[amy56]

Hi all,

I’ve never written any type of trip report before, but as we are venturing to Texas for the first time (and Seattle is new to us too!), I thought I’d start a little pre-trippy, incase anyone has any valuable tips!

This is the plan...

July 31st: fly to Seattle and land at 11.35am. Afternoon/evening in Seattle
Aug 1st: fly to Honolulu
Aug 1st-4th: outrigger beach resort on Waikiki
Aug 5th-11th: Aulani
Aug 12th: overnight flight to Dallas
Aug 13: Dallas - visit south fork and JFK museum
Aug 14: Fort Worth stockyards for rodeo
Aug 15-17: Omni La Mansion Riverwalk hotel in San Antonio
Aug 18: evening flight home from Austin

Booked so far:

BA flight to Seattle and home from Austin

Westin Seattle for one night (although this one is cancellable as payable at the hotel)

Outrigger Beach Resort for four nights (stayed before and loved it)

Omni La Mansion Riverwalk for three nights. (Loved the look of the Riverwalk views rooms!)


Still to book:

Internal flights from Seattle to Honolulu and Honolulu to Dallas

Thinking of changing the Westin Seattle to the Sheraton Grande (they are the same price but I can pay now for the Sheraton and use Tesco Clubcard vouchers on hotels.com)

Aulani - awaiting 7 month booking window to use DVC points (we want an ocean view again - hopefully we have a good chance as looking for a one bed this time rather than a studio)

Dallas - thinking of booking the Magnolia Hotel which is walking distance to the JFK museum - any thoughts? (I believe someone on here has stayed there?)

Fort Worth Stockyards - looking to book the Hyatt as it’s walking distance to the rodeo, but it’s very expensive for what it is, but I guess that’s because it’s the only real option to walk to the rodeo?


Plans:

Seattle - whistle stop visit, just want to see the fish throwing at Pike place market and the space needle, also want my Starbucks mug and to eat at the Cheesecake Factory! (The Sheraton is right next door, so that is a bonus for staying there!)

Honolulu - using Waikiki as our base to go to the south coast beaches, revisit byodo-in temple etc (we visited in 2015 but DH has snapped his Achilles so we didn’t explore as much as we would of liked). Boys also want more surfing lessons and to try an outrigger canoe off of Waikiki beach!

Aulani: plan to stay in the resort for the majority of the time, although will take a picnic to the north shore one day to revisit turtle beach which I loved

Dallas - just want to visit south fork and the JFK museum (doesn’t seem to be much in Dallas for us aside from those things tbh!)

Fort Worth - staying on a Friday night so that we can do the rodeo (wanted a taste of the Wild West of Texas!)

San Antonio - the main reason for the stopover in Texas, for some reason the Riverwalk is my one ‘must dos’ left for the states (don’t get me wrong - there’s lots id still like to see, but this is the ‘must do’!).
So we have three nights there to mainly chill, although one day I think we will venture up to do some rivertubing somewhere - any recommendations? (We rivertubed in New Hampshire last summer and absolutely loved it - so relaxing!)

So that’s my current plans - any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated 👍