Have you ever wanted to go to a tropical paradise and have epic photos of your epic adventures? I definitely have wanted to do this and with photography I have had some amazing photography adventures in O’ahu that I am excited to share! We ended up going to O’ahu in August of 2022 because I had a shoot there, and we had just finalized the adoption of Eric and Peter so it was our Family Adoption Celebration!

So when I think “Hawaii” the things that come to my mind are; gorgeous beaches, incredible jungle, surfing, ocean life, and amazing food! There is so much more though. There are things to do there that I never thought of doing, such a beautiful culture to experience, places to go and of course delicious food to eat.

So with having so much to do there and often times not enough time to do it I have learned that the GO CITY PASS is an affordable option to be able to do A LOT! This is a pass that you pay for by the day and you then go through the different options and pick what you want to do for each day of your trip or just the days that you purchase the pass. Through the app or the website each option does have a phone number or website link that you will use in order make your reservations. We didn’t use it for everything we did but we did use it for some big ticket items like going to the Aquarium, on a catamaran, and going to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). I personally plan to get this pass for me and my family every time we go to O’ahu from now on!

The things we gotten to do on our Hawaiian adventures are awesome!

We had so much fun snorkeling! We did get our Snorkels on Amazon and it was a fun purchase that we will use again and again! The kids snorkels, baby’s snorkel, and our snorkels, fit perfectly and were a great investment.

For Davey we didn’t get any picture of him in the water with his mask but that was because we had to much fun with one of us holding him and the other one playing with him while he had his face in the water. He did fight it at first but it went from crying to suddenly saying “Fish! Fish! Fish!” over and over again. It was pretty cute!

I do recommend trying everything on and getting the sizing right for all masks before you go snorkeling. We even had Davey put is face in the water in a bubble bath to find toys to help him get comfortable with it.

One of our GO City Passes was the Ocean Voyage Adventure at Kualoa Ranch. It was a fun excursion that included a short bus ride, a short boat ride, a walk through some beautiful trees and an awesome catamaran voyage!

On this adventure we got to see fish, turtles, sharks, and have a very fun, slightly wet ride. For those of you who prefer to stay dry I do recommend staying on the second deck, standing in the front on the bottom deck does have a strong likely hood of encountering waves splashing up!

The PCC is a very cool adventure. It is where you can learn about and experience the different Polynesian cultures. This was another one of our Go City Passes that made it definitely worth the money. We did pay extra to enjoy the even buffet (the luau was already full) and go the the evening show. It was one of my favorite parts of the PCC so I do recommend the upgrade.

The PCC is full of activities, games, shows, and shops that you can wander around and pick and choose what you are interested in the most.

As a family we decided our Go City Pass diamond experience would be the Sea Life Park: Dolphin Aloha + Hawaiian Reef Encounter + Admission which is O’ahu’s aquarium. We had a lot of fun getting to feed the dolphins, but if you don’t want to choose this as your diamond experience, its okay you still get to feed turtles, and be very close while they feed baby sharks. There is also a very fun dolphin show, different exhibits, and so many colorful fish. It is a very small aquarium, and can be done in about half a day.

O’ahu is a beautiful fun place that the whole family can enjoy. One of the things that really helped us on this trip was getting the kids their own camel baks that they could also put their swim suits, and snacks in just incase. We also loved having our own fast drying towels, this helped if we decided to go for a quick swim during the day. We are also HUGE fans of long sleeve swim shirts, we didn’t have to worry about sunburned kids through our adventures!

Parents who try to plan trips around school, keep in mind sometimes its worth it to get the homework packet and go when it’s not tourist season. Besides using adventures as incentive to get homework does works so well!

I hope you enjoy your Hawaiian Family Adventure as much as we did and plan to again! I also hope the little tips and tricks help make your trip more enjoyable and less stressful!