How expensive is Hawaii?

[rstackjd]

Greetings all:

We would really love to head to Aulani, but are concerned about the additoinal costs. It's great that our accommodations are "cash free" but we are facing $2,000 for airfare for 2 from Wisconsin, and then whatever we'll end up spending on food and "touristy" stuff.

Does anyone have any thoughts on costs per day or average for a week for two adults (50 somethings) for food, beverages, sightseeing etc? We're not "5 star diners" every night, but also dont' want food court food every night either. Not real heavy drinkers, but probably a glass of wine each evening.

Thanks for any thoughts.

Bob

 

[DVCismyhappyplace]

That's actually a difficult question to answer. If you're going to Oahu only - we don't find it any more expensive than home- but we're in NY which is more expensive than Wisconsin. If you are going to the other islands, they are all more expensive than Oahu. For example, a cocktail at a hotel in Oahu will run you about $9 - in Maui, it's about $12 and in Kauai expect to pay $14 or more.

Oahu has a large selection of restaurants. Yes, you could easily spend a couple of hundred dollars on dinner or you could go to a more moderately priced restaurant. Oahu has most of the popular chain restaurants. These are usually just slightly more expensive than their mainland counterparts (maybe a couple of dollars higher for entrees to reflect the shipping costs).

As far as activities, DH and I always anticipate paying at least $100-$150 per person to do any kind of activity. Some are more (helicopter excursions), some are slightly less (half day snorkel adventures). There are several ways you can costs. DH and I rent a car and instead of doing a tour to Pearl Harbor, we go on our own. Same with Hanamua Bay.

DH and I have yet to stay at Aulani but every time we go to Hawaii, we stop and pick up bottles of wine/beer and some snacks to keep in our room.

 

[rstackjd]

Thanks - that's helpful. Having never been to Hawaii we're really babes in the woods and just need to be able to come up with some idea. Friends who have been there make comments like "everything in Hawaii is 2-3 times more expensive" so that was making us nervous.

Understood about going to other islands. We're not sure what to do about that. Hawaii is probably a once in a lifetime trip for us, so part of me says since we're going we need to make the most of it. On the other hand, then we are looking at additional hotel costs and flights so the $ really start to add up.

Decisions Decisions! lol

Thanks again

 

[mouseaider]

We were at Aulani in April to celebrate our 10th anniversary and we did it on a budget. We spent seven nights there.

We had a rental car from Alamo and toured the island in a very leisurely pace. Plenty of down time to relax.

We had heard how expensive it was to eat at Aulani so we made alternate plans.

We bought groceries at Safeway in Kapolei and ate breakfast and some lunches in our studio. We even bought some adult beverages to enjoy at our villa.

We ate most dinners in Kapolei..... Chilis, Pizza Hut, Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken. The most money we spent was for the Luau at Paradise Cove.

I'll try to estimate what we spent.

Meals (Dinners) $300
Rental car $225
One tank of gas $65
Groceries $150
Luau (Royal Box on our anniversary) $250
Souvenirs $100
Misc. snacks and souvenirs at Aulani $85 at checkout.

We went to Pearl Harbor and toured the free tour.
We climbed Diamond Head
We drove to the North Shore (found Giovannis Shrimp Truck) and watched the surfers.
We stopped at the Dole Plantation.

We had the time of our lives at Aulani and hope to do it again in a year or two.

Good luck making your decision.

 

[rstackjd]

Thanks Mouseaider - that's good info.

This will be for our 15th Anniversary, so we don't want to "cheap out" but at the same time, can't go breaking the bank.

The info I'm seeing here tells me that we certainly can do it and have a great time.

 

[mouseaider]

This will be for our 15th Anniversary, so we don't want to "cheap out" but at the same time, can't go breaking the bank.

The info I'm seeing here tells me that we certainly can do it and have a great time.

Yes.... I think you can do it.

We also wanted to see the other islands but we also didn't have the time and money to use.

There is a lot to do on Oahu for first timers and we left some of the things on our list for the next trip.

And for the record..... I would NOT recommend doing the Royal Box at Paradise Cove. In fact, now that I've done a Luau I'd skip it all together.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm glad to help.

 

[rcchello]

I am also from the NY/NJ area and people from here are a little skewed when saying how expensive things are. A person from here would think restaurants in Disneyworld are fairly priced, where I have sat next to people from other parts of the country say otherwise.

I would say Hawaii is about as expensive as Disneyworld.



I just checked cost of living using salary.com and NY-Long Island and Honolulu is about a 3% difference. The difference between Green Bay and Honolulu is about 80%. Hawaii is more expensive in all cases. Housing is probably a large part of that but food has to be imported from the mainland.

 

[rstackjd]

I would say Hawaii is about as expensive as Disneyworld.

