We usually spend $2,000-$2,500 (2 weeks) above and beyond airfare and lodging. I usually look at $100 per day per person. But, we do tours if we feel the urge, we normally always have a nice dinner out...and even tho we do a lot of freebies, you have to remember gas will getcha in a hurry. And, by the time you have a glass of wine or a cocktail or 3, that will get into your pocketbook.

I just booked a hang gliding trip on Maui for the DH and that took a chunk of $190 out of the daily budget.

A place with a kitchen is great for budgets. We usually have fruit and cereal in the mornings and fix sandwiches to take on daily excursions.

Have fun, you can do it!

We've done it from the west coast between 2,200 and 2,500, for two a week. That includes air and lodging.

I meant to add car and food as well as a small amount of entertainment is included also (so the total trip).

Funny I didn't see where anyone said that they had to stay on the beach all day and cook all their meals to save. We did a tour to the BI which while it was informative and we met some nice people we would rent a car next time. This year we did a day trip to Maui and rented a car saw alot of the island before flying back. The little cooking we have done was by choice and at least one night have a nice dinner.
Tours can be alright but if you research a little bit you'll find you can drive most it yourself.

LOL, I experienced the islands and didn't hang at the hotel all day. In fact one of the week's was on Maui (with the budget I gave), and we ate out all of the time. In fact, I wished for more down time. Nice, clean and pretty roomy places.

I rechecked my reply and when I double checked the actual spreadsheet I found that I in fact spent far more than the $2,600 indicated in my earlier post. Here is the final tally -- don't tell my DH as my DD and I did the trip together. It should also be noted that we drank very little alcohol. Maybe you can start a budget off of these numbers to suit your vacation style.

Summary of Trip Costs:
Air & Car $1,896.00
Lodging
10 nights 2,281.00
Food & Dining Out 534.96
Souvenirs Jewelery $277 547.74
Gas 128.25
Activities:
Helicopter Tour 356.80
Luau 177.08
Manta Ray Snokel 177.08
Golf - Hapuna 200.00
Golf - Mauna Kea 312.00
Activities Total 1,222.96

Grand Total 6,610.91

Per person $3,305.46

Travel period: 1st week of May, Big Island only island visited airfare from Midwest city.

Thanks for the update Miss Maple. I thought that budget sounded a little low to be including things like helicopter rides and golf. Those are pretty big ticket items for those aiming for a smaller budget.

Our upcoming budget for 3 weeks. one each on Maui, Kauai & Big Island:

Round trip airfare for two from Phoenix: $1100
Interisland flights: $350
Vacation rentals: $2400
Car rentals and gas:$850
Food: $400
Miscellaneous: $200
Activities: Mostly FREE
----------------------
Total: $5300

That is for THREE weeks in Hawaii!

Now, we fly from the West Coast which obviously helps on airfare. But we are staying, not in hotels, but lovely cottages with at least one bedroom and a full kitchen on two islands, and a two bedroom condominium on the other island. We booked these on the VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner) website, which feature cottage, condo and home rentals starting at about $400 a week. There are literally thousands of properties in Hawaii listed on this site.

We also enjoy cooking our own meals, which makes a full kitchen great and each of our places has a gas bbq grill. We make sandwiches to take with us on our day trip activities. We may eat out at restaurants perhaps a couple of times during the week, which is the biggest expense saver of all. Plus that $6 bottle of wine at home vs. $25 for the same bottle at a restaurant.

We really do not consider ourselves "budget" travelers, just "smart" travelers. There are a many ways to travel, but we feel that hotels and restaurants are overrated in terms of the vacation experience. Give us a cottage and a bbq grill everytime!

This one is kind of amusing. R/T air for 4 to Maui, $450 pp. 10 days in a two-bdrm condo (across the street from beach, $1,250. Beach, free. Cook/grill the food (bought at Safeway with shopper's card), cocktails courtesy same, much as would have been spent at home. Rental car, $160 (10 days, including tax). How could you even spend $7 k, unless you were really wasteful?!

sylvia, Just read the list of what other people like to do on their vacations.

It's not hard to spend a lot of money (and I'm sure they do not consider it "really wasteful" because it is what they enjoy) when people do tours and activities such as: helicopter rides, luau, high-end restaurants, dinner cruises, whale watching, snorkeling, golf, spa treatments, shows, nightlife, etc.

needsun: Hawaii can be expensive, but the islands are more than doable on a tight budget. You didn't say where you're flying from, but I live in Chicago and have never paid more than $500 for a roundtrip DIRECT flight. Here are my past trips:

In 2004 I spent one week in Kauai: $400 for airfare, $700 for a 2 bedroom condo rental, $150 for my car rental, $350 on food, and $200 on activities. Total was about $1800.

