Hawaii on a budget can it be done??

[dlm1017]

Looking to take a trip to Hawaii, would like to do this in 2013. I had originally planned on doing the 7 day NCL cruise around the islands then spend a week at Aulani but I would like to spend less $$ right now. I had always said I would save and “do it right” because we may never go again. But life is just too short to keep waiting..
With that said, I have the points to stay at Aulani for two weeks. (With banking and borrowing) we would most definitely like to island hop to the big island to visit Volcano National Park, so I need to figure that in. We would stay overnight in a hotel and would have to rent a car also. How would I budget this to make it happen? We would be in a one bedroom, so we could go to the store and cook some meals in the room. We would rent a car on Oahu also so we could tour the island. So what are average car rental prices for Oahu and Hawaii? Has anyone Priceline cars in Hawaii? I have always had success with Priceline in WDW.
How do you budget for your Hawaii trips? How much have you spent? Do you think we could do it on say 2k not including airfare? 3k?? just unsure, do you even have a budget or just put it on a credit card and figure it out later? (That could be trouble?!)

Any help would be appreciated!
Dana

 

[dianeschlicht]

Look around a bit. The Big Island is our favorite, and I can find more than a weeks worth of stuff to do there. If you go to VRBO, you can find some really reasonable condos on the Big Island. Here is the link to the one we have booked for next February. http://www.vrbo.com/84879 I think it is around $1700 (tax included) for a week in the two bedroom unit with great views. You can stay by the night too, and it's really reasonable. Just remember that the Big Island is HUGE, and you will be driving around a lot unless you take a plane or helicopter over the volcano. We have done it all three ways...drive, helicopter and plane, and I think the helicopter is a great way to see the actual volcano, but the park can only be seen best by car.

I would only spend one week at Aulani though. It's on Oahu, and while there is plenty to do at Aulani and plenty to see and do on Oahu, it is not the true feeling of Hawaii. I much prefer the Big Island for that, and it's also much less expensive on Hawaii compared to Oahu too.

Maybe rent out your second week's worth of points that you would have used for Aulani and use that money to rent a condo on Hawaii.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I just wanted to add that the airfare is far and away the most expensive part of the Hawaii trip we have planned for February. That's why you don't want to go for just one week too.

 

[standardgirl]

If you definitely want to island hop, then one week at Aulani + one week on the NCL POA would probably be the easiest. Cost wise, the POA inside rooms are quite reasonably priced. I was a bit hesitant about POA given that I've been so spoiled by DCL, but everything turned out quite alright for us this May. The staff on POA was all friendly and very helpful.

Take a look at the POA offers, and try cruise compete's website and see what TAs can offer you. Assuming you'll rent a car or take a tour on your own on the islands (instead of doing the expensive NCL's excursions), I think you'll won't be financially any worse off by doing the cruise. Also, food in Hawaii can be expensive, so by including food on the POA cruise, you'll have one less thing to worry about.

 

[dlm1017]

Thanks for the replies so far!

Is there not enough to do to warrant staying at Aulani for the entire two weeks? I was thinking only going to the big Island for a day or two? maybe at the beginning or end or even right in the middle of the trip is that unreasonable?

 

[jekjones1558]

Another vote here for only 1 week at Aulani and the other week on another island. Each island has its own personality and landscape. You can rent a timeshare week or condo for a good rate. We find that food, whether in restaurants or grocer stores, is pretty costly. Rental cars are a little more than Florida but not too bad. If you do 2 islands you will have to figure inter island airfare and also check to see whether your roundtrip flight from/to home can be to 1 island and from a different island. Or do one week on the cruise so you get a taste of several islands. I hope you can make it. Hawaii is paradise.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Thanks for the replies so far!

Is there not enough to do to warrant staying at Aulani for the entire two weeks? I was thinking only going to the big Island for a day or two? maybe at the beginning or end or even right in the middle of the trip is that unreasonable?

It really depends on what you like to do on vacation. If all you want to do is sit at the resort and take in the amenities there for two weeks, I think Aulani would be a beautiful place to do that. On the other hand, why go all that way to sit at one resort? There is plenty to do on Oahu, but it's not really that "Hawaiian" if you know what I mean. Here is my take on the major islands that I've been to.

