Anyone have any ideas on how to do Hawaii on a strict budget?

[ThreeMusketeers]

Looking to go for our anniversary this year. Anyone have any tips or know of any good websites to get discounted hotel rates? Or airline tickets.
thanks.

 

[Kitty-chan]

Can you say more about where you want to go in Hawaii, and what time of year? The options can really vary. I've spent a lot of time on Maui and might be able to provide a couple tips; I'll bet plenty of people here have experience with one island or another.

As for specific websites for finding airfare, hotel rooms, etc, lately my personal favorite in a general sense has been sidestep.com. I don't know of sites specifically focused on Hawaii discount travel. And frankly, airfare to Hawaii is almost never truly cheap.

 

[klmall]

We enjoyed two weeks on Oahu in 2004 and spent very much less than the average tourist staying in a lovely apartment near Lanikai Beach (1/2 hour from Honolulu) and researched cost saving tips thoroughly.

Give us the island(s) you are interested in, time period, number of people, whether you are using frequent flyer miles etc. and I'm sure some of us can lead you to more sites and tips from the net. For example, the agent who helped us rent the apartment led us to a great rental car deal (common in Hawaii).

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

Thanks for the replys...

There would be 3 of us, 2 adults and one child. We are pretty flexiable to what time of the year we go, and the islands we also are REALLY flexiable with the island we see. As I really don't know much about the difference of each island. We have no frequent flyer miles. Pretty vauge I know. But if anyone can help steer me in the right direction I would be greatful.

We have been looking at the Island of Oahu, North Shore. And Kaui. In the Winter Months. But isn't that Hawaii's High season?

 

[caseywirth]

Try Hawaii.com

 

[NCRedding]

We did a cruise around Hawaii June of 2005. It is beautiful. I would recommend looking into renting a timeshare or condo--much less expensive than doing a hotel room, and you would be able to eat a few meals in which would ave money.

Kauai is beautiful, and seems to be more laid-back than parts of Oahu. I would check out vrbo.com, or something like that to look for condos or homes for rent.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We found a nice condo at an outrigger resort for half price.

I do believe for 8 nights it is $1600.

The Hale Koa--in a travel guide I purchased--you do not need to be military (and thus staying there) to eat at their restuarants...a lot cheaper than the same meal elsewhere.

Try to find things that are free.

We are traveling in October and we found: The Waikiki Artfest is located in Kapiolani Park directly across from the Honolulu Zoo at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. The event is scheduled from 9am to 4pm both Saturday and Sunday and admission is free. We feature the fine art and handcrafted products of more than 75 Hawaii artists, including all types of jewelry, clothing, stained glass, ceramics, wood products, soaps and candles. We have live entertainment and great food. All products are displayed for sale by the artist personally. Join us and celebrate the arts of Hawaii.

Check for any festivals around the time you are going and try to coordinate your trip with that.

Pearl Harbour is free, Diamond head is cheap. Rent a car for a day (book in advance for best rate--walk up prices are...PRICEY!!!) and drive around the island. Visit eternity beach by the blowhole (and see the sport where they filmed the famous scene in "From Here to Eternity"). My sister was married on this spot 2 Septs ago.

I found also a lovely Bungalow on the North shore--you can get killer rates for an ocean front bungalow. A little homey in the decor. It is probably not working out for us to stay there though I so badly want to. My hubby has his limits on how many times he'll switch hotels.

The Outrigger resort we are staying at is:

http://www.outrigger.com/hotels_detail.aspx?hotel=86

And the bungalows on the North shore are:
http://www.keikibeach.com/ You can e-mail them from the website. Give them some time to respond--not always right away. I had great interaction with them when I was booking. My aunt on the other hand wasn't so patient and after one unanswered e-mail, she didn't bother with it any more. But very nice people via e-mail. The Big Bounce was filmed at their hotel.

We anticipate on spending no more than $3500 inclusive of airfare for our family of 4 to stay for 2 weeks. We are helped by frequent flier miles, free rental car points and 6 nights free at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. So that skews it a bit.

In my personal pricing search on airfare--I ALWAYS do better dealing directly with the airlines. I have found that NWA has been the least expensive for 2 years in a row now as I have been researching airfare (for fall travel anyway) with Delta being a close 2nd. We are flying with Delta with our miles this time.

