Anyone been to Hawaii and what is the best way to arrange a holiday there

[beaky]

Yes, despite my best efforts to safeguard the SSIA money, it seems I am going to be forced to take a holiday in Hawaii.

I reluctantly dropped into my local travel agent who initially said, and I quote " nobody really does Hawaii". I told her I thought a travel agent would arrange it. She said only the tour operators would do that. So my travel agent won't even play middle-man with the tour operator and me.

Anyway in another agents I was given an American Holidays brouchour. There are only 3 or 4 options for hotels and prices range 2500 to 6000 for 2 weeks in july.

Okay so i'm late booking, its a long way away and possibly an expensive location anyway as everything is imported in Hawaii....But......

Can some one give me a better way to arrange this holiday of a lifetime, mabey some internet site, or arrange my own flights and accomodation or another tour operator.

Its a long way to swim you know, any tips appreciated.

 

[EvilDoctorK]

Flights to Honolulu (main airport for Hawaii) will cost you from around €1100+ all in per person for July .. add on (a little bit) extra for flying to other islands if you don't want to stay in Honolulu. Best Deals are with KLM via Amsterdam (connecting then through Seattle onto Northwest Airlines to Honolulu) .. You could Try some of the US airlines that serve Ireland for fllights that involve only one transfer - but they seem to be more expensive.

As an aside Hawaii is a very long journey from Ireland which is why as your agent says "nobody really does Hawaii" ... you're looking at a flight to the West Coast of the US and then a further 5-6 hours from there to Hawaii

Hotels - Hawaii is full of them as a major "vacation" destination, there should be something for all budgets, most of the bigger Hotels will be part of US chains so really easy to book online. Tripadvisor.com would be a good place to start for recommendations for particular hotels.

As to whether American holidays packages are a better deal or not ... you can pretty easily work it out for yourself ... You know what the flights cost (say 1200 per person) ... and you'd then have 13 or 14 hotel nights (so half the room rate to get the per person price) ... I would assume that's all you're getting in any package from American Holidays (airport transfers woudln't be a significant cost so you can probably ignore those) ... Then compare that to the per person price they're quoting.

I've no personal experience of Hawaii so can't recommend any particular places to stay / things to see.

 

[TDON]

Hi Beaky,

You lucky devil, you'll love it. It really is Heaven on Earth.

I did it all myself through the internet. It's been a couple of years and all the e-mails are deleted now, but I remember I had to get all the UK brochures and arrange connecting flights from here as at that time it was only UK firms doing package deals there. However, it was working out quite expensive, so I decided to see how I'd get on if I did it all myself.

I booked the flights : Dublin - London. London - LAX (stayed 3 days) LAX - Honolulu (stayed 10 days) Honolulu - San Francisco (stayed 3 days) San Francisco - Las Vegas (stayed 3 days & went out to Area 51!!) Las Vegas - LAX - London - Dublin. At the time British Airways provided the cheapest flights but try American Airlines & any others too.

I booked all the accomodation through the internet also and it all worked out perfect with all special requests met etc.

In total I saved myself €2,000.00 for 2 of us by doing all the work myself, which really wasn't that hard. It took about 5 nights online in total to get everything sorted. I wouldn't think it's too late to book it all and you won't know till you try. Good luck with it. So jealous

 

[dicey_reilly]

Hi Beaky

Got married there in 1991 - if it strangled her on my wedding night I'd be out now with good behaviour!!!! LOL

I'd try Aerlingus.com to Los Angeles or San Francisco and then any domestic airline from there to Hawaii (it is classed as an internal flight). Below is a sample from expedia.com for return fares LAX to Honolulu in July. return fares from about $450 pp incl taxes

I'd definitely recommend it and if the budget stretches to it - go island hopping and see Maui and Kuaii as well as Oahu.

Enjoy

cheers
Dicey

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dl...ged=10&fxst=0&load=1&cAdu=2&&zz=1179835535288&

 

[TDON]

Have been thinking and my brother is just back from a world trip for his Honeymoon and I remembered him saying he booked it with Trailfinders on Nassau St. and they spent 2 hours on the phone with him getting him the best and cheapest flights for every part of the destination. He said they were extremely helpful and thorough and in no rush to get rid of him off the phone.

[broken link removed]

Any other info I can help you with, just ask.