For someone coming from the largest state in the United States I have to say that the size of the island of Oahu threw me. When I first looked at a map of the road system I didn’t quite make the conversion from the expanse of Alaska. Oahu itself is 44 miles long and 30 miles wide, roughly half the size of Rhode Island (my commute to work is over 50 miles normally so the size of the island surprised me).  And while the distances may look like nothing be aware that the traffic is something all together different. If you catch the tide of traffic correctly and you flow against the majority you can make the trips in a normally expected time frame but if you end up with the flow of the majority of traffic be aware that it will take you quite a bit longer than you were expecting! And trying to get around the North Shore during high traffic times (evenings and weekends) reminds me of watching snails race. It is slow and there is a lot of pedestrian traffic. But with all that being said the roads lead you to some pretty amazing views. Today I want to show you my two favorite lookouts; Tantalus and Pali. The Tantalus lookout is on the Honolulu side of the island, if you use Google maps it can lead you right to it. There is a state park there with offers great views but the road itself has some amazing views of Diamond Head OHI103Diamond Head with Waikiki in the foreground.

 and Waikiki! OHI106Waikiki skyline

 I was told the view at night was even more spectacular but I never made it there after dark. But here is a couple of Panos I got from my two day trips up to the Tantalus Lookout. The first is from the state park view point. OHI114Tantalus Lookout The second is from the Tantalas Road itself. Whether you come from the Round Top Drive road or the Tantalus Drive road I highly suggest driving the full loop as it is a spectacular drive through lush forest.

OHI115Tantalus Lookout. The other look out that was spectacular but windy was the Pali lookout. It can be found on the Pali Highway at the top of the mountain and overlooks the windward side of the island. I will warn you that if it is breezy down below it will be blowing up above. This look out gets crazy windy but is worth the trip.

OHI112Pali Lookout