Hawaii????

[cmjaffe]

We've gone for the past 3 years Always using FF miles on American. Luckily we've been able to do this for our family (4) at Xmas time. This past trip we stayed in a condo that we booked through VRBO in Princeville, LOVED having the space and couldn't beat the price. $1130 inc. tax and cleaning for week. Had full 2b/2bath loads of space to spread out washer/dryer and 2 bikes for the kids to explore with. Loaded up on provisions at Costco and used the BBQ most nights the kids could have used the pool/hot tub while I prepared dinner (which I didn't mind at all) -- we always watch the $ years earlier we used to go on cruises instead but now enjoy a hawaiian land vacation.
Highly recommend booking through owners on VRBO we're hoping to do the same this coming Xmas (already have tickets -- booked in Feb when the first got loaded in system).
Good luck with planning

 

[MrsPooh]

I hope it is ok to post this. If it is against the rules let me know and I'll delete.

This page has some great budget things to see and do while on Maui.

Just google maui free or nearly free and click on the top site.

I also loved the Maui Revealed book. We only did Oahu and Maui and Maui was by far my favorite. It is so incredibly beautiful. It is my dream to go back again some day.

Best of luck with your trip and planning.

 

[rparmfamily]

If anyone has any questions just post...I am good w/O'ahu and pretty good with Maui and Big Island. I live on O'ahu.

 

[Helene]

Subbing...reading through all of these posts has really gotten me excited and I am seriously thinking of planning a trip for next year!!

 

[mermaidwannabe]

If anyone has any questions just post...I am good w/O'ahu and pretty good with Maui and Big Island. I live on O'ahu.

Thanks! If you had to choose between Kona, Maui or Oahu, which one would you choose for a family of 5 with 3 girls ages 13, 11 and 7? We would probably try to get a condo through vrbo.com and would stay 8 or 9 nights. We love water but every other day, the kids and husband need a little something to go see or do.

 

[rparmfamily]

Thanks! If you had to choose between Kona, Maui or Oahu, which one would you choose for a family of 5 with 3 girls ages 13, 11 and 7? We would probably try to get a condo through vrbo.com and would stay 8 or 9 nights. We love water but every other day, the kids and husband need a little something to go see or do.

Hmm Big Island is mostly outdoor type stuff. Volcano National Park, some awesome waterfalls, snorkeling, Place of Refuge, the beaches by Waikoloa. The Kona area is mostly beaches and snorkeling, though down the road is the Place of Refuge and you can kayak to Capt Cook monument.

Maui is awesome beaches, a lavender farm, aquarium. Lahaina is a cute town.

Both Big Island and Maui are rural and even the big towns are small towns really.

O'ahu...kind of the opposite of the other islands. 1 million people live on O'ahu, so it's very populated and busy but also has some of the "main" Hawaii attractions like Diamond Head Crater, USS Missouri, Polynesian Cultural Center, Dole Pineapple Plantation, the waterpark, SeaLife park, nice cute zoo, the lagoons at Ko'Olina, Hale'iwa (surf town, great place to get shave ice), the Ala Moana Mall is awesome, 4 story outdoor mall plus Waikiki is fun in itself. There are enough spread out spaces to make you feel like you are in Hawaii. We went to Ko'Olina Lagoons (which BTW is where Disney is building a new hotel) and posted pics on my blog if you want to see. http://sparm.blogspot.com/

Personally, I'd pick O'ahu for the kids, I think they'd get bored perhaps on the other islands, depending on how into "outdoor" activities they are. There really isn't much on the other islands except the Hawaii basics--beach, hiking, snorkeling, kayaking,etc.

My favorite travel books for Hawai'i are the Revealed series...O'ahu Revealed, Big Island Revealed, Maui Revealed,etc.

 

[lindsey]

We have been twice, loved both trips. First time we were on a "budget", so stayed 10 days on Oahu, and took a 1 day trip to Kauai. Rented a car for 3 days during our Oahu time, and packed as much as possible in the 3 days. Walked to everything the other days. We ate conservatively, but still enjoyed everything.

 

[mermaidwannabe]

Hmm Big Island is mostly outdoor type stuff. Volcano National Park, some awesome waterfalls, snorkeling, Place of Refuge, the beaches by Waikoloa. The Kona area is mostly beaches and snorkeling, though down the road is the Place of Refuge and you can kayak to Capt Cook monument.

