Hawaii what to do and where to go ?

[Rocket1k78]

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I booked it pre-covid and have rebooked it 4 additional times due to government general incompetence. I enjoy Hawaii but the act of getting there becomes more of a pain in the ass every year.

Even pre covid thats gotta take a lot of the fun out of any trip no? Its been 16 years since i got married and it was local and i still remember how brutal the planning was

[finboy]

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Even pre covid thats gotta take a lot of the fun out of any trip no? Its been 16 years since i got married and it was local and i still remember how brutal the planning was

Surprisingly wasn’t bad until we had to deal with rebooking, transferring the reservations to the new company, dealing with several condo owners leaving the company that bought out the original reservation company. I want to go enjoy my trip, but a part of me just wants the whole thing to be over with lol.

[RX_EVOLV]

We had our wedding in Hawaii (Oahu) and planning for guests to be there was fine. People were more than happy and capable of booking their own AirBnb or hotel as alot of the guests just treated it as their annual family vacation and booked to stay for the whole week. The only challenge we had was coordinating space for parking for all the cars, and having to plan a few pre-wedding and post-wedding day get together since everyone's there. It was a great experience. No regrets on any of it.

[JordanEG6]

We eloped in Kauai in May. Best decision ever.

No frills. Very little planning, ceremony was 20 min tops, an hour for pictures, and a nice quiet dinner afterwards. We also scheduled it within 3 days of arriving so we could enjoy the rest of the vacation and not having to worry about anything.

[2Legit2Quit]

^ Did the same in January this year, we were staying in Moloaa bay and just got married on the beach one morning, pictures, champagne and a baller meal we made for dinner that evening.

Perfect day, eloping ftw.

[bjstare]

God I'm jealous. Highly preferable to blowing $50k on a party for other people.

[JordanEG6]

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^ Did the same in January this year, we were staying in Moloaa bay and just got married on the beach one morning, pictures, champagne and a baller meal we made for dinner that evening.

Perfect day, eloping ftw.

Congrats!

Agreed.
Eloping FTW.

[Misterman]

Just starting to look at winter vacation options now. After the kid getting HFM really bad in Mexico last February, we were really leaning towards not staying at a resort this time. Checked out Hawaii, and I gotta ask, how are any of you middle class plebs like me staying there? Minimum entry price for an Airbnb in Maui or Honolulu is 15 grand. Plus I still have to rent a car, eat, etc. Is there a secret to booking accommodations?

[finboy]

Prices went huge post covid (our units almost doubled in price), we stay at the same condo that has a full kitchen and hit up Costco/the farmers market for food, and renting a car is basically our only other expense. Snorkelling is free (parking now costs money), walking the beach is free, hiking is free, etc.

I suspect a recession will drive prices back down, hopefully our dollar strengthens a bit but Ontario loves them a cheap CAD.

[89coupe]

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Just starting to look at winter vacation options now. After the kid getting HFM really bad in Mexico last February, we were really leaning towards not staying at a resort this time. Checked out Hawaii, and I gotta ask, how are any of you middle class plebs like me staying there? Minimum entry price for an Airbnb in Maui or Honolulu is 15 grand. Plus I still have to rent a car, eat, etc. Is there a secret to booking accommodations?

I think you need to be a little more specific, how long is your stay, how many rooms required, location, etc.

[RX_EVOLV]

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Just starting to look at winter vacation options now. After the kid getting HFM really bad in Mexico last February, we were really leaning towards not staying at a resort this time. Checked out Hawaii, and I gotta ask, how are any of you middle class plebs like me staying there? Minimum entry price for an Airbnb in Maui or Honolulu is 15 grand. Plus I still have to rent a car, eat, etc. Is there a secret to booking accommodations?

The single homes that are walking distance to the beach is quite unaffordable ($20K+ for one week), but if you don't need that, accommodations can still be 'cheaper'. You can still rent a house close to the middle of the island for <$750/night, or what we are doing this time is rent a 2bedroom apartment inside Waikiki for ~$500/night. If your kids don't mind sleeping in the living room then you can get a 1bedroom for cheaper. Also if you are staying in Waikiki then you don't need to rent a car, or at least just rent one for a couple days if you want to drive up North Shore or what not.

Other than that, things are not that expensive. Most family activities are cheap/free like beach day, snorkeling, hiking, etc.. eating is not too bad since most Hawaiian food are street food and there's always costco if you want to cook some meals yourself.

You can also 'rough' it and stay in an apartment for a few days in Waikiki, and then head up to Aulani Disney Resort for a couple of nights for the kids.

[2Legit2Quit]

Hawaii can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. It is more jacked up right now due to post covid travel rush and CAD sucking ass though.

Down to churn a credit card for a welcome bonus? Keep an eye out for a travel based CC with a good welcome bonus, I got the Westjet Mastercard last year as it had $450 Westjet dollars and a $0 Companion pass as the welcome bonus, just about covered airfare for my wife and I, toss in free bags with the card as well.
Rental car, use travel points to cover the cost and continuously check leading up to your trip for deals whether you initially book through Costco or https://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com/en-ca/ You can just cancel your booking and rebook if you come across a deal. For our last trip our original booking was $1000+ USD and ended up getting it for ~$500 USD
Food - Go to Costco and eat/drink like a king, USD still going to get you but shopping at Costco will offset that quite a bit and get quality food. Cheapest place for booze as well.
Lodging - Most expensive aspect for me, area/proximity to the beach will get you and how big of place you need. Cheaper rentals will be out of the hotspot towns and also mean a drive to the beach, so you'd have to research what works for you.
Flight deals for Hawaii come up pretty regularly, but hardest part is they're generally for flying in the couple months ahead of the deal, while most of Hawaii is already booked up for vrbo/airbnb rentals so it can be moot unless you make it work.

