Private Customizable Grand Circle Island Tour of Oahu

Eva, our driver/guide, did a wonderful job in allowing us to customize the tour including pickup time and stops along the way, giving us options on routes to travel, etc. She was very accommodating in her options and recommendations and very knowledgeable with her comments on history and current things. We'd highly recommend her to our friends and others. She knew when we got into heavy rush hour traffic how to take alternative routes that were scenic and avoid long waits in traffic. Great recommendation for several food trucks to choose for a lunch stop. An awesome day with many memorable sites and photo opportunities.

Hearing our driver discuss the history of the island was the best part of the day, and we saw parts of Oahu we would never have found on our own.

We were very excited about this tour – it was going to hit all the sites we had not been able to see yet. We were picked up 30 minutes after the assigned time which we later found out was because our driver was out surfing that morning. We were also picked up in a mini van vs. a Mercedes which was very clear in the detailed listing that we would have a Sprinter not a Toyota Siena Mini Van. The first two hours of the tour was spent driving around Waikiki getting history such as the first bar, bank, Chinatown, graffiti etc. we had zero interest in hearing/seeing any of this. We kept implying we want to make sure we get to do everything on our list and he did not move along. He then drove us to his house and stopped to show us around his neighborhood… when we saw some place we wanted to see/stop he just kept driving. Maybe he didn’t hear that I wanted to stop as he claimed he couldn’t hear me due to a hearing loss, but he heard my husband perfectly fine every time he spoke. The first thing we saw on the list was when he drove by Diamond Head 2 hours after the tour started. We asked to go to Dole Plantation and heard the story about how horrible Dole is for the Hawaiian’s and how they looted the palace and stole from the Hawaiian’s. While it was an interesting bit of history, he was clearly trying to get us to not go in. We did hit a few spots on the list and a few he thought we would like, and we did. We told him we wanted to eat and he told us that we need to wait. We were given about 20 minutes to walk around Halieva which wasn’t long enough to even eat. We did however have enough time to see where our driver's 'country home’ is located – he drove us by that too. Again, we had NO interest in this. We got out of the car to see the Dole Plantation, a tiny Coffee shop, some random bakery truck we didn’t ask for, Poli Lookout, Blowhole, Turtle Beach, and he pulled over at the Diamond Head Lookout on the side of the road to give his buddy an opportunity to sell us his photographs. Everything else was a drive by. We did not see Waimea Falls or Byodo-In Temple. We were told that we need to get back to Waikiki before traffic hits which is why we did not get to see Waimea Falls or Byodo-In Temple which were the two things we were most looking forward to. To add insult to injury the weather was bad and were told that the falls would likely be closed for the rest of our trip. Regardless, we couldn’t rent a car – they were all booked. I literally missed the only opportunity to see the Falls. I almost cried on the way back, which by the way, had little to no traffic. It is the worst money I have even spent. I was so disappointed that we wasted 7 hours and $700 on this tour and didn’t even get to see what we wanted to. So in short, DO NOT take this tour. We were very disappointed. Our guide took us on the tour he wanted, not the tour we wanted. I was heartbroken that I was unable to see the two things that were highest on our list, even though I thought I was very clear at what we wanted to do. We were gone for 7 hours, which did fit into the time schedule but if we didn’t spend 2 hours driving around Waikiki seeing things we were not interested in we could have easily done what we paid for! Time is precious during a vacation and if I could leave zero stars, I would. Our driver had no regard for our interest which customization is the whole reason we booked this tour.