Why not… we pulled the swap meet for this week’s destination!
Located at Hawaii’s largest sports venue, the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet is a place where families can gather to share their cultural diversity with pride and a feeling of Aloha. Since 1979, the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet has become Hawaii’s premier outdoor market, featuring over 400 vendors, crafters, artists from all over the world, a true melting pot of Aloha.
Just 20 minutes away from Waikiki, or 25 minutes from the Westside, discover unique treasures at Hawaii’s largest open-air market where the locals’ shop for the best deals in town. The hours of operation are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 8-3pm.
This is the place to find discounts on a wide selection of high-quality products from clothing, accessories, Hawaiian souvenirs, pre-packaged ethnic foods, fine jewelry and vintage antiques. Beautifully handcrafts products and exclusive art pieces are made and sold by the artist themselves, which truly make great gifts for yourself or that special someone.
This year the stadium will be demolished, and it is uncertain what will happen to the swap meet. We learned through some of the vendors that they will be able to continue operations on the outside while the demolition takes place.
We arrived a little later than planned but found our princess parking right away! (Unheard of for this place later in the morning.) We set out and picked the row we were in and away we shopped. We did good in the beginning, but as all shopping experiences go, we started buying for ourselves! After about the 5th purchase for us, we had to make a pact to continue to get our Christmas gifts.
After about the 3rd or 4th section, we started seeing the same things repeatedly. That’s the beauty of this shopping experience…things repeat, and you really don’t have to walk the entire circumference of the stadium to see it all. Thank God for that because it was getting hot, and we were getting hungry. We bagged the swap and headed to our favorite not-too-good for you food establishment (Taco Bell). We drowned our sorrow of not completing the Christmas mission over some delicious tacos and headed home. It was a short trip, but we ended up with some unique gifts as well as some stunning new jewelry! Next time we go, we will go earlier in the day. We’ll be back, that’s a given if you live on Oahu!
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