jp4120

recently retired and this place is a bucket list item but i have sticker shock - i was working with a travel planner and told her we wanted nice beachfront hotels 5 nights on Oahu, 5 nights on Maui - came back with $10,500.(plane, hotels, cars) not including $100/night taxes and fees, no food or excursions - no way i would go and pay $17,000/$18,000 for 10 nights.

this could be the planner just running up the tab but i have double checked and even with Hertz nr 1 club all cars are at least $100 day.
my counter idea is to reduce the quality of the hotel and shorten the stay and wanted some opinions.
i was thinking 3 or 4 nights in Oahu maybe North Shore area for under $400 night and 3 or 4 nights in Maui - i would cut it to 3 and 3 if prices are too high.
i am coming from east coast so i was thinking 2 nights in Vegas on the way out and 2 or 3 nights in san Diego on the way back.

this may sound like too much airport time but i don't like to get ripped off and this way i can see Hawaii if only for a short time? anyone else getting sticker shock? plus with Omicron it may be an extra hassle now anyway and be better to see how the fall is but i wanted some opinions..thx

Gretchen

Why don't you do a search online yourself and see what prices you come up with for the places you planner has found--or for similar properties (5 star/beachfront, etc.). We don't know where you are flying from but airlines are back to their top prices. Car rentals are expensive for a lot of reasons/shortages.

jp4120

yep i have done some of that - i will probably just scale back on hotels and keep looking - i am not sure i even need to use a planner at this point - i always have done deep research on all previous trips but was feeling lazy when i contacted her/sent her a nominal fee .....lesson learned..

november_moon

That does seem like a lot. I'd be interested to know the breakdown of the total price. What do the flights cost? How much is the hotel per night? Etc. Once you know that, you can compare it with what you are seeing yourself. I think that's really the only way you can know if the total price given by the travel planner is reasonable with current prices in Hawaii or not. Then decide if going to Hawaii is worth paying the price. Hawaii is in high demand right now, so prices probably reflect that. I am willing to bet that the main driver for the price is your hotel choice - nice and beachfront does come at a premium - so if you changed your criteria for lodging, you could save quite a bit.

jp4120

I have spent some time on the Costco travel website (we are members and used them before), they aren't always lower in price but i found pretty good April Hawaii packages even with upgrading the hotels - 4 nights Waikiki, 4 nights Maui, cars for all days, all flights - $5500 (roughly)

that is right at or even below our pricing expectations - i would figure we will spend $4000-$5000 at most on food, drink, excursions, etc.over 8 or 9 days.

We are flying out of PHL so its 5pm Hawaii time when we will be landing.(flight selection is limited and i don't trust less than 1 hour for layovers)

november_moon

That Costco package seems a lot more reasonable to me.

jp4120

We booked a Costco package for April so hopefully no snags - i have seen negative reviews but we used Costco before for Jamaica and it all worked out..
4 nights each in Oahu and Maui - paid for upgraded hotels and got rental cars at each location. also found flights with approx. 2 hour layovers which is ideal for us
overall total $5600 which also included $250 in Costco card givebacks so I am ok with that price.
I am estimating food & trip expenses on the high side just because we splurge sometimes so another $4000 is not out of the question.
thanks for all comments & help and i will post a trip report when we return.

suze

Thanks for sharing your research and experience. Happy travels! Aloha!!!

scubachick18

I mean I can relate to this but not sure how much Covid has played a part in this, it was always expensive even before and I am not a all inclusive type traveler. Just bang for your buck we have been to far more exotic locations for a lot less. I am currently planning a surprise birthday trip for my best friend to Maui and Big Island and I literally don't want to add up everything I have already spent on bookings. That's even with free points for two rooms for five out of the 10 nights. Like every activity we are booking is over $1k each (Luau, Manta Snorkel, etc). Car rentals are especially fun right now but that's anywhere. I mean it can be done a lot cheaper I suppose but just depends on budget.