Questions for a One Time Only Trip

[pixiedustedme]

We're planning to go to Aulani next June. Being from central Texas, Hawaii is a long, expensive trip, and not one that we're going to repeat anytime soon. I've been to Hawaii (Maui) once before, but have never been to Oahu. My 15 year-old son has never been to Hawaii at all. He's an open-minded traveler and enjoys resort relaxation and seeing sights about equally, just like me. We plan to rent a car for our stay, so that we can see sights around the island as well as enjoy the resort. I do not want to do a split stay with any other resorts, and I do not want to visit other islands. I want this trip to be relatively easy & hassle free, although I don't mind doing some driving to get around as I know Aulani isn't centrally located.

With those details in mind, how many nights do you think we should stay? I wouldn't do any less than 7 nights, given how long & costly a trip it is just to get there, but is 7 nights enough to feel like we've fully enjoyed the resort and also seen a few major sights on Oahu? Or would that be cutting it close & create stress? Is 9-nights more what we should aim for? We can't stay endlessly, but I'm willing to add on a few extra days to help us feel like we've had the full Aulani/Hawaii experience.

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights & experiences!

 

[OKW Lover]

Seven nights is good. Nine or ten is even better. Because of the long flight you won't actually get to Aulani until mid-afternoon. With the time difference (5 hours from TX) you will be pretty worn out that day and would probably want to spend the next day relaxing around the resort. So that eats up 2 of your days.

 

[jagron11]

We just returned. We're from North Texas, so understand many of your queries.

1. If in the budget I recommend the direct flight each way. We broke it up on the way and stayed in LA one night, flying first thing the next morning. But we will do direct both ways next time.

2. We did 10 nights (not including LA or the red eye back), and honestly it was a bit much. 8 or 9 seems about right. We did split between two islands though, so just 7 on one might be fine.

3. Aulani was great. The villas were awesome. The resort theming, the lazy river, the pools were awesome. BUT, my 12 year old basically said he preferred Maui. Now to be honest we did not explore that much on Oahu, outside of a trip to Pearl Harbor, which he loved. But we're SoCal beach bums at heart so he preferred the beach in Maui. There isn't much going on at the Aulani beach. SUPing is fun, and sand play is good for little ones, but for the older ones wanting some waves, even small ones, you're not going to get that. But if you're going to venture out and go to north shore and other beaches it might be a better experience, but we were dedicated to the Aulani resort given costs, length of time on Oahu, etc.

Good luck and have fun. And never say never about not returning. With all the bad press about Mexico and the Dominican, there's something nice about being in paradise and still in the USA.

 

[abdgeek]

Given your concerns, I would recommend spending 1 1/2 to 2 weeks to maximize what you can do. You could break it up as follows: 2-3 days to relax at Aulani, 1-2 days to do Waikiki, and 1 day to do a circle island tour, etc. The amount of time you need really depends on how much you want to do off site. If you haven’t already, look at the Aulani excursions listed on the website to get ideas of things you may want to do— you can do most on your own.

The first time I went to Aulani, I only stayed a week and instantly regretted it because I didn’t get to see all the sites on my list. When I go to Hawaii now, which I do every couple of years, I always go for two weeks and spend each week on a different island. I’m still working my way through my Hawaii sightseeing list. There’s a lot to do on Oahu. Good luck with you decision.

 

[pjacobi]

If all you want is a resort stay, why fly all the way to Hawaii when Florida and Mexico are a lot closer and cheaper?

I choose Hawaii to see something I can't see - like an active volcano. For me that make it worth the time and expense.


-Paul

 

[pixiedustedme]

If all you want is a resort stay, why fly all the way to Hawaii when Florida and Mexico are a lot closer and cheaper?

I look forward to resort time in Hawaii in particular because Hawaii has better weather than either Florida or Mexico (no cold winters or scorchingly hot summers, and fewer storms), is safer than Mexico, has an English-speaking population, is part of the USA, and is prettier than both of them.

Btw, nowhere in my post did I say that "all I want is a resort stay". On the contrary, I specifically stated that I plan to rent a car so that we can spend time exploring the island, as well as enjoying the resort.

Maybe read an entire post before popping off a critical response?

 

[mkb3]

We are from TX just spent 5 days in HI thought it was enough. We drove all over the island and saw everything we wanted to see. I could have used maybe one more day at the beach, but my family disagreed.

 

[Lisa Skier]

I would spend a couple of weeks every time I have been to Hawaii but my mom lives there so there is that. I have only stayed at the Aulani one time and that was with my grandson. We spent 4 days on the Big Island, right before the Volcano blew its top and then 3 days at the Aulani. My grandson, who is 8 loved the volcano and that piece of the trip but was equally happy at the Aulani. I could easily spend a week or so there.