Now that's a comparison I can relate to. I suppose there are people who can't believe we go to WDW as often as we do because "it's so expensive" And frankly, they're right. Even with DVC, when you add in airfare, park admission, food, it's still not a cheap trip.

 

[sue]

We have been to Hawaii 3 times in the past 12 years. We have been to Oahu 3 times, Maui once, Big island once and Kauai once. Never though to Aulani. I will tell you this, Hawaii is very expensive. We bought groceries in Kauai last year in Princeville on the north shore. We had 6 of us staying at the RCI exchange through Disney vacation club and my "first trip" to the grocery store was $500.00 !!! My cart wasn't even full. A 12 pack of soda was $12.00. Bread was almost $5.00, milk was about $6.00. Some of the stores do have a rewards type card which is free to sign up for and you get the card immediately. It will bring down your costs of some items. Excursions can run really high too. We have parasailed in Honolulu and I think it was about $120.00 per person. We have gone to Sea Life park on Oahu which is fairly reasonable but a small aquatics type zoo. They have swim with the dolphins and train the dolphins there. That was expensive at roughly $165.00 per person. We have also gone to Polynesian culture center on Oahu. Don't remember what that cost though.

Kauai- did a tour of the island on a helicopter $225.00 per person ( well worth it). Ziplining $80.00 ( a blast) and also ATVing I think that was around $80.00 per person too.They have a FANTASIC luau on this island. The Smith family Luau HIGHLY recommend it!!!

Big island- Helicopter and parasailing. There is a really great sea side restaurant called Splasher's on this island. Highly recommend it (in Kona). This island didn't offer much as far as beauty at least on the Kona side. Total lava for miles and miles. The east side of the island is the lush side.


Maui- stayed at Hyatt regency (Kaananapali). Didn't have the ability to fix our own meals there, but there is a cute little town south of there call Lahaina. They have some fast food places like Burger King etc. They also have Cheeseburger in Paradise. I think you should probably figure on spending about $15.00 for a burger meal. Which back in the mainland would be around 8-9 bucks. We did the Atlantis sub ride on Maui and a few Luau's. The Hyatt has a fabulous Luau along with the old Lahaina luau. Luau's will run you about $150.00 per person but you also get entertainment included.

Bottom line bring a lot of money along if you go and I would suggest going out to Utube and checking out some of the videos people post of these excursion, so you can see first hand if it may be something you want to spend your money on. The cost to get to Hawaii is very high, so you want to make sure you are spending your money wisely.

 

[CarolAnnC]

I have heard that the restaurants at Aulani are quite pricey, so I believe you would save some $$ by purchasing groceries for some meals in your room.

We did lunch at one of the "shrimp trucks" on the North Shore of Oahu and the prices were very good there for a full meal. They are outdoor types of restaurants basically under tents on the shore. Not fancy but excellent food, and we would go back there. If you rent a car you can see the North Shore on your own, be sure to visit Turtle Beach with the impressive enormous sea turtles.

I think you can do the island for less money, perhaps not a real "budget" trip but not top shelf either. Research, and check out trip reports here on the DIS.

 

[DVCismyhappyplace]

There are definitely ways to cut the budget. On our first trip to the islands together, DH and I woke up super early our first morning (like 3 am early - thanks to jetlag). We were starving and nothing in the hotel was open yet, we found a Dennys.

Also, Oahu, Kaui and Maui all have Costcos near the airport. The costco will sell beer, wine, water, even leis. I believe everyone should do a luau at least once. However, I've never done one on Oahu.

The last time we were there (Maui - last September) gas was about $4.75 a gallon so you do have to factor that in.

 

[OurDogCisco]

Don't forget there is a super Target near the safeway that has better prices. Also, if you were a larger group I would recommend shopping at Costco. The prices are pretty similar to the mainland but the sizes are smaller. You can buy ONE gallon of milk where on the mainland I would have buy 2 at the same time. The meat is less expensive than the grocery store. We usually buy stuff that can be made into several meals. For example, we'll buy a tri-tip to eat for dinner. They sell sides like scalloped potatoes and I'll buy a bag of carrots. We'll make sandwiches with the leftover tri-tip and I'll buy hummus or some other dip to finish off the carrots. I would say the restaurant prices are similar to WDW but not the grocery prices. We go to Hawaii every year so, I've learned how to stretch our food budget there. Some times we go an eat out for lunch and eat in for dinner and breakfast. The lunch prices can be cheaper. We might eat out once for dinner as a special occasion. We mainly go to Hawaii to relax, snorkel and watch sunsets.

 

[OurDogCisco]

There are definitely ways to cut the budget. On our first trip to the islands together, DH and I woke up super early our first morning (like 3 am early - thanks to jetlag). We were starving and nothing in the hotel was open yet, we found a Dennys.

Also, Oahu, Kaui and Maui all have Costcos near the airport. The costco will sell beer, wine, water, even leis. I believe everyone should do a luau at least once. However, I've never done one on Oahu.

