Anyone live in Hawaii?

Question

I am planning on going there next September (2007) for my Honeymoon and we only have $3,000 to fly and stay there for a week. Is that enough and can we do much with it? Any tips?
Do you know of anyone who lets vacationers stay for cheap? or is $3,000 enough to do something fun and romantic?

Answer 1

You do not say where you flying from?
But if I might make a suggest of a way to have a wonderful Honeymoon, and see the Islands at same time.
Look into doing a Cruise of the Hawaiian Islands.
NCL has 3 ships which do nothing but cruise around thee Islands, each day you are in a different port so you sail at night and enjoy the islands during the day.
Cost can be very low if you do not book the most expansive cabin. Go for an in side cabin. You sleep in a cabin, do not spend a lot of time there otherwise. (?Honeymoon)
NCL has some great air and sea packages, Have a look.
You can do cruise cheaper than booking air and hotel by yourselves

If you only want one Island, Then it has to be Maui.

But the cruise gives you all meals, great entertainment and fun.

Answer 2

You're in luck!

I live in Hawaii and sure... 3K should be no problem depending on your lifestyle. If you're Paris Hilton, Forget-about-it. If you're a Hippy, and love the Jack-in-the-box dollar menu, then it's no problemo. You should have plenty of money left over.

Hawaiian Airlines is usually the cheapest and the best.

The bus goes all over Oahu and is dirt cheap.
You can circle the island. Get on and off the buss whenever you want at what ever scenic spot you like.

The beach is free & Romantic. No one can own the beach so you can stay at the cheapest place in Waikiki and lounge around in front of the resorts. No one can stop you. (You can't drink on the beach so you'll need to cover or disguise your booze.) No camping either.

Buy the book Oahu Revealed. It's the best guide book you'll ever own. Lots of fun free stuff to do. You should have a blast.

Aloha,
Dave.

Answer 3

$3000 should be enough. Your airline tickets will cost you, but staying there can be as cheap as you want it to be. There are places where you can camp. Won't cost you anything. You gotta be an outdoors type for that. If that's not for you, try loooking into "house sitting" or doing a swap for a house, like you go there, someone else comes to your place.

Eating out can be expensive, but if you want, you can buy food at a grocery store and eat cheap. If you're camping, you'll be able to cook your own stuff and not pay the outrageous prices at some of the restaurants.

A car is almost a "must", unless you want to bicycle around the islands. A car rental will run you about $200 a week, plus gas. bicycles can be rented a lot cheaper, if you wanna go that route.

Remember, touristy things can be expensive. Like if you want to go to a luau at a hotel. They can really cost. $70 a person and up. If you want to go to a real authentic local luau, find a church or a school who is putting one on. It won't be the big names, but it will be REAL! And a heck of a lot less expensive than the hotels charge. Plus, you'll get a kick out of the kids doing hula and eating local "cuisine" made by locals. It's usually a lot better than the hotel food at the luaus.

Yeh, it can be done for $3000. I wish you luck and Aloha!

Answer 4

Well the airfare would depend on where you traveling from.

I would say 3000.00 would be enough to get you by. It wouldnt be enough to see alot of the islands, or do alot of things you might want to do, but you could still have a great honeymoon.

Assuming you book in advance you could probably get decent airfares from 500 to 700 depending on where you travel from. Assuming you stay on ONE island also. Each additional hop between islands is ussualy from 70 to 150 per flight.

So lets say you fly to Maui and pay 600 a piece for the plane tickets, you are up to 1200 right there. In hawaii you need to rent a car , and that would probably be around 200 for the week on average. So thats up to 1400.00. I stayed at a really nice place in kapalua which in on the west side of Maui. It was called the Kapalua Villas and their condos start at around 225 a night. So if you are looking at 7 nights that 1575.00 or so. That would put you around 3000.00 total. But then you have to factor in food and entertainment at around 50 to 100 a day also. You can find very nice hotels along Kaanapali beach for about 150/nt which would meet your budget when you include food.

I would say you go for it, even if you cant see multiple Islands, just being in Hawaii is enough to remember.

Answer 5

I would recommend you find the cheapest flight you can. Hawaiian airlines is an awesome airlines that offers great prices but going off season help a lot.

