Waikiki and the North Shore are two different islands. Visit both.

One hour of driving, two entirely different ideas of Hawaii.

Everyone has an opinion about Waikiki, and most of them are wrong. Yes, it's built up. Yes, there's a Cheesecake Factory. But at 6am, before the towels come out, Waikiki is one of the great city beaches of the world — longboarders on glassy rollers, Diamond Head going pink, old men swimming their morning laps. Rent a board from a beach boy stand and take the slowest, friendliest wave of your life. Eat a plate lunch. Watch the sunset torches get lit and refuse to be cynical about it.

Then drive north. The hour up the H-2 through pineapple fields is a decompression chamber, and what's on the other side barely qualifies as the same island. The North Shore is seven miles of the most famous surf on earth — Pipeline, Sunset, Waimea — and in winter you stand on the sand and feel the ground shake. In summer the same water goes flat and clear and you can snorkel at Shark's Cove all afternoon.

Get garlic shrimp from a truck in Kahuku (Giovanni's is the famous one; the queue moves). Get shave ice at Matsumoto's in Hale'iwa. Stop at Ted's Bakery for chocolate haupia pie and thank us later.

The move: stay in Waikiki for the ease, give the North Shore a full day minimum. If it's winter and the buoys are up, cancel your plans — you're going to watch Pipeline.

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