Beyond excited! Hawaii on a budget!

[novocastrian]

sounds like a trip !

we got married in Honolulu but was 24 years ago so no real tips/input... first ever red lobster meal was in Honolulu !

other than at the time the arizona tour etc was free but we 'paid' for a trip which in effect was a bus there & back ... which we could have easily done ourselves

[Lola]

Have a fantastic trip. We were due to go to Hawaii for our 70ths in 2020 but clearly didn’t happen

[dismamx2]

Sounds like a great trip

[Bootrip2]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

The planning, I really enjoy. This one will be very simple.

Get to LHR.. probably train to Reading then shuttle bus.

Night in a Reading Hotel.

Flights to Vancouver and home from Seattle.. DONE.

Flights, Vancouver to Honolulu and Honolulu to Seattle… working on it.

4 Nights Waikiki Hotel.

6 nights Turtle Bay apartment.

1 Night Seattle Hotel.

Car hire from leaving Waikiki to dumping at the Airport (6 days).

A few trips.

Get home from Heathrow to Falmouth.

Simples!

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You make it sound sooooooo easy! Am following along to hopefully get inspiration! Have abandoned Toronto-lol -will do NFalls from either Boston or NYC. Hawaii sounds amazing and I always thought out of my reach - Perhaps not!

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by Bootrip2

You make it sound sooooooo easy! Am following along to hopefully get inspiration! Have abandoned Toronto-lol -will do NFalls from either Boston or NYC. Hawaii sounds amazing and I always thought out of my reach - Perhaps not!

See more...

I could have got my London- Vancouver and Seattle- London tickets at £415 hand baggage only or £515 with hold baggage.

I can get my Vancouver -Hawaii and Hawaii - Seattle tickets right now for £379 or thereabouts.

That prices a return trip to Hawaii at £794 pp return if you did hand baggage.. which we will, even though we are entitled to hold luggage, having upgraded.

I could have taken my pick of LA, SFO, or San Diego out or back and achieved similar prices.. or marginally better. I am betting that I would struggle to get to Orlando for that!

The rest of it is simple Google on Ebookers for Hotels and DFCH (Andy) for Car hire.

It is soooo simple. Transit from Airports to cities is equally simple. Tacoma-Seattle is a metro Shuttle that even stops outside the Boeing Museum on its way.

I can honestly state that my 3 Centre vacation is a far simpler matter than a straight forward Trip to Orlando ..

Transfers if indirect?
Getting from MCO to hotel?
A night in Universal?
Car hire?
Tolls?
Park tickets?
Genie plus?
Booking your on site meals?
Booking your days in Disney?

Price?
I am betting that my Hawaii trip (even if I had to pay for Hotels in Vancouver, would be much, much cheaper than a simple London- Orlando direct return vacation with 10 nights Budget Disney, 4 nights Universal, a Car hire and tickets for Both Disney and Universal… and that’s without paying Park prices for lunch, Snacks, Ice Cream, drinks and souvenirs. I am budgeting around £150 for hotels in Seattle and £200-£240 in both Waikiki (Ocean view) and North Shore Turtle Bay.

In summary, I believe it is both simpler and cheaper to go to Hawaii. I believe that it is only familiarity that makes people thing Orlando is easy to do. It is daunting for first timers!

Never be afraid of the unknown. It is the United States, little different to Orlando in admin.

[Bootrip2]

DH wants to go to the military vehicle show again, hence the feb trip hopefully. We will do a few parks and DD wants to shop (she is 13!). I’ll follow your planning and see what happens with regards our future plans!

[KarenG]

Wait until you get back before concluding it’s simpler and cheaper CFB

I would agree that it is possible, if you are flexible, to get to Hawaii for a lot cheaper than you may imagine. In the past we have paid:
$300 return from mainland California (plus baggage) with our flights out and back from the UK on VA points - can’t exactly remember the prices but we went out UC and back PE and I’m very very mean with flight prices!
£850 return economy out PE back (bags included)
September coming economy £720 return bags included from a local airport which saves me money and time going to Heathrow.

The flights though can be gruelling and the jet lag should not be under estimated. It is an eleven hour time difference and my body clock was quite confused.

There are reasonably priced (good value) accommodations in Waikiki. Though not as good as before. I would have budgeted $150 or so for a hotel or condo a close walk to the beach in a central location but I’ve not found that achievable this time. I’ve compromised on a condo which is not in the location I’d ideally want (next to the Hawaiian Hilton Village which I don’t recommend personally but UK TAs seem to always suggest it). But it has a harbour and Pacific Ocean direct view and is not facing the main road. Waikiki can be VERY noisy including overnight so consider that if that’s important to you. I didn’t think it was important to me until we spent four nights on a condo on Kuhio Avenue and hardly slept at all!

Waikiki is so small you can walk everywhere and there is excellent local public transport which will take you to a few places you might like to visit (as a tourist).

Maui is my favourite Hawaiian island but post pandemic I am priced out. We have had condos there for £150 / night and those are now more than double.

Car hire still seems a lot more expensive (which I kind of expected) so if your base is Waikiki consider just renting a car for a portion of your stay.

Food is more expensive. There are many options to eat cheaply in Waikiki though.

[KarenG]

Also CFB - I couldn’t agree more about the aggravation of having to book everything in Orlando now! There are a few things in Hawaii you need to book in advance but they tend to just be entrance to the National Parks, attractions (not the correct word) etc.

I understand on Maui now it’s necessary to book restaurants in advance sometimes by a couple of months to secure a particular time. This is apparently a combination of a huge influx of tourists post pandemic and less restaurants being open (again a pandemic effect).

[KarenG]

Sorry final thing!

As you probably have seen me witter on about previously we have done the Reading to Heathrow route a few times over the years, coming up from the South West.

We have found it quicker - depending on timings - to get a train through to Hayes & Harlington and then a short taxi ride to Heathrow (rather than the bus from Reading to Heathrow). The other option, which we have ended up taking a few times because the incoming train was so late, is to book a transfer from Reading Station to Heathrow. It will be more expensive but perhaps less than you think? And it will drop you where you want rather than to the central bus station where you then will need to get another shuttle bus or taxi to your hotel (unless you’re at one of the onsite ones which I doubt you are, as they are expensive (I don’t stay at them for that reason at LHR)).

IIRC the bus was about £18 per person and we paid £45 for the taxi (March 22) so with two of us it really made sense to get the taxi. Think it was Green Cars.

[jas72]

Going to the 50th State for a 50th birthday is a great use the photo album CFB. 😃