Amazon List for Our Trip to Hawaii

Time is flying by fast and another summer is right around the corner. If your plans are already set for a Hawaiian vacation allow me to share my thoughts on some of the things I bought for our trip to Oahu last summer. I’ll break down my list into : Best Get List – Honorable Mention – Pass but maybe next time – Bought and Returned.

Best Get List

• Luggage – We got the 6 piece set. I loved these because they are bright and give me happy vibes. We could spot them right away in the luggage area. For four people we only used 3 pieces total. I was able to fit clothes for 4 people in the biggest piece, 1 carry on luggage had our shoes, snorkel masks and flippers, and the carry on bag that expanded had random odds and ends that was mostly intended to be used to bring back our souvenirs.

• Mesh Beach Tote – This was perfect for our beach days. I fit 4 hotel towels inside of it and was able to put our lotions, lip balms, camera and a couple of bottles of water in the side pockets. And I can’t stress enough how easy it was to clean, almost as if the sand filtered itself out of the bag!

• Snorkel Mask – We were able to score a reservation at Hanauma Bay and although they rent snorkel gear there I’m a bit of a germ-a-phob so I didn’t think twice about buying our own. Besides that we were able to go straight to the water and not wait in the long line for rentals. And of course since we were on an island of beautiful beaches it was highly likely that we would be using the masks at other beach visits and we did!

• Shoe Bags – I’m a little OCD about shoes and dirty clothes in my luggage so these worked nicely and did the job! They would also be useful to put wet clothes in if you have to pack it all up before it has time to dry. 

Honorable Mention

• Camera – I wanted to try out an actual vlogging camera without spending too much. We didn’t use it as much as I had planned to but the video and pictures we did take with it turned out pretty good. Fair warning, be careful what you press if using for the first time. I tend to investigate by pressing things and lost all the pictures from our first day.

Pass But Maybe Next Time

• Beach Towels – Our own beach towels would have been a nice to have but on this trip they were not necessary because the hotel let us borrow their towels on our day trips – but if we had brought our own I would definitely get Turkish towels because they look nice, can be folded pretty tightly, is supposed to be sand resistant and dries quickly. Also, according to pics, can be wrapped around to make a skirt, dress, or scarf!

• Water bottles that squish – I’m all about compact when it comes to packing and the water bottles that squish up were on the list. Had I known that the hotel had a purified water fountain to fill up water bottles I would have purchased them but instead we hit the local Costco and got a case of water to last us the week.

Bought & Returned

• Wet/Dry Shoes – These did make the trip to Hawaii but in the end we didn’t use them. I think they would have used them if we were trekking through rain forests and pools of water surrounded by lava rock. On this trip we weren’t. We were on Oahu not the Big Island. Instead we hiked on dirt paths and climbed up stairs. We went to beaches that went from parking lot to soft sand to clear waters. For context, my oldest wore what he used as his house slippers for the entire trip….he hiked Diamond Head and Koko Crater in them. While the rest of us used our everyday sneakers or flip flops. Again, maybe more useful on the other islands.

Definitely an each to their own shopping list but I was very happy with everything that we did end up using. For more context we are active vacationers and like to see and do as much as we can while in a new place. Maybe I’ll add our itinerary in a future blog post. I think we captured most of the must dos, sees and eats! Stay tuned! And as always, thank you for visiting!