Janine

This is definitely a great place to visit, especially on a family vacation. On the weekdays the beach is not crowded at all and besides that there are loads of other things you can do there. It’s definitely worth the time and the small fee to get into the park. A must for any tourist in Miami—a huge contrast to the hustle of South Beach—and a must for any Miami native—a great place to unwind and forget that you live in a city!

Forget the malls and the free shuttles to K-Mart and Wal-Mart and all the other marts they can stick a syllable in front of—the Swap Meet is like New York’s China Town without the police raids and secret door/room locations that in order to reach you need to find a Chinese person who will lead you past a bouncer, up a flight of endless stairs, past massage parlors, beauty salons, sewing rooms (where they make the counterfeit merchandise?) and finally into a small room crowded with women feeling and groping for Coach and Prada purses located somewhere above Canal Street. No—this swap meet is outdoors in tents in the Aloha Stadium parking lot completely encircling the stadium itself. The stadium is not much to look at and neither are the tents—it’s what’s inside the tents that counts and worth looking at. The selection of items here is amazing. Everything that I saw priced more expensively in other touristic locations was priced much more cheaply here. Even non-Hawaiian merchandise is up for sale, and don’t leave home or visit this swap meet without your bartering skills. A carved mask—20 dollars you say—I’m not interested. Within seconds the “manager” came down to $12. I could have had it for 8, I’m sure…but there was no more room in our carry-ons (our luggage was already checked-in at the Honolulu Airport for our flight later that afternoon). As things were going this last day (and final hours of our stay in Hawaii) we had to buy a bag (at 10 dollars) to act as an extra carry-on for all the items we bought at the swap meet. One thing I should mention—it was hot and not as breezy as some of the other islands like Maui. We did have some snow cones (which were ok, not great though)—carrying some water with you is a must and arriving early is another. Overall—buy the majority of your souvenirs and gifts here and save time and money!

Once we climbed the numerous steps up to the observation point we took in the sights and the cooling breeze and stared up at the massive rock formation. Lots of nice pictures to take there and lots of fresh air to breathe in and enjoy. Allergies were only a distant memory for me. Great place…