I'm planning to surprise my husband with a trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I've about a month to get it together. I'm looking at a package including air from DFW, 5 nights hotel (Turtle Bay Resort) and rent car for around $2500 total. Does this sound reasonable? I usually plan and book everything separately but was thinking this would simplify things. My husband loves to play golf so he would like Turtle Bay for that reason alone. We would plan to spend one day in Oahu to see Pearl Harbor, Arizona and Missouri and walk the beach. In addition we would take driving tours in the area and possibly do some not-too-strenuous hikes. I'll appreciate any input. By the way, even though we are seasoned travelers, this is our first trip to Hawaii.

It appears to be a good deal.

Most of their rooms are $300+ per night. So that is $1500. Figure another $500 each for a good airfare deal.

You are up to $2500 and then basically you get the car for free.

"We would plan to spend one day in Oahu to see Pearl Harbor, Arizona and Missouri and walk the beach."

I assume you mean one day in Honolulu.

Lots of info including a couple of driving tours:

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...1&tid=34812564

dusty56438 - Thanks for the info. Yes, I meant Honolulu.

I think Oahu is fairly easy to do without a lot of prior planning required.

Since you'll only be one day in Waikiki, you might want to have it a bit more organized (for me, staying in Waikiki I simply wait until I arrive and pick up current information and plan my days as I go along).

Plan on a long day for driving down & touring the memorial (in the morning?) then going to stroll Waikiki and have a late lunch, perhaps before heading back to North Shore?

If you don't have one, maybe one overview guidebook for Oahu would be handy? Moon Handbooks or Revealed series are good.

Suze, Thanks -- that sounds perfect for one day in Honolulu. About the handbooks you recommended, are these available everywhere, or just in Hawaii? I'm not familiar with the titles.

I cannot help you with your plans. Just wanted to say Congratulations on your upcoming 50th Anniversary! Best Wishes for many more!

Anna Roz

They are a bit less mainstream than Fodor's or Frommer's but I'm sure you can find them on Amazon.com.

I recently received a copy of Oahu Reveals as a g-day gift (this series is a bit controversial because of advice like "it's OK to cut across private property to get to..." which I would simply not follow). It has lots of great photos.

Moon Handbooks I've used only for Maui (and PV Mexico) and found very helpful so I'm sure they'd do a good job for Oahu.

All that said... any guidebook(s) would work fine I'm sure. In the past I've just checked out a pile of whatever the library happened to have available.

Thanks for the good wishes, Anna Roz. I must say it's been a wonderful trip! And the adventure continues...

Thanks again Suze, I'll check our library first, then local Barnes & Noble, then Amazon.

I just want to say that is an excellent rate for TBR and the car and two plane tickets from DFW and not having to plan.

The hotel's best kama'aina rates are above $300 a night.

Have a nice trip and congratulations!

I got both the Maui and Kauai "Revealed" books at Borders.

Just want to say thanks again for all the help in planning our trip. We had a wonderful time, the hotel choice was perfect, my husband was delighted with his surprise, and we can hardly wait to go again. (Hope we don't have to wait another 50 years! LOL)

Thanks for posting back for us. Glad you enjoyed your trip! Hope you get to start planning your next one soon.