Punaluu on Oahu, Windy? Nice Place?
Hi, Lisa. I have found your site very helpful. My husband and I have some questions, and I hope you can offer some help.
We are planning a trip to Oahu the end of June, beginning of July for 7 days to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are trying to decide on which area of the island will suit us best for lodging. This is our first trip to Hawaii, so we are fairly clueless about the various areas of Oahu.
We plan for this trip to primarily be a laidback, romantic trip rather than a very active one, so we are thinking the North Shore area would suit our needs better. We are not shoppers, but we do plan to spend a day or 2 in the Honolulu/Waikiki area at Pearl Harbor, the zoo, the aquarium and Diamond Head. Other activities we are interested in are the Polynesian Cultural Center, Dole plantation, and hiking around some waterfalls. We are looking at a condo - Pat’s on Punalu’u - and are wondering if this would be a good location for us. We like that it is directly beachfront, so that we can spend some time on a quiet, peaceful beach, maybe do a little snorkeling, and also see the beach from the lanai/condo. We have read some reviews of this location that mention that this is a windy location. Is Punalu’u a terribly windy area, and is it noticeably more windy than other locations? Would you think that this location is a good place to base ourselves in consideration of the activities we are plannning and interests we have, or do you have a different suggestion? Also, if you have any input about Pat’s (or anything else) that would be welcome as well.
There may be some confusion here about the name Punaluu. There is a Punaluu Beach on the Big Island that is on a south shore and frequently can get very windy. I wonder if some of what you read was about this place. Pat’s at Punaluu is in a town called Punaluu on Oahu, which is on the North-East side of the island. This side of the island will get tradewinds and more weather than the west and some the south sides of Oahu, but I wouldn’t be worried about the wind. You might run into some weather, but most likely it will be sunny and beautiful and the tradewinds will just cool you down 
I can recommend Pat’s and I don’t think it’s too far from what you want to do. Just try to avoid going into the Honolulu area during morning commute and out of Honolulu during evening commute - try a late morning drive in and stay in Honolulu for dinner and you should be good.
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