Might Go To Hawaii. How Much Does It Cost?

[kimokalihi]

Five year anniversary with my girlfriend is coming up in March and I asked her what she wanted to do and she suggested going to Hawaii. Something we've talked about doing someday for a long time. I'm half hawaiian and I've never been there before. I have relatives there I have never met before and we may or may not see them.

So how much is this going to cost us? Ballpark, of course. I asked a friend from work who goes on vacations regularly and he said probably $2,500 for two people for a week on the low end. That's a lot of money. I definitely don't want to spend more than that. If need be we can shorten the stay. I glanced at ticket prices and saw them in the low $300s round trip per person so $700 for airline tickets.

Anybody gone to Hawaii with their sweetheart for a week? What did it cost you?

[evolutionmovement]

You'll have to spend some time shopping it. Prices on everything can vary considerably to anywhere. You also have to figure out what you want to do and see. You might want to plan an itinerary based on budget. Maybe there's something you really want to do that costs too much, but you can afford if you do cheaper hotels or cut something somewhere else. Maybe you can only afford to focus on one thing, say historical sights or nature. I believe the prices also vary from island to island, so you might want to check into that as perhaps one is more affordable than the other. Never been to Hawaii, so I don't know the hotel quality situation, but even lousy ones there are probably better than a higher star equivalent in some of the places I've been (you don't want to know what qualifies as 3 stars in Cairo). Really, unless you're rich, my first two sentences say it all in relation to going any place. The good thing is that you usually find out about all kinds of things to see or do that you might not have known about and most tourists also miss and you can brag later about how cheap you did it. That said, the $2500 doesn't sound far off the mark. Italy for me, back in 1997 (jesus Christ!) cost about $2200 and my airfare was about the same. Downgrading my hotels and shopping airlines better allowed me to do two weeks in Greece and Egypt a couple years later for only a couple hundred more, but those are both singles prices to countries where the dollar went farther. Islands also tend to be more expensive for everything as so much is imported. If it's too much, look around closer. Tourists come from all over the world to visit your corner of the US for a reason and I'm sure you can have an amazing week within a few hundred miles of where you live. Maybe the whole week could be traveling just driving down the coastline (though if your girlfriend is anything like my ex, that would be the stuff of nightmares). A vacation's no good if you're worrying about paying it off.

[Florin1]

Hey Kimo. Funny you should ask, me and my wife just got back on monday. We staid on Oahu this time around for 10 days. (Ka'uai the first time). Hawaii is a BEAUTIFUL place. We LOVE it. Its not cheap, however. It was realatively cheap for us because we used airline miles to fly for one, and paid another $400 for one. Hotel cost us $450 for 9 nights, but that is at a HUGE discount cuz we have a family friend that owns a condo there. You can put aside anywhere from $50-$100 per day just on food. (We did a few nicer dinners). Anyway, let me know if u want more info, and I'll tell u things we did while we were there, and get u some more info. But basically if u have family there that can give u a good deal on boarding, and a rental car, you're in luck. I'll post some pix in this thread if u wanna see some of the stuff...

[kimokalihi]

Yeah that would be cool to see what you guys did. I don't have much of an idea aside from maybe snorkeling. $50 a night on hotel is a crazy good deal, lucky.

I don't think I'd want to vacation anywhere around here. The weather sucks. It's been raining and snowing and will continue to rain for months and it's depressing. I want to go where the sun is.

[cj91legss]

Just buy another turbo legacy instead, she will understand

J/k.... Congrats on the long term

[kimokalihi]

lol Yeah it's going to cost what it would cost me to build a new engine. Can't say I haven't thought of it.

[Florin1]

Here u go Kimo. Sorry Its taken me so long. Got like 500 pictures. I just grabbed a variety of the. Don't know what you want to see. Beaches, mountains, underwater...


Blow hole











North Shore. There was a pro surf competition. The waves were amazing! The picture doesn't do it justice.


Polynesian Cultural Center


Hanauma Bay (very good snorkeling spot)




In front of our hotel. Diamond head in the background.

ALOHA!

[kimokalihi]

Nice shots Florin. Thanks.

[Florin1]

Yup. Let me know if you need more info.