Where We're Staying -

London Heathrow

Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport - 1 night

We usually stay at the Premier Inn on Bath Road the night before we fly but as it's our honeymoon we thought we'd try somewhere different.

This hotel seems a bit closer to some of the restaurants on Bath Road, which is good & I'm hoping we get a room with a runway view.

We paid £76.58 for the night, through ebookers.



Waikiki, Oahu

Coconut Waikiki - 5 nights

One thing I quickly found out is that hotels in Hawaii are very expensive and they also have an additional resort fee but I think I got a pretty good deal with this hotel.

It has really good reviews and appears to be in a good location in Waikiki, close to shops & restaurants.

We paid £491.61 for 5 nights, through hotels.com and have an additional $125 resort fee & $150 valet parking to pay on arrival. This will bring the total to around £700.

I booked this back in January with free cancellation, so a month or 2 after booking I checked the price again to see if it had gone down but it had actually more than doubled, so I was very happy I booked when I did!



Poipu, Kauai

Manualoha at Poipu Kai Condo - 9 nights

There aren't too many hotels on Kauai and the ones that they do have are again quite expensive, so condo rentals seem to be the most popular option.

We chose a condo at the Poipu Kai resort, which is close to Poipu Beach & Brennecke's. It has 2 bedrooms, ocean views and free parking.

We booked ours through The Parrish Collection, who have really good reviews, for £1829.15. We paid a bit extra for a late check-out (6pm), as our flight home isn't until 10pm.


So that's all our hotels booked!

It seemed strange only having to look for a few hotels after booking 8 for our trip last year but after doing road trips for the past few years it will be nice to be staying in 1 place for more than a few days.

Yeah, I remember reading her report when she posted it but didn't realise she stayed at the Coconut. Will have to go back and have another read :smile:

I'm a little worried the connection time is not long enough, to clear immigration etc. and I'm not sure if we need to collect our luggage or if it will go straight through. I'll definitely let you know how we get on.

Hotel prices are so expensive aren't they, I think we got a pretty good price for the Coconut Waikiki, so I'll let you know how we find it.

Thank you for the tip, I'll definitely have a look on there!

Never too soon to start planning :d:

This is a bit of an open question, to anyone who has been before but how did you find the cost of food/drink etc. when you were out there? I keep reading that everything is much more expensive, so I'm struggling to work out how much we should budget for. Would be grateful for any advice :smile:

I didn’t find it that much more expensive (maybe few dollars more) except cut up fresh fruit was pricey. Have a look at websites as if you sign up you might get money off vouchers. If your birthday is while away you get vouchers. With groupon just be careful as dates are not valid for ages.
We loved dukes :)
Of course cheese cake factory
We enjoyed kona grill in the international market place
A lot of people recommend house without a key

Oh and I have this on my list for next time

What We've Booked (Part 1) -

Starting with the less interesting things we have booked so far.

Internal Flight

So, as mentioned previously we have our flights to and from Hawaii booked but we also had to book a flight to get us from Oahu to Kauai.

We booked this flight direct with Hawaiian Airlines, for £53.78 each and also have to pay $15 each for our luggage, bringing the total to around £130.

The flight is only 40 minutes long but I'm actually excited to fly with Hawaiian Airlines :)



Car Hire

Oahu

We have an intermediate SUV for the 5 nights we're on Oahu, which we will pick up and drop off at Honolulu Airport.

I booked this with Thrifty, through Expedia, for £228.49.


Kauai

For the 10 days we will spend on Kauai, we decided to treat ourselves to a convertible, which we've never had before.

This was booked with Alamo, through Opodo, for £497.08. As our flight is quite late, on the day we leave, we paid a bit extra to keep the car until 6pm.



Travel Insurance

Bit of a boring one but an essential. We've gone for CoverForYou again, with added Catastrophe cover, for £73 for the 2 of us.

What We've Booked (Part 2) -

Time for the exciting part! These are all of the tickets/attractions we have booked in advance.

Oahu

Pearl Harbor/Battleship Missouri Memorial

One of the main reasons we chose Oahu was for the chance to visit this site. I think it will be very interesting and I'm sure we'll learn a lot.

We have pre-booked our time for the USS Arizona Memorial, for $3 and have also booked tickets for the Battleship Missouri Memorial, for £45.15 ($58).



Kualoa Ranch Tour

The only other thing we have booked for our time in Oahu, is a tour of the Kualoa Ranch. I'm really looking forward to seeing where they filmed Jurassic Park, Lost and the new Jumanji.

We booked the 90 minute movie tour, for £73.47 ($96.24).




Kauai

Mauna Loa Helicopter Tour

Seeing the Na Pali coast from the air, seems to be the most recommended thing to do on Kauai, so for me this was a must.

We booked a 1 hour "doors off" helicopter tour through Mauna Loa and all of their tours are private, which is quite nice. Total cost was £526.40 ($689).



Na Pali Sunset Dinner Cruise

This cruise will give us the chance to see the Na Pali coast from the sea, as well as a lovely dinner.

We booked the 4 hour Star Na Pali Sunset Dinner Cruise with Captain Andy's, for £261.72 ($339.22).



Kauai Backcountry Zipline

I've wanted to go Ziplining for a while but never have, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity and the scenery here looks amazing. The experience lasts around 3 hours, includes 7 ziplines and ends with snacks and the chance for a swim in a natural pool.

We booked this through Kauai Backcountry Adventures, for £212.49 ($275.42).



Smith Family Garden Luau

This will be our first time in Hawaii, so we couldn't not do a luau. The Smith Family one has amazing reviews & this is something I'm really looking forward to doing.

Total cost was £150.92 ($196), which I thought was pretty good with dinner & drinks all included.



Wailua River Kayak

The final thing we have booked for our time on Kauai, is a kayaking tour along the Wailua River. I think this will be quite a relaxing experience and the scenery looks beautiful.

The tour lasts for 4.5 hours and includes a hike to Secret Falls. We booked through Kayak Wailua for £82.52 ($106).




So that's everything we have booked and I think that's all we need to book in advance.

I'm hoping I haven't planned in too much but as it's our honeymoon I wanted to do things we'd never done before and fit in as much as we can :grin:

I'm still working through the rest of our day to day plans but will post these soon!

You will definitely have to collect your luggage and recheck it at LAX, I'm afraid (because it's your first US port of entry) :(

That’s what I thought but we’ve never flown indirect on the way there before. Definitely hoping we have enough time then :confused2

Loving your updates!