Oahu-- Big City, lots of traffic (yes even on the north shore) lots of history to see though too. We like all the Pearl Harbor things as well as the palace and Polynesian Cultural Center. LOVE the Bishop Museum as well. That would definitely take a few days and still leave plenty of time at the Aulani resort in a week.

Maui--Slightly less urban than Oahu, but still somewhat commercial. The different halves of the island are very different from each other. The Kaanapali area is very pricey, but nice. Lots of scenery on Maui, but you have to drive on some rather scary roads to get to it.

Kauai--The garden Isle, is definitely the greenest and has a lot of "old Hawaiian" feel to it. Part of this is because there has been a limit to the height of the buildings that can be built there. You can see everthing from verdent lush green areas to hidden beaches on the north side to a dessert on the southwest side of the island. We love Kauai too, and it's great if you like to golf too.

Hawaii--The Big Island is where the volcanos are, and it's not only the youngest and most rocky of the islands, but also has the most diversity. There is nothing like visiting Volcanoes National park and walking through lava tubes and seeing lava "trees". Hawaii also has a lot of quaint little places to visit. Some of those are only accessible by foot or all terrain vehicles. Well...or horses, which is how we saw it. Because of it's size and the diversity there, You could easily spend the whole two weeks on that one island alone. I don't think I could say that about any of the others. I guess it kind of feels "homey" to me.

 

[taaren]

If you want to go to another island, the cheapest way to do it is generally to fly into one island and out of another, eg. fly into Hilo or Kona, then fly to Oahu (they just announced new inter-island flight prices on Hawaiian Airlines, they came down quite a bit if you book far enough in advance ... I only looked at Maui-Oahu since I live there, but that's $65 now each way instead of $80+ like it used to be) and fly home from Oahu.
PP's are right about VRBO being your friend in Hawaii. Aulani for one week, plus one of the neighbor islands for the other week is going to be your best bet. Each has their own flavor and feel.

Since we fly from Hawaii every year, I just signed up for Alaska Airline's Signature card which comes with a $99 companion fare annually, its the only companion certificate offered that works in Hawaii (all the major carriers exclude Hawaii from those sorts of offers). So, my $700 RT airfare per person to the West Coast this winter in order for us to get to Disneyworld, will cost only $800 for DS and I together. I'm excited about that, and I think its a great deal for a $75/year card to be saving ~$600/year. You could cancel the card after your trip, but if you fall in love with Aulani (or for those that want to do Aulani every year) it might be a good deal to keep.

Feel free to PM me. I've lived on Maui and Oahu for 20 years out of the last 30.

Btw, its very easy to eat well and cheaply in Hawaii even without a kitchen if you're willing to forego fine dining and eat like locals do, lots of great take-out and counter-style restaurants here with amazingly delicious food.

 

[jekjones1558]

If you want to go to another island, the cheapest way to do it is generally to fly into one island and out of another, eg. fly into Hilo or Kona, then fly to Oahu (they just announced new inter-island flight prices on Hawaiian Airlines, they came down quite a bit if you book far enough in advance ... I only looked at Maui-Oahu since I live there, but that's $65 now each way instead of $80+ like it used to be) and fly home from Oahu.
PP's are right about VRBO being your friend in Hawaii. Aulani for one week, plus one of the neighbor islands for the other week is going to be your best bet. Each has their own flavor and feel.

Since we fly from Hawaii every year, I just signed up for Alaska Airline's Signature card which comes with a $99 companion fare annually, its the only companion certificate offered that works in Hawaii (all the major carriers exclude Hawaii from those sorts of offers). So, my $700 RT airfare per person to the West Coast this winter in order for us to get to Disneyworld, will cost only $800 for DS and I together. I'm excited about that, and I think its a great deal for a $75/year card to be saving ~$600/year. You could cancel the card after your trip, but if you fall in love with Aulani (or for those that want to do Aulani every year) it might be a good deal to keep.

Feel free to PM me. I've lived on Maui and Oahu for 20 years out of the last 30.

Btw, its very easy to eat well and cheaply in Hawaii even without a kitchen if you're willing to forego fine dining and eat like locals do, lots of great take-out and counter-style restaurants here with amazingly delicious food.

Great tip about the credit card!!!!

 

[izzy]

I just went through the "trying to do it on a budget" trip in May. I was going to do one week at Aulani and 4 days in Maui. However, when I started considering the airfare to Maui and the hotel stay in Maui, I decided instead to do 11 days at Aulani on my points and on one of those days take a day trip to the Big Island to do a volcano tour.