Maui is awesome beaches, a lavender farm, aquarium. Lahaina is a cute town.

Both Big Island and Maui are rural and even the big towns are small towns really.

O'ahu...kind of the opposite of the other islands. 1 million people live on O'ahu, so it's very populated and busy but also has some of the "main" Hawaii attractions like Diamond Head Crater, USS Missouri, Polynesian Cultural Center, Dole Pineapple Plantation, the waterpark, SeaLife park, nice cute zoo, the lagoons at Ko'Olina, Hale'iwa (surf town, great place to get shave ice), the Ala Moana Mall is awesome, 4 story outdoor mall plus Waikiki is fun in itself. There are enough spread out spaces to make you feel like you are in Hawaii. We went to Ko'Olina Lagoons (which BTW is where Disney is building a new hotel) and posted pics on my blog if you want to see. http://sparm.blogspot.com/

Personally, I'd pick O'ahu for the kids, I think they'd get bored perhaps on the other islands, depending on how into "outdoor" activities they are. There really isn't much on the other islands except the Hawaii basics--beach, hiking, snorkeling, kayaking,etc.

My favorite travel books for Hawai'i are the Revealed series...O'ahu Revealed, Big Island Revealed, Maui Revealed,etc.

Wow, thanks for the great info! I think I will look for one of those Revealed books since a few have been recommending it. The list of things to do in Oahu is amazing! It's hard because if it was just me, I'd definitely go for the relaxing beach vacation, but maybe for the first time we should have activities available like there are on Oahu. My kids love ocean life though so snorkeling will be a big activity, I think. The volcano on the Big Island sounds great too! Oh, it's so hard! Too bad we aren't loaded so we could spend 3 weeks there to split between 3 islands!

 

[mermaidwannabe]

LOVED YOUR BLOG!!! Thanks for sharing that!

 

[rparmfamily]

There is some great snorkeling on O'ahu too. The most famous is Hanauma Bay but Shark's Cove is also a great snorkel spot. Hanauma is great for kids, they can snorkel close to shore.

Hanauma, can snorkel year round
http://www.honolulu.gov/parks/facility/hanaumabay/index1.htm
Shark's Cove (on the North Shore, so it's not snorkel-able in winter due to high waves)
http://www.hawaiisnorkelingguide.com/sharks_cove.html

Pretty much all the hotels are in Waikiki so you'd want to rent a car to get out and see the rest of the island. Once you get away from Waikiki and Honolulu it's more rural and suburban rather than city. The North Shore is rural, you drive thru pineapple fields on your way to see the cute surf town of Hale'iwa.

Also in Honolulu is the Palace (only royal palace in the US), plus Bishop Museum, the zoo is a nice/cheap diversion, you can see ne'ne's, our state bird.

 

[blanq]

I am glad I came across this thread and am subscribing. My family of 3 (me, DH and DS-16) are planning a trip to Hawaii next August. We are planning on 17 nights: 3 nights on Waikiki, a week in Kauai, and then the one week NCL cruise.

I have been planning like a maniac, mainly because I want to firm up a budget (and it is my nature...I am a DISer after all!), but I have to say it is depressing. We don't have ff miles, so will likely pay close to $1900 for airfare from MSP. Although I can find ways to reduce some costs (condo through VRBO for Kauai and eating some of our meals in our condo, for example), what is killing me is the cost of excursions. Although I know we can do beaches and hike for free, and we want to rent bikes to bike the Coconut Coast which is fairly cheap, there are things we want to do that just cost boatloads. In Kauai alone we want to do the Hollywood in Hawaii Movies & Waterfalls 4x4 Tour, the Nualolo Kai Combo Tour (Snorkel and Catamaran), Birds in Paradise Powered Hang Glider, and a Zip Line Tour. Those alone are close to $1800 for the three of us.

On the cruise, we plan on renting a car and doing stuff on our own that won't cost much, except we do to one NCL excursion (swimming with wild dolphins in Kona). I have found some discount places for excursions, like Toms Barefoot, but that only saves a few bucks.

I suppose I could reduce the excursions, but I am afraid I would regret not doing some of the things we really want to do. Have you ever gone to one of the islands and not done many of the excursions? Did you still have a great time? How did you see the island(s)? We don't like to just sight see; we are an active family.

I think we will stay at Hotel Renew in Waikiki for the first three nights, as the rates are decent, breakfast is included, and the reviews at Trip Advisor are good.

