Honolulu, Hawaii

Inner_Minute197
Lived in Honolulu
2y ago
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I was stationed on Oahu from 2016-2019 and will be returning for 4 years this October.

How is living on Oahu/in Honolulu? I absolutely love it, which is why I requested orders to return. I love the culture (specifically the less fast-paced lifestyle than what I'm used to in the mainland as well as more people being overtly polite), the food, the vibe, and the weather. That said, I did have a brief stint of island fever about a year after living there my first go around. But this was overcome after I started to come back from deployments and made friends/started to expand my reach.

One thing that I highly recommend in order to help limit the chance that you get island fever is to treat the island as your home and not as some 24/7 tropical Disney location. I've long said that people who claim that "there's nothing to do" or that they run out of things to do in Hawaii have generally (in my experience) come to unrealistically view the islands as a tropical vacation setting instead of as their home. They complain about not being able to road trip on a whim or about the difficultly of traveling to certain far away places, when most of the folks I know wouldn't even be doing that stuff on the mainland. People in Hawaii do the same things as others on the mainland for the most part. Folks go to work, shop, go to the gym, hang with friends, etc. The sooner people start treating Hawaii like any other place--just with "better" weather and wonderful beaches--the sooner they'll get over this notion of there being "nothing to do" or running out of things to do.

That's not to say that Hawaii/Honolulu isn't without it's problems, but what place is?

Impressive_Piano573
Living in Honolulu
4mo ago
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I’m 67, retired, married, and we just moved to Honolulu from NYC ( after 40 years there) to be closer to our kids and a new grandchild. So my situation is different from yours, but I can tell you the culture shock is real. The cost of living is no problem… if anything Hawaii may be cheaper than NYC. But Honolulu has very little to offer in terms of museums, theater, live music, nightlife, etc. (at least compared to NYC) My main thought is that if you love hiking and the ocean, you will probably be fine. If not, you may get serious island fever.

HawaiiStockguy
Living in Honolulu
2y ago
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As a military assignment, most everyone either loves it or hates it. They love the great weather, clean air, ocean activities, hiking, overall beauty, friendly people from all over the world, and being far from family. Or they hate being out in the sun, no change of season, all the tourists, high cost of everything, no winter sports, driving more than 2 hours gets you back where you started, and being so far from loved ones.

Try to not only visit most of the outer islands, but remember you may never live closer to asia, australia and new zealand, so vacation eastward

Military people fight both hardest to get Hawaii posting and hardest to not get Hawaii postings. Most other military assignments are in generally desirable or generally undesirable places

ReviveOurWisdom
Living in Honolulu
2mo ago
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Beautiful island with a lot to do in a little space. Don Quijote is lovely, I also like the convention center which hosted some cons like animecon and astronomycon etc. hiking at Manoa Falls or relaxing in Kailua Beach… therapy.

Within the city tho, it’s definitely one of the more walkable cities in the country. Walking, biking, scooters, it’s quite nice not needing a car to go everywhere. The beaches and weather in Hawaii are really like paradise

Butttt on the flip side, living there has its cons. You practically have to be a multimillionaire to live a comfortable lifestyle, even if it’s just a condo or an apartment. Homelessness will seemingly never get solved because of the corruption, and there has been a slight increase in shootings and gun violence in the state, just a tiny bit. Overall I miss my time there, but I wouldn’t move back. Much better to visit as a tourist and avoid the issues

Living In The BIGGEST CITY In Hawaii - How I Make HONOLULU Work