South-East and North Shore Oahu Adventure Private Tour
Pros: create your own tour or let Shane give you his standard tour. Save time and see/do more with less planning. Hike, surf, snorkel, feed the fishes, sight-see, beach swim, food, fishing.
Cons: nothing I can think of, maybe price? But you can negotiate affordability based on your budget and activities.
Shane picked us up from Ilikai in Waikiki, where we were staying, with a comfortable and roomy van. He brought snorkels, three surf boards, bottled water for drinking, and home-baked yummy banana bread! Shane led our family of seven: ages 11, 17, 18 to 51, on a beautiful and engaging tour of the South-East to North Shore side of Oahu. We ate garlic shrimp and ahi poke, Matsumoto shaved ice, fresh coconuts, sampled macadamia raw cracked from the nut as well as different savoury and sweet preparations, had time to buy some souvenirs and snacks. We spent time on beautiful Wai Manalo beach snacking on banana bread baked by Shane's wife, while the kids built sand castles and swam. Went to a place with tide pools where our kids snorkeled while us adults fed the fishes. Then visited another beach in North Shore where the kids surfed while us adults chatted on the beach.
Since it's a custom tour, you can stay as long or as short on a stop that you like - to admire the views, take pictures, or to swim/play at a beach. I liked how we can stop almost anywhere (safe and legal) unhampered by crowded parking lots or restrictive tour buses. In some nice spots we went to, tour buses are not allowed to stop/unload passengers. Shane, being a local also has some parking perks and us tourists didn't need to worry about long walks from parking to get to the spot we wanted to go to. Shane dropped us off in front and went to find parking.
Shane talked about some of the old/ancient history of the places we passed by or visited, and also recounted more recent history as applicable that made the places we visited even more interesting. I think without the conversation about history or current events or cultural practices of the people of Hawaii - the places we visited would be just like any other picturesque photos that you see on blogs or magazines. We appreciated the visuals of what we experienced all the more because we were also intellectually engaged.
We would definitely go with Shane again, for more snorkeling, surfing, and fishing. And to see more of the other places we didn't go to, can't do everything in one day.