Hawaii on a budget

[Promomx2]

Dh, ds and I want to splurge and go to Hawaii this summer instead of wdw. Does anyone know of some sites like this one for hawaii. I have no idea where to start.

 

[alohamom]

You can try www.fodors.com, click on forums, click on United States and then Hawaii. I use this site alot when planning my trips.Another thing you can do is go to www.kayak.com. They have a great tool that allows you to plug in your departure and arrival airports and a window of time and then they will send you daily or weekly updates as to the best airfare. I often use Travelocity as well for the same thing (they call it farewatcher) If you are planning to stay in condos, check out www.vrbo.com but be aware that this is a private owner's posting site - I have never had a problem and used it quite a bit but you never know these days. I hope this helps you, pm me if you want any specific Hawaii info, I travel there quite a bit, aloha

 

[Donnainnj]

I don't have a Hawaii site to recommend, but can tell you we did real well with VRBO for condo rentals, and Priceline for Oahu for a hotel, and car rentals. (only 3 nights) We used biddingfortravel to research our priceline bidding. Loved the Revealed series of books for researching stuff to do, many of them cheap or free. (Maui Revealed, Oahu Revealed etc.)
If it weren't for the airfare the price per day for Hawaii the way we did it would be very close to the same as we pay for Disney. Have fun.
Donna

 

[jstbcuz]

We used VRBO for our condo in Maui when we went. We walked out our back door and the beach was less than 50 feet away. We were only in Oahu for less than 3 days and my parents smoke so we went with the Ilima hotel. Not fancy by any means, but it was clean and served its purpose (Oh yeah.....and a great price).

 

[mrsklamc]

The airfare is killer, no doubt.

 

[blanq]

Check out trip advisor and search the forums for the islands you want to go to. BTW, "Hawaii" and "budget" do not belong in the same sentence. I am in the process of planning a 2 week trip (for three people) there this summer, and my budget is now at $11K and seems to be climbing every time I turn around.

 

[mrsklamc]

Do you have any idea what you are interested in seeing/doing in Hawaii?

Are you looking for beach, volcanos, one island or island hopping, etc?

 

[DOPEYLUVER]

Another place you might try is cruise critic - www.cruisecritic.com. It won't necessarily be useful in hotel hints, but it will for activities and maybe even airline info. Within the site are different categories. Try ports of call, then find Hawaii. Cruise critic in general is quite an active board.

 

[dopeynme]

I used the forums on trip advisor. They are not as extensive as the DIS (IMHO), but they were better than nothing.

We did rely heavily on the hotel reviews on trip advisor and they saved us from one skeevy hotel (we drove past while on the trip and were quite thankful that we had not decided to stay there!)

DH and I spent 23 nights on 4 islands and paid about $4500 for accommodations (summer 2008). Two were resorts and several were apartments or studios with kitchens. We did not cook much, but did eat breakfast in and pack snacks for our travels. We could have saved a bit of money by cooking dinners, but we were on our honeymoon and I did not want DH to get unrealistic expectations
It was a beautiful trip, there is so much to see and do.

 

[Promomx2]

Thanks for the replies. Can't do a cruise, I have a tremendous fear of boats. We have no idea which island to go to. We know we want to hand out on a beach, volcano and other tourist things. We do know we want to stay directly on the beach. Is their a place where ds can snorkel that is not deep water? Another stupid question, do we have to have passports for hawaii? We will be there for 4th of July, any ideas of special things or the best place to see fireworks?

 

[mrsklamc]

You don't need a passport. Only volcanic activity is on the island of Hawaii. The other side of the island is known for great water sports, so I would stay on that side if I were you and then rent a car to get to the National Park.

 

[JennHales]

I love Hawaii.

To save money, we rented a time share off Ebay. We used priceline to save money on a rental car. Ate at costco deli a few times. (we did splurge for a few nice meals and None of them were worth the money) We brought our own snorkeling equiptment.

We had a blast Make sure to get a good travel book. We loved Maui Revealed they have other "revealed" books for the other islands.
Have fun,
Jen

 

[alohamom]

Maui would probably be your best bet for a first time and what you want to do. There is lots of great snorkling on all of the islands so that shouldn't be a concern. I know hotwire does some pretty good packages w/ flights/hotel/car if you were considering that.

