What About All the Other Luaus?

You’re excited about your upcoming trip to Hawaii, and you can’t stop talking about it to anyone who’ll listen. Everyone seems to have advice on what you simply must see and do while you’re in the islands, including that one guy who came here on his honeymoon twenty years ago and went to Luau X. “You have to to go to Luau X,” he insists. Over and over again. He sends you email reminders practically every day. At least once a week, he texts you to ask whether you’ve made your reservation for Luau X yet. But you’re no pushover. You had the good sense to come to the luau experts (us) to compare Luau X with the other options.

But wait. Luau X isn’t listed. What gives?

Diamond Head Luau offers the islands' only farm-to-table buffet — Food is one of the many categories we rate every luau on

Here’s the thing. We visit—and assess—all of the major luaus on Oahu, but only some of them are considered up to the high standards we set for inclusion on our site. This is not to say that you won’t have fun at Luau X; we just think you can do better at one of the others.

As our comparison chart shows, we rate every luau based on three main categories: Entertainment, Food and Beverages, and Miscellaneous.

These are then broken down into subcategories, like audience participation and imu demonstration under Entertainment; fish and adult drinks and poi under Food and Beverages; and beauty of setting and friendly staff under Miscellaneous. These are standard components of every luau, and if any of them falters a bit too much, it can really take away from the overall experience.

How Do You Decide?

When we work with a luau, it’s because we feel it rates high enough in each category—or does so well in some categories that it makes up for one or two that may be a bit lacking.

Fire knife dancer — Fire knife dancing is often the highlight of the evening’s entertainment, so we rate it for each luau

You may be wondering, “Why not just list all the luaus and let people decide on their own?” Well, then we wouldn’t really offer you any value other than simply being a place to book some random luau. Like the kids say, that’s not how we roll.

Our whole reason for doing this is to offer our experience and expertise to help our visitors choose from among the top-rated luaus. Your friend loved Luau X many years ago, but things change. New management sometimes let standards slip, or raise prices, or decide to save money by skimping on the food and drinks. We keep up with all of the luau offerings out there, so we have a much wider—and more up to date—basis for comparison.

There are lots of terrific luaus on Oahu, and no one is in a better position than we are to provide solid, fact-based recommendations. In the end, only you can decide where you want to spend your hard-earned cash, but we can say with complete confidence that if you select any of the luaus we offer, you’re going to have a blast.