Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My husband and I are planning a nice vacation in May to celebrate our 5th year anniversary . We're thinking of going to Hawaii and would like some advice on how to get the best deals on flight/hotel. Should we go through a travel agent? Does it save money to stay at a hotel that includes meals and book the hotel and flight together? Anything else we should consider? Thanks!
I've been to hawaii several times - when do you plan to go and what do you hope to do? Have you decided on island/islands?
Travel agents do not provide any better deals than doing your research on your own from my experience.
Likewise, package deals that expedia, etc make for you can sometimes help, but often do not - you have to do all the math yourself.
My advice to start without knowing any of your specifics, is to look at airfares every single day and buy when they are low - try a site like farewatcher. You may also want to look into just nonstop flights from places like LAX or SFO (or even Chicago on United) and then price out a second leg just RDU to LAX or wherever the connection point is. I'm not saying this will be a likely source of a cheaper fare, but sometimes airlines run fare specials between the major hubs and hawaii.
As for the all inclusive thing, part of the charm of hawaii is getting out and exploring - there is some GREAT dining there, and I'd encourage you to not just eat at the hotel. You won't save THAT much money and you'll tarnish the overall experience.
Rental cars are very cheap in Hawaii - you can get a convertible for under 30 bucks a day and a standard midsize for 20 if you look hard enough.
Despite the fact that everyone has them, I also recommend you buy the little blue books - "The ultimate Kauai Guidebook" or "Maui Revealed" or "The Big Island Revealed" - they are by far the best guidebooks and I believe this is almost a unanimous consensus. Amazon has them as will any Barnes and Noble.
What else....hmmm...well reply back with more of what you're looking to do and where to go and I'm happy to help with input - I've been to Big Island, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai.
There really are only a couple all inclusive hotels in Hawaii. We stayed at the Kaanapali Alii in a 2 bedroom condo right on the beach in Maui when we went. We were able to make our own meals which was nice. It was convenient to a whole strip of other hotels, restaurants and shopping. The Aquarium on Maui is nice too.
Whether you book it on your own or go through a TA, depends on your comfort level for this sort of thing! A good travel agent can be really, really helpful, if you're not familiar with your destination! A travel agent should cost you nothing! Talk to some, and see how you feel--you don't HAVE to book with them if you don't think they're giving you the best advice!
My husband and I went to Maui...and it was the most memorable vacation for us so far.
We stayed at the Hilton, and the hotel was well exceeding our expectations.
I ended up booking the trip myself...with lot's of help from the Internet and doing tons of research.
A travel agent couldn't have found us a better trip/ vacation/ airfare.....LOL.
One word of caution though.....We only ended up staying on the island Maui....doing stuff EVERY day. (There's SO MUCH TO DO!!!)
We should have ventured off and visited the other islands as well....but, were way to busy and excited to explore Maui.
The hotel we were staying at (Hilton) had an "event planner", helping you with leisure activities, brochures, maps, ideas etc. you might think about doing. (it's a free and complimentary service for staying at the hotel)
That's also the place to get the "insight" scoop on where the locals go, do, what's worth seeing...and where to stay away from.
That alone was an incredible service to us, and made the trip complete.
I am sure, you can do yourself whatever the TA would be doing....just do your "homework" carefully, and allow yourself the right amount of time making the decision.
Hope, you will have just as much of an incredible vacation as we did!
Travel agents do not provide any better deals than doing your research on your own from my experience.
We visited the Big Island, Oahu, Kauai.
It might be different now, our Hawaii trip was back in 2002, but we did use a travel agent for a couple hotels, interisland flights, and car rental. Using a TA is very unusual for us, but I seem to remember that no matter how I ran the numbers, those things were coming up as very pricey.
When I found a TA who happened to be a Hawaii expert, the numbers did become more reasonable.
Quote:
My advice to start without knowing any of your specifics, is to look at airfares every single day and buy when they are low - try a site like farewatcher. You may also want to look into just nonstop flights from places like LAX or SFO (or even Chicago on United) and then price out a second leg just RDU to LAX or wherever the connection point is. I'm not saying this will be a likely source of a cheaper fare, but sometimes airlines run fare specials between the major hubs and hawaii.
Good advice.
Quote:
As for the all inclusive thing, part of the charm of hawaii is getting out and exploring - there is some GREAT dining there, and I'd encourage you to not just eat at the hotel. You won't save THAT much money and you'll tarnish the overall experience.
Yes.
One thing: we did a luau and really enjoyed it.
Hawaii was far, far LESS touristy and more down to earth than I had anticipated. It also was mind-bogglingly beautiful.
Quote:
Despite the fact that everyone has them, I also recommend you buy the little blue books - "The ultimate Kauai Guidebook" or "Maui Revealed" or "The Big Island Revealed" - they are by far the best guidebooks
Yes. I enjoyed reading Michener's Hawaii, too, as well as the Traveler's Tales collection of Hawaii lore.
We've been to Hawaii more than once and always did the trip planning ourselves. Found it much cheaper that way. We rent a condo and purchase our airline tickets, generally, and buy groceries to keep at the condo. You can find some great deals on condos at vrbo.com.
To the best of my knowledge, there really aren't any all-inclusives in Hawaii.
As someone asked earlier, it'll be easier to help you with activities, must-dos, etc., if we know what island you're planning to visit. The suggestion of using Farewatcher is a good one to keep an eye on air prices and when they get low, buy!
My husband and I went to Hawaii with our one year old and my inlaws back in Dec 2006. We had a FANTASTIC time and booked everything ourselves. Check Cheap Flights, Airline Tickets, Cheap Airfare & Discount Travel Deals - Kayak.com for awesome airline deals. We rented a house in Kaaawa (on Oahu) and paid $950 for the entire WEEK! Granted it was no 5 star hotel but it was a nice place to sleep. We also stayed on Oahu the entire time and never once got bored. I wish we would have had alot more time to sit and relax but we went to see everything! Hawaii was by far the most beautiful place we've ever been and we hope to go back, this time no kids or inlaws! LOL
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. We're thinking of going to Hawaii and would like some advice on how to get the best deals on flight/hotel. Should we go through a travel agent? Does it save money to stay at a hotel that includes meals and book the hotel and flight together? Anything else we should consider? Thanks!
