9 Reasons I Hate Waikiki Honolulu, Oahu Dangers and Warnings

I have been to the Waikiki area in Honolulu 6 times over the last 15 years and I still fucking hate this place. During the day, there are homeless people all over the place with obvious mental health issues. And during the evening and night, the drug dealers, gangsters, pimps and hookers come out to play. Waikiki Honolulu dangers and warnings. Waikiki, Oahu dangers and warnings.

Over the years, Honolulu has gone through some major changes. Many of the old building and markets have been removed and replaced with super luxury stores, hotels and shopping mall. Waikiki is considered a premium location, with real estate pricing tripling in the last few years.

The area is absolutely beautiful and the tourism board knows it. Waikiki has been attracting wealthy Japanese, Chinese and American tourist more than it ever has. It is literally a multi billion dollar per year area in a span of 7 blocks.

Oahu Dangers and Warnings, Why I hate Waikiki

So why the hell is the government and police here allowing the amount of crime that they do?

I love to walk around and explore new areas with my family, we always make sure we are staying in the safest areas. Waikiki is not safe at all….it makes no sense. There are homeless people everywhere during the day, I have walked by many of them that just start yelling for no reason or will talk to themselves loudly. There are other homeless people that just sleep on the side of the road in front of the Luis Vuitton store or the Fendi store, it is really fucked up.
On beautiful Waikiki beach, they have built a multi million dollar boardwalk that the homeless people get high in and smoke all day around the tourist families and couples on they honeymoons.

In the evening is when the real action starts, packs of tattooed men group together on the side of every block trying to sell tourist drugs and prostitutes (escorts). Waikiki is disgusting.
Last night I went out with my wife and kids and I was being stared down by packs of drug dealers. It fucking pissed me off so bad, that it was so blatant. We watched a fistfight of two high gang members right on the main strip in front of the luxury mall. Meanwhile families and couples and walking by all dressed up and ready to blow their money on the Waikiki strip.

Is Waikiki dangerous for kids?

I felt so uncomfortable with it that I took my kids straight back to the hotel because I didn’t want them to see this shit. I am not a prude and I know that this stuff happens everywhere, but it can be more controlled by the police so that it is not so obvious. If you are spending the kind of money it costs to stay in Honolulu, you should feel safe.

That is why I am writing this long form article, it is specifically so that someone will read this and possibly make some changes. It has been the same for so many years, even after they spent huge money adding the super luxury malls in the area and revitalized the area.

is waikiki dangerous for kids?

9 Reasons I Hate Waikiki Honolulu, Oahu Drug Dealers, Pimps and Homeless

Is Waikiki, Oahu Dangerous? Waikiki Oahu Dangers and Warnings

1. Drug dealer central Waikiki

Ok this one is one of the most frustrating issues of them all, there are drug dealers blatantly selling at the side of every block in the evening. During the day these losers are not out and about, but as soon as the lights go down around 7pm these assholes come out to play.

There are literally groups of men on every corner loitering around and staring you down. Usually in group of five or six. One person running the drugs to different locations, a main dealer and a few other “sales people.”

if you pay attention, you will notice that every now and then a nice car will drive by and re-up their sales people. That would be the boss. If I can see this in a short 2 week stint, then why can’t the police see them? It is really frustrating from a tourist perspective, going to Hawaii to spend money and live the Hawaii fantasy.

2. Pimps of Oahu

Where there are escorts, you will surely find their greasy dirtbag pimps. Oahu and Waikiki specifically have a ton of them. The crazy part is just like the drug dealers, they don’t give a fuck. They cruise around in their fancy cars and bark orders at the poor women they are pimping. I was walking with my wife and one of them was creating at her. Why the hell would I ever want to come back here or give them a good review, if I cannot feel safe in Waikiki?

Diamond head crater Waikiki

3. Escorts and Prostitutes in Honolulu

The prostitutes walk around mostly in the evening, they attract the wrong kind of tourist that I would want around my family. In the evening, fucked up men creep around looking for the best hooker or escort for the night. Waikiki is disgusting, if I see it so do the cops.

I went out a few times in the evenings to go for a walk and have been propositioned by prostitutes multiple times. I politely say no and they look at me like I rejected them lol. I think their pimps are very aggressive here, because the women really push hard to get a trick.

4. Gang members

The gang members are all associated with the drug dealers and pimping. The reason I say that there are a lot of gang members in the area is because the groups on every block do not get along with each other.

