Moving to Oahu
 

So I recently found out that work is moving me to Oahu late spring of next year. They're moving all my stuff, even shipping my FRS! I guess my question becomes then, what's it like, living in Hawaii? I know everything is more expensive than I'm used to, but what about everything else? (Tourists, traffic, weather, silly/different laws and or customs).

Also, since I've never been, does anyone have suggestions for good neighborhoods to live in? I'm looking at renting a small house, (<$1800/month) preferably with at least a 3 sided car port if not a full garage, within 20-30minutes of Hickam AFB.

I'm pretty excited to be going somewhere new, I've been getting tired of the desert.


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I'm moving there in January. I'll be in the Schofield Barracks area (a bit farther inland than you). Once I'm settled in, I'll offer up any tips/advice I think you'd benefit from. I'll be in government quarters (I'm military) so I can't say anything about what neighborhoods are good or not. I'll be bringing my FRS (at my own expense... $1900 shipping!) so looks like Oahu is getting two more!

Just from a car perspective, here are the average gas prices by state:

http://www.arizonagasprices.com/Prices_Nationally.aspx

Currently there is an $0.80/gal ($3.11 and $3.92) difference between AZ and HI. You can expect it to be above $4/gal normally, and thats just for regular.

Congrats on the relocation, despite the prices, you are going to love it!

Where are you guys moving from? First thing, don't expect to get anything very big for $1,800 a month haha. In that area you might be better off with a condo. Try looking in the Salt Lake, Moanaloa area. You can also go towards Aiea or Pearl City.

Traffic is pretty horrible here during rush hours. You can check out the traffic cams here:

http://www1.honolulu.gov/cameras/traffic.htm

I'm coming from the People's Republic of Illinois. I can't get away from this COLD (and this state) fast enough! I've been stationed here for five years and am looking forward to a change of scenery. Corn fields just don't do anything for me... LOL

I'm coming from Southern Arizona.


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Ditto. Salt Lake would be ideal but you won't be getting anything huge, more than likely it'll be a condo in that area. Other neighborhoods would be just like Hayashi said above that'll be really quick to work.

PROS:
Food is diverse (some mainlanders complain there's no great authentic Mexican/Italian restaurants if you're used to that kind of cuisine), people/culture is diverse, all kinds of activities to do especially water sports, the weather for the most part is great all year round, different neighbor islands to visit, etc.

CONS:
Traffic sucks, gas is expensive (it's been dipping under the $4 mark for Regular, though :thumbup: ), roads are crapped up, no formal race track but there is auto x held on occasion at the stadium, everything is usually a little more expensive (including shipping stuff from the mainland), don't know how old you are or if you're into the bar/club scene, but it's obviously not as big and easy to go to different hot spots like the mainland where you can just make a long road trip somewhere.

There will be tons of things you'll learn about Hawaii in due time, such as Hawaiian words/names since many of the street/housing names are in Hawaiian but just take it all in and enjoy it. Overall, it's a great place to live. :thumbup:

I was looking towards the Mililani area, little further away from the base but didn't look too far to be inconvenient.


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What time are you gonna be starting work? Best thing to do is figure out the times you will be going to work and home and watch those traffic cams. The H1 / H2 merge is crazy ridiculous on traffic.

Welcome to the land of no free shipping on anything including car parts!

I won't really know until I get there, honestly. I know I'll be working 12s, so I'm sure I'll catch shitty traffic on one end of my shift. I'm not above shitty traffic, as long as I know ahead of time and leave earlier, I'm not allergic to traffic. More important to me is being away from an urban center if possible (not downtown) and in a relatively quiet neighborhood.

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there is a good mexican joint here just got to know where to look ;) hawaii isn't that bad only cons I can say is the traffic is horrible and the roads sucks oh and some locals may not like you but I've been living here for 3 years now and Ive never had a problem

Yup, traffic sux. Yup, lots of krappy roads, they're finally fixing some of it. Millilani is a pretty nice area, youll have to deal with traffic. There are some decent drives, not a whole lot of distance though, 140 miles and you can go all the way around the island.

Millilani has really bad roads...haha I hate driving through there and trying to avoid all the pot holes and patches. Its a nice area though.

Just to give you an idea of the traffic. I had to drive to Waipio yesterday at around 3:30 which is about 14 miles from where I work. I didn't get there till 5. Granted I think there was an accident earlier and it freed up once I hit H2. On the way back they were doing traffic so it took me another hour or so to get back into town.