When we went: March 7th-10th 2014
We had a lot of big travel plans this year, but due to me becoming a stay at home mom, our budget has been more than cut in half. We have cut back a lot, but one thing we wanted to try and continue to do was travel as much as possible. We had planned for a while to go to Hawaii at the beginning of this year, and while our plans changed a lot from what we originally wanted to do, we were able to go, and for as cheap as possible.
Our first decision was leaving the kids at home with the grandparents. If we wanted to take the kids we could not be as flexible or as cheap as we wanted to be, so they were the first thing to go. While we spent most of the trip commenting on how much our kids would love Hawaii and everything we did, we turned it into a delayed 7 year anniversary trip and enjoyed re-connecting as husband and wife
Transportation:
The flight
The main reason we were able to travel so cheaply is we flew standby. If you know anyone that can get you ID90’s, I recommend doing it. Anyone that works for an airline gets a certain amount of these tickets a year and can give them to anyone, not just family members. It cost only the tax of the ticket. Since we flew from Portland to Honolulu (non-stop, another bonus) it cost $71 a person one-way. In total we spent $284 on our plan tickets.
The downside to flying standby, is if there are not enough seats on the plane you don’t get on and there are no accommodations offered, you’ve got to figure it out on your own. We checked the flights and how full they were, all the way up until a couple days before our trip, and actually did have to change our plans due to one of the flights booking up almost completely, not leaving a lot of seats for standby passengers. If you can be flexible and go when the flights are at their best for standby, then it is the cheapest way to fly.
The car
The only problem we had with moving the trip up a couple days was the car reservation. I had found an online deal through Advantage Rent-a-Car for about $13 a day. With tax and all the fees they charge it ended up being $84 for 4 days. That was the very cheapest I could find a car. I searched a month and a half before we left and found a lot for around that price, but because I did not book until a few weeks before we planned to leave all the prices had gone up, up, up. Because it was an online reservation I could not make any changes to it, including cancel it. No matter what we were going to be charged that amount for those specific days we requested.
I looked into renting a car for the first two days we were there (and returning it the third day and picking up the actual car we rented) but the prices were too high. I was going to spend around $90 just for two days, on top of the $84 I already spent. So instead we decided to not have a car the first two days we were there.
Once we did get the car it was fun to have. We drove all over the island, visited my sister and some friends, toured BYU Hawaii and Aulani, and had the freedom to go where we wanted. Thanks to a friend’s heads up and the GPS on my phone we avoided a pretty big accident on the freeway. We had no problems getting around or with traffic.
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| Sights we saw while walking to the bus |
The buses in Hawaii are actually pretty great. It cost $2.50 a person to ride. You can down load an app on your phone that will show you what bus to take, when it leaves and what connections you will need to make to get to your destination. We decided to take a bus to our Hostel from the airport. Well, after waiting 45 minutes for the bus to come we were told by the bus driver that you cannot bring a suitcase on the bus. We had a medium sized suitcase, but she said it was too big. On a ride to the airport a couple days later we saw some people with suitcases and they said they did not have a problem taking their suitcases to the airport, but neither had taken the bus from the airport. So it is possible you can take them to, but not from the airport.
We found the bus drivers to be pretty nice and helpful when we were using the bus. One time we needed to make a transfer and I was watching my app and counting the stops, but before we got to our transfer spot the bus driver told us we had to get off because there was a protein spill (throw up) on the bus. We were asking him how to get to our destination and I think he took pity on us and just drove us to a spot that our connecting bus would come.
The Speedi Shuttle is a service that takes passengers from the airport directly to their hotel. This is the way we got to our Hostel. It cost $32 for both of us, but we priced out a taxi and it would have cost the same amount. If we had booked earlier online it would have been about $8 cheaper. Something to note for the future!
The Speedi Shuttle was very nice. It was comfortable, clean, and they had a little TV playing ads for all the things to do in Hawaii. It actually got us really excited to be there and start exploring the island. The other nice part was, since we were dropped off last, we got to drive all over Waikiki dropping other people off. It gave us a real feel for the city and allowed us to get our bearings.
