Shopping in Honolulu

Whether you’re in the market for flowery Aloha shirts, heirloom jewellery, or handmade quilts, shopping in Honolulu offers a wealth of opportunities.

Key areas

Several shops specialise in quality made-in-Hawaii wares, including artwork, handcrafted wooden bowls, candy, teas and coffees, and soaps imbued with plumeria, ginger, coconut, and other tropical scents. Look for the Little Hawaiian Craft Shop at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, 2201 Kalakaua Avenue, and Native Books Na Mea Hawaii at Ward Village, 1240 Ala Moana Boulevard.

Nohea Gallery at 2424 Kalakaua Avenue is good for handicrafts, while the Hawaiian Quilt Collection and Martin & MacArthur at the Ala Moana Center, 1450 Ala Moana Boulevard, are worth perusing too.

Markets

Buy vintage-style aloha shirts and other souvenirs at the hip Honolulu Night Market, 449 Cooke Street, or head for the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, 99-500 Salt Lake Boulevard, a lively local bazaar where you can find such cultural collectables as tight-woven lauhala hats made from pandanus tree fibres and ukuleles made from endemic koa wood.

Shopping centres

The Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, 2201 Kalakaua Avenue, the Ala Moana Center, 1450 Ala Moana Boulevard, and the Ward Centre, 1200 Ala Moana Boulevard are the major shopping complexes in Honolulu. Designer and local fashions, jewellery, bath and beauty products, shoes, furniture, toys, swimwear, souvenirs, computer equipment, music, books, great restaurants – these shopping centres offer wonderful distractions for every age and every budget.

Opening hours

Shops usually are open Monday to Saturday 1000-2100. Most close a few hours earlier on Sunday. Some stores open 24 hours a day.

Souvenirs

Hawaii is famed for its heirloom jewellery, and few places produce these gorgeous gold and silver creations as well as the Philip Rickard Jewelry Factory and Museum at 2330 Kalakaua Avenue. Aloha wear has been hip ever since Hawaii Five-O hit TV screens in 1968 and the world's largest manufacturer of Hawaiian and tropical aloha attire, Hilo Hattie, at 1450 Ala Moana Boulevard, has plenty of bright-patterned, short-sleeved aloha shirts, and muumuu dresses in stock.