Holoholo Bicycles

When I first heard about taking a bike tour I was only half interested. «There are so many cool things to do in Hawaii! Why would I want to take a bike tour?!» There was a very friendly couple from Colorado that I met that were really into it and they changed my mind.
I owe that couple so much. This bike tour might have been the best thing I did in Hawaii. It was so interesting. So many things to learn: Local artist’s works. Knowledge about the history of Hawaii. Knowledge of what is happening now in Hawaii. Knowledge of what will happen. Fantastic views and interesting perspectives on the Hawaiian culture.
Loved my tour guide. He took some GREAT pictures. I love Holo holo bicycles. Check them out on instagram to get a peak at how much fun people have.

I’ll admit, at first I was skeptical about doing this at first, but looking back… I’m glad I took that opportunity! Before this, the last time I rode a bike, must be back in elementary school, so it has been a while.
Their location is right next to Manifest, and if you didn’t know the owner (s) own them both! The location is still new, yet they’ve already had 40+ tours.
At first, we were supposed to be with another pair, but they didn’t show up.
We had to sign waiver forms, got measurements (adjusting the bike to each individual) before we got on our bikes, and helmets! Can’t ride a bike without one. (
) These bikes were from the bike factory, and its hand breaks, no back peddling. Which took me a while to get used to.
Already having the impression of being on the streets with buses and cars. I didn’t enjoy that thought but it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. Brandon explained the different signals he was going to use with us and the gears on the bike. That took me a while to understand, but I got it.
After taking a photo in front of the shop, we started our journey. From the sidewalk to the streets, alarms are going off in my head. Thankfully it wasn’t so bad. Drivers weren’t too bad to deal with and we hit our first stop. His stops are also opportunities for photo ops, along with stories and information.
We didn’t really go on any of the tour divisions provided on their website, but we did stop at: Aloha Tower, Kakaako Waterfront, art district (
courtesy of Brandon), Honolulu Hale, and around the State Capital area. Riding the bikes through these areas, gave a different perspective.
If you forget water, he get one small cooler, cold. And each bike does have a basket, so if you’d like, you can take your items along, or leave it at their shop where it will be locked up.
I’ll be glad to say, no accidents happened. We were on a time crunch and made it back in time. (One hour)
There is a parking lot at the back of the block.
You think you’d be scared since there’s cars and buses sharing the same road, but the only time that a vehicle got really close. A cop car. CROSSING over the yellow line as we headed back to the stop.
Attire for this excursion… well I wore a shirt, shorts and shoes. I think it was a bad idea to wear black with the sun out. I got a shorts tan, so if you want to tan or not, pick your coverage. I highly recommend shoes, never know if something might happen on the road and someone loses a slipper.
And of course thank you Brandon for taking us on tour! It was also nice to meet your wife and fur babies. So cute!

We took Brandon’s tour the first week of September and it was a great experience! My favorite part was when he took us to an area of the shoreline and recounted how he went there for a fifth grade field trip… very much a local, and great information. The bikes were comfortable and easy to ride, and the route was fairly level — he had us walk our bikes up a small hill. And bonus — there is a bar that shares the bike rental space so you can grab an Aloha Beer after the ride.

My family and I took a 90 min bike tour, led by Brandon. The Holoholo location is right in Chinatown, so it’s really convenient as a starting and finishing point – close to a lot of local, historic places.
The bikes were nice, and Brandon fit them to each of us, so we were all comfortable. Each bike had a basket, which was convenient to put our stuff in. Brandon gave us a short introduction to the bikes and the hand signals he would use while we were on the tour before we headed off. He also had helmets for each of us to wear.
We saw the Aloha Tower, Kaka’ako Waterfront Park, Kaka’ako development areas, municipal buildings, the first mission settlement on Oahu, the State Capitol, and the Palace on the tour, which ended up being around 6 miles. We would stop often along the way and Brandon would tell us the history of the area, the history of Hawaii, and other interesting facts about the sites (my parents are big Hawaii Five-​O fans, so he threw in some extra stuff about that). At almost every stop, Brandon offered to take a picture of my family on our camera, so we walked away with a lot of nice pictures, too.
Brandon is very knowledgeable, having grown up in Honolulu, and has deep ties to the community, so he was able to provide interesting and little-​known knowledge about what we were seeing.
I live in Honolulu and he was able to point out little-​known good places to eat and local weekly or months events that I didn’t previously know about. My parents and sister were visiting, and he had plenty of information that they found interesting/​useful, as well. My parents aren’t spring chickens (they are in their 50s), but the tour wasn’t too challenging for them.
I almost forgot – Brandon also had a little cooler with bottles of cold water for us, since it can get pretty hot riding around in the middle of a sunny day. A nice touch.
Overall, we all really enjoyed the tour, learned about Hawaii and Honolulu history, and saw some cool sights around town. A really good morning!