How expensive is Hawaii?

[Carrie in AZ]

W were at Aulani July 10-13. I just dug up two of our receipts and here are some prices for you....

I'm sure you've read about the ABC Store across the street from Aulani. It's within walking distance and it is where we walked to buy some groceries for our villa. A sample:

Asian Salad: 6.99
Chef Salad: 7.99
Cut/Cubed Watermelon: 4.99
Boars Head Bacon: 8.79
California Pizza Kitchen indiv. cheese pizza frozen: 4.69
CPK reg size pizza frozen: 10.49


I'm sure you have also read about one of the restaurants across the street from Aulani called Just Tacos. It's a sit-down place, order from a menu with a server. Two adult meals and two kids meals and two sodas came out to $49.06, I left a $9 tip so $58.06 for a large lunch. I took half of my meal back to the villa as well as a whole basket of chips which we topped with shredded cheese purchased from the market and made nachos back in our room the next day.

Smoothies ordered from the Aulani bar were $6 each. I think our four breakfast sandwiches, some fruit and a yogurt parfait came out to nearly $40. I didn't think that was too bad. We live in the Phoenix area and it costs $15 to take my two daughters thru McDonald's drive-thru for breakfast. I prefer Aulani LOL!

After leaving Aulani, we went to Kauai. It sounds like we shopped at the same grocery store on the north shore as the OP. VERY expensive. Our half gallon of organic milk was over $6. A couple bags of groceries came out to over $300. It was very expensive there. Gas was 4.51

Good luck with your planning. I say "go for it"! Like so many have said, you can do it on a conservative budget if necessary by doing a bit of planning and knowing going into it that you can save quite a bit of money if you eat/drink some of your meals in your room/villa.

 

[HeyMoe]

We just returned from a 10 day / 9 night trip to Aulani. There were four of us (me and my wife and our two boys, 12 & 9). We spent around $4000 for the trip not including airfare. About Half of this cost went to the following:

Car rental - $275
5-Day Go Oahu Passes (included the Germaines Luau) - $775
Surfing lessons - $500
Snorkling trip to see dolphins and sea turles - $325
Aulani Room Tax - $80

The other half went to groceries (we shopped at Target), dining, drinks, souveniers, gas, and a few miscellaneous expenses. Please keep in mind that we didn't eat at the Aulani restaurants. If we did, our dining costs would have gone way up.

Hope this helps.

 

[dvc_john]

One small help is that the sales tax is lower in Hawaii than in most states.
It's 4% in most places, 4.5% in Oahu.

(Actually, they don't call it a sales tax in Hawaii, the call it a 'gross receipts tax, but it's pretty much the same as a sales tax.)

 

[SINK]

Money saving tips:

Costco (they have great deals on Mauna Loa Macadamia nuts as well; great papaya's and pineapples).

Entertainment book: we bought the book just for the 25% savings at Paradise Cove. Some coupons for meals. (We may try Germaine's Luau this September).

 

[abdgeek]

I was at Aulani June 23-July 1 and stayed on DVC points. However, I was still concerned about what my meals would cost. I opted to rent a car at Aulani(cheaper than renting it at the airport) and do my own sightseeing for three days instead of paying for tours. I went to Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, Bishop Museum, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Iolani Palace and a few other places. I paid to do the Aulani PCC excursion and was glad I did because it's an hour around the island. I ate breakfast in my room the first few days to save money and ate dinner in Waikiki while I was out. After that, I ate at the resort. Look at the resort menus to see if they fit your price range. You can also eat at the ABC store shops across the street. Hawaii is expensive, but I thought it was worth it. I'm already planning my return trip.

 

[manning]

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.

How much was a hot dog and pop? Just curious.

 

[manning]

I was at Aulani June 23-July 1 and stayed on DVC points. However, I was still concerned about what my meals would cost. I opted to rent a car at Aulani(cheaper than renting it at the airport) and do my own sightseeing for three days instead of paying for tours. I went to Diamond Head, Pearl Harbor, Bishop Museum, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Iolani Palace and a few other places. I paid to do the Aulani PCC excursion and was glad I did because it's an hour around the island. I ate breakfast in my room the first few days to save money and ate dinner in Waikiki while I was out. After that, I ate at the resort. Look at the resort menus to see if they fit your price range. You can also eat at the ABC store shops across the street. Hawaii is expensive, but I thought it was worth it. I'm already planning my return trip.

How did you get to the resort?

