Book it Danno! Travel Plus… Destination – Featuring the Diamond Head Trail

Book it Danno! Travel Plus… Destination – Featuring the Diamond Head Trail

Index:

• A Rock, A Hard Place and Tier Points
• To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin
• A morning around Dublin
• Dublin Airport, BA4467 Dublin Airport to London City Airport
• Travelodge, London City Airport
• A Morning at London City Airport
• British Airways BA001 London City Airport – Shannon, Shannon to New York-JFK
• Über Takes on Manhattan
• Holiday Inn Express, JFK
• JFK T8, US Airways Flight US510 New York JFK to Phoenix, Arizona
• US Airways Club/Admiral’s Club, US694 Phoenix Sky Harbour to Honolulu
• The Aston Beach Waikiki
• Travel Plus… Doing – Exploring the Diamond Head Trail
• Travel Plus… Doing – Pearl Harbour and The USS Arizona Memorial
• The joy of British Airways Rebooking
• Honolulu Airport, American Airline Lounge, US693 Honolulu International to Phoenix
• US425 Phoenix to New York-JFK, Economy Class
• JFK Omnishambles
• BA002 JFK to London City Airport
• Involuntary Downgrade Chaos
• BA4462 London City Airport to Dublin
• A Five Hour Dublin Layover
• BA0837 Dublin Airport to London Heathrow Airport in Club Europe
• Homeward bound
• Aftermath: Points and Reflections…

Author’s note: As well as being part of the main Honolulu trip report, this also is part of Travel Plus on Economy Class and Beyond. You can find out more about Travel Plus here.

With the nice food and sedate life I have when in the air. I do like to make sure I exercise myself when going to new places. And yes, if there’s an interesting walk or something – I’ll take it.

Or I enjoy inflicting pain on myself for no good reason. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Today’s walk would be to the observation platform at the Diamond Head State monument.

For me, no tour buses, no nothing – just the local bus network, that worked a charm. $2.50.

So off we go out of the hotel and to the bus stop.

A 15 minute or so bus ride, the bus dropped everyone off at the Diamond Head entrance – and it was time to loose weight hike.

Before you go into the crater, and begin your climb, you first have to do a gentle accent upwards, and through the crater.

This way!

and not bad views either… 

One sort of danger…

And another sort of danger (those things are all over the island)…

Once through the tunnel, you have a choice. Those of you with hire cars will be paying the $5. If you’re entering on foot – it’s a single dollar. Not bad for those who want a challenging walk….

Once through, there’s a gift shop, toilet, vending machines and the usual things. Take advantage – as this is the last stop until you get back from the top. It’s also good for a cold bottle of water (at $2, overpriced – but a fresh cold bottle of water will help on the way up…)

Once you’re all prepared, you can face the hike. I do recommend decent shoes (sneakers/trainers/hiking boots). I don’t recommend formal shoes or flip-flops/thongs, or heels – you’ll do more damage than good with them

That’s your target up the top. It’s a long way up. Whilst there is concrete flooring for the very first part of the walk, it turns into a ruttled surface very quickly

This was actually smoother than some bits

The base camp

On the way up

The base below… a long way down

Passing through one of the stopping points.

That’s a long way down wit that trail…

You do go through a rather dark tunnel – that’s not well lit. Just keep forging ahead… and watch your head. You’re nowhere near the nasty part yet…

Eventually, you’ll reach the stairs. And this is the hardest bit of the climb in my opinion. You’ll be hot at this point, and it’s a 100 step stairway.

In other words, it’s a challenge on top of what you’ve hike done so far.

This actually is a point that stops a number of people.

And yes, 100 steps on a stair-master or something like that is easyish. This is 100 steps straight and steep. At the end of the stairway, there’s another tunnel… and a fair number of exhausted bodies there.

I won’t lie – I was one of those bodies after those steps.

 
The end of the tunnel.

There are a few more challenges – namley a spiral staircase, which takes you to the lookout point:

Exit that, and you’re onto the summit.

 
The last climb

Job done!

And the views from that point… are amazing.

I’ll cover the descent in another article (which will be on Travel Plus shortly, covering how my Canon 100D handled the photography duties on the way down).

But I’ll say this, the view from where I was at the end of the climb was well worth it:

On a bench and cooling down.

Overall: For a net investment of $6, you can get a hell of a lot of exercise, a lot of great views and a different perspective of the world. That’s good value any way you cut it.  The fact you get a bit closer to the world around you, and away from concrete is never a bad thing.

For this sort of hike, just prepare well. Good shoes, plenty of water (as cold as you can keep it) and don’t rush.

Oh yes. Sunscreen. Wear it. Unlike your author.

NEXT: The USS Arizona Memorial and Pearl Harbour

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates!

Also remember that as well as being part of BoardingArea, we’re also part of BoardingArea.eu, delivering frequent flyer news, miles and points to European readers.