We saw turtles here! My wife and I were staying here and had been looking for turtles on other beaches without any luck. On our last night here we set out the beach chairs Emmanuel provides on the back yard beach and planted our lazy butts in them and sat there as the sun went down. Just at dusk, while you could still see down the beach just a bit, we saw turtles swim right up onto the beach and lay there to rest. This was 20 yards from us planted there in the chairs. We were so surprised and happy. We’re main landers from the Rocky Mountain West. We don’t see giant turtles swimming around in our cold mountain lakes here. We see lame cows, horses and the occasional boring deer. This was awesome to see sea turtles so unexpectedly and so close to us while we weren’t even looking for one!
Emmanuel’s place is the best place to stay on the North Shore of Oahu. It’s a nice ground level condo with all the amenities of home. Plus the lovely chocolate covered macadamia nuts that Emmanuel had left for us when we arrived after a long day of traveling this was a welcome surprise! Who doesn’t love chocolate covered nuts? This sugar driven fatapotamous sure does! I was won over so far seeing those waiting for my mouth to eat.
When we arrived, Emmanuel had all the fans going, the windows open and the TVs on playing soothing music. How’d he know my grouchy butt would need something like that to calm me down after driving in the Honolulu traffic before we got there. That traffic is a real blank show down there in the city. It was nice to get away from Honolulu, I’ll just say that. This place was such a relaxing place to arrive at and chill while we were there for 5 days.
The beach is just right in the back yard of the condo. So I didn’t have to walk far. I’d of been exhausted, especially after eating all the chocolates! My wife was pissed I only left her one. But hey, crap or get off the pot, right?
We enjoyed the beautiful sunrises on the beach each morning, at least when my wife could wake me up in time, right from the comfort of the backyard essentially. For those that don’t want to have salty ocean sea water shoved up your nose with waves, the pool is also right in the backyard of the condo as well as tables with shade and chairs in case you want to sit out by the beach and talk, enjoy a drink (I definitely had my fair share, I was always having a good time!) or play a game. The condo is on the end of the building so there are no neighbors (who wants neighbors? Ugh) on the one side and we were never disturbed by any other tenants. I’d of let them know, had they.
There were construction workers and some construction work that went on during weekdays from about 0700–1600. They don’t work on the weekends. During that time there was really no disturbance we noticed other than the occasional construction noise or one route to the beach being blocked off and so we had to make a short walk to the beach by going around the building and to the backyard. Don’t let this deter you from staying here though because this small inconvenience isn’t a big deal at all. And who is going to be in the condo during the day anyways when in Hawaii?! We were usually out to the beach first thing in the AM and during the day. Or we were out exploring the island and having fun. By the time we got back to the condo, the construction fellas had gotten all wrapped up and were gone.
A few other great things about Emmanuel’s place:
*Close to a lot of the North Shore sights. Great location!
*Beautiful views and great beach access! Many times we were the only ones on the beach for 100 yards in each direction.
*Kitchen stocked with all the amenities of home. You can go to the grocery store close by if you don’t plan on eating out for every meal (like we did) and you can cook meals here because the kitchen is so well stocked.
*Plenty of fans to blow the wonderful ocean breeze throughout the condo to keep it a comfortable temperature.
*TVs in the living room and bedroom. Cable TV and good wifi.
*Extra pillows and blankets if needed.
*A comfortable “feels like home” feel.
*Not terribly far from Honolulu and the south side of the island if you want to drive there to see the sights on that side of the island. About 45 minutes.
*Restaurants, food trucks, great beach’s for snorkeling, surfing, turtle watching and swimming all under a 30 minute drive.
*Check in and check out was super simple! Grab the key out of the lock box and make the short walk to the end of the building where the condo is and go right in. So easy.
*Emmanuel was always a text or phone call away. He wanted to make sure everything was in working order and that our stay was a good one and if there was anything he could help with, he wanted to.
*The condo is very clean and updated.
*Everything was in great working order.
*Beach chairs, flippers, snorkeling gear, boogie boards and other ocean beach toys and supplies also available right in the condo so you can just grab it and go and you don’t have to rent anything.
On our last night in Emmanuel’s place he called me and told me that he had no one that had booked the condo for the next day and he offered to let us have a late check out time. What a generous offer! We were so surprised and grateful for this.