 

[vhoffman]

Try the Hawaii Entertainment Book for money saving coupons. Wait until just about a month before you go to order as the price goes down considerably. It starts at $35 and goes down to about $15 in June, $9.99 in October.

Get a membership in Costco, they have one on Maui and Kauai (not sure about the other islands). Great place for gas, food, souveniers, etc.

Do stay in a condo with cooking facilites rather than a hotel. Even if you just eat breakfast and some late-night snacks, the savings are considerable over eating in restaurants all the time.

Try Frommers budget guide to Hawaii.

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

We found a nice condo at an outrigger resort for half price.

I do believe for 8 nights it is $1600.

The Hale Koa--in a travel guide I purchased--you do not need to be military (and thus staying there) to eat at their restuarants...a lot cheaper than the same meal elsewhere.

Try to find things that are free.

We are traveling in October and we found: The Waikiki Artfest is located in Kapiolani Park directly across from the Honolulu Zoo at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. The event is scheduled from 9am to 4pm both Saturday and Sunday and admission is free. We feature the fine art and handcrafted products of more than 75 Hawaii artists, including all types of jewelry, clothing, stained glass, ceramics, wood products, soaps and candles. We have live entertainment and great food. All products are displayed for sale by the artist personally. Join us and celebrate the arts of Hawaii.

Check for any festivals around the time you are going and try to coordinate your trip with that.

Pearl Harbour is free, Diamond head is cheap. Rent a car for a day (book in advance for best rate--walk up prices are...PRICEY!!!) and drive around the island. Visit eternity beach by the blowhole (and see the sport where they filmed the famous scene in "From Here to Eternity"). My sister was married on this spot 2 Septs ago.

I found also a lovely Bungalow on the North shore--you can get killer rates for an ocean front bungalow. A little homey in the decor. It is probably not working out for us to stay there though I so badly want to. My hubby has his limits on how many times he'll switch hotels.

The Outrigger resort we are staying at is:

http://www.outrigger.com/hotels_detail.aspx?hotel=86

And the bungalows on the North shore are:
http://www.keikibeach.com/ You can e-mail them from the website. Give them some time to respond--not always right away. I had great interaction with them when I was booking. My aunt on the other hand wasn't so patient and after one unanswered e-mail, she didn't bother with it any more. But very nice people via e-mail. The Big Bounce was filmed at their hotel.

We anticipate on spending no more than $3500 inclusive of airfare for our family of 4 to stay for 2 weeks. We are helped by frequent flier miles, free rental car points and 6 nights free at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. So that skews it a bit.

In my personal pricing search on airfare--I ALWAYS do better dealing directly with the airlines. I have found that NWA has been the least expensive for 2 years in a row now as I have been researching airfare (for fall travel anyway) with Delta being a close 2nd. We are flying with Delta with our miles this time.

Thanks for ALL your advice! I so appreciate it. Those bungalows look amazing! And what great prices. You sound like an expert on the matter, if you had to choose one island..which would it be? Whatever we choose, we really just want to go and sit on the beach and take it in for a couple weeks. Maybe rent a car for a day or 2 to sight see. Thats about it.

 

[Skatermom23]

America West has some decent deals on airfare to Hawaii. I just booked with them for July and they were the cheapest from the east coast.

 

[vhoffman]

You really need to rent a car for the whole time you're there, not just a day or two. Otherwise you're at the mercy of whatever high-priced eatery in your hotel, condo, etc. You need a car to get your groceries, etc. Cooking and eating in a condo can cut your trip expenses in half! Usually I've found renting a car by the week works out better than just a few days price-wise. We usually have enough American Express Membership Rewards miles to get either a free rent car or a substantial reduction in the price.

 

[nbodyhome]

I had friends who used Priceline, and got a great rate at one hotel (I can't remember the name of it, but it's a popular one). Then they upgraded their parents room to a suite for not much more for their anniversary.

Check tripadvisor for information on hotels (including average prices and rank in order of good reviews), and you can price them off many sites from there as well.

Denise

 

[cinamin27]

I've only used skyaction.com for Orlando but they also have auctions for Hawaii & quite a few seem to include airfare. skyauction has RCI weekly timeshare condos & bid per night hotels.

 

[Kitty-chan]

If you end up staying on Maui, you might want to check out Island Car Rentals. They're a local company, off-airport, and have better rates than most of the majors.

 

[Lives4Disney]

We went to Oahu last March. I don't have any money saving ideas as the trip cost us mega bucks and we knew it would, but I just wanted to make a few comments on things I wish I would have known.

