(With a six month old)
Final Remarks
Overall, Okinawa was a relatively stress free and enjoyable experience to take our son on for his first trip abroad (and my first time visit too). Local food was perhaps a bit lacking to our taste, but maybe we haven't quite found the right spots yet either. Also, there was a great portion of Northern Okinawa we didn't venture to, but hopefully in a future trip we can see, as we hear it's very beautiful. Personally, I would have also like to have gone free diving with Blue Whales due to end January being the beginning of that season. Diving, Freediving, and water related activities alone warrant the return visit. Anyhow, without further ado... please read further below for some of our key notes out of this trip!
Okinawa with kids
Generally we found Okinawa to be highly kid friendly. Most establishments could provide baby seat, place to store stroller, as well as accommodate baby needs such as hot water for formula, and, more importantly, we often found ourselves with a lot of space to sit.
Okinawa Arrival, mom w/Bond
Bond having a ball crawling around at Kouri Shrimp
Okinawa Family Hotels
Naha central, located in and around the airport tended to have harder picks for stay. Our final night was in a rather cramped space, whereas further out we found affordable condo hotels with kitchen and an ample, safe space to let Bond crawl about in.
Bond crawling on a tatami mat in the hotel room wondering why we don't have one at home
Bond got to enjoy a full sized bath tub swim for the first time ;o
Navigation
Okinawa uses their own local GPS system to navigate from A to B. At times, it can be a little confusing to follow. Driving from location to location turned out a pretty good pace as well due to the driving time offering enough nap time for Bond and not have his sleep schedule disturbed too much.
Bond ready to roll out!
Highlights
- Okinawa Aquarium is held in high esteem, and for good reason, being one of the largest and advanced aquariums in the world. Seeing a whale shark up close was pretty awesome. Highly recommended.
- Cape Manzamo was a greatly enjoyable view and stroll, and the walkway was built out more than well enough to accommodate for our baby stroller. Off to the side of this area is a path to walk down to a cave where you can go snorkeling or scuba diving, but due to the tide I wasn't able to venture in.. maybe in a future visit.
- If you're a fan of pottery, Yomitan Pottery Village is your spot. It's a nice area to walk through and pick out a few pieces for yourself to take home. There's an old retired kiln next to the parking area that makes for some good photography op.
Lessons Learned
- As part of our prep kit we even brought Bond's own fold out chair for meals.. the entire trip we only used it but once, so it ended up being dead weight.
- Due to time constraint, I wasn't able to lock in a go at free diving with blue whales this time. The effort burns essentially an entire day and you don't get a guarantee of sighting any. Since the season had just started, with chances lower and lack of time, I'm saving this for the bucket list next time, keeping in mind to time more ideally Feb-Mar.
Perhaps spent too much time trying to find a really good fantastic Taco Rice... maybe it doesn't exist?
Saveable Okinawa Itinerary
Interested in copying or visiting some of the same spots? Save and port over our Okinawa Google Map below to plan your own trip!