My calculations show that this trip will cost between $12K and $13K, but if anyone has any ideas of how I can whittle this down , I am all ears! My costs include: hotel in MSP (park and fly), airfare MSP/HNL, 3 nights hotel in Waikiki,i nter-island airfare HNL/LIH, condo rental in Kauai, car rental-Kauai, cruise, food, excursions, tips, transfers, miscellaneous (gas, incidentals, etc), day room at Hilton Hawaiian Village (our flight out of HNL will likely be around 9:00 pm and the cruise gets back at 7:00 am so we need a place to park for the day, and I heard HHV has day rooms for about $89).

 

[JoBird]

We did a the Skyline EcoAdventure Zipline tour in Ka'anapali -- 8 zips for 1/2 a day and LOVED IT!! It's expensive ($150 pp) but so worth it!

OMG- I'm just sittiing here drinking water out of my purple water bottle they gave us when we did that same zip just over a month ago!

That's funny!


OP--We stayed at the Grand Wailea in Maui and it isn't exactly budget... rates start around $360 a night--
but it is soooooo kid friendly. Water slides, lazy river- kids camp.

Awesome for a family vacation!http://www.grandwailea.com/

And- just to tempt those wanting to go even further-- a picture of the sunset on our last evening there.

Jo
PS... the spa there is pure bliss. Unbelievable.

 

[jrasmom]

We are planning to go next year sometime for our 15th wedding anniversary, just us no kids. We'd thought Sept/Oct as we were told it was cheaper then, oh we're going to Maui already decided that. But we've been comparing prices and it looks like going in June ON our anniversary isn't much of a price difference.

I'll be back to read this thread more!!

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

So happy I saw this!

We have been fortunate enough to go to Hawaii 3 times, the last time was for one month!!! Also, the last visit we took both of our kids who were 4 and 8 at the time. They LOVED it. The whole vacation cost 10K. Totally worth it.

Air fare alone was 2800. 900 for my kids and I out of Phx and 1800 for dh who was flying in from Korea (he was stationed there for a year with out his family).

We are a military family and were able to stay at the Hale Koa Hotel right on Waikiki beach right next to the Hawaiian Hilton. The room cost of $2600 for the whole month (gotta love those military rates!)

We rented a car a few days and drove the island. My kids really just loved spending time with their dad on the beach or in the resort pool.

We did the Kuloa Valley Ranch (where tons of movies are filmed), the Dole Plantation (huge for the kids), lots of walks at night to the mall, International Market and so on, USS Arizona, Sea Life Park, PCC, there's an Audobon place that you walk through that leads you to a waterfall and so on. I think are favorite thing was swimming at Eternity Beach (the beach where From Here to Eternity was filmed) we even hired a photog and had pictures done there.

We did food Hawaii fairly cheaply. We ate breakfast in the room and sometimes lunch. We had access to the commissary and were able to stock up on food. We ate out for dinner, but our kids our picky eaters so it was a lot of Mc Donalds, or the mall food court.

We didn't go over budget partly because dh and I had been there two times before without kids and had already stocked up on souvies and all.

Hawaii is absolutely beautiful. We also took a side trip to Kauai and I fell in love! This is still our best vacation ever. When we move back to America next year I will start saving for our next trip there. We plan on going in May of 2011 for our 15th Anniversary. Our children are hooked and still talk about Hawaii weekly so there is no way that we couldn't take them now. Dh and I are renewing our vows then too

Once we are stateside we have decided that this is just going to be a yearly vacation for us, well this and WDW!

At Eternity Beach

Sunset on Waikiki

 

[rparmfamily]

So happy I saw this!

We have been fortunate enough to go to Hawaii 3 times, the last time was for one month!!! Also, the last visit we took both of our kids who were 4 and 8 at the time. They LOVED it. The whole vacation cost 10K. Totally worth it.

Air fare alone was 2800. 900 for my kids and I out of Phx and 1800 for dh who was flying in from Korea (he was stationed there for a year with out his family).

We are a military family and were able to stay at the Hale Koa Hotel right on Waikiki beach right next to the Hawaiian Hilton. The room cost of $2600 for the whole month (gotta love those military rates!)

We rented a car a few days and drove the island. My kids really just loved spending time with their dad on the beach or in the resort pool.

