Our trip to the Dolphin House in Laie was absolutely magical! My husband and I were traveling with my teenage son, his two best friends and my sister-in-law. We changed our plans relatively last-minute and I was having a really hard time finding a three bedroom AirBNB on such short notice. When the house in Laie popped up I thought it was too good to be true. It wasn't! Our stay was truly a slice of paradise.
For the record, the house is funny and a little funky (thank you 1970s architecture!) but it's clean and airy and bright. It's situated right on Kamehameha Highway and the road noise in the master bedroom on the second floor can be startling (bring ear plugs--it helps!). The flip side is that you walk through the house, onto the deck, cross a patch of grass and you are on a pristine, quiet beach (no road noise here--just waves and a lovely breeze). You can see the neighbors on either side, but everyone is respectful and intent on enjoying the beach, too. The house is right on a cove by Laie Point and it's a bit rocky, but you can walk north to Hukilau Beach Park and get pure sandy beach with some good boogie boarding. There's also a state park just past Hukilau that was a really nice walk from the house.
There's a Foodland grocery store across the street from the house and we enjoyed the Seven Brothers burgers in the same shopping area a couple of times during our stay. On advice from friends, we stopped at Costco near the airport and stocked up for our stay. Laie closes up tight on Sundays and is a dry town, so if you want a bottle of wine, you need to drive down the road a bit to find adult beverages. Not a big deal, though.
Laie is not a tourist destination in any way, shape or form, which was a plus for us, but there are all kinds of fun things to do within a 30 minute drive. The ClimbWorks zipline is amazing (a bit pricey, but an extraordinary experience for us all). The kids got a kick out of North Shore Surf Lessons at Chuns Reef and snorkeling in Shark's Cove. The Waimea Botanical Gardens were lovely, but crowded. We all liked Haleiwah and had an expensive (and very mediocre) dinner at Hailewah Beach House, but the sunset was totally worth it. Byodo-In temple was really interesting and the bahn mi at the Pig and the Lady was worth the trip to Honolulu! There are food trucks everywhere with all kinds of choices, but don't miss Kula Shave Ice at the Kulima Farm Stand. They make all their own syrups from local produce and it was amazing.
Janette, our host, was great! Really communicative and helpful, which made our stay even better. I'm so glad we found this place. It was a glorious gift that our family will remember for a long time to come. Mahalo!