The Taxi
We did take a few taxis during the couple of days we did not have a car. Because our Hostel was outside of Waikiki, it was a bit of a walk to get to any food or grocery places. We did walk to the Ala Moana mall from our hostel, it was about 2 miles. It wasn’t a hard walk, but we took a taxi back, since it was late, dark and we were exhausted when we were done. It cost us about $13 to take a taxi to or from Waikiki to our Hostel. We took 3 taxis while we were there (because we had to go places before/after the bus was running), so in total we spent $39 on taxis. Even with the taxis and Speedy Shuttle we still spent less than we would have if we rented a car those two days.
Accommodations
The Hostel
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| Where we stayed is behind me. It rained a lot, but we didn't let that stop us |
We were really trying to go super cheap, like I said, so we did book our first two nights at a Hostel. I have a friend that works in the hotel business, but the cheapest she could find for me to stay at her hotel was $160 a night. I searched Hotwire, Travelocity, Priceline, Expedia, you name it and the cheapest I could find a hotel was $96 a night, for a 2 star. The Hostel we stayed at cost $60 a night. We couldn’t beat the price. We thought it would be nice to spend our first two nights in a cheap place and then upgrade to a bit nicer hotel the last two nights.
We stayed at the Makiki Hostel. It was 2 miles from Waikiki, and on the edge of the forest. We were a little hesitant when we arrived and did not know where to go. There were several buildings that belonged to the address we had, and no signs. Someone finally pointed us in the right direction and we were introduced to Marie. She showed us the house we’d be staying it. It had a kitchen, living room, three bedrooms and one bathroom. She showed us our bedroom that had a lock on the door, a TV and a queen sized bed.
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| Living room area where we did not spend any time. |
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| The kitchen. We did use the fridge and microwave, but that was about it |
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| Our room |
The place was a bit dirty, and had lots of bugs, but I expected that. The bathroom was pretty clean, it had a new toilet, but I did not use the shower. My husband did and he said the shower curtain was pretty gross with mold. The bed was not too fun to sleep in. The pillows were flat and I just had to stop thinking about how clean and sanatized the sheets were, or weren’t. Otherwise, the place was great. Cheap. Full kitchen. Quiet. Beautiful scenery. Not too far of a walk to the bus stop. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to stay at a super cheap place and has a bit of an adventurous side.
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| Literally on the edge of the forest, but it was beautiful! |
The Hotel
The night before we left for Hawaii I booked the hotel. I did a secret hotel on Hot Wire for $85 a night. I always research my hotels before I travel. I want to know what they have/don’t have, if they charge for parking, internet, safes. If they have free breakfast and I always read the reviews. I have never done a secret hotel before because I was afraid I would get one that had a really bad review even though it was rated at 3 stars. But I was out of options so I just took a chance and did it. I was pleasantly surprised.
We ended up getting the Ewa hotel. It is right across the street from the zoo and close to Diamond Head. They did have a negative review about someone who was robbed and they thought it was the maid, so I was weary about the hotel. Upon arrival I instantly liked the place. It had an oriental feel, and while there was only one elevator, that got pretty busy, it was a nice place.
Every hotel charges for parking in Hawaii, I could not find one that didn’t. They all charge about $20 a day. Most hotels also charge for internet and any extras you could want. This hotel had a package you could buy for $25 a day. It included parking, internet, the safe and coffee. We got that. I have to admit the internet was horrible. My husband spent hours trying to download a movie for the airplane ride back and it never fully downloaded. But the parking and being able to use the safe was nice.
I was worried that there would not be enough parking for us because the garage was really small. I would have been super mad if I paid to park and then there wasn’t a spot for me, but when we returned late one night, the attendant at the desk told us where we could park creatively, so I was okay with that. Overall I secretly wished we had stayed at this hotel all four nights, but it would have been about $100 more with the parking and internet and everything, so it’s good we didn’t, but I do recommend this particular hotel.
Activities
Tours
We did book one tour. It was an all day tour, but it covered everything touristy that we wanted to do. It was through Discover Hawaii Tours. It started at 6am, they picked us up at a hotel on Waikiki, and did all the driving. We went to Pearl Harbor, the Pineapple Plantation, the North Shore, and the Polynesian Cultural Center. It included an all you can eat lunch and dinner and the night show at the PCC. It cost around $200 a person. This was by far our biggest purchase of the trip.