 

[Bearvet]

We are currently planning a trip June/July of this year to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We are going with another couple and will go for 3 weeks - 1 week Oahu, 1 week Big Island, 1 week Maui. We have timeshares that I began trading 2 years ago, so we'll have 1-2 bedrooms and a full kitchen each week. While we may not have the fanciest resort and/or be right on the beach, the price is right (exchange fee of $189 per week - we have 2 units for 2 of the weeks and 1 2-bedroom unit for 1 week).

We have saved credit card points and our flights came to $160 each, flying from Hartford, CT into Honolulu and out of Maui.

Just rented a car at www.hawaiidiscountcarrental.com which has had good reviews. With taxes a compact is about $200 per week. Will continue to monitor prices, use codes, etc.

So, we basically need money for food (will eat most breakfasts in the condo, pack lunches for days we're out and about and eat most dinners out) and activities. We'll bring our own snorkel gear that we gave each other as our Christmas gift.

Oh yeah, 2 interisland flights each - I can't find the total right now, but the grand total was about $350. Total travel expenses for 3 weeks (air, car and lodging) is just over $2000! I'm very pleased with that amount! So far, I'd say we're managing to keep this a budget trip - it just took 2 years of planning....

 

[gr8leg8]

check out some travel guides from your local library.
I enjoyed Maui Revealed.

 

[CrAzY4DL]

On Oahu I recommend:
1. Eating at Bandito's Cantina in Aiea (across the street from Pearlridge Mall)
2. Climbing Diamond Head
3. Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay
4. Pearl Harbor was amazing but sooo sad!
5. There are 2 super popular luaus, Germaines and Paradise Cove. Sadly, I can't remember which one we did but it apparently wasn't the "good" one, LOL. Was nice that the bus comes and picks you up tho.
6. The Polynesian Cultural Center was AWESOME but might not be so cool for teens. I personally enjoyed the Samoan section the best.
7. The bus system on Oahu is AWESOME and AIR CONDITIONED!!! (awesome at least for this native born California girl!)
8. Dole Plantation (I highly recommend the chocolate covered pineapple spear-best choco EVER!)

We lived there for almost 3 years and didn't appreciate it as much as we should have (military and we were broke ALL the time!) but the above things were our favorites.

Sea Life Park is teeeeeeny (was the one featured in 50 First Dates tho). We grew up with Marine World Vallejo and Sea World nearby so we were really un-thrilled with this, LOL. I wish we had gone to Waimea Falls, but again, always broke. We had friends stay at Turtle Bay and they looooooved it.

Hope some of that helps!

 

[Promomx2]

I've been on the computer for over 6 hours and I'm still sooo confused. I've found hotels not to stay in but I still haven't narrowed done to which island. Went to the library and got 4 books. This is harder that planning a trip w/adrs to wdw. So I deeply appreciate any info ya'll pass on. We're supposed to get anywhere from 3 to 8 inches of snow this weekend so I figured I should have plenty of time to do research.

 

[jstbcuz]

A group of 7 of us went in 2008 for my mom and dads 40th Anniversary. I too felt like it was harder to plan than my trip to WDW. Dh and I had already been to Hawaii for our honeymoon almost 15 years earlier, and that was originally where my folks went on theirs too. So most of us had been to Oahu before. However, we knew we needed to be there atleast a couple days. If we were going that far.......PEARL HARBOR was a must for all of us. Also my grandmothers brother was lost at sea and his name is on a wall at Punchbowl Cemetary. None of us had been to see that, so we new it too was a MUST.

The day we flew in we got there about 2:30pm I think. By the time we got to the hotel etc....it was about 4:00. We went and ate at Cheeseburger Paradise and went back to the hotel. We stayed not very far from the International Market, so that evening some of us went walking thru shops etc.

The next morning we got up and was ready for our limo tour of the Island. It was great....our own personal limo with tour guide.....hitting the highlights.....
I think this was 8 hours.

The next day we got up packed our stuff and went to Pearl Harbor....then to Punchbowl Cemetary and then headed to the airport for our flight to Maui.

Oahu is very beautiful in places.......it is just so commercialized. Im very glad we went back to go to the places we went, but if you truely want to relax......go to another island.......like Maui.

I did have a hard time trying to decide which other island to go too also. I wanted to go to Kuai (sp) but it is the rainy island and I didnt want to spend my whole vacation in rain...LOL.....the Big Island didnt appeal to me other than seeing a live volcano. I dont want lava rock......I want lush tropical settings. Lanai is small and just has one hotel I think...It truely is getting away from it all. I think the only way to get there is by boat from Maui tho.

