Want to take family to Hawaii now! Tips?

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

After going to WDW for years, and going to Kona recently for a work trip, I'm determined to get our kids there. Problem = it's crazy expensive. Especially flights about $1,000 if you're lucky. And there are six of us. Any suggestions or tips and tricks how to save? I'm hoping for summer 2015.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I went with DD and my parents last August. We stayed on Oahu the entire time because I had to be there for work for 2 of the days. The main thing my dad wanted to do was visit Pearl Harbor and my mom is a nervous flyer. All that together made it seem most reasonable to stay on just the one island. If I were to go back, I would want to visit the Big Island and Kauai.

I started looking for airfares around mid-January and around the last couple days of January, the fares dipped down from around $1000/ticket to $700/ticket. Still extremely pricey, but a decent savings.

I found the best car rental rates at DiscountHawaiiCarRental.com. You can cancel anytime without penalty and if rates improve, you can cancel and rebook at the lower rate.

We stayed at traditional hotels, but there were much better rental rates at condos through vrbo.com. A bonus with a condo is that you could cook some meals in rather than eat out all the time.

I was really surprised to find reasonable prices for restaurant meals. The trick, at least on Oahu, is to search out smaller, mom and pop type restaurants. The restaurants in the main tourist areas and in hotels were not cheap, but there were plenty of better priced options. Tripadvisor.com was essential for locating some of those places.

 

[mrsp1030]

Do you have any type of rewards points/cards? Or any FF miles? That is the quick way to start saving. Renting a condo from redweek or vrbo would be a great way to save on lodging. Marriott has several condo properties on the islands and you can snag them off redweek for great deals.

 

[chris31997]

Get the family invovlved in saving. Do something visual.

Get a bucket and save coins and dollar bills. Be surprised at how quickly it adds up. Open an account just for this trip. The money from the bucket goes into it. Everyone empties their pockets into the bucket and it becomes the HI fund.

Brainstorm with the family on ways to cut the family budget:less eating out, taking lunch to school/work, fewer/cheaper date nights/fun activities as a family, use coupons

Find free things to do in HI to help keep cost down

 

[MSSANDRA]

Flights can be the toughest. connecting flights can be cheaper and if you are coming from the east coast, a layover in California can be helpful to help kids adjust to time changes. My family did a couple day layover to do DL but you could check prices and see where might be a cheaper choice. Also check where you fly out of. We are about 50 minutes away from one airport and a bit over an hour from the other. The second one can often be much cheaper to fly out of, though not near as easy to get to or manipulate. Also flying out of our much smaller and more local airport can also be much cheaper, though would require several transfers that might not be easy if your kids are little. Choosing a condo with a kitchen will be very helpful as food prices are quite high there.