Oahu Guide: Haleiwa, North Shore

Haleiwa is a little surf town on the North Shore. It took me all of about 5 seconds to fall in love with it. To its quaint little shops and good places to eat, to its beautiful beach and river. I don't know, something about it was just so inviting and I loved every minute of our time there. We spent pretty much one whole day there. When we first arrived we ate some breakfast and then walked down their little main street to explore. My favourite place was the Haleiwa Store Lots. Its a cute little square with a courtyard surrounded by store's in the heart of Haleiwa. We got there early enough that it was pretty empty, but later on it turned in to quite a happening place with live music.

We planned to spend the afternoon Stand Up Paddle Boarding. We rented our boards from Tropical Rush. It was easy to do online, the staff were very friendly and welcoming, and they have the perfect location right along the main street just as you enter the town and right along the River with easy access to the River.

On the back of their building, they also have this...

These angel wings are popular on instagram and I was excited to add my picture to the mix. Ha ha. I took this one to see if the settings were good on the camera. I don't think Ryan realized I was taking it, but Men can have pretty angel wings too.

We seriously had the perfect afternoon paddle boarding down the River, and then to the beach. We'd relax on the beach and then paddle board some more. It was the perfect afternoon. This part of the beach was pretty empty and is a great spot for young families because it is in a little alcove? Not sure if that's the right word but it was kind of sheltered a bit so the water was calmer. We found one little spot where a wave or two would appear and we had fun riding them on our boards. That was as adventurous as I got with the waves on the North Shore. The River was pretty wide and so green and so pretty. This afternoon was definitely one of the highlights of our trip for me.

The bridge was the passageway between the River and the Ocean

 

I'm pretty sure this is what Heaven will be like. It was such an amazing day. There were so many food options here too but we will talk about that in another post. One thing I should note is that a lot of the shops and restaurants close pretty early, so make sure you check hours before you make plans. Even on the weekend it was really quiet with only a handful of places open later in the evening. I would come back to Oahu just to visit Haleiwa again. That's how much I loved it.