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Post by kwith on Dec 3, 2013 11:06:19 GMT -5
Yay Hawaii! I've never been to Oaho but spent a few days (two?) on the Big Island. The volcano park is awesome. I'd have to look back to see where you stayed - it was at a very cool inn overlooking one of the volcanoes, but I don't remember the details.
How long are you looking at staying? That might determine the cost factor. And all inclusives might be worth it, but food isn't all that expensive. I mean, it is, and you'll spend more than you would at the mainland, but if you plan to buy some basic breakfast items and stick to inexpensive lunches (there are a lot of inexpensive places along the beaches) then you'd probably spend about the same you would for an all inclusive place, and you wouldn't be stuck with just one food option.
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Post by kwith on Dec 3, 2013 11:07:32 GMT -5
Oh, and when I went, it was with my family and my mom did most of the planning. She ended up renting us several houses through VRBO which was significantly cheaper than hotels would have been. But that was also for my family of 7, so going with just 2 it might not make sense. Could be worth checking out though.
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Post by kwith on Dec 3, 2013 11:15:23 GMT -5
I think you'd probably want at least a week. Assume you lose a day to travel both directions, and that leaves you with 2 days for the Big Island and 3 for Oahu. Someone else can weigh in on whether or not Oahu can be done in 3 days. If I remember for the Big Island, we spent one day playing at the volcano park, and one day visiting the edge of the island to see the area where the lava falls in to the sea. That might have been the same day, actually. I think we got there on Saturday evening and left Monday mid morning, so maybe one full day would be enough if the volcano park is your main goal.
You will probably want to rent a car as well if you're not planning on it. I remember transportation being hard outside of the main cities.
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Post by winelover123 on Dec 3, 2013 11:46:32 GMT -5
H and I just went to the Big Island for our honeymoon. We spent 5 days there. Definitely do the mountain - I've heard the star gazing is amazing, though when we tried to go it was cloudy. If you do go, take a jacket with you (like a fleece or something). It gets cold. You can only go to the very top if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle or take a tour (which is like....$200 pp), but you can take your rental car up to the visitors center. They have telescopes set up. We were really disappointed to not be able to do that.
Dedicate a whole day to the volcano park if you are into hiking. H and I could only spend a few hours there on our last day due to the government shut down. If you can swing it, do a helicopter ride over the volcano and the waterfalls. It's seriously amazing. I can post some pictures from our helicopter ride when I get home if you want to see them. I was really hesitant to spend the money on it, but it was worth it. Also check out pu'uhonua o honaunau historical national park - that was a cool park.
We stayed in Waikola on the Big Island which has great beaches around it, but we didn't really like it. It felt like being in the desert. We much preferred Hilo even though that's the rainy side of the island. It was much more lush and just prettier. If we had to do it again, we would have stayed in Hilo or the northern side.
Food is really expensive, but if you plan it right you can make it work. Try to rent a condo or someplace with a kitchenette and you can make breakfast and pack lunches to take with you. I think you can make a 5k budget work. Talk to a travel agent (that's what we did) and you'll probably get some good prices. I think 2-3 days is enough to hit the most exciting places on the Big Island.
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Post by FTL on Dec 3, 2013 14:30:20 GMT -5
I want to try to plan a trip to Hawaii for vacation over next Labor Day and there are lots of interwebs sales right now. It would be a surprise for H, and I am going to book as soon as I get my expected rejection letter from grad school in the next month. (And if they are morons and I get in, then this trip will simply be postponed a year. If they defer me, I will punch some bitches. No one likes a 'non-answer.') All I know is that we want to do Oahu and Big Island (H wants to go to Pearl Harbor and I want to go play in the volcano park.) So, HELP PLEASE. No one in my family has ever been, so I have minimal roadwork mapped out. -Any sites better than others for booking? (Mostly in terms of prices, but also multi-island packages or whatever.) -Book everything on it's own or get a tour package somewhere? -Are there all-inclusives out there? I know food is wicked expensive. -Which side of BI to stay on (or...both?) -How many days do I need in each place? -Can I realistically do this for under 5k? (traveling from east coast) And if this is still out of budget, part two (in which I will harass paris and FTL extensively) will become pacific northwest wine tour. Thank you in advance yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes OMG. I would need to filter myself because I have waaayyy too many amazing wineries to tell you about. lol andplusalso, I'll be in the PNW during that time, too. Just sayin' But other than that I'm useless on this one since I have never been to Hawaii |
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Post by Giaspo on Dec 3, 2013 15:50:44 GMT -5
YAY Hawaii! I went twice, once when I lived in SF and once from NJ and visited Oahu, Maui and Kauai. Here's what I can suggest:
* Oahu was great because you can visit PH. Just know that it is very citified, and feels just like any other city on the mainland. You can definitely do Oahu in 3 days, in fact, if I could do it again I'd stay on another island and just fly to Oahu for the day (albeit a very long day).