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| Pearl Harbor |
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| Dole Plantation |
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| Along the North Shore. We heard this was THE place to eat, but we never made it there to try for ourselves |
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| PCC |
I really enjoyed the insider stories and history lessons the tour guide gave and it was nice not having to worry about navigating the island, getting tickets to things, or what we were doing next. Generally I enjoy taking tours, you learn things you would otherwise miss about the culture and history of the place you are visiting, but I feel like this tour might have cost more than I would have liked to pay for it. We learned a lot at every place we visited without the tour guides help, and the island was not that hard to navigate if you have GPS. I justified the cost because the PCC alone would have cost us around $130 each, but if I were given a do-over, I would have not taken the tour and just done things on our own. My poor husband was so tired by the end of the day he could not keep his eyes open during the phenomenal night show Ha, at the PCC.
The beach
We drove up to Aulani (the Disney resort) because I wanted to see it. They are located in a less populated part of the island and share a quiet alcove beach with a couple other hotels. The water was calm and nice. If I had brought my kids I would have felt safe taking them into the water. Aulani has a water park in the middle of it that you can purchase wrist bands for even if you are not staying at the hotel. There is also a spa and nice restaurant there, we did not do either of those things but did spend some time at the water park.
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| Aulani |
We also spent a day at Waikiki which was a much busier, populated beach. There were definitely waves at Waikiki that I would have been wary of us a parent. But as two adults we went out into the water, played in the waves and even rented a surf board for an hour. Neither of us knew how to surf, but it cost $15 to rent the surf board, or $75 for a lesson. We just went with the rental. My husband tried to stand up on the board and was successful a couple times, but that was the extent of our surfing. I was more worried about not getting a sunburn, than getting a tan, so I lathered on the sunscreen and was fine. I did not get burned at all.
Shopping:
The shops on Waikiki were great, but pretty upscale. I’m talking anything you could imagine on Rodeo Drive and other name brand stores like Quicksilver and Volcom. It was fun going through the shops and admiring the beach wear they had, but while it would be fun to wear there in Hawaii, not a lot of the clothes were appropriate for the snow of Utah.
Ala Moana was the big mall just off of the main Waikiki area. It was awesome. It was a very large mall, at least 3 stories with another floor just full of restaurants. The mall had just about every store you could think of. They had everything from the Disney Store, to La Coste. They had a lot of higher end stores, but we also found Hawaiian shirts for $20.
By far the best place to go for souvenirs was the ABC Store. They have tons all over Waikiki and they had super good prices for things like Hawaiian shirts, dresses, kids clothes, key chains, sunglasses, purses, beach bags, hair clips, jewelry, anything! We even bought our breakfast for the four days we were there at the ABC store. They had yogurts, breads, drinks, fruits, candy, even bug spray. This is the place you should go for any gifts for family and friends and even yourself!
Food:
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| Moco Loco, so good! |
Food was less expensive than I thought it would be, but more expensive than I’m used to. We bought our breakfast at the ABC Store, which consisted of some yogurt and bread. We ate at the Ala Moana food court a couple times and spent around $20 each time. One day all our meals were included in our tour and another day my sister made us dinner. So we were lucky enough to not spend that much money on food. We actually only ate once at an actual restaurant and that was on the beach of Waikiki. We ate at a little bistro that I thought was very well priced. We ordered some well known Hawaiian foods like shaved ice and Moco Loco. The plates were huge and I think I spent about $18 for our meal.
Extras:
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| Light House by Diamond Head |
We never did get to hike Diamond Head, we tried but they are open from 6am-6pm and we arrived too late. It cost $5 to hike it. We also did not get to go snorkeling. We did not have enough time, and the place I heard was the best to go cost $20 a person and we just didn’t have the money this time. Maybe another time.
If we had all the money in the world I would have liked to swim with the dolphins, gone snorkeling and taken a helicopter ride around the island. I also would have stayed longer and gone to some different islands, but with the time and money we had I think we did pretty good!
Costs:
Air plane tickets: $284
Car Rental: $84
Speedi Shuttle: $32
Taxis: $39
Hostel: $120
Hotel: $170
Parking package: $50
Tour: $400
Food/Gifts: $300 (approximate)
Total: $1,479
Have you been to Hawaii? What must see thing do you recommend doing?
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