You could do a Hawaii cruise for about $700/person. This would be great as most meals would be included plus you get to see almost every island. You can't beat the no stress cruise vacations. If you get a good deal on your airfare, you could actually come within budget.

Have fun!

Answer 6

First of all - Congratulations! After the wedding, you're going to need a relaxing vacation in Hawaii!

Since you're on a budget, you're really going to need to do some research. Hopefully we all can give you some advice to use. First of all, decide which island. It'll cost more to island hop so you might consider staying on one island to stay on budget. Go to Oahu (Waikiki) if you are looking to do a lot of activities and get some night life. The other islands are more for relaxing and sight seeing.

Look into vacation packages that have air, room and car included. I don't know where you are flying from, but the packages can give you some good deals. September is actually a good month to travel here - the air fares tend to drop after labor day and so do some hotel rates. Hawaiian Airlines has some good deals for both air fares only and packages. For instance, right now, you could get air/room/car for a week in Waikiki for about $700 per person from LA. $1400 total leaving you $1600 to play with - not bad! Don't expect to stay at a plush resort though - you'll get a decent room with some amenities; around the 2 to 3 star range. If you decent to go ala cart and get everything separate, then look for good air fares on expedia, priceline, etc. Look for vacation rentals too - sometimes those are really good deals and have kitchens so you can cook for yourself instead of eating out all the time. For car rentals, check your credit card policies or AAA policy; sometimes your credit card company or AAA has insurance coverage for rental cars.

Here are some tips:

- Activity packages like jet skiing, luaus, etc. from tour companies include hotel pick up and drop off. If you have your rental car, ask about rates without transportation. Most of the time, you can get cheaper rates if you drive yourself. Get good directions and a map. Get a map BEFORE you get here. Get an idea of how the island is situated and where the places you want to visit are located. Don't drive during rush hour - 6-8 am and 3:30-6pm. You'll end up wasting hours just sitting in traffic.

- If you don't get a car, use the Bus. We have a great Bus system here that can take you just about anywhere. I think you get the bus route online.

- If you belong to some kind of mileage program or AAA or military or company travel program etc, check to see if any of these programs have special discounts for anything in Hawaii. There are a lot of military discounts and almost all hotels have AAA discounts. If you are going to use a travel agent, make sure you let your travel agent know if you qualify for AAA or military etc. If your travel agent doesn't book your travel with these discounts, you won't get them. The hotels can't give you a discount after everything is booked by the agent.

- Keep your luggage light. September here is fairly nice - about 75-80 deg with occasional showers. If you go some place nice, the most you'll need is "Aloha Attire" - that means a nice summer dress, slacks, aloha shirt, etc. You can get suntan lotion, extra film, etc here.

- If you want to shop for souvenirs, find swap meets or flea markets. There's a big one on Oahu at the Aloha Stadium on Wed and Sat. You can find the same tourist stuff at great bargains; and sometimes some not so common tourist stuff.

- When you get here, get the local paper or grab a whole bunch of brochures from the activity stand at the airport. There are a lot of 2 for 1 deals, coupons, and specials that change weekly - but you have to look.

- Check out the local event listings. To get an idea, check out the honoluluadvertiser.com. Some local events are free such as parades and have great entertainment. Some restaurants have live bands.

- If you can, make some activity reservations (like luaus, water activities, dinner cruises, etc) before you get here. BUT make sure they tell you the cancellation policy. Usually, for those, its a 24 cancellation policy. If you make the reservation, then at least you know you have something already planned and they have room for you.

- If you have a friend who lives here, see if they can help you get Kamaaina discounts. Its a discount offered to local residents but sometimes it covers the local AND guests.

- Talk to the locals. From the people on the plane, to the counter help, hotel staff, bus drivers. If some people are not helpful, don't let that turn you off. Most locals here are pretty friendly and can offer some great tips (like where to eat!).

- And last but not least, tell everybody you are on a honeymoon!!! You'd be surprised how romantic people are - you might score some freebies!

Answer 7

Your air fair will probably be the most expensive. Look for package deals. That will probably give you the most for you money. Sams Club has some vacation packages. You might want to try them if you are a member. Try not to eat in tourist areas. We lived there for three years and at first we were going to eat at Waikiki etc... we soon found that things are cheaper away from that area.

If you don't want to rent a car the bus on Oahu is a pretty good system. We use to take it quite a bit.

Good luck!!!