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Click on the island
name for more on shopping at that particular location.
l Big
Island l Kauai l
Maui l Oahu
l Best Buys
Shopping's
easy here. Head for the Ala Moana Shopping Center and fill
all your souvenir urges in one of the 200 or so shops and
stores, The Liberty House here, downtown and on other
islands may have the best combination of price and quality
for Aloha shirts and resort wear.
The other "everything tourist" shopping
venue is the Royal Hawaiian Shopping center that, to the
dismay of long-time locals now just about hides the
"Pink Palace" AKA Royal Hawaiian Hotel from
Kalakaua Ave., Waikiki's main shopping street.
If
you don't get to Kauai the Little Hawaiian Craft Shop is a
good place to buy Niihau shell jewelry, the wonderful items
made from tiny shells. If you don't get to the Bishop Museum, the reproductions of
Bishop Museum Art are worth a look as well. The Waikiki
Shopping Plaza across Kalakaua Street and the King Kalakaua
Plaze add more shopping.
The
more upscale Kahala Mall towards Koko Head mostly serves
locals from the most expensive neighborhood in Honolulu.
It's a good spot for upscale clothing in more conservative
designs than downtown. You can get thete on the bus in about
15 minutes or drive in ten. A great number of very good
specialty shops cluster here too.
The
traditional, and charmingly tacky International Market Place
has been in the heart of Wakiki for decades.
Tacky tees, and more odd, and often awful items than
anyone can use spill out across 200 shops, but there's some
treasure here with pearls, the odd piece of decently
designed hand crafted jewelry and some street vendors with
nice crafts.
If
you must muumuu or Aloha the best values are in the low
budget area on the other end of a free shuttle out to Hilo
Hattie on Nimitz Highway.
Want
to buy Macadamia nuts or candy, or pineapples, or Kona
coffee, or exotic jams. Promise you won't laugh?
Try Long's Drugs stores or Safeway Supermarkets for
local produce at local prices.
Longs in either the Ala Moana Shopping Center or the
Kahala Mall has champagne treats at beer, or at least wine
prices. Look
for things like white pineapples, wonderful oranges.
Realize, when you buy wonderful fruits and such from
a highway stand, that there needs to be an Agricultural
Inspection sticker on anything too.
Outside
of town, Haleiwa's surf shops can custom make a board for
your weight, skills and specific surf size, or sell you a
pair of "heal Hawaiian baggies" or shorts that
will stoke the wanna' be surfer dude teen at home. |