In 2005 I spent 1 week in Maui: $470 for airfare, $600 for 1 bdrm condo, $225 for car rental, $500 on food, $300 on activities. Total about $2100.

This February I'm going to Oahu for 5 nights: $500 for airfare, $350 for 5 nights at the JW Marriott Ihilani resort, $175 for car rental, $200 for activities and planning on $300 for food. Total - $1525

The totals I've given are per person. What I've found works best is to go during the off season, pick your dates and book your lodging. Then about between 2 and 3 months prior to your trip start checking airfare. When I'm searching for deals I check a few times daily for my specified dates. Sometimes you can get lucky and do a flexible date search, but I prefer to have a definite target. Lodging tends to be the most expensive part of the trip. I prefer condo rentals, and am a little picky so my lodging expenses may be on the high side. All the islands I've researched have places to stay going down to around $100 a night, there are deals to be had.

Thanks to all for great posts! You 've convinced me that "Hawaii on a budget" is doable. I am flying from Alaska and just found a great airfare for March on Northwest $ 575 roundtrip Anchorage to Oahu. Have to start looking into hotel/condo options. Condo with a kitchen sounds great, would not have to eat out a lot.
Sylvia mentions $160 car rental for 10 days. Where people find such deals? Is it Priceline? I Guess Ihave to learn how to bid.

Years ago a friend lived in Alaska and bragged about incredibly great deals from Alaska to "outside" - especially to Hawaii. I wonder if you can do better then that airfare?

It's all in the time of the year Starrsville. For March, I think that sounds good.

we "only" spent about $4K on our "budget" trip to maui in november.

it's true-- it's tough to eek out a deal. our airfare was a bargain, relatively speaking. we paid $303+ taxes on American - direct flight, LAX to OGG.

then we found accommodations for 7 nights at the maui prince + free rental car for $2,000.

we pretty much ate on the cheap- not super cheap (no yucky chain restaurants and no mcdonalds or the like)- but we never got dressed up to go out to eat. breakfast consisted of a banana and a latte for me and a croissant and a coffee for him from the coffee bar inside the hotel- an ave of about $7- $8/morning. we did indulge in poolside drink at $15 for both of us each time. but we didn't go overboard or anything!

hawaii is just plain expensive, no matter how you slice and dice it. we bought plenty of souvenirs, but nothing too expensive and we didn't go overboard.

sorry, i should mention that it definitely can be done for less. i just prioritized being on a good beach in a decent place to stay. i wanted it to <i>feel</i> like a vacation. i didn't want to do the condo thing because to me, cooking while on vacation, isn't a vacation.

i only get to take one trip per year due to time off and budget, so we really try to get the best bang for our buck, and still get good value in comfortable, nice accommodations.

i can easily see spending $7K on maui for 2 for a week, without being wasteful as another poster put it. stay at the 4S and there ya go.

L

I want to add about having a kitchen... It does save money and is a little luxury for me, rather than a normal hotel room. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to deal with restaurants every single meal.

That said, I don't actually do much &quot;cooking&quot;.

The biggest savings is probably having wine and cocktails at the hotel rather than restaurants and bars.

I eat a lot of light items from the grocery or ABC Store and keep some in the frig (cut up fruits, salads, sandwiches). Also use the frig for restaurant left-overs for lunch the next day.

Point being, it's not like I'm slaving over a hot stove or washing a bunch of dishes all day long, just because I have use of a kitchen.

The best thing about a condo with a kitchen is the big fridge to chill wine, keep the beer cold, and hold the big batch of mai-tai's.

We never really cooked in our condo kitchen either, but we made use of the full size fridge! :)

DH and I are going to Hawaii in January (Maui). We got our airfare for $312 each through priceline! So yes, there are deals out there. We are also getting a GREAT deal on our hotel. Spending, we will probably take about $2000 for 5 days... we like to go out to eat, and we like to do tours...etc.

On my lower budget trips, I never cooked more than 1/2 of the meals. And most of the trips, I just used the fridge for drinks and snacks. You can do low budget without cooking at all. Many of us have said that already, though others aren't understanding. And out of my 4 trips to HI (all were low budget), on two of them we took Helicopter trips and went to a Luau on one of them.