Vacations Blog

I love books.  I love guidebooks, too.  Nothing is more comforting when traveling than whipping out a guidebook and flipping through it to find what you’re looking for.  But on the way to my first visit to Oahu, I realized I hadn’t made time to get one.  I looked over the shoulder of the guy sitting next to me on the plane, considering asking him if I could look at his.  Turns out it didn’t matter.  I had my computer, my iPhone, and Twitter.

I spent my first day on the island without internet access on my computer, because I didn’t see the ethernet cable that my hotel provided for access in my room, and I never felt like schlepping my laptop down to the business center just to look up directions.   Luckily I was able to use my iPhone to find anything on Google, then the built-in Map application to make sure I was driving the right way to get to a restaurant or other destination.

And speaking of restaurants, the ones I visited were carefully selected from the internet.  Not on Yelp or Google, but on email and yes, Twitter.  I emailed friends who told me what restaurants they had visited on Oahu and which they recommended.  In real time, when I was on my way to the North Shore, I asked Twitter where they thought I should eat.  When the overwhelming favorite turned out to be closed, I went for the second choice.  I was on the road, so I followed a link somebody tweeted, put the address into Map, and followed the little blue dot.  I even used the phone to make phone calls to make sure the places were open.

(In turn, I Twitpic-ed and Whrrled my way around Oahu.  It was the least I could do to let people know what I picked!)

Self-portrait taken with iPhone camera on the beach at Haleiwa

As useful as my phone was, it was nice to have a full keyboard and a bigger screen and quicker load time when surfing sites for Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head to get detailed information before I headed out to those locations.

In a pinch, asking for directions and talking to people?  Those work, too.