I flew from Dulles to LAX and spend 3 nights at GCV. I had not been to Disneyland before, so I figured this would be a good opportunity, plus it would help break up the trip.

From some of the Hawaii-related expenses that I can remember (to the best of my memory!):

Airfare from Dulles to LAX, LAX to Honolulu, Honolulu to Dulles was about $830. I also upgraded each leg to economy plus, which added another $200 or so to the total cost of the airfare

Standard car for 11 days in Honolulu from Alamo = $212 which included tax. I booked through Alamo and did not use Priceline. I booked early but kept looking for price drops. Best prices started around 3 weeks before I needed the car.)

Aulani tax around $55 (11 nights in a pool side studio)

Gas for car around $60

Day trip to Big Island around $360

Polynesian Culture Center around $150 (booked through Aulani since I wanted to have transportation to and from the PCC)

Snorkeling with Dolphins and Turtles Excusion - it was a special I found on the internet thru Travelzoo for around $69 (regularly $144)

Spa treatment at Aulani - I figured that I was being so "cheap" with everything else that I would splurge on a spa treatment. I think with the service charge it was around $270.

Groceries for 11 days around $70 (shopped for groceries at Target, Costco, and Safeway; I did bring some things from home, like peanut butter and breakfast bars). I ate breakfast in the room every day except for one. I often ate both lunch and dinner there, too. Mostly sandwiches, fruit, carrots, etc.

Eating out - this is where I saved the most money - I had one meal at Aulani which was the character breakfast at $38 including tip, I ate at the Outback one night (around $20), I ate at Sbarro's at the mall one day (around $10), and my cheapest meal was the $1.50 hotdog and drink at Costco. I did buy quite a few shaved ices at Aulani ($3.75 each) as well as ice cream sandwiches (I think around $3 or $4 each). I also got a refillable mug, but I didn't use it as much as I thought I would. I only got one adult beverage around the pool, which was about $10. Be sure to budget for stopping by the Leonard's malasada truck - I probably spent $15 there. When I went on the excursion to the Big Island, I was responsible for getting my own lunch and dinner - I probably spent about $20 that day.

I did get some things to bring back - mostly macadamia nut type products that I gave to various people. I got all of that Costco for about $72 (6 cans of macadamia nuts, 6 boxes of macadamia and caramel clusters, and 6 boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts.) I also bought some more macadamia nut products on the Big Island at the Mauna Loa store - around $25. Can you tell that I REALLY like macadamia nuts?

Other things I did: Pearl Harbor - this was essentially free; Haunama Bay - I got there a little after 6 in the morning and they hadn't started charging for parking or the park entrance fee so that was free; drove around the entire island; went to Punchbowl National Cemetary - free; the only I didn't do that I wanted to do was hike up Diamond Head.

After I got home, I decided to tally up everything to see how cheaply I was able to do the trip - extra expenses included staying at hotel the night before I flew out of Dulles, various tips for tours that I took, some other souvenirs I brought home for my parents, parking at the Honolulu airport the day I flew to the Big Island, my Disneyland 3 day park hopper, transfers from/to LAX to GCV, food at DL since I wasn't able to get to a grocery store, buying food on the plane rides, and I'm sure there is more that I'm forgetting.

I think my "cheap" trip ending up costing me around $3,500!!! However, given how much I did in those 2 weeks and the fact that I stayed in REALLY nice resorts, I thought that this was a pretty good bargain. I priced just the cost of the rooms alone if I had paid cash for them rather than using points, and that would have been at least $8,000!

Have fun planning. I loved Aulani and thought it would just a "once in a lifetime" type trip there. I'm already figuring out how to use my points in the few years so that I can go back there in 3 or 4 years!

 

[dianeschlicht]

If you want to go to another island, the cheapest way to do it is generally to fly into one island and out of another, eg. fly into Hilo or Kona, then fly to Oahu (they just announced new inter-island flight prices on Hawaiian Airlines, they came down quite a bit if you book far enough in advance ... I only looked at Maui-Oahu since I live there, but that's $65 now each way instead of $80+ like it used to be) and fly home from Oahu.
PP's are right about VRBO being your friend in Hawaii. Aulani for one week, plus one of the neighbor islands for the other week is going to be your best bet. Each has their own flavor and feel.

