Swap Meet

Swap meet is the best place to get all your Hawaiian souvenirs. You can find anything you could possibly want, and at lower prices than at any of the stores in town. They have it every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at Aloha Stadium. I think the hours are 6-3.

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!