Living in Hawaii summer '09 (Honolulu: apartment, home, unemployment rate)

[celcius]

Hi everyone!

I'll try to keep this short. I've never been to Hawaii before, but have been obsessed with figuring out a long-term plan to successfully live there for some time. I read the book "So You Want to Live in Hawaii" and have been lurking/searching these forums for months reading invaluable information.

Obviously this is a very complicated decision, and one I can't make without visiting first. So I have a summer plan. I'm currently a student at a highly selective liberal arts college studying economics/finance and looking for summer internships. Last summer I lived about 4 hours away from home working for Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America). This summer I want to work and live on Oahu. I have a connection there with an Accountant I will hopefully shadow and am in the process of researching another job to subsidize living costs, which I'm sure will be very high. I may also take a class at UH Manoa.

Hopefully transportation will not be an issue. Everything I'm looking at is in Honolulu, so either the public bus system or a bike should suit me.

My issue is where to live. I am not a material person and am very much into the outdoors, the beach and natural exploring. Home will be where I eat, sleep and relax in privacy and that's it. I just need a good location that's safe (esp. at night), cheap and with ready access to downtown. My research thus far has pointed me towards the neighborhood of Makiki, but I don't know how it is.

I would write more about my situation but I think this is enough to at least spark some info from you guys who can help with Makiki, neighborhoods like it or if you know people in similar situations and what they've done. What is a good living option for someone like me?

Thanks for all your help in advance. I have to go for now as I have to do some work and my laptop battery is almost out but I will be back to check and respond in a few hours.

celcius

[KoaHawaii]

you might have already done this but since you mentioned taking some classes at UH, have you looked at student housing there? it would be a more affordable option. though not sure if you'd even be able to get anything as you wouldn't actually be a full time student or anything like that. though i would think about looking in the Manoa area if you are going to be on campus, especially if you wont have a car. though public transport might help if you don't live too far away. i'm not too familiar with Oahu so unfortunately i can't really be much help here. though im sure someone on the boards will =)
good luck and i think as a student that's a great idea to live somewhere else for a short time. what better place to go than a tropical island in the pacific

[hotzcatz]

See if you can start with a week or two at a vacation place, the YMCA or some other weekly rental. Then you will have time to find an apartment near everywhere you want to be. During the summer a lot of the U of H students go back to the mainland for summer vacation so you may be able to find summer lodgings there. The U of H is close enough to downtown that getting back and forth is pretty easy.

[spearsr]

I have been to Honolulu 3 times. and UH Manoa was one of the schools I applied to as a senior in HS. The bus system there is excellent. especially right around campus. u can pretty much get anywhere on the island, wikiki and downtown Honolulu obviously, but even up to north shore by BYU. I have also been looking heavily into living on Oahu for a summer, just to get a better feel for (continuous) living on the island and possibly transferring to finish my last 2 years of school. ... and while Honolulu has a fairly high unemployment rate, the residential areas right around UH all the way to the wikiki tourist area is not bad.

[spearsr]

oh wow this is from year ago february... not a couple days ago..