Since we fly from Hawaii every year, I just signed up for Alaska Airline's Signature card which comes with a $99 companion fare annually, its the only companion certificate offered that works in Hawaii (all the major carriers exclude Hawaii from those sorts of offers). So, my $700 RT airfare per person to the West Coast this winter in order for us to get to Disneyworld, will cost only $800 for DS and I together. I'm excited about that, and I think its a great deal for a $75/year card to be saving ~$600/year. You could cancel the card after your trip, but if you fall in love with Aulani (or for those that want to do Aulani every year) it might be a good deal to keep.

Feel free to PM me. I've lived on Maui and Oahu for 20 years out of the last 30.

Btw, its very easy to eat well and cheaply in Hawaii even without a kitchen if you're willing to forego fine dining and eat like locals do, lots of great take-out and counter-style restaurants here with amazingly delicious food.

GREAT tips in this post. I'm going to look into the Hawaiian air card, since one of the things I was thinking of doing was to go a day ahead and spend a day at DL to see Cars land before we head to HNL. I am looking at doing a multi city air deal where I fly into LAX for a day, then to HNL, then to KOA, back to LAX and then home to MSP. It sounds confusing, but a lot easier on my ageing body than a 9-10 hour non-stop.

 

[Anal Annie]

We always island hop - way, way too far to go & much too much to see & do on all of the other islands IMHO to spend 2 weeks at Aulani. We never spend more than 2 or 3 nights on Oahu so I am worried if we plan even 4 or 5 nights at Aulani that we will be tired of it. Our fav. island is Maui but we have also stayed on the Big Island.

Hawaii on a budget - yes, but make it a BIG budget!! We attempted to do Europe on a budget last summer...our week on our DCL Med cruise was THE best bargain of all considering the USD / Euro conversion rate at that time. Even though we had miles to cover 2 of our airfares I would say we probably still spent $10K for the 3 of us for the 15 days we were gone. I would LOVE to go back again but now I know how much I need to allow so it's not happening any time soon. If I were you I would budget just as absolutely much as possible. You said "we" but you didn't say how many people were involved in "we". For 2 weeks I would definitely plan on $3K for 2 people (that's only $214 / day). If you don't spend it all then YAY. But if you DO then you're not shocked. I agree with Diane - airfare will be your killer.

One thing I am looking into for our next trip is to use Amex. Rewards to cover our hotel cost on Maui. We don't have enough Amex points to transfer to Delta for Skymiles but we do have enough to book several nights of hotels. You can convert the Amex. points to Starwood points and use them for the Westins or Sheratons. Last time I looked at the spg (Starwood) site (a couple months ago) they were offering a deal where the 5th night was "free" and didn't require any points for that night. We will go in the summer which is actually considered their "low" season so both the Sheraton at Black Rock and the Westin (both in Ka'anapali on Maui) were running 12,000 points / night. Not too shabby of a plan if I look at the rack rates at these properties as running from $370 - $399 / night for your basic view rooms. So if you have an Amex card but you are not a spg member you might consider signing up for a member number so you can do this. spg points can also then be used for Hawaiian Airlines...if we have enough points leftover I may try to cover an inter-island flight. (When I called I was told that Hawaiian Airlines inter-island flights run between 7,500-15,000 points one-way.)

Another thing I am looking at is maybe getting a SW Airline credit card. Sometimes they offer deals to open an account for enough points to cover 2 roundtrip flights. This way we may be able to cover 2 out of the 3 of us from the DC area to CA then we can maybe afford the roundtrip flights from CA to HNL. Though still not CHEAP the flights from CA to Hawaii are a lot less than from the east coast.

I also price out car rentals, hotel packages and airfare through Costco. You never know what kind of deals you might find.

Planning for Hawaii on a budget can be time consuming but there ARE some ways to save here & there!! Have fun planning but please DO consider staying on at least 1 other island for a few nights. There is MUCH to see and each island has its own personality.

 

[rpcvpanama]

Also, one thing to do is sign up for alerts from Groupon and/or LivingSocial for deals in Honolulu. I did that and ended up getting some good Groupon deals for scuba diving and surfing school. If you plan far enough in advance an pay attention to the "use by" dates you can find some good deals.