I hear so many people talk about how Hawaii is so expensive so I didnt even think about trying for our HM but I took a very very quick look to see how much flight/hotel packages were going for, for about 7-8 nights and it wasnt that bad, anywhere from 800-1500 per person. So, again, this was very quick, Im sure we would want to do another island as well, so figure split the time in half.
so, whats the story? am I missing something? I know food is quite expensive there but Im talking to the vacation price...how much are island transfers?
lucamon
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
where did you get that price from? What hotel or resort? For 7-8 nights we were quoted $6k for 2 people and that's not including food or excursions. Maybe prices have dropped due to the economy. I heard there are sales everywhere.
lucamon
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
Does that include air fare?
MrsSoto
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
From orbitz. I mean I just priced Maui and for February 2010 which is closer to our actually date. It was a little higher like mostly everything from 1300-1700 per person for 7 nights including airfare. But still...I've been thinking about it though...I guess say 1800 (at the high end based on these price) for 2 different hotels (2 islands), that comes to 3600 and then add in interisland flight (not sure how much, maybe say $400 each person)...that would come to $4400. This is such guestimating so who knoww really. Maybe prices really have gone down though.
geegee827
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
I personally don't think it's as expensive as people think it is. We are paying about $7,000 for 23 nights. Oahu (4) Kauai (9) and Maui (10) - all hotels are either partial ocean or full oceanview and breakfast is included. This includes the inter-island flights but does not include our airfare to/from Hawaii, which we are using FF miles for.
We were there in October of '07 and I don't think food was any more expensive than NY. Yes, you could go out and spend a fortune on dinners or you could do more moderately priced dinners.
Yes, excursions are expensive, but no matter where you go, excursions are expensive.
ETA: and by the way, the economy has affected things. When we first booked my TA quoted me one price. She called me last week and said the price dropped $200. She canceled our original reservation and re-booked for us!
MrsSoto
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
Posted by geegee827
I personally don't think it's as expensive as people think it is. We are paying about $7,000 for 23 nights. Oahu (4) Kauai (9) and Maui (10) - all hotels are either partial ocean or full oceanview and breakfast is included. This includes the inter-island flights but does not include our airfare to/from Hawaii, which we are using FF miles for.
We were there in October of '07 and I don't think food was any more expensive than NY. Yes, you could go out and spend a fortune on dinners or you could do more moderately priced dinners.
Yes, excursions are expensive, but no matter where you go, excursions are expensive.
ETA: and by the way, the economy has affected things. When we first booked my TA quoted me one price. She called me last week and said the price dropped $200. She canceled our original reservation and re-booked for us!
Thank you for the info! I cant afford that much unfortunately but I dont have that many days off anyway but that price still sounds pretty good for 23 days!!!...so maybe it is doable like you said. Who is your travel agent?
geegee827
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
I will FM you her info when I get home (I don't have it here at work - thought I did).
MrsSoto
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
Thanks, no prob!
MissC
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
Hawaiian airlines was doing $39 fares from island to island last year... I don't know if they're doing it this year. Either way, Hawaii is very do-able.
Espo22
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
hotel was $800-1500 for 7-8 nights and that included airfare? are you sure that wasnt the price per night bc usually the price they show for the hotel is per night. I mean lets say places that you found for $800, that would mean it would be less than $100 a night, and airfare would be barely anything for 2 ppl, something doesnt seem right. For it to be $800 that would mean hotel is $50 a night and airfare leaves $400 so 200 for each person.
ok so I just checked orbitz and saw some deals for hawaii for $1500 but thats the price per person, so for 2 ppl will be about $3k which $3k makes more sense, normally i would say hawaii is probably 5-6 k but with the economy now there are insane deals so $3k during this economy sounds about right. I was checking out cruises for our 1st anniversary and saw prices for $300-500 per person and so many other great deals.
GinaZ
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
DH and I were going to use his moms time share for hawaii as our honeymoon. The cost fo the flights were not thaaat bad at all. And then we were going to go to another island for 3or 4 nights in addition to the timeshare. But I spoke with a couple friends who ahd their honeymoons in hawaii. They said to budget $200 a day just for food and drinks. When I added up the food with renting a car (which we wanted to do to explore the islands) and we were told to budget $30 for anytime we would be on the beach and wanted chairs, it was coming out to a lot of money. We ended up not doing it. But if you plan and do a lot of research, you can probably do it for less than what I was coming up with. Everyone just kept telling me that once you are there, it is very expensive.
riapots
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
DH and I just got back from our Honeymoon in Maui and Oahu a few weeks ago and we spent less than $5,000 for 12 nights including lodging (all Starwood hotels with full or partial ocean views), food, excursions and tours, inter-island flight, rental car. We used miles for airfare, so we were able to save even more there, but I priced out similar flights a few months before we went and it was about $700 per person R/T.
We were able to save a lot because of the economy. Starwood hotels kept having these 50% off sales, so we saved a lot there. We also earned enough Starwood points towards future stays at other resorts (hoping to save that for a babymoon! ) Alamo had a special on convertibles in Hawaii for $159/week. We paid $39pp for inter-island flights on Hawaiian Airlines. Our travel agent gave us airport transfers/breakfasts for free and negotiated room upgrades. We got discount cards for excursions - Google A3H Gold Card - it's an organization made of the best tour operators (ie, Trilogy in Maui) and has 50% off tickets. We ate well - tons of good restaurants had specials, but also did the deli/supermarket thing to save when we could. Visit the Tripadvisor Hawaii message boards - the posters are passionate about Hawaii and are quick to post any specials/deals/discounts.
We had the honeymoon of our dreams and loved every minute of it. We didn't feel like we were penny pinching at all. In fact, we didn't look at the money until we came back, and we were pleasantly surprised we only spent that much. To anyone thinking about Hawaii - it's SOOO worth it. We can't wait to go back with our families and friends!!
DCLM726
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
I was just there in August and its not as expensive as everyone says it is. I would love to know why everyone says that! Our flight and hotels ( we did 2 islands) were about 3500. We did not do extravagent rooms (just oceanview). Food was about the same as going out here.
mmlighthse
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
I'm so glad there is so much input on Hawaii on here. We just went to liberty travel and were quoted alot more than that. Do you guys use a travel agent or did you just price it out yourself?
JamieAnt06202009
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Re: What's the story with Hawaii
I think it depends on where you stay and how many islands you go to. We are going for 17 days and we are paying over 10K. We are going during prime time and we are staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Grand Hyatt and Four Seasons. The Four Seasons is costing us the most and we are staying there the longest (8 nights). So if you choose different hotels your cost will be a lot different, also remember you will need a car in most islands. The cost includes our car and leis in each island.
