as well-signed as it could be, transferring between them can be very confusing. The Commuter Terminal and the Interisland Terminal serve smaller regional airlines. The Interisland Terminal also sees some flights to and from the US mainland and Hawaiian Airlines’ international flights. The Overseas Terminal, also called the International Terminal, serves all other international arrivals and departures.

The city of Honolulu, about five miles (8km) from the airport, has more than 1 million inhabitants and is as bustling as any major city. Although you might want to go further afield for that remote-island holiday, it’s a warm and hospitable first experience of Hawaii.