Kathy

Has anyone purchased a package: hotel, air and car that was a good deal? Any tour companies that get good prices cuz they reserve in bulk?

xxx

The first time we went to Hawaii, we booked a package through suite-paradise on kauai. I think we got a good deal, but I always book everything myself now. I think I get better deals because I don't need to stay in pricey hotels and usually opt for condos instead.

Sarah

Hi Kathy
One word of caution.

what I see when I look at package deals for any location (usually I read in NYT travel section) are a lot of low end hotels that can not attract customers for whatever reason. London invariably shows Earls Court which I remember as a seedy area in London, Waikiki might show hotels back by the canal and a hike to the beach or run down. Now I am sure that Hawaii is suffering in this bad economy so perhaps better hotels will be offered. You just want to ask others about your hotel and location before you book so your trip is not wasted in an area you would not choose if you were planning on your own.


I also like contacting island based firms for this as I think they have better connections. Pleasant Island holidays is one I know. Why not post a thread to Hawaii residents on local agencies they would suggest. Roberts Hawaii is another but I am not sure if they do more than land tours of the islands. Maybe they could suggest some locally based agencies to you.

Russell Farquer

Kathy....I use RobertsHawaii to book all my stays in Hawaii.

www.RobertsOvernighters.com
1-800-899-9323

They book inter-island flights, hotels, hotel/car deals, tours.

Usually the hotel/car deal is good for me. Last trip (Mar02) Ohana Waikiki
Towers double room, and economy car
$100 day. Check them out. No airfare deals....at least the last time I checked.

Gina

Try these:

http://www.classiccustomvacations.com
http://www.2hawaii.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Welcome

You might also want to check with the airlines on vacation packages.
United Vacations unitedvacations.com
American Airlines Vacations aavacations.com
Delta Vacations
deltavacations.com
atavacations.com

Kim

Classic Custom Vacations as the last person posted is very good. They are easy and friendly to work with and they do have really good deals especially on air.

Lena

Hello!

I used to do packages, but I found it was cheaper to book the hotel on Priceline (Check www.biddingfortravel.com before you bid) and then booking the airfare on ATA.

Check www.pleasanthawaiian.com for packages if you don't want to put it together yourself.

p.

Airline packages (we've used aavacations.com ) can sometimes beat a do-it-all-ypurself approach because of the low airfare included, for example from Dallas the air part works out at about $620 r/t typically, or did in 2002 and to get that low a fare, even on "special" isn't easy. Even using airline packages I can usually beat their price on auto rental going directly to Alamo or whoever. The advantage of doing it yourself is more flexibility with accomodations, especially as we prefer condo to hotels. I've never tried a travel agent ...

Sarah

what p. says is true some people just book the package and then never use the hotel. Never tried would love to hear from people who have found success. At the moment those $1000.+ fares for August travel are daunting!