I'm bias towards Kauai so I don't even look at the other islands, been to Oahu, no interest in Maui, and will probably take a side trip to big island one day.
Westjet has a fare sales for Kauai at the moment ~$400-440 return for some dates but again lining up a rental is the hard part.

The owner of the rental we like allows us to book through him directly and avoid paying the VRBO fees which saves us $700+ for a stay, we've had enough trips to dial in what we want and how to get the best bang for our buck.

[finboy]

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Hawaii can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. It is more jacked up right now due to post covid travel rush and CAD sucking ass though.

Down to churn a credit card for a welcome bonus? Keep an eye out for a travel based CC with a good welcome bonus, I got the Westjet Mastercard last year as it had $450 Westjet dollars and a $0 Companion pass as the welcome bonus, just about covered airfare for my wife and I, toss in free bags with the card as well.
Rental car, use travel points to cover the cost and continuously check leading up to your trip for deals whether you initially book through Costco or https://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com/en-ca/ You can just cancel your booking and rebook if you come across a deal. For our last trip our original booking was $1000+ USD and ended up getting it for ~$500 USD
Food - Go to Costco and eat/drink like a king, USD still going to get you but shopping at Costco will offset that quite a bit and get quality food. Cheapest place for booze as well.
Lodging - Most expensive aspect for me, area/proximity to the beach will get you and how big of place you need. Cheaper rentals will be out of the hotspot towns and also mean a drive to the beach, so you'd have to research what works for you.
Flight deals for Hawaii come up pretty regularly, but hardest part is they're generally for flying in the couple months ahead of the deal, while most of Hawaii is already booked up for vrbo/airbnb rentals so it can be moot unless you make it work.

I'm bias towards Kauai so I don't even look at the other islands, been to Oahu, no interest in Maui, and will probably take a side trip to big island one day.
Westjet has a fare sales for Kauai at the moment ~$400-440 return for some dates but again lining up a rental is the hard part.

The owner of the rental we like allows us to book through him directly and avoid paying the VRBO fees which saves us $700+ for a stay, we've had enough trips to dial in what we want and how to get the best bang for our buck.

This man Hawaii’s right

[Rocket1k78]

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You can also 'rough' it and stay in an apartment for a few days in Waikiki, and then head up to Aulani Disney Resort for a couple of nights for the kids.

Not worth roughing it the first couple nights for a couple days there. Weve stayed there and its meh but with the disney tax.

[phreezee]

No point in going to Honolulu for the rest of 2022: https://beatofhawaii.com/epic-malasa...onards-bakery/

[finboy]

I prefer the ones from upcountry in Maui, but sugar beach bake shop is where we are getting our wedding cake (possibly having to buy it slice by slice because their communication channels suck)

[89coupe]

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I prefer the ones from upcountry in Maui, but sugar beach bake shop is where we are getting our wedding cake (possibly having to buy it slice by slice because their communication channels suck)

Leonard’s is on a different island.

Sugar Beach Bakery has amazing malasadas.

Can’t say if they make good cake or not.

[finboy]

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Leonard’s is on a different island.

Sugar Beach Bakery has amazing malasadas.

Can’t say if they make good cake or not.

They have a great tropical carrot cake, originally they were going to make the cake for our wedding pre covid. Last 6 months they have gone radio silent via email, calling gets clueless staff who say “we only sell by the slice, you have to email the lady about other requests” and the loop continues.

[Misterman]

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The single homes that are walking distance to the beach is quite unaffordable ($20K+ for one week), but if you don't need that, accommodations can still be 'cheaper'. You can still rent a house close to the middle of the island for <$750/night, or what we are doing this time is rent a 2bedroom apartment inside Waikiki for ~$500/night. If your kids don't mind sleeping in the living room then you can get a 1bedroom for cheaper. Also if you are staying in Waikiki then you don't need to rent a car, or at least just rent one for a couple days if you want to drive up North Shore or what not.

Other than that, things are not that expensive. Most family activities are cheap/free like beach day, snorkeling, hiking, etc.. eating is not too bad since most Hawaiian food are street food and there's always costco if you want to cook some meals yourself.

You can also 'rough' it and stay in an apartment for a few days in Waikiki, and then head up to Aulani Disney Resort for a couple of nights for the kids.

I thought my search criteria was pretty reasonable. 2 bedroom, fitness facility and pool on site. I didn't select beach front or anything. Literally nothing in that criteria for less than 1500$ per night.

I never had any desire to sit in restaurants half the day, so the plan was just do a big costco grocery shop and cook our own meals.

My kid is 2, I'm not looking to do anything extravagant for activities. But needless to say, it's the accommodation costs that seem way out of whack. Probably just going to go to Costa Rica at this point, but thought it was worth it to ask and see if I was out of the loop on some booking secrets for Hawaii. Oh well.

[RX_EVOLV]

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I thought my search criteria was pretty reasonable. 2 bedroom, fitness facility and pool on site. I didn't select beach front or anything. Literally nothing in that criteria for less than 1500$ per night.

Why do you need 2bedroom if your kid is only 2?

You challenge is definitly the pool/fitness part. A 2bedroom at a decent hotel will definitly be >$1500/night and you won't have a kitchen to cook. You can definitly find a 2bedroom Airbnb for <$700/night if you don't need a pool/gym.

Regency on Beachwalk in Waikiki might fit your criteria. It a vacation condo owned by Outrigger that has 1 or 2 bedroom units with kitchen, but you can also walk over to the Outrigger Reef hotel that is 1 block away to use the pool and fitness facility. It's not the newest building, but you are only looking at ~$600/night in the heart of Waikiki 1.5 block from the beach for a 2bedroom.