So last night we were talking and decided that we are def. going to Hawaii for our honeymoon (yay) but I don't even know where to start because whenever I go anywhere I always book through the internet.... I never deal with travel agents.
Since this is our Honeymoon & Hawaii..... I want to make sure everything is perfect. Should I start online and then start calling travel agents? anyone in particular? I don't think we're interested in a cruise so I think that's one thing out of the way.But we def want to do an island hop (not even sure if thats what you call it) but if the honeymoon itself will be 10 days (is that the norm for hawaii????) how many islands can you fit?
Help!!!!
Papillon25
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Re: Hawaii - Honeymoon - Need Advice...kinda long
I bought a book - Pauline Frommers budget guide to hawaii - it gives you a good description of each island. Each island is very different and it depends on what you want to do while you are there. You can also check out trip advisor.
It is 2 full days of travel to and from hawaii - so with 10 days, you are going to end up with 8, maybe 8.5 there. I would probably do 2 islands in that amount of time.
We booked through a travel agent - a family member of one of our friends, FM me if you want her information. I just found it easier because you need the flights between the islands, hotels, rental cars, etc. Its a lot to look at all the variables on the different travel sites (usually I just use expedia, but this seemed too hard). I would check out expedia/priceline, etc. and take a look at the different hotels that are available. It was easy for us because we had picked out where we wanted to stay so we told our TA and she just made it happen. I don't know if the TA saved us a TON of money, but we did get upgrades like to a 1 bedroom instead of a studio in Maui and convertibles instead of regular rental cars. I am glad to have that stress over. And its easier to change with a TA than an online vendor. And I am able to make payments to the TA over the next 4 months rather than paying all at once when I book.
HTH
GinaZ
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Re: Hawaii - Honeymoon - Need Advice...kinda long
FH and I came soooo close to doing hawaii. I think in that amount of time you can do 2 islands and have plenty of time at each- from what I read. Everyone told me that Maui is a must. Def do some looking around and then go to a TA and see what they can get you- you are not obligated to book with them- but if they can get you a great deal you may as well!!
emcheung
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Re: Hawaii - Honeymoon - Need Advice...kinda long
i'm in the process of booking my hawaiin honeymoon. i'm such a researching type that i pretty much researched all the places to stay in maui and kauai. we're doing condos for both islands and then staying in oahu for two nights at a hotel. we checked with a travel agent, but we found it cheaper to book the condos ourselves because we're renting them directly from the owners. so unfortunately for money sake, we're booking everything ourselves. for air/car/hotel and condos, our budget is $5000. feel free to fm me for info on planning your trip yourself. i think it's worth checking with a travel agent if you don't have the time to do all your own research and you kinda want someone else to do all the work. plus, they could give you some awesome ideas on where to stay and what to do. good luck! oh, and i wouldn't do more than two islands.
fujamaga
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Re: Hawaii - Honeymoon - Need Advice...kinda long
Just a heads up on island hopping, it doesn't actually take that long to go from an island to another (typically an hour flight, plus give or take an hour or two waiting and leaving the airport), BUT you might not get as much out of your visits if you go from island to island.
When I went, I had two weeks and only went to 2 islands: Oahu and Maui. And I STILL felt like I was rushing things. It depends on what you want to do. If you want to visit all the sights (which I did) 2 is the most you should do otherwise you'll feel like you were going all over the place but never seeing everything. JMO.