My wife and I witnessed some of them in full on fist fights right on the main Kuhio strip. This is really scary because they are probably carying guns and if the fight escalated into gun fire. There would be thousands of tourist in harms way. I just don’t get why you allow this Oahu Police??

One asshole was starring at me and my wife as we walked by. I am a bit of an ass, so I stared right back at the prick. He openly said “what the fuck are you looking at” to me. I just kept walking and shut my mouth lol. Oh if I was home….. That guy was wearing a red bandana over his face. Can you say gang member?? Fucking idiot.

5. Too many people

This is expected for an area that is this touristy, however a lot of the people here are locals trying to make a buck by doing something illegal. If this type of shit was cut down, there would be a lot less. Like if the police here in Waikiki would get off their asses and scare these pricks it would cut down a lot of bad shit.

You will be surrounded by people in the evening, expect it. If you want to experience Hawaii in a quiet place, then you should be going to Kauai or Maui. Waikiki is for people that like busy.

Traffic in Waikiki

6. Honolulu is expensive

You can expect everything in Waikiki to be double the price you pay back home. A bag of chips cost $6 bucks US in the area. The average hotel is $250/night and a glass of champagne is $12 USD. If you are on a budget, stay the hell away from Honolulu, it is not for you especially Waikiki.

7. Traffic

This is the only area in Hawaii that you will see a lot of traffic, both people and vehicles. The drivers can be aggressive and many will not yield to pedestrians. Be careful and crossed in marked areas only. Some locals do not like the tourist nor do they respect them.

8. It is loud

At night the clubs pump up the volume, although this is not a big party area, everything echoes between the buildings. Who wants to hear the shit when they are on vacation? When I think of Waikiki, I think about hearing waves and birds… that’s it.

9. Major homeless issue

There has always been a homeless issue in Honolulu, what a great place to be homeless I guess. The problem I see is that these people are not getting displaced, and many of them are living with major mental health issues. This scares the crap out of me because in my hometown in Canada a guy with mental health issues recently killed a young man for no reason and started eating his face.

Waikiki Canal fishing

10. Over aggressive and force full street performers

I met a group of breakdancers at Waikiki beach called the Up group. They were a group of 25 year old break dancers with major attitude problems. They were very good, but they were very rude to the point they told one guy he should give them $100 dollars because he was going to die soon.

Heres how it all went down. I arrived to Kalakaua ave and watched 2 minutes of their performance with my wife and kids. It looked awesome! They asked for some volunteers for the grand finale and I was asked to be the token dark guy. I went up and stood in from of the crowd. The ringleader of the Up group chose a token Japanese person, An old person, a cougar and a child. We all stood up in front of the crowd.

The Up dance group ringleader started on a long rant about how we all spend all this money paying for the hotels and that everyone in the crowd must give him at least $20 dollars or they should just keep walking.

Many people were really upset about this, they told the guy beside me to give them $100 and demanded the little girls parents cough up $40 dollars. Everyone walked away very angry. I got into it with them and called them losers. I also took some pictures of them so that the people reading this will never support them.

These situations are making the visitors uncomfortable, and because of this Oahu will loose money. I will never go back when they allow these uncontrolled assholes to run the show and piss off the tourists.

Shitty Street performer in Waikiki

11. A lot of dark scary corners

Waikiki is full of dimly lit areas that are perfect to get attacked or raped in. There are bumps lying all over the place doing drugs and they will approach you. My wife was scared to be out at night, and I would never take my kids to this area in the state it is in right now.

The government here needs to step in and take care of this, especially for the people with mental health issues. They need help.

I am surprised the hotels in the area are not down the government and police throat…They are chasing people away, and many will not return because of these issues. Maybe they will during the next recession, when people can’t afford to come here.

Waikiki police need to do their jobs!
The tourism authority of Hawaii needs to lobby for action.

You can read more about Oahu and the rest of Hawaii in the articles below. The information here is obviously my opinion from actually being in the area for a period of time. We have been here 6 times and have spent multiple months combined in a timeshare we own as well as several hotel in the area. I know I put some harsh things in this article, but you really should know this stuff before you get here. I don’t like to sugar coat a city for the sake of being nice, we know that you are spending big bucks to get here and transparency is the key to a better vacation

If you have any more insight or questions about Honolulu, Oahu, please shoot us an email or comment. We want our Hawaii Travel blogs to be the most comprehensive source of information about Hawaii on the internet.