I really was disappointed in the CROWDS/traffic in Oahu. Mega spring break crowds. Since when do kids go to Hawaii for spring break??? Things have changed since I was in college!! Towel to towel on Waikiki Beach. If I do go to Hawaii again, no Oahu and definitely during an off season (October probably)

Also, the north shore of Oahu is much more gray and rainy than the area near Waikiki. Everytime we drove up there to do the Polynesian Cultural Center it rained on us - not a brief rain, a BIG long rain. The ocean is very rough on the north shore. It isn't a beachy area where you can lay out and relax & have your kids play in the surf. It is rocky and windy and rough. Lots of cool surfer action to watch, and awesome sea turtles to see up close,(that was the highlight of our trip - those turtles on Turtle Beach!) but I wouldn't let my kids get too far into the water.

I had never been to Hawaii and we were only there for 9 nights so I didn't want to island hop (big mistake). Oahu had some nice sights and we thought there would be more for us to do and keep my kids interested (5, 9, and 15), but it wasn't the island paradise that I was dreaming Hawaii would be. It was very crowded and populated (dah, right)and touristy. I probably should have gone to Maui. Kauai is lovely, but I think a child would be bored. I believe when I was researching our trip, the nicer resorts on Kauai aren't on such great beaches - I may be mistaken, but we were looking at the Princeville or Hyatt/Sheraton resorts and it is much more wet and rainy, too.

The only thing I did get cheap were the flights - Delta $440/rd trip from O'hare to Honolulu, and the minivan $350/9 days. I booked both online 6 months in advance. I don't usually do that, but the deals were out there. We stayed in the Royal Hawaiian which was lovely but very pricey, but I would have stayed somewhere else and done things much differently if I knew what I know now. It wasn't the laid back island trip I was looking for even after all my research and books purchased. The crowds through everything out the window. We had to have reservations for every dinner or it was a 2 hour wait. We had to even reserve a chair at the pool or beach!! We sat on towels.....One day we wanted to visit the aquarium....NO PARKING to be found anywhere. We left. The Sheratons are nice and we did get some kind of SPG deal on the room rate, the kids ate for free at their restaurants (deliciious), and we saved 33% at their restaurants, but it was still about $8K for the room. I am just not the condo/kitchen type of vacationer, but that was recommended to me often by people. I subscribe to the Frommers newsletter. They email me weekly with travel deals. Frommers & Fodors also have a chat forum and there is some info about Hawaii. That is where you might find out some and opinions based on experiences. Books are great, but no always as reliable or current as somebody that has just returned.

One more thing I thought of - I have seen what look to be beautiful condos/timeshares etc. on Ebay for rent for awesome prices. I don't know if that would be something you would look into, but they interest me!

Good luck & happy planning,

Lives4Disney

 

[wide awake]

Sun Trips has great packages to all the islands, and you can also use them just for air fare...I know in 2004 we purchased Oakland to Oahu, $299 roundtrip...and that was during spring break.

 

[Maria395712]

so is maui a better island to visit as far as crowds and weather and any suggestions on where to stay ,nice place at the beach
maria

 

[my3kids]

The guide books I've looked at say all islands are very different and your vacaton can be totally different on each island. Most say if you can only visit one, make it Kauai, the Garden Island. But, if kids want volcanos and Pearl Harbor, that isn't the place.

We gave up finding cheap airfare. The Hawaiian Islands are the most remote islands in the world(so the guidebooks tell me!) and in our case there didn't seem to be much difference in ticket prices....they were all just about $1000 per person.

Rental agencies have properties, both homes and condos, that can prove more economical than a hotel. Plus, you have the kitchen. But again, the guidebooks say not to expect any bargains even in the grocery store.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We lived on Oahu for four years, and just went back for a week over Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful! I would choose Oauhu for your children's ages. It will be more crowded than some of the other islands...but more to see and do. If you have military priviliges...the Hale Koa is just beautiful and right in the middle of everything. We did a day at Hanama Bay for less than $20. Sea Life Park is a tad hokey and run down, especially for the price. It was nicer when we lived there 10 years ago. If you are expecting Sea World, it will be dissapointing. I got really good airfare by booking 6 months in advance, less than $400 from Denver to Honolulu. I just kept looking every day until something popped up.

 

[mnasf]

We used Priceline on one trip. We had a great hotel.