 

[BigTex71]

If you are only staying at Aulani and you are renting a car - I would say 7 days would be the sweet spot. That would include relaxation time at the resort for a few days. You would have time to go to North Shore, Waikiki, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Valley of the Temples, and the windward side. If you can afford a few extra days - then take advantage of the long flight and stay a few extra days. I would highly recommend visiting Lanikai Beach at least one day, if not two. You can visit other places on that side of the island on those days. I have some pictures in my trip report - that is the best beach on all of Oahu, IMO, so a must-do!

 

[nkereina]

We stayed 16 nights in Hawaii, but that was visiting 3 islands and staying at 4 different resorts. For Oahu/Aulani only, I agree with PPs that 7 nights is a good amount.

We had a 6 hour time adjustment coming from the east coast, so our first two days there we were to bed early and awake early (i.e. 4:30am). Knowing this would likely happen, we took advantage of early mornings to do things that are best done early in the morning - Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head, for example. We tried to plan every other day at Aulani as a resort day so we could relax and enjoy the amenities of the resort. We used our car to drive all over the island - highly recommend the North Shore and a beach day on the windward side (Kailua). We had a total of 10 days on Oahu with 4 of those being resort-only days, and we did everything we wanted to do. I feel like we caught most of the highlights of the island during that time. There are things we missed, but they weren't important to us.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We went Saturday to Saturday (7 nights) and it was just right for us.

We did a little bit of sightseeing - Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, north shore, catamaran your/snorkeling, etc. but also spent quite a bit of time just enjoying the resort. It was a really nice balance of relaxation and activity.

We had a 5 hour time adjustment. We arrived on Saturday in the evening, ate dinner and went to sleep. We all felt pretty good on Sunday morning. We got our groceries and mostly relaxed around the resort and had a very chill day. On our departure day we flew out in the evening so we had the whole day to enjoy ourselves.

It was a really enjoyable trip. Hope to get back there again someday when my kids are a little older.

Have fun!

 

[pjacobi]

As a general rule of thumb, it takes one day per time zone to fully recover from jet lag. Most of jet lag can be conquered in a couple days, but you still may need several more days to fully reset your body clock.

From the East coast, that means the minimum stay in Hawaii or Europe is six days to fully recover from jet lag.

To make trip enjoyable for me, I need at least 14 days in Hawaii or Europe so that I can have at least a week free from jet lag.

With Hawaii, you may also want a rest day at home before returning to work.


-Paul

 

[nkereina]

As a general rule of thumb, it takes one day per time zone to fully recover from jet lag. Most of jet lag can be conquered in a couple days, but you still may need several more days to fully reset your body clock.

From the East coast, that means the minimum stay in Hawaii or Europe is six days to fully recover from jet lag.

To make trip enjoyable for me, I need at least 14 days in Hawaii or Europe so that I can have at least a week free from jet lag.

With Hawaii, you may also want a rest day at home before returning to work.


-Paul

I'll respectfully disagree. I think jet lag recovery varies by person. We had a 6 hour time difference going from NY to Hawaii. When we arrived, it was 2:30pm local time which was 8:30pm back home. We went to bed around 8pm Hawaii time, which was 2am home time. We were wide awake at 5am Hawaii time, which means we had about 6 hours of sleep which is about what we're used to at home. On day two, we were tired by 9pm, but went to bed around 10ish local time, so we were pretty much on a normal schedule by day 3 with no negative effects. I'll also add that we found Hawaii, in general, has a lack of night life which probably helped. Especially at Aulani, everything was dead after 9-10pm, so most of the time we were in our room getting ready for bed at that time. We were up 6-7am most days as well.

On the way home, we left Hawaii at 4pm local time and arrived in Atlanta at 6am eastern time the next day. We were home by 11am. We slept intermittently on the plane, but after arriving home, we made sure to stay awake and go to bed at our normal time to help us adjust better. It worked out well - we got a good night's sleep that night, and woke up feeling fine the next day.

 

[pixiedustedme]

As a general rule of thumb, it takes one day per time zone to fully recover from jet lag. Most of jet lag can be conquered in a couple days, but you still may need several more days to fully reset your body clock.

From the East coast, that means the minimum stay in Hawaii or Europe is six days to fully recover from jet lag.

To make trip enjoyable for me, I need at least 14 days in Hawaii or Europe so that I can have at least a week free from jet lag.

With Hawaii, you may also want a rest day at home before returning to work.


-Paul

I think jet lag varies by person, and by what class you flew: sitting up class (economy) or lying down class (business or first), and by how well you tend to sleep on planes in general, & and by how you schedule your arrival day. We just got back from a trip to Europe & we barely had any jet lag upon arrival in Europe, because we'd been able to sleep on the plane & then stayed on the go after landing until it was nighttime in Europe. And we had active days after that, so we adjusted to Europe time quickly. On the way home we had a daytime flight so we didn't sleep much, & we had no scheduled activities upon arrival to discipline us into our U.S. time zone, so jet lag lasted longer upon our return.