Maui is beautiful....we were there for a week. I reccommed staying in Lahaina. It is a quaint little town. The park with the big tree is awesome to see. We didnt do much there except enjoy the beach from our back yard. We did go to a Luau right there in Lahaina. We all agreed it was much better than we thought it would be. One day Dh and I drove to the Hana side of the Island. Very beautiful..........lots of curves, slow speed limits, one way bridges, and lost my lunch both ways........but it was still the highlight of my trip, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Only thing is there isnt much time there to see everything, because you need to head back before it gets dark.
I'd like to stay the night there and see a little more of this side of the island. Oprah has land or a home somewhere around here.

We also didnt get to drive up to Haleakala....which I think would be awesome too. You can watch the sunrise from above the clouds...

So much to do.......its hard to decide. I did buy a couple books to help me along. One was the Maui Revealed book. .... and I cant remember what the other one was.........it was a thick one with lots of info. I would find things in there and then look on the net for more info. I also read the travel forum alot on Hawaii on tripadvisor. We ended up and used VRBO for our Maui part of vacation, and just stayed in a no frills hotel for the couple days we were in Honolulu. I also read some forums.......tho none were as in depth as the DIS. I think one was hawaii.com . You migght google it and see what you come up with.

If you have any questions, I'd be glad to try to answer them. Im ready to go back just thinking about it.

 

[rparmfamily]

I live in Honolulu and have been to Maui and Big Island several times. Let me know if you have any questions. My DH is stationed at Pearl Harbor here on O'ahu.

 

[happymommy]

We also lived for 3 years on Oahu (DH was in the Marines). Moved from there to Maryland in 1998, but have been back several times (and now have a timeshare at Ko Olina on Oahu, so will go every other year now, and did in 2008 and 2009).

I recommend Oahu for at least a few days, if it's your first trip. There is SO MUCH in my opinion on Oahu to see and do.

To the other poster: the luau that picks you up is Paradise Cove. It is on West Oahu, right in the same resort area as Marriott's Ko Olina (timeshare, AWSOME), the JW Marriott, and where Disney is building their new DVC resort. I've done it twice, once in 1995 and also ten years later. I don't know, the show gets awfully long, it is cute, but I've no desire to go to another luau unless it's a friend's party or something.

Snorkeling on Oahu: DEFINITELY at Ko Olina is really excellent. They have a few man made lagoons that are very calm and not deep (except in certain areas). My DD snorkeled every single morning last year, and we saw all sorts of fish and turtles. It was very cool! On weekends and holidays, it's a favorite spot for locals to hang out with their families and picnic, as it's a nice clean area, safe water, etc. My kids met some other local Hawaiian kids and played together in the water one day.

What I liked about staying at Ko Olina (we used our week plus paid for 4 extra nights last year) was that

1) we had a full kitchen and washer/dryer (we did laundry every day as we'd be all sandy and such)
2) they have gas grills that they clean daily for you to cook with, and they are very popular at Ko Olina
3) the new pool with rock slide and waterfalls was a big hit with the kids
4) there is a very nice Costco and a new Super Target about ten minutes away for groceries, and Costco had excellent fresh fish to grill as well as sashimi and yummy pineapples, so we cooked at least two meals a day in the condo which was not only economical, but the kids were more relaxed than going out to too many restaurants, and I didn't mind as I made easy stuff and grilled several times
5) it has the neighbor island feel, but you are 45 minutes from Honolulu, so we did walk Waikiki one day and also ate at Chai's Island Bistro at Aloha Tower one night (to see Nathan Aweau of Hapa)

For Hawaii on a budget, I would definitely recommend finding a condo or rental home. You will need to do laundry! Pack light, but I agree bring your snorkel gear (we got ours at Costco, and I saw some at the Costco in Kapolei). If on Oahu, pick up souvenirs and tee shirts ($3 each) at the Aloha Flea Market at the Aloha Stadium on Wed, Sat and Sun's.

My first choice would be the Marriott Ko Olina, as you are at a true resort with the super pool and all. If that is too pricey, there are also rental townhomes right in the same resort area (many folks like at Ko Olina, but some homes are rented out weekly or even monthly).

Anywhere but Waikiki, you will need a rental car. No, a convertible is NOT worth it (my silly DH got one our first trip there, how stupid, first of all you LOOK like a tourist, second, you may drive through a five minute rain shower, too much up and down for the roof). Just get a cheap rental - parking spaces are small anyway!

If you love sushi (my DS does) don't miss going to any local Genki Sushi. It's the best. And super reasonable.

Have fun planning!