We did the Kuloa Valley Ranch (where tons of movies are filmed), the Dole Plantation (huge for the kids), lots of walks at night to the mall, International Market and so on, USS Arizona, Sea Life Park, PCC, there's an Audobon place that you walk through that leads you to a waterfall and so on. I think are favorite thing was swimming at Eternity Beach (the beach where From Here to Eternity was filmed) we even hired a photog and had pictures done there.

We did food Hawaii fairly cheaply. We ate breakfast in the room and sometimes lunch. We had access to the commissary and were able to stock up on food. We ate out for dinner, but our kids our picky eaters so it was a lot of Mc Donalds, or the mall food court.

We didn't go over budget partly because dh and I had been there two times before without kids and had already stocked up on souvies and all.

Hawaii is absolutely beautiful. We also took a side trip to Kauai and I fell in love! This is still our best vacation ever. When we move back to America next year I will start saving for our next trip there. We plan on going in May of 2011 for our 15th Anniversary. Our children are hooked and still talk about Hawaii weekly so there is no way that we couldn't take them now. Dh and I are renewing our vows then too

Once we are stateside we have decided that this is just going to be a yearly vacation for us, well this and WDW!

You guys are military? You should grab orders for here!! Every branch is here, seriously, SO MUCH military here! Over 100,000 active duty I think? We love love love it here.

The waterfall you went to was Waimea Falls. Across from Waimea Bay (world-famous surfing spot in winter)

Kualoa Ranch is awesome, I forgot about that for kids. That is a GREAT place for kids...ATV rides, horse rides,etc thru where they film Lost, plus Jurassic Park,etc. Check out the website
http://www.kualoa.com/

Costco membership is worth it, there are Costco's on Maui, Big Island and O'ahu. Nothing beats a $10 pizza!!!

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

You guys are military? You should grab orders for here!! Every branch is here, seriously, SO MUCH military here! Over 100,000 active duty I think? We love love love it here.

The waterfall you went to was Waimea Falls. Across from Waimea Bay (world-famous surfing spot in winter)

Kualoa Ranch is awesome, I forgot about that for kids. That is a GREAT place for kids...ATV rides, horse rides,etc thru where they film Lost, plus Jurassic Park,etc. Check out the website
http://www.kualoa.com/

Costco membership is worth it, there are Costco's on Maui, Big Island and O'ahu. Nothing beats a $10 pizza!!!

No chance of orders for us there, he works on a specific jet that isn't housed in Hawaii. I sure wish it was though!

 

[mrsklamc]

Can anyone speak to January vs. April? I get so confused- I read to avoid spring break, but that April is a slow time. Isn't spring break in April? We're just looking for smallest crowds/ best deals.

 

[rparmfamily]

Jan is winter and the rainy season but you can see big waves and whales in Jan, you can't in April. And even on rainy days somewhere on the island is usually sunny. April is very nice though, no more rain, not too hot. (it's 80's year round here but does hit 90 in the summer/fall)

 

[mrsklamc]

Ok here are a couple of challenges for you all-

1) I am trying to decide between a cruise and a land trip. I almost think I could do a land trip with a tiny bit of island hopping cheaper but the photos of the lava pouring into the ocean that you cruise past kill me. Are there smaller charter ships that do this? Or if I want to see that should I stick with a big cruise ship?

2) The road to Hana- I want to control our own schedule-don't want to stop at the winery for example- but am thinking it would be safer to have a driver than rent a car on our own. Sounds like the view will be very distracting. Anyone used a company that does private tours?

 

[gm]

We went to Hawaii First time this July and oh we had so much fun. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. We took a tour bus from our hotel around the island. it was an all day tour that stopped at all the famous places including dole plantation. DS did the Lost tour in a Hummer. We also did the Hanauma Bay snorkeling tour since we did not have a rental car. But everything was soooo worth it.

We stayed at the Aali tower at the Hawaiin Hilton and it was so beautiful facing the ocean. We loved touring the resort with all the pretty birds and flowers. We went to the Ala moana mall but were dissapointed with the food court because everything was mostly seafood like food restaurants which we dont eat. It had a sbarros so we ate that. We also went to the weekend huge flea market that they have at the stadium. Took a shuttle from the hotel.

Food was a problem because we had a vegeterian with us so we got subways a bunch of times. I really did not see anything good restaurants that I would say wow!!

Snorkeling at Hanauma bay was fun but we went at a time when the water was choppy late afternoon so we did not go too far.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. Next time i will probably rent a car though.