What should I avoid in Honolulu?

The restaurants lining Kalakaua Avenue with photo menus propped on the sidewalk charge $28 for garlic shrimp you can get for $14 at Giovanni's truck in Kahuku on the North Shore. The piped ukulele music from the doorway is the tell. If someone is standing outside waving you in, keep walking. The International Market Place looks good after its 2016 renovation, but the ground-floor restaurants price like Beverly Hills. A poke bowl at Foodland on Beretania Street costs $12. The same portion at a Market Place counter runs $22. Worth noting, Hau Tree Lanai at the Kaimana Beach Hotel sits under a century-old hau tree where warm salt air drifts across your table at breakfast. The eggs Benedict with local crab runs about $24. That's Waikiki dining done right. Most of Kalakaua Avenue is not.

Diamond Head State Monument draws around 3,000 hikers a day. The trail is 0.8 miles through a concrete tunnel and up 99 steps inside a WWII-era bunker. By 9am the heat radiating off the volcanic rock is thick, there's no shade, and the summit platform feels like a crowded elevator. Go before 7am when reservations open, or skip it for the Makapuʻu Point Lighthouse Trail, which is 2 miles round-trip, paved, and has wider ocean views with a tenth of the crowd. The Polynesian Cultural Center in Laʻie runs $70 to $200 per person and involves a 45-minute drive each way from Waikīkī. The daytime village tours are educational, but the evening luau portion serves assembly-line food to 800 people in a single seating. If you want a luau, Paradise Cove at Ko Olina ($110) puts you on a beach at sunset with a smaller crowd and a real imu-roasted pig pulled from the ground in front of you. The smell of ti leaves and smoke from the pit is worth the drive to the west side alone.

The timeshare pitch is Honolulu's most persistent hustle. You'll be approached at the airport baggage claim, in hotel lobbies, and along Kalakaua Avenue by friendly people who offer free luau tickets, helicopter rides, or breakfast buffets. The catch is always a 90-minute presentation that stretches to 3 hours, with aggressive sales tactics for a $30,000-plus timeshare contract. Decline and keep walking. Waikīkī parking is another quiet drain. Hotel self-parking runs $35 to $50 per night, and meters on side streets cap at 2 hours. If you're staying more than 3 days and want a car, rent from the airport and park at the Ala Moana Center garage for free with validation from any store purchase. The ABC Stores on every Waikīkī block sell macadamia nuts and Kona coffee at 30 to 40 percent above Longs Drugs or Costco in Iwilei.

The ocean is the biggest real danger, and most first-time visitors underestimate it. South shore beaches get box jellyfish arrivals roughly 8 to 10 days after each full moon. Lifeguards post purple flags when they appear, but not every beach has lifeguards. The stings feel like hot wire pressed against skin and send several visitors to the ER each month. Check the Hawaiʻi Lifeguard Association jellyfish calendar before picking your beach day. North Shore winter swells from November through February generate 15 to 30 foot waves at Pipeline and Sunset Beach. These are spectator spots in winter, not swimming beaches. Waikīkī's reef breaks are gentler, but the shallow coral scrapes you raw if you fall off the board. Reef shoes ($15 at any ABC Store) are not optional. Sunburn at 21°N latitude happens in 15 minutes without reef-safe sunscreen, even under clouds. The UV index in Honolulu reaches 11 to 12 from May through September.