 

[dianeschlicht]

You have gotten good advice from many people here. The only thing I will add is that since you are coming from the upper midwest like we do, you will NOT want to go for just 1 week. We did that our first time to Hawaii, and it was a mistake. It is far too long a trip and with too much of a time change to go for just a week. Since that first trip we have had trips ranging from 2-3 weeks in length. They have been MUCH more enjoyable! I also would not spend all your time on Oahu. Throw in the Big Island of Hawaii too, and you will find things are a bit less expensive on that island. We are taking our family in February (2 adult offspring and us 2 seniors), and we are spending a week at Aulani plus one day in a "cheapy" hotel the first night. That cheap hotel for a night is because to get the $1000/person airfare from Minnesota, you have to arrive at night thus missing your whole first day. I wasn't willing to give up a whole day of my Aulani trip, so we are doing it this way.

We went to VRBO and rented a 2 bedroom condo at Kona for $1700 for a week (tax included). I thought that was a Good deal, and we will have cooking facilities in both Aulani and Kona to help reduce food costs. We have enjoyed taking advantage of the roadside farmer's markets in Hawaii too. These are more prevalent on Hawaii than they are on Oahu.

There are a lot of inexpensive things to do on Oahu too that don't have to cost an arm and a leg. You can hike Diamond Head free! Driving around the island only costs you the gas in addition to your rental car. I wouldn't do any of the islands without a car. You miss too much if you don't have a car. There is also no charge for visiting the Arizona Memorial or the accompanying museum. These are part of a National Park system. There are things you can pay to see there as well, but the memorial is not one of them.

 

[Disneyaunt4]

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.

Did a Luau years ago and would never do another, not worth the money.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

We had our first visit to Hawaii in March. Like many here, we didn't find the restaurants to be more expensive than we find on the West Coast. We are military, so we bought our groceries on base, which was a substantial savings, I hear. Our car rental was $400 and gas was about 20 cents a gallon more than we were paying here, so not as shocking to us.

I just wanted to say we loved our luau at Paradise Cove - just the "ordinary" table. There were lots of little activities and the food was pretty good. I think your experience is what you make it. I have a TR almost finished. We did our own touring - we are about your age, too. Happy Planning, and just make it happen so you have no regrets!

 

[happymommy]

We used to live on Oahu, and own at Marriott's Ko Olina (next door to Aulani). We've been back 5 times from the East Coast.

First of all, if you're looking at early 2013, I'd start planning now. If you have dates, start looking for airfare. I'm already looking for June 2013 (have our two weeks booked already).

We generally make most meals in, since we have a full 2 bedroom condo. We grill a LOT! It's fun and just so easy. You can get good fish, plus we do make the usual items as well, like burgers.

We shop Costco and Super Target first, then pick up what we have to at Safeway. Safeway is more in Hawaii (I never could understand how anyone could shop there when we lived there, at least for most items). Target and Costco are similar prices to the mainland.

Honestly, our trips to Hawaii are probably our cheapest vacations. We own the condo, so it's just the maintenance fees. Car rentals can be reasonable on Oahu, if you plan ahead and look for deals (we have a car the whole time always). We don't eat out a lot, since we just prefer eating in and grabbing some meals out, plus we know where we like to go that are local and not much money. We bring a lot like our own snorkels. We use airline miles, so have never paid for a plane ticket.

If you plan ahead, it shouldn't cost too much.

We also bring a suitcase with pantry items like snacks and cereal, pancake mix, pastas, plus condiments and spices. Also ziploc bags, Reynolds Wrap, etc.... That helps when we shop, that we don't have to pick up those items (or remember to) when we get there!

Last time, my DH wanted to have some tequila. A HUGE bottle at Costco of a good one (their brand, but he said it was really good) was like $10. It would be more than that for a drink or two at the bar. So we bought it and then had half left when we checked out, so I gave it to a nice lady in the hallway! The housekeeping can take leftover items, but not alcohol.

 

[dsneygirl]

After our flights (obviously the most expensive) and dues we maybe spent $800 for our 8 nights at Aulani. We bought groceries and booze off site and didn't do any pricey tours or excursions (got Oahu Revealed and made our own tours) Also I considered the groceries and gas to be a wash because if we had been at home for those 8 days DH would have spent more in gas to commute to work and we would have still had to buy groceries and diapers.

We also spent almost $300 on Aulani souvenirs which we could have kept a lot lower.