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I am interested to hear firsthand, positive stories from those of you who live on Oahu and love it. Agreed, I'm sure there are plenty of negatives but I've read plenty of those on this forum. I also know how to take some responses with a grain of salt. Everyone has different opinions, different situations and a number of other factors that may create a less than pleasurable life for some people in specific places.
I'm especially eager to hear the positive feedback from those of you who relocated and ended up loving it. I have a job opportunity on the line and I am certainly giving a lot of though to relocating my life to HNL. As many of the other threads address, my fear really isn't cost of living. I live in San Francisco! And for a short time last year, I lived in Los Angeles. I also grew up on the east coast and spent much of my childhood in New York City. Cost of living doesn't make me want to run for the hills. Aside from having a job that will support the cost of living, I am most concerned with the new and positive experiences that living in HNL could contribute to my life!
For us, we like the smallness of the island. We can drive to the Northshore for lunch or cruise into Waikiki for dinner & shopping. Nothing is too far away. There are tons of beaches & hiking opportunities, again all within less than an hours drive time.
We came with my spouses job, so had an income and a few $$ in the bank, which helped. We are very happy with where we live on the West side of Oahu, but we came from the desert, so prefer the dryness. We don't have a problem with mold or mildew or chips going stale before you finish the bag!
This move was our 8th relocation in our 30th yrs of marriage, so we've moved about quite a lot. It IS different in the fact you can't just drive your cars over, with your pets in the backseat and is costly to fly back to the mainland, but as long as you have sufficient money, those things are not insurmountable.
If you want only positive posts try the "Hawaii Travel Forum", you can probably find it if you search. They REQUIRE all posts to be positive. [insert eye rolling here]. I don't know if I'd want to make a choice of whether to move or not based on ONLY positive stories. A touch of reality makes proper planning much more productive.
Still, if one has taken into consideration the negatives and planned on how to deal with them, then one can look forward to wonderful weather and great food. There's tons of lovely outdoor activities, the water is lovely if you like ocean swimming. That's pretty hard to do on the mainland without freezing your okole off. Great surfing, snorkeling, interesting multi-cultural living situations and lots of "only in Hawaii" sorts of things here. It ain't paradise, though, but it is a nice place.
If you want only positive posts try the "Hawaii Travel Forum", you can probably find it if you search. They REQUIRE all posts to be positive. [insert eye rolling here]. I don't know if I'd want to make a choice of whether to move or not based on ONLY positive stories. A touch of reality makes proper planning much more productive.
Still, if one has taken into consideration the negatives and planned on how to deal with them, then one can look forward to wonderful weather and great food. There's tons of lovely outdoor activities, the water is lovely if you like ocean swimming. That's pretty hard to do on the mainland without freezing your okole off. Great surfing, snorkeling, interesting multi-cultural living situations and lots of "only in Hawaii" sorts of things here. It ain't paradise, though, but it is a nice place.
I wrote several replies here and erased. I'll just say I appreciate the positive aspect of the thread. I'm super in touch with reality, but I'm frankly sick of reading negatives. Only processing positives at this point.
Check out the meetups groups. There are some really cool groups you can join. 30's something women, martini & manicure, hiking adventures, Everything Oahu. There are a ton of mainlanders, all looking to meet new friends and find their footing.
If you are open minded and flexible, life anywhere should be great!
Check out the meetups groups. There are some really cool groups you can join. 30's something women, martini & manicure, hiking adventures, Everything Oahu. There are a ton of mainlanders, all looking to meet new friends and find their footing.
If you are open minded and flexible, life anywhere should be great!
Jolie,
Fabulous! Thank you for the resource! I haven't started poking around to find it, is it on this site as well? It sounds like just my kind of place... 30 somethings, martini's and manicures and of course hiking
Thanks for understanding the vision I had for this post! As my username suggests, I AM a free spirit who has moved all over the country (alone, at that, usually knowing no one when I move to an area!) and have made so many amazing friends and learned so much about myself. I believe that there are places that each person fits in better than others. And I also believe part of the experience is how the individual perceives it and what kind of life they make for themselves (not necessarily meaning financially, but being open minded and flexible as you said!).
Fabulous! Thank you for the resource! I haven't started poking around to find it, is it on this site as well? It sounds like just my kind of place... 30 somethings, martini's and manicures and of course hiking
Thanks for understanding the vision I had for this post! As my username suggests, I AM a free spirit who has moved all over the country (alone, at that, usually knowing no one when I move to an area!) and have made so many amazing friends and learned so much about myself. I believe that there are places that each person fits in better than others. And I also believe part of the experience is how the individual perceives it and what kind of life they make for themselves (not necessarily meaning financially, but being open minded and flexible as you said!).
Do you currently live on Oahu?
You seem to have a great attitude and would probably make a lot of friends on Oahu. I think the main reason people end up disliking Hawaii is because they aren't open-minded and curious and when presented with something different, they turn the other way.
Honolulu is a fantastic city with limitless opportunities for positive experiences. Everything is just close enough so that you don't have to spend forever traveling from one place to another and the weather and tourist economy encourages a good amount of night life as well. I'm sure you'll love it!
My family has been living on Oahu for 3 1/2 years now. We relocated from Southern California. It has been a really positive experience for us! Of course, any time you relocate, you will find differences.
I think the best things about living here are the diversity (lots of different cultures, types of food, viewpoints), the amazing weather (but I like it warm and don't mind the humidity), the beauty (flowers blooming year round, always getting to see the ocean even as you are doing something as mundane as filling your car up with gas), easy and relatively inexpensive travel between islands (we have gotten to stay at some AMAZING resorts with kamaaina rates, most recently on Lanai....oh, the pampering...), great hiking, etc., etc., etc.
I like that I am raising my child in an environment where many classmates speak different languages, where respect is taught for different cultures. There seems to be less emphasis on materialism here compared to Southern California, even though there is a lot of money here.
No place is perfect of course. And, no one can say for sure whether any particular person will love Oahu, feel at home here, etc. But, if you have the opportunity and want to try something new - I say go for it. Personally, I feel so very lucky to get to live here. I tell my child all the time - "Do you realize how amazing it is you get to grow up here? Not every child has an extinct volcano in their back yard, gets to count rainbows on their way to school, gets to bodysurf at Waikiki, see dolphins jumping out of the water when they are at the beach on weekends, etc...." And, I am not kidding, it can really be that great.
I mean, you still have traffic, bills, the craziness of life, but you are in Hawaii!!
I moved for work, brought a spouse, dog, two cats, a car, and some (but not nearly all) of my stuff. I lived in a tiny apartment (800 sq ft, which is actually big for Honolulu but small for what I was used to) with amazing views and loved it. After my spouse found steady work (we came for my job), we bought a condo. Small, but more than enough for us, and a nice guest room for visitors.
What I love: My job. I would be pretty bummed to have come here for a job and have it suck, but it doesn't. Largely, as a prof, what makes a job good is the colleagues and the students. I really like my students a lot. They work hard and are really great people. As for the colleagues, I think folks who choose to spend their careers here are special, and I like them a lot.
Like anywhere, most of my life is day-to-day working and taking care of stuff at home. But when I take a day off, I'm on vacation in Hawaii! And like other posters, I'm taking advantage of being here by traveling to other islands for vacation.
I love the weather, I love the beach, and I love city living. So Honolulu has everything I want. I will say, though, that I live close to the university, and I would be much less happy if I were spending hours a day in my car!
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