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To get the best deal on a vacation to Hawaii consider booking airline flights and hotel rooms separately as well as package deals. The most affordable deals are always changing and sometimes hotels cut deals with airlines to create packages that are considerably cheaper than individual bookings while other times the airlines and hotels each have their own deals. The key is to keep looking and not give up just because the prices are high on a particular day. The internet makes searching for the best deals easy and checking often raises the odds that you will find a new deal that becomes available.
Package Deals to Hawaii
Over the years we have taken many vacation packages to Hawaii. We have found package deals offered by airlines and individual hotels as well as charter companies like Pleasant Holidays. Packages usually include airfare and hotel stays, but they can also include extras like breakfast, activities, and rental cars.
In the past, Christmas packages to Hawaii have been more affordable than booking air and hotel separately. Airfares often climb considerably at Christmas time and combined hotel and air packages are sometimes a way to get a better airfare. Package deals work best for us when we want to stay in one location for the entire vacation. They have allowed us to upgrade to much nicer resorts than we could have afforded if we had booked air and hotel separately.
Airline Deals to Hawaii
We use frequent flier miles to get the best airline deals to Hawaii. We have joined every airline frequent flyer club and receive their email on flight deals. We get free trips with the miles we accumulate from flights and by using credit cards that give us frequent flyer miles for every dollar we charge. The cheapest flight we have had to Hawaii was from using our frequent flyer miles on American Airlines. The cost of the ticket was under $20.00 for a round trip.
We use to get cheap airfares to Hawaii by finding the most direct flights from our area. Since many airlines have gone out of business, merged, or cut back on their flights, there is less competition making it more challenging to find a deal.
We have found big differences in airfare prices for different days of the week in the same time frame. The best prices are usually on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Around Christmas time, the difference between days can be hundreds of dollars per ticket!
Sometimes the price is better if you fly at an inconvenient time like early in the morning or red-eye (overnight) flights back to the mainland. When possible we prefer to get to Hawaii when it is still light and we can easily find our way to our hotel.
Booking early can save money, but not always. Sometimes last minute reservations result in the best prices. Once we decide on our approximate travel dates, we start watching airline web sites for travel deals around those times. We monitor the price daily and sometimes are able to get a deal that becomes available for only a short time.
Hotel Deals in Hawaii
Hotel prices have slowly been going down in Hawaii from their all time high in 2008. The economic climate and reduced number of visitors to the islands has encouraged hotels to reduce their room rates. Now is a good time to find highly discounted room rates for some of the greatest hotels and good availability for the cheaper places to stay.
Our first vacations to Hawaii were all to Maui, but we eventually started branching out to the other islands and ultimately found the Big Island to be the most affordable for lodging and food and have the most fun things to do. On our vacations to the Big Island, we liked to move from hotel to hotel to experience all parts of the island. That was a change from our Maui and Waikiki vacations where we stayed in one hotel for the entire time.
Hotels on the Big Island vary considerably. There are bay front hotels on Banyon drive in Hilo, huge resorts on white sand beaches in Kohala, and beachfront hotels all along Ali'i drive in Kona. The Big island has unique Bed and Breakfast Inns as well as condos and rental houses for longer stays.
We have enjoyed staying in places around the island. We like the Outrigger Keauhou Beach in Kona because the hotel is walking distance to one of the best places to snorkel in Hawaii, Kahaluu Beach park. King Kamehameha Beach Hotel is directly in front of the Kailua Pier in Kona with great snorkeling and lots of beach activities. The Kona Islander Inn is $69 a night or cheaper if you rent it for a week. It is the best budget hotel deal on the island with a great location on Ali'i Drive. Our favorite unit in the Kona Islander is #126 with two queen sized beds near the pool and hot tub. We also love the train, boat and dolphins at the Hilton Waikoloa Village and staying in Volcano town at the Kilauea Lodge with its fantastic breakfasts and close proximity to the Volcanoes National Park.
People tend to vacation in Hawaii at the same times. Prices during high season can be five times what they are during off season. If you have the option of vacationing during off times, you can often stay in a four star hotel for not much more than you would pay for a two star hotel during high season.
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