The last time we were there (Maui - last September) gas was about $4.75 a gallon so you do have to factor that in.

The costco in Maui now has a gas station. It opened a few weeks ago. So, the prices of gas should go down all around the island.

 

[DVCismyhappyplace]

The costco in Maui now has a gas station. It opened a few weeks ago. So, the prices of gas should go down all around the island.

Thanks for that!!!! DH and I are trying to figure out when we'll be able to get there for our next trip (hoping for early 2013) and this is great news!

 

[thruthelookinglass19]

The only thing that really stood out to me pricewise in the fall was a gallon of organic milk that cost about $9!!! I laughed so hard, I was crying. . .and I had to take a picture of it.

Good deals are to be had though. . . ever day on Oahu, I'd walk to Subway for breakfast and do the buy one get one Sub. Look into getting one of those entertainment passbooks as well. Lot's of B1G1 deals or 50% off. . .

 

[Pakey]

I leave next month for my 6th vacation in Hawaii. Since I live in CA, airfare is similar to what we pay to go to Orlando. I actually think Hawaii is a litle less expensive than going to WDW because we don't have to buy park tickets. I find the restaurant food and bar drinks to be comparable in price to WDW.

My husband and I are also in our 50s and we think the great thing about Hawaii is that you really don't have to do anything to absolutely enjoy the breathtaking scenery and gorgeous weather. If we are staying in a condo rather than a hotel, we buy groceries and eat out maybe 2 nice meals during a week to get a taste of some fantastic local fish. I think spending $12 for a watered down drink at the pool is ridiculous so we buy our own alcohol.

The only expense I've thought was was insane was a couple of car rentals. Going to Maui for spring break week was not good planning on our part--I almost cried paying for that car rental!

 

[taaren]

The costco in Maui now has a gas station. It opened a few weeks ago. So, the prices of gas should go down all around the island.

Yep, Costco gas is currently $3.94 here and the other gas stations have gone down to between $4.11-4.19 ...

Another thing to keep in mind, meals here can be as expensive or as cheap as you want them to be. Its often cheaper, just not nearly as healthy for DH, DS5 and I to go "out" to eat (vs buying groceries which are prohibitive), since plate-lunch style food is plentiful, and at around $8-10/plate, it can often easily feed two. Its delicious stuff, rice, meat, mayonnaise-drenched macaroni salad, but packs some calories.

For those of you that are thinking about coming to Hawaii frequently, Bank of America offers a Signature Alaska Airlines card, that for a $75 card fee includes a round trip companion fare that works to and from Hawaii. I just bought DS5's and my Maui-West Coast fare for our pre-Xmas trip to the World for half the price for two people (would have gotten it all the way to Florida, but we had SW credits and miles we needed to use). You can also go anywhere else Alaska flies with it, but the Hawaii legs are really the best value. (Though rumors are Southwest is also thinking about setting up running some flights out to Hawaii soon ... that's still a few years out though.)

So OP - Its really really expensive to live here, largely due to the high real estate prices. But it doesn't have to be too expensive to visit if you don't want it to be and don't mind taking advantage of the natural beauty and skipping some of the premium tourist offerings.

 

[Dean]

IMO HI is as expensive or cheap as you make it. Besides the getting there, it is more expensive than many locations but not than urban options. Groceries are more but not dramatically so, same for Gas, around $1 a gallon more it seemed average when were were there the last 3 weeks. Rental cars are comparable to most locations but more than LV or Orlando it seems. Good hotels tend to be expensive but DVC will help some of that. 2 people should be able to get by with under $2000 a week excluding air fare (variable depending on location) and hotel (? not needed for DVC members) but including a rental car, eating out about once a day and a Luau. For meals, one might look at menu's on sites ilke Roy's and the TS restaurants (Duke's, Leilani's, Keoki's, etc).

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

I leave next month for my 6th vacation in Hawaii. Since I live in CA, airfare is similar to what we pay to go to Orlando. I actually think Hawaii is a litle less expensive than going to WDW because we don't have to buy park tickets. I find the restaurant food and bar drinks to be comparable in price to WDW.

Same here. Our airfare to Florida or Oahu are in the ~$400+ range pp. We find what we budget for extras, restaurants, etc. are similar. We stay in DVC, or on hotel points. I haven't found the food etc to be the "two to three times as expensive" at all. Like anywhere the more high end places you eat, the more your bill! We generally eat 2 meals per day in our villa in either location, and buy alcohol and have it in the room, which saves a ton IMO!

 

[crisi]

From the Twin Cities airfare is usually much more expensive than from the West Coast. We didn't go during a high season, but rental cars wet pretty expensive, and necessary. There were plenty of places to eat that weren't bad, and some even cheap, but ther is sticker shock at the grocery, particularly on dairy for someone in dairy land.