* Would you consider Maui? I LOVED it and would go back. It is busy enough to be busy, yet isolated enough to get that isolated feeling (if this makes any sense at all).
* You're right about the food. On Oahu, we rented a timeshare to take advantage of the kitchen. That might be something to consider.
* You've got two choices flying from EWR (and Philly I'd assume)... non-stop or a stop. If you can hack an 11-hour flight (and an overnight 10 on the way back), go for the non-stop. I did this with my mom and it was worth it. BUT if I ever go with H who is afraid to fly, we plan to visit SF on the way out and San Diego on the way back (staying a night in each).
And you WILL get accepted to grad school. Just sayin'.
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Post by ptrose13 on Dec 3, 2013 21:41:27 GMT -5
We just did Oahu, Kauai, and Maui. I agree with Giaspo Oahu is extremely citified (I kept comparing it to staying in Miami beach), and in fact, I would not stay there again. We missed Pearl Harbor because of our flight, and that would be the only reason I would visit there again. We climbed Diamondhead as well, which was pretty cool. I found that packing breakfast items really did help us save some money throughout all the islands- food is expensive, but if you are not at an all inclusive and do a little research instead of just walking up to the first place you see, you can find some better priced places. We booked everything with a travel agent, and we included all of our airport transfers in our price, and booked as many excursions as we knew we wanted to do through him as well and we did that part for right around $5000. This was including flights into/out of Philly, and 2 inter-island flights as well. We could have of course, downgraded our rooms a bit to save as well. I would definitely recommend Maui also, and Kauai ended up possibly being my favorite, but it might not be everybody's thing, since it is soo un-busy and more quiet than the other islands. If I were going back, I would opt for the straight shot flight from Newark, but as you know, I now have a bit more bias since United f'd us over on our way out there. |
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paris
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Post by paris on Dec 4, 2013 10:22:35 GMT -5
You can harass me any time  I did not read anyone else's answers. When on Oahu, don't stay in Waikiki unless getting a rental car is absolutely out of the question. It is basically Las Vegas for the Japanese but in reality, no where near as cool as Vegas. I do think everyone should *visit* Waikiki, but staying there just seems so....non-Hawaiian. I really like the North Shore (and there are some nice places to stay over there, really easy with a car) and just around Diamond Head, Koko Head and past Hanauma Bay. There is this adorable town called Waimanalo, but I'm fairly certain there are no places to stay. Still worth the visit. If rental car is out, Waikiki really isn't awful, I just would keep the Oahu portion of the trip to like 3 days max (and would prefer to do the Big Island for like 4-5 days....def a 2:3 ratio I think) The last time I went I bought tickets super early but then was having a hard time getting the hotel and car part together. We were going to need a hotel for part and a car for part but not the same parts of the trip. So I contacted a TK friend whose H is a travel agent and he got me a really good deal on the car and a decent deal on the hotel. I've not been to the Big Island since I was like 4, but I would think doing both sides of the island could be awesome because of the drastically different weather patterns. Not including marathon entry fees I think our trip for 2 was like $2300 ish. But our plane tickets were like $300 each becasue of being on the west coast. IIRC the hotel in Waikiki was the spendiest part. We were lucky in that my BF at the time had family friends that live on Oahu so we stayed for free for 6 of our 11 days there. |
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Post by frankie on Dec 4, 2013 11:44:07 GMT -5
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Post by ptrose13 on Dec 4, 2013 13:56:06 GMT -5
@smushie- not a problem at all, and I forgot to mention in my post that our trip was for 10 days for that price, and we